XXIII. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The General Command XXIII. (23rd Army Corps) was set up in Military District VI (Münster) in 1939 . After being used in the western campaign and on the Channel coast , it was relocated to East Prussia in June 1941 , then briefly used in the northern section and from August 1941 in the central section of the eastern front. In 1945 it took part in the defensive battles in West Prussia , first with Army Group Vistula and finally with AOK East Prussia .

history

Lineup

The General Command formed on November 24, 1938 was concentrated on both sides of the Moselle in the Trier area and renamed the Eifel General Command on March 1, 1939 . As part of the on 26 August 1939 5th Army mobilized the command were the 26th , 86th and 227th Infantry Division assumed. During the seated war the command was from mid-November 1939 in XXIII. Army Corps renamed and subordinated to the 16th Army in December 1939 .

1940

At the beginning of the western campaign, the 34th , 73rd , 76th and 58th Infantry Divisions were assigned to the corps and occupied together with the XIII. Army Corps Luxembourg . In the following positional war against the French XXXXII. Corps standing in the area opposite Diedenhofen , the corps were replaced by the Higher Command XXXI (161st, 162nd and 183rd Infantry Divisions ). Then the corps was assigned to the 12th Army deployed in western Champagne and between the XIII. and XVII. Army corps established in the Rethel area on the Aisne front. In the second phase of the attack, "Fall Rot", the attacking command was assigned to the 73rd and 86th and 82nd Infantry Divisions . After the breakthrough of the XXXXI. Army corps (motorized) through the Weygand line reached the XXIII. AK in mid-June the Bar-le-Duc room . On the further advance south, the assigned 73rd and 82nd Infantry Division reached the Dijon area by the armistice (June 20) , the Saône was crossed in the Dole area. After serving with the 9th Army on the Channel Coast in July 1940 , the corps remained in the Netherlands as an occupation force until the 15th Army was set up .

1941

In June 1941, the corps moved to East Prussia and was with the 251st and the 254th Infantry Division of the Northern Army Group assigned as a reserve. At the end of June the corps was brought forward to the Vilna area and assigned to the 86th, 206th and 253rd Infantry Divisions . In mid-July the corps moved to the north bank of the Daugava and supported Panzer Group 3 from the north in the attack on Polotsk . On July 23, the XXIII. Corps under General der Infanterie Schubert with subordinate 102nd and 256th ID. the area east of Nasimowa. On July 19, the command of the town of Newel approached from the southwest and narrowed together with the LVII. Army Corps the cauldron there. The further advance took place at the beginning of August in the area east of Velikiye Luki . In addition to the 86th, the 206th and 110th Infantry Divisions of VI. Army Corps . During the fighting there, the command on the left wing was also assigned the 251st and 253rd Infantry Divisions . On August 24, the corps narrowed together with the XXXX. Army Corps (mot.) (102. and 256th Infantry Division ) the boiler at Velikiye Luki. In September 1941 the area around Toropez was occupied. At the beginning of October, the command from north to south was assigned to the 251st, 102nd, 256 and 251st Infantry Divisions in order to take part in Operation Taifun . The XXIII. Corps advanced in the direction of Ostashkov to Lake Seliger , opposite the Soviet 22nd Army . On the left wing the 123rd Division of the II. Army Corps (16th Army) supported this procedure , on the right wing the VI. Army Corps with the 110th Division. On December 14, 1941, the Soviet 4th Strike , 22nd and 29th Army counter-offensive began from the Ostashkov and Torzhok area . On December 22, the Soviet broke through the 39th Army west of Rzhev the defense lines of the 256th Infantry Division , the front pillars Rshew was held. The XXIII. Army Corps, to whose association the 102nd, 206th, 251st, 253rd and 256th ID. belonged, any withdrawal was forbidden to go along with the VI. Army Corps to hold the southern Volga arch. On December 31, 1941, the front section of the 256th and 206th Infantry Divisions collapsed due to increased Soviet pressure.

1942

Since January 9, 1942, another major Russian attack from the Ostashkov area against the left wing of the cut off XXIII. Army corps pushed back south. On January 4th, the Red Army achieved the breakthrough on the new main battle line of the 9th Army by creating a gap of up to 20 kilometers between the VI. and XXIII. Army corps was torn up. The left wing of the 9th Army was breached and the XXIII. Army corps completely cut off at times. The XXIII. Army Corps achieved a breakthrough on January 22nd with 206 ID., SS Cavalry Brigade Fegelein and Assault Gun Division 189, and reunification with VI. Army Corps. On February 4, the 86th Division also managed to secure the key position in Ossuikoye. In mid-February the 102nd, 206th and 253rd Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the corps . During Operation Mars (November, 1942) was the corps on the northwestern front of Rshewer front arc of the offensive of the Kalinin Front (Soviet 22nd and 41st Army ) in space Belyi opposite. The following divisions defended from north to south: 206th, 253rd, 86th the 246th Infantry Division and parts of the 9th Panzer Division. On the right, the XXVII now functioned. Army Corps, on the left the XXXXI. Panzer Corps as a neighbor.

