XXIV Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The XXIV. Corps of the Army of the German Wehrmacht , with full title General Command XXIV. Corps , initially General Command of the Border Troops Saarpfalz later (mot.) XXIV. Corps and XXIV. Panzer Corps , was the name given to the appropriate command authority but also for the United Association of several divisions and its own corps troops , which was led by this general command and was under the supreme command of an army or army group.

history

Lineup

The "General Command of the Border Troops Saarpfalz" was established in October 1938 in Kaiserslautern in the military district XII under the Engineer General Walter Kuntze positioned as one of three general command of the border troops. On August 26, 1939, the corps was mobilized and on September 17 of the same year in “XXIV. Army Corps "renamed.

1939/40

When the war broke out, the General Command was subordinate to three infantry divisions and several border infantry regiments. The Corps was the beginning of the so-called seat war until the end of the campaign in the west of the 1st Army of the Army Group C assumed and acted largely defensive on the western border. In the final phase of the western campaign in June 1940, the General Command under the leadership of General Geyr von Schweppenburg took part in the breakthrough through the Maginot Line with the 252nd , 257th and 268th Infantry Divisions north of Bitsch . It then remained in German-occupied France until November 1940 , after which it was relocated back home and converted into a motorized army corps.

1941

In May 1941, the relocation was entered in German-occupied Poland to the Army Group Center where the General Command in space Brest-Litovsk of Panzer Group 2 under Colonel General Heinz Guderian was assumed. With the start of the attack on the Soviet Union , the XXIV Motorized Corps crossed the Bug near Kodeń on June 22 with the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions . The 10th Motorized Infantry Division was followed as a reserve , while the right flank was covered by the 1st Cavalry Division . With the breakthrough via Kobryn and Slonim , the corps was involved in the Białystok and Minsk and reached the Berezina at Bobruisk at the end of June . After the Kesselschlacht near Smolensk the corps was together with the XXXXVII. Motorized Army Corps turned south to take part in the Battle of Kiev . In mid-September the 3rd Panzer Division reached Romny and at Lochwitza the connection with XXXXVIII, which had broken through from south to north . Mot. Corps of Panzer Group 1 .

By the beginning of October, the regrouping in the direction of Gluchow and, as part of Operation Typhoon, the breakthrough in the direction of Brjansk , and then the advance on Tula . During the Soviet counter-offensive in the winter of 1941/42, the corps had to withdraw from there to Bryansk.

1942

After a refresh in May, it was subordinated to the 4th Panzer Army of Army Group South in June 1942 to take part in the German Fall Blau summer offensive . In July the name was changed to “XXIV. Panzer Corps ". In August the corps was temporarily subordinate to the 6th Army during the advance on Stalingrad and the Kesselschlacht near Kalatsch until the general command was given up in September to reinforce the Hungarian 2nd Army on the central Don . Relatively inexperienced divisions were subordinated to her. On October 3, the commanding General Willibald von Langermann and Erlencamp fell through artillery fire while driving to the front near Storoschewoje.

1943

In January 1943 the corps was largely destroyed during the Soviet operation Ostrogoschsk-Rossosh , the command post of the corps at Shilin was overrun, the commanding general Lieutenant General Martin Wandel was killed and the staff was dispersed. Lieutenant General Arno Jahr , who temporarily took over the command of the corps, committed suicide on January 20 near Podgornoje. The following day, his successor, Karl Eibl, was mistakenly attacked and killed in the fog by retreating Italian troops. In February the remaining troops of the corps were gathered in the Starobelsk area and placed under the Lanz Army Detachment . On February 9, General of the Panzer Force Walther Nehring took over the command of the corps. It was refreshed by the addition of new bandages until May.

At Operation Citadel in July 1943, the corps formed the reserve of Army Group South under Erich von Manstein . However, it was not used here, but was relocated to the south with the 17th and 23rd Panzer Divisions and the SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Wiking" to repel the Soviet Donets-Mius offensive . Immediately afterwards it was used in the defense of the Belgorod-Kharkov operation . This was followed by retreat fighting from the Donbass region to the Dnieper in the association of the 1st Panzer Army . At the beginning of October the General Command was temporarily deployed on the right wing of the 8th Army to take action against the Soviet bridgehead at Kanew . Subsequently transferred to the 4th Panzer Army , the corps stood out during the fighting for Kiev . In December 1943, all mobile units were temporarily withdrawn from the General Command, while the 34th , 82nd and 112th Infantry Divisions were subordinate to them .

1944

Before the Dnepr-Carpathian operation , which began in January 1944, the corps had to retreat to the Vinnitsa area , where it was subordinated to the 1st Panzer Army , with which it got into the Kamenez-Podolski pocket in March . The Nehring group was assigned the 16th Panzer Division, 101st Jäger , 208th and 371st Infantry Divisions . After the outbreak, the general command was part of the 4th Panzer Army in Galicia and in the Subcarpathian region from the beginning of April to the autumn of 1944 . During the Lemberg-Sandomir operation by the 1st Ukrainian Front on July 13, the command was assigned the 100th Jäger , 371st and 75th Infantry Divisions . The front at the Zlota Lipa , which with the LIX. Army corps became untenable after the Soviet breakthrough on Lviv . The battle of retreat was led over Stryj to the upper Dniester , over the San to the Vistula , where the construction of the Baranov bridgehead by the Soviets could not be prevented. In the winter of 1944/45 again in the association of the 4th Panzer Army, the transformation into a "new type of tank corps" took place.

1945

On January 12, 1945, the corps under General Nehring was outflanked on both sides by the Soviet offensive from the Baranow bridgehead in the Vistula-Oder operation and the subordinate 16th and 17th Panzer Divisions in the Kielce area were pushed aside. The until January 18, fully isolated "group Nehring" was able to fight and to that of the four-day defensive actions in a "wandering boiler" Wartheland counter to help Panzerkorps "Greater Germany" (Group Saucken) the compound prepared and then on Glogau to the Oder withdraw. Relief attempts to the cut off fortress of Breslau failed in mid-February . At the beginning of March the General Command carried out a tactically successful counter-offensive at Lauban and in mid-March prevented the 4th Ukrainian Front from breaking through at Leobschütz and Neustadt by counter-attacks . At the end of the war, the corps surrendered at the beginning of May 1945 as part of the 1st Panzer Army near Budweis .

guide

Commanding generals

structure

Corps troops (selection)

  • Arko 143/424
  • Corps Intelligence Division 424
  • Corps Supply Leader 311/424

Subordinate associations

September 1939
June 1940
June 1941
June 1942
December 1942
July 1943
January 1945

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 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Percy E. Schramm : OKW War Diary Volume I, structure p. 1136
  2. ^ Schramm: OKW war diary, Volume III, p. 732
  3. ^ Schramm: OKW-Kriegstagebuch Volume III, p. 1394
  4. ↑ Niall Barr / Russell Hart: Panzerkrieg, Kaiser Verlag 2000, page 165 f

Web links