XXIV Reserve Corps (German Empire)

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The XXIV Reserve Corps (also Corps Gerok ) was a large unit of the army of the German Empire .

structure

The corps was set up at the beginning of the First World War and trained for six weeks. In January 1915 he was responsible for:

In the Bug Army, the Gerok Corps were subordinate in July 1915:

history

Friedrich von Gerok
May 1 to September 30, 1915

The corps was placed under the command of General der Infantry von Gerok on September 12, 1914 and transferred to the 6th Army on the Western Front via Lille . At the end of October 1914, the assigned 48th and 25th Reserve Divisions fought during the First Battle of La Bassée in the area of Le Maisnil - Fromelles and in the First Battle of Flanders .

At the end of November 1914, the corps with the 48th Reserve Division was transferred to the Eastern Front and placed under the 9th Army . Until January 1915 it took part in the battle of the Łódź - Pabianice line and the battle of Rawka - Bzura .

In the spring of 1915 the Gerok Corps was transferred to the beleaguered Austrians to Galicia and assigned to the newly established German Southern Army in the Carpathian Mountains . After the breakthrough at Gorlice , the corps was subordinated to the Bug Army in early June 1915 and fought at the end of June with the newly assigned Bavarian 11th Division and the 107th Division in the battle of the Gnila Lipa and in July at Maslomencze . On August 26, 1915, in cooperation with the XXII. Reserve Corps of the 11th Army and the Austro-Hungarian 6th Corps captured the Brest-Litovsk fortress . The 1st and 22nd Divisions were subordinate to the corps for these battles . On September 16, the corps succeeded together with the XXXXI. Reserve Corps taking Pinsk . At the end of September the general command was transferred to Kovel and, after the failure of the Austro-Hungarian offensive in the campaign to Rovno in Volhynia, carried out relieving counter-attacks on the Sokul-Kolki line, which secured the city of Lutsk . On Styr began after defensive strong counterattacks of Russian 8th Army , the recent war of position . In January 1916, the General Command XXIV Res Corps, as the Gerok Group , temporarily took over the leadership of the Austro-Hungarian Cavalry Corps Hauer and the Corps Fath .

At the beginning of April 1916, the corps was together with the XXII. Reserve Corps under von Falkenhayn transported to the western front again, and during the Battle of Verdun the attack group West General of Gallwitz fed. On May 13, 1916, the corps released the VI, deployed on the western bank of the Meuse . Reserve Corps with the assigned 38th and 54th Divisions in front of Höhe 304 and at Toten Mann . Also was Béthincourt south Corps temporarily 4. Division and also to Avocourt holding the 11th Bavarian Division allocated.

In August 1916, the corps moved again to the east, where it fought in eastern Galicia between the Zlota-Lipa and Narajowka . The Romanian 2nd Army began a relief offensive on July 22, 1917 against the extended south wing of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army (Colonel General Rohr von Denta ). The XXIV Reserve Corps deployed there came under great pressure. The kuk 1st Cavalry Division (FML de Ruiz) deployed there and the German 218th Division had to withdraw from the Soveja Basin through the Putna and Susita valleys. The German 117th Division had to be added as reinforcements. In November 1917 the corps returned to the Western Front. Here it was first used with the 3rd Army in Champagne and from February 1918 under the new commanding General Felix Langer with the 7th Army in the Moronvillers area east of Reims .

In mid-July 1918, during the attacks in the Second Battle of the Marne , the 1st Army was assigned the Epernay - Chalons line ; in Champagne, the 3rd Army had to support with an attack between Prunay and Massiges in the southeast. The Corps Langer participated with the subordinate 3rd Guard Division , the 9th and 26th Divisions , and the 80th Reserve Division in advances towards Prosnes, which, however, did not make any progress. After the counter-attacks by the French 4th Army , Aubérive was lost in early August and the gradual retreat to Juinville was necessary. In September 1918 the corps wrestled in the area east of Rethel , with the 14th and 239th divisions subordinate to it.

Commanding general

Rank Surname date
General of the Infantry Eberhard von Claer August 25 to September 12, 1914
General of the Infantry Friedrich von Gerok September 12, 1914 to February 19, 1918
Lieutenant General Felix Langer February 29, 1918 to January 10, 1919

Trivia

Harry Graf Kessler , as an orderly officer, took part in the corps' campaign from the Carpathian Mountains to Verdun and recorded it in his diary.

References

literature

  • Hanns Möller: The history of the knights of the order "pour le merite" in the World War 1914-1918 , German Defense Archive 2007, DW-34001-00.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c 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 , p. 635