XXIII. Reserve Corps (German Empire)

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The XXIII. Reserve Corps of the German Army was formed at the beginning of the First World War from parts of the IX. and X. Corps formed. Over 75% of the corps consisted of volunteers , reservists and officers of the Landwehr . The corps was disbanded on August 12, 1918.

structure

When it was set up in August 1914, the corps were:

First World War

General of the cavalry Georg von Kleist was on August 25, 1914 as the commanding general of the newly established XXIII. Reserve Corps appointed. The troops were brought via Brussels to the northern section of the 4th Army of Duke Albrecht von Württemberg and immediately deployed in the battle of Ypres . The XXIII. Reserve Corps had rallied on October 20 with the 46th Reserve Division at Hooglede and the 45th Reserve Division at Cortemark to attack the line Bixschote-Nieucapelle from there. The 45th Reserve Division attacked on October 21 in two columns north of the Houthulster Forest in the direction of the hamlets of St. Pieters and Nieuwe Stede. After fierce resistance, the two columns managed to advance to the Ypres – Dixmuide road by afternoon, but could not cross it at any point. The 46th Reserve Division tried all morning in vain to take the town of Bixschoote , but was repeatedly thrown back with considerable losses. After days of unsuccessful attacks, on the evening of October 24th an order was given to secure the positions reached and to hold them under all circumstances. On December 19, 1914, General von Kleist had to resign from command due to a heart condition. His successor was General of the Infantry Hugo von Kathen .

Hugo von Kathen

In the Second Battle of Flanders , which began on April 22, 1915, the XXIII. Reserve Corps to take the allied position on the Yser Canal without opposing resistance and to advance three to four kilometers deep. General von Kathen criticized the tactically incorrect use of chlorine gas , which in his opinion was placed too late in the day. This meant that his troops had to go into the combat zone until late at night. He also saw the fact that the soldiers had to wait in the trenches all day as a tactical mistake. The eastern Yser bridgehead at Het Sas was snatched from the French by the 46th Reserve Division. The Germans also managed to capture the heights of Pilkem . On April 23rd, Steenstrate, defended by the French 153rd Division, which had been drawn forward from the reserve, and the town of Lizerne fell into German hands. On April 26, the French side, led by General Foch, began counterattacks against the German right wing. The Germans had to evacuate the village of Lizerne including the west bank of the Yser Canal on April 27th and were thrown back onto the canal front from Drie Grachten to Het Sas, on the east bank between Bixschoote and Pilkem the front froze again.

In mid-September 1916, the corps was used to replace the XII, who had been fought off in the Battle of the Somme . Army Corps , the 2nd Army and with the 11th Division and the 46th Reserve Division pushed into the oppressed front opposite the French 10th Army in the Vermandovillers area . In October 1916, the 44th and 46th Reserve Divisions were under the corps command at the front north of Chaulnes, and in November until the General Command was recalled by the XVIII. Army Corps (Schenk Group) the 206th and 221st Divisions . In December 1916 the XXIII. Reserve corps with the 7th Army on the Aisnefront on both sides of Soissons , subordinated here were the 9th Division (Nouvron area), the 211th Division (near Soissons) and the 25th Landwehr Division in the Conde-Vailly-Soupir section.

In the spring of 1917 the large association moved to Champagne , in the summer of 1917 the command came to Galicia on the Eastern Front . On July 19, the Kathen group led the main thrust of the Winckler attack group on the breakthrough of Zalosce, subordinated to the Imperial and Royal 33rd Division, the German 1st and 2nd Guard Divisions, and the 6th Division. Tarnopol was conquered by July 25th . At the beginning of September the corps took part in the Battle of Riga , subordinated to the 19th Reserve Division , the 203rd Division and the 17th Cavalry Brigade, and the 2nd Royal Bavarian Landwehr Division on the south bank of the Daugava . At the end of September / beginning of October 1917, Kather's General Command was used to command the troops deployed in the Albion company against the Estonian islands of Ösel , Dagö and Moon , including the 42nd Division under Lieutenant General Ludwig von Estorff , which had withdrawn from Libau . The main force landed in Tagalahe on September 29, and the operation was successfully completed in less than ten days.

After being transported back to the Western Front, the corps in the area of ​​the 2nd Army returned to major combat during the counter-offensive in the Battle of Cambrai . Together with the Caudry Group (General Command XIII. Army Corps ), the Corps , now known as the Bussigny Group , launched a counterattack between Marcoing via Banteux to Vendhuille at the beginning of December 1917. The two groups managed to successfully recapture previously lost terrain, 16 kilometers wide and 8 kilometers deep.

In March 1918, the corps was deployed to Operation Michael as part of the 2nd Army . The Kathen group, tried and tested in breaking through the front, had to force the breakthrough on the Vendhuille - Hargicourt line. The XXIII. By concentrating on the left wing, RK had to gain the heights west of Nurlu and north of Aizecourt-le-Haut and carry the attack across the Tortille Brook to the Ancre .

In the summer, the Kathen group was moved to the 7th Army on the Marne , which it should cross as part of the Second Marne Battle in July, push as deep as possible into the enemy and achieve unification with the 1st Army in the vicinity of Épernay . During the last German attack on July 15, in the area of Chateau-Thierry, the 10th Landwehr Division and the 201st Division covered elevation positions on the right wing of the Kathen group, which was supposed to cross the Marne itself. On the same day, the troops of the 10th and 36th divisions that had passed over at Mézy-Moulins found themselves exposed to strong counter-attacks by the American 3rd division at Crézancy , so that the operation had to be broken off. The project failed completely from July 18 onwards due to the general Allied counter-offensive, from which the decisive Hundred Days Offensive emerged .

On July 31, Kathen was appointed commander in chief of the 8th Army in the Baltic States . His successor as commander of the XXIII. Reserve Corps was Lieutenant General Arthur von Gabain , who led the corps until it was disbanded in early August.

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
General of the cavalry Georg von Kleist August 25, 1914 to December 19, 1914
General of the Infantry Hugo von Kathen December 19, 1914 to July 31, 1918
Lieutenant General Arthur of Gabain July 31, 1918 to August 12, 1918

Individual evidence

  1. ^ On the 2nd division day of the 46th Rerve Division .. In: Lübecker General-Anzeiger , 42nd year, no. 120, edition of May 27, 1923.
  2. ↑ The writer Werner Beumelburg was to later coined the term children's regiments. In his books, he referred to the new regiments deployed in Flanders, consisting of inexperienced volunteers, and whose crews he had also belonged to at the time, as children's regiments because of the age of their soldiers .
  3. ^ Gustav Stoffleth : History of the Reserve Jäger Battalion No. 18 ; Berlin 1937, Bernard & Graefe publishing house, 525 pages
  4. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War, Volume XI. Card insert 3
  5. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-1918 Volume XIII, ES Mittler, Berlin 1942, p. 195
  6. ↑ Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Günter Wegner: Occupation of the German Army 1815-1939. Volume 1: The higher command posts 1815-1939. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1780-1 . P. 633.