XXVII. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

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The General Command XXVII. Army Corps (27. AK) was a major military unit of the German Wehrmacht during World War II , which was deployed on the Eastern Front from 1941 until the end of the war in 1945 after participating in the Western campaign .

history

The General Command XXVII. Army Corps was set up in Military District VII (Munich) on August 26, 1939 and deployed on the German-Dutch border on the Lower Rhine from September 1939 .

1940

At the beginning of January 1940, the 61st, 225th and 269th Infantry Divisions were assigned to the Corps during the seated war in the Jülich area . The corps took part in the western campaign in May 1940 under the leadership of the 6th Army ; the 267th , 269th and 253rd infantry divisions were assigned in the first phase of the attack . The troops crossed the border of the southern Netherlands and advanced across Belgium towards the French border in the Roubaix area. At the end of May, the corps took part in the Battle of Dunkirk on the eastern border of Flanders between Tournai and Valenciennes, facing the French 1st Army , subordinate to the 217th , 253rd and 269th Infantry Divisions.

For the second phase, " Fall Rot " (from June 6, 1940), the XXVII, regrouped to Army Group C, took action. Corps as part of the 7th Army from the east bank of the Rhine in the direction of Colmar . For the attack on the Maginot Line were 221 , 213 , 218 and 239. Infantry Division was reassigned. The advance into the Epinal area ended with the armistice . The command remained initially in eastern France and served as an occupation force until the following year. In December 1940 the General Command XXVII. in the 1st Army , subordinated to the 15th, 52nd , 260th , 79th and 198th Infantry Divisions .

1941

In June 1941 the 337th , 327th and 335th Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the corps, which was still in eastern France . At the beginning of operations of Operation Barbarossa had the Corps no part, until the beginning of October, the area involved in the Smolensk moved Corps as part of the 9th Army on companies typhoon . Deployed on the northern flank of Army Group Center , the troops advanced via Rzhev in the direction of Kalinin , where at the beginning of December they were forced to withdraw from Soviet counter-attacks on the Volga knee near Stariza . In November 1941, the corps command was assigned the 86th , 129th and 162nd Infantry Divisions , which supported the Landgraf armored group (parts of the 6th and 7th Panzer Divisions ) in the attack on Kalinin.

1942

The corps suffered with the neighboring VI. and XXIII. Army Corps suffered heavy losses during the following 1st Battle of Rzhev . During the defensive battles in January 1942, the corps were assigned the 86th, 251st, 129th and 162nd Infantry Divisions . The organization of the command changed several times during these defensive battles, at short notice the command was even assigned to eight infantry divisions at the same time. At the end of April, the 86th, 110th and 328th Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the front of the corps , as well as parts of the 1st, 5th and 7th Panzer Divisions in terms of mobile forces . During the Soviet offensive operation on Mars , the 6th , 72nd , 87th , 95th , 129th, 251st and 256th Infantry Divisions were assigned to the Corps in early November 1942 .

1943

At the turn of the year the following were assigned to the front between Rzhev and Sychevka : the 52nd , 197th , 246th and 256th Infantry Divisions . At the end of March the XXVII. Army corps was relocated from the Rzhev area to the northeast of Smolensk as a result of the buffalo movement . The new positions ran on the northern Dnjeprufer between Yarzewo and Duchowschtschina . In the autumn of 1943 the corps was assigned to the 4th Army . At the beginning of Operation Suvorov (August 1943), strong Soviet attacks on Duchovshchina were initially thrown back. In the second Soviet phase of the attack, Smolensk had to be evacuated on September 25th and the command was pushed back to positions east of Orsha . In the new positions on both sides of the Dnieper near Dubrovno, the 18th Panzer Grenadier Division formed the backbone of the defense, with support from the 197th, 113th and remnants of the 52nd Infantry Divisions . The VI closed on the left . Army Corps of the 3rd Panzer Army and on the right the XXXIX. Panzer Corps at the outer corps borders.

1944

In January 1944, the corps area included the 256th Infantry Division and the 78th Sturm Division , as well as the 18th and 25th Panzer Grenadier Divisions . In June 1944 the XXVII. Corps positioned in the area east of Orsha in the area of ​​the Minsk - Moscow taxiway during Operation Bagration . The attack by the 2nd Belarusian Front took place one day after the start of the Soviet summer offensive on June 23. The 25th Panzer Grenadier, 110th , 260th and 337th Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the corps . By the end of June, the Soviet 33rd Army and 11th Guards Army pushed the corps back across the Dnieper and Drut . After the Soviet forces broke through the Berezina, the corps was encircled in the forests east of Minsk and completely destroyed in fighting until July 5th. The commanding general, General of the Infantry Völckers , was taken prisoner, as were the commanders of the 78th and 260th Infantry Divisions, Lieutenant General Traut and Major General Klammt . The corps and its staff were reformed from replacement units in August and deployed to defend the East Prussian border . In the Kalvarija - Eydkau area , the 547th and 561st Volksgrenadier Divisions were subordinate to the command. In December 1944, the command changed to the command area of ​​the 2nd Army, it took the positions of the XX on the lower Narew section . Army Corps a, which in turn according to the Goldap outgoing XXXXI. Armored Corps at Ostrołęka .

1945

The XXVII