XXII. Reserve Corps (German Empire)

Memorial stele for the XXII. Reserve corps in front of the Joachimthalschen Gymnasium in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

The XXII. Reserve Corps was a major unit of the army of the German Empire in the First World War .

structure

The corps was formed from Prussian contingents at the beginning of the war and at that time was structured as follows:

43rd Reserve Division

• 85th Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 201
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 202
  • Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 15
• 86th Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 203
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 204
  • Reserve Cavalry Division No. 43
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 43
  • Reserve Engineer Company No. 43

44th Reserve Division

• 87th Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 205
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 206
  • Reserve Hunter Battalion No. 16
• 88th Reserve Infantry Brigade
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 207
  • Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 208
  • Reserve Cavalry Division No. 44
  • Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 44
  • Reserve Engineer Company No. 44

Corps troops

history

The general of the cavalry Eugen von Falkenhayn , whose brother Erich was Prussian Minister of War , was on September 10, 1914 the commanding general of the newly formed XXII. Reserve Corps appointed to lead the entire war. In autumn 1914 his corps was deployed in the First Battle of Flanders as part of the 4th Army and unloaded at Termonde - Alost until October 18 . On October 21, the corps south of the III. Reserve Corps used to force the Yser crossing. The main thrust of the 43rd Reserve Division was aimed at Dixmuide , the 44th Reserve Division crossed the Yser Canal with its right wing and fought its way forward with the 6th Reserve Division , while the left wing of the division came from the north Made attacks on the city. Further attacks until October 28th were unsuccessful. In the spring of 1915 the corps was still on the Yser, from June 1915 it was transported to the Eastern Front , where it was used to advance to the Bug after the breakthrough battle in Galicia .

At the beginning of October 1915 the XXII. Reserve corps during the campaign in Serbia temporarily assigned to the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army under General Kövess during the conquest of Belgrade and Serbia. On October 6th, the crossing of the Danube by the Austro-Hungarian 8th Corps ( Scheuchenstuel ) began not far from the old Kalimegdan fortress, although the artillery of the Danube monitors kept the Serbs at bay, the weak bridgehead could not be expanded due to the failure of more than two thirds of the available pontoons become. The decision brought the transition of the German XXII. Reserve Corps. The 43rd (General Runckel) and 44th Reserve Divisions (General Dorrer ) were able to cross the Sava using the Great Gypsy Island and intervened effectively from the southwest in the street battle of Belgrade, which the city in October 9th brought the hands of the Central Powers.

In February 1916, the corps relocated to the Western Front and briefly acted as the OHL's tactical reserve in the Lille area . From mid-March onwards, Falkenhayn's corps was used in the Battle of Verdun and arrived on the western bank of the Meuse as reinforcement for the 5th Army . The units subordinate to the Maas Group West ( Gallwitz ) were deployed to support the Bavarian 11th Division ( Kneussl ) between Bethincourt and Malancourt, and in April 1916 they fought for height 304 on the western slope of the Toten Mann, in the Cumières and Raben forest. During these battles the 22nd Reserve Division was temporarily assigned to the corps.

After the outbreak of the Brusilov offensive , the corps was thrown to the Eastern Front with the 43rd Reserve Division in July 1916 and transferred to Army Group Linsingen . Together with the Beckmann and Dieffenbach groups , the corps was deployed in the counterattack of the von der Marwitz attack group in Volhynia .

Between December 7, 1916 and February 17, 1918 the General Command XXII. RK also known as the Lipa section . The Lipa in the corps section was a left branch of the Styr . In February 1918 the General Command took part in the advance towards Kiev . In November 1918 Falkenhayn led his troops back home, where his mobilization provision was lifted after the demobilization on January 30, 1919.

Commanding general

Rank	Surname	date
General of the cavalry	Eugen von Falkenhayn	September 10, 1914 until the end of the war

literature

• Hanns Möller: History of the Knights of the Order pour le mérite in World War I , Volume I: A – L, Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 299–301

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918 Volume V., S. Mittler, Berlin 1929, p. 303 f.
2. ^ Anton Wagner: The First World War, Verlag Carl Ueberreuter Wien 1981, pp. 119 and 120
3. ↑ The 44th Reserve Division was separated from the Corps and used in the Battle of the Somme.
4. ^ Dermot Bradley (ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939 Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939 , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1780-1