XVII. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The XVII. Army corps was a large association of the German armed forces , to which several divisions were subordinate to corps troops . It was used in the attack on Poland , in the western campaign and in the war against the Soviet Union .

Setup and missions

The XVII. Army corps was set up in Vienna on April 1, 1938 after the annexation of Austria .

1939/40

At the beginning of the war in September 1939, the corps was assigned to the 14th Army (Colonel General Wilhelm List ) with the subordinate 44th and 45th Infantry Divisions in southern Poland under the leadership of General der Infanterie Werner Kienitz . The corps advanced from the Teschen area together with the VIII Army Corps north of the Vistula via Pless to Krakow . It then took part in the attack of the XVIII. Army Corps (General Eugen Beyer ) on Lemberg , which concluded the campaign. Between November 11 and 13, 1939, the General Command was transferred to France and from January 1940 it was placed under reserve as a reserve in the 2nd Army . During the second phase of the western campaign, the XVII. Army Corps in June 1940 in the 12th Army and was used in the attack over the Aisne .

1941

During the attack on the Soviet Union from June 22, 1941, the corps concentrated in the Chelm area with the subordinate 56th and 62nd Infantry Divisions formed the northern wing of the 6th Army (Colonel General von Walter von Reichenau ) and went into battle with the Soviet 15th Rifle Corps (General Fedjuninsky ) across the western Bug over Lyuboml to Kovel . After proceeding to Sarny , the Slutsch , a tributary of the Horyn , was reached in mid-July . At the beginning of August, together with the LI. Army Corps (General of the Infantry Reinhard ) advance over Bilka to Korosten . For the attack on the northern front of Kiev the XVII. Army corps regrouped to the Teterew section and received new subordinate positions in addition to the 296th and 298th and the 44th Infantry Division. In cooperation with the XXIX. Army Corps (General of the Infantry Fruit Fields ) and other units, Kiev was conquered by September 20, 1941 and strong Soviet formations were included to the west of Pirjatin . During the attack of the LV. Army Corps in the Kharkov area , the corps formed an eastern bridgehead on the Donets at Stary Saltow on October 29 . After that, the corps went with the assumed 79th and 294th Infantry Division between Murom to Belgorod on the Donets in the trench warfare over.

1942

Since January 23, 1942 General of the Infantry Karl-Adolf Hollidt was Commanding General of the XVII. Army Corps. From May 12, 1942, during the German counter-offensive near Kharkov , the corps defended against the 38th Soviet Army under General Moskalenko, which had broken through to the west near Volchansk, and in July 1942 took part in the German summer offensive " Fall Blau ". After the advance to the Don , the corps established itself as the left wing of the 6th Army (Colonel General Paulus) between Kazanskaya and Jelanskaya and supported the Romanian 3rd Army (Colonel General Dumitrescu) pushed in to the west on the Don . During the Soviet breakthrough on November 19, 1942 over the Don at Serafimowitsch , the 62nd and 387th Infantry Divisions, subordinated to the Corps, escaped enemy containment in the Stalingrad pocket .

1943

From December 1942 to April 1943, the staff of the corps was also referred to as Gruppe Hollidt (later Hollidt Army Department ) and led defensive battles on the Tschir and retreat battles to the Donets with the subordinate 62nd, 294th and 302nd Infantry Divisions . After further defensive battles on the Mius section, the new 6th Army was formed in March 1943 from the staff of the Hollidt Army Department . During the Donets-Mius offensive , the Soviet southern front attacked on July 17th. The 5th shock army and the 28th Army crossed the Mius in the area of ​​the XVII. Army Corps to which the 294th , 306th and 302nd Infantry Divisions were subordinate. The Soviet troops managed to build a bridgehead between Stepanowka and Marinowka. After retreating to the Dnieper , the XVII. Corps in September 1943 under the leadership of General of the Artillery Erich Brandenberger together with the XXXX. Panzer Corps (General Sigfrid Henrici ) in the Zaporozhye bridgehead . In December 1943, Combat Group 294th, 123rd and 125th Infantry Divisions were assigned to the Corps.

1944

At the turn of the year 1943 to February 1944, the corps fought with the 79th, 294th and 306th infantry divisions under the command of General of the Mountain Forces Hans Kreysing together with the IV Army Corps (General of the Infantry Mieth) in the Dnieper bridgehead at Nikopol . In April and May 1944, during the loss-making retreat through Bessarabia , the corps was temporarily part of the Romanian 4th Army, the general command was withdrawn in June 1944 and transferred to Bukovina , where it was subordinate to the 8th Army (Colonel General Wöhler ). In the Radautz - Kimpolung area , the XVII. Army Corps then with the 8th Jäger Division and the 3rd Mountain Division securing the Carpathian passes east of Maramaros Sziget . After the German 6th Army in the Jassy area was destroyed again, it was no longer possible to hold the Vatra Dornei area . The XVII. During the Debrecen operation in mid-October 1944, army corps had to fight their way back via Szathmar Nemeti through northern Hungary to the Csap – Tokaj line. In November the corps secured the Tisza sector at Tokaj and Miskolc .

1945

On December 28, 1944, General der Pioneers Otto Tiemann took over the command of the corps, which was nominally subordinate to the Hungarian 1st Army (General László ) during the West Carpathian Operation (January 1945) . In February 1945 the XVII. Army corps moved from the Carpathian Mountains to Silesia in order to cover the Owl Mountains on the Strehlen– Schweidnitz line as part of the 17th Army (General of Infantry Friedrich Schulz ) . In May 1945 the remains of the corps in the Gitschin area were surrounded by the Soviets and taken prisoner of war.

Allegations

Commanding generals

Temporary subordinate units (not complete)

Corps units directly subordinate to them

Directly subordinate tactically independent units

(At different times, never more than three divisions at the same time)

literature

  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 4. The Land Forces 15–30 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1976, ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 .
  • Werner Haupt: Kiev - The greatest battle in history. Podzun Verlag, 1964
  • P. Klatt: the 3rd building div. Podzun Verlag 1958, pp. 277–296, map attachment location of August 8, 1944
  • Percy E. Schramm : War diary of the OKW - 1940 to 1945 - A documentation - Weltbild-Verlag, study edition paperback in 8 volumes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Haupt: Kiev - the greatest cauldron battle in history . Podzun Verlag, 1964. pp. 38 and 39
  2. ↑ Schramm: OKW-Kriegstagebuch Volume II, p. 732
  3. ↑ P. Klatt: the 3rd building div. Podzun Verlag 1958, pp. 277–296, map attachment location of August 8, 1944