1943

At the beginning of March, as part of the Operation Buffalo Movement, they withdrew from the Rshew front arc. The XXIII. Corps withdrew the 253rd and 251st Infantry Division to the Lutschessa in the first stage, where the 110th and 206th Infantry Division. had set up a fall arrest position. In the second stage, the 246th Division gave up the city of Belyi. In May, the entire General Command was relocated to the front arch of Orel and placed under the command of the 2nd Panzer Army there . During Operation Citadel (7th July 1943) the Corps as part of the 9th Army were the 78th , 216th , 383rd and the mass of the 36th Infantry Division assumed. The commanding General Frießner covered the left flank of the XXXXI. Panzer Corps attacked the Soviet 27th Army in the direction of Maloarchangelsk . On August 18, the 95th, 134th and 183rd infantry divisions were assigned to the corps during the retreat from the Oryol front arc on Dyatkowo in the area north of Bryansk on the Bolva . After the beginning of the Soviet operation Suvorov , the retreat to Mogilew to the Dnieper section took place.

1944

In January 1944 the corps in the Schlobin area was subordinated to the 2nd Army and took over the command of the 253rd and 296th Infantry Divisions . As a result of Operation Bagration (from June 22, 1944) the German 9th Army collapsed in the Bobruisk area. The XXIII. During this catastrophe, the Corps was deployed on the right wing of the 2nd Army in the area south of Luninez on the Pripjet , subordinate to the 7th Infantry and the 203rd Security Division . Between July 13 and 19, the corps withdrew from the Pinsk promontory . On July 23, the XXIII. AK. in the north of Brest Litovsk (which was defended by XXth AK ) the retreat on the northern Bug , which in the Drohiczyn area had already been cut off by a Soviet breakthrough to the river. On July 27, a new line of defense of the 7th and 102nd Infantry Divisions between Kostyn and the Bug collapsed before the onslaught of the Soviet 28th Army and the Pliyev cavalry group. The battle of retreat ended in September 1944 in the area north of Warsaw on the Narew section in the Pultusk area , where the front was stabilized against the 65th Soviet Army . In mid-September 1944, the 541st Volksgrenadier -, the 211th and 292nd Infantry - and the 6th Panzer Division were subordinate to the corps .

1945

In mid-January 1945 the corps on the south wing of Army Group Center took part in the Battle of East Prussia , subordinated to the 7th and 299th Infantry and the 5th Jäger Divisions . The collapse of the German 3rd Panzer Army in the Gumbinnen area forced the 4th and 2nd Armies on January 16 to give up the still held front on the Narew. On January 17, Ciechanow and Przasnysz and on January 18, Mława fell into Soviet hands. The AOK 2 was together with the XXIII. and XXVII. Army corps relocated to the lower Vistula front to defend West Prussia . Before the battle for East Pomerania began , the corps had to vacate the eastern bridgehead at Marienwerder and return to the north via Dirschau . The 23rd , 83rd , 252nd Infantry and 337th Volksgrenadier Divisions were subordinate to these battles . The 83rd Infantry Division , cut off at the West Prussian border, began to break out of the Graudenz basin on February 17th , and the 257th Grenadier Regiment was completely destroyed. Subordinated to the East Prussian Army High Command until the beginning of April 1945, the corps was destroyed in the defensive battles against the 2nd Belarusian Front in the Danzig area . In the end, the 23rd, 35th Infantry and the 542nd Volksgrenadier Division were assigned to the command.

Commanding generals

literature

  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , 8th volumes, Volume I: 1940/41 edited by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965, appendix: respective war organization.
  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , 8th volumes, Volume II: 1942 edited by Andreas Hillgruber, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965, appendix: respective war organization.
  • Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , 8th volumes, Volume III: 1943 edited by Walther Hubatsch, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965, appendix: respective war organizations.
  • David M. Glantz: Zhukov's Greatest Defeat. The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, Kansas City 1999.
  • MK Barbier: The Battle of the Kursk Arch. The biggest tank battle in history Tosa Verlag, Vienna 2002
  • Kurt Dieckert , Horst Großmann : The struggle for East Prussia. 10th edition. Engine book, 1994.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in the Second World War 1939–1945 , Volume 4, Frankfurt / Main and Osnabrück 1966, p. 191

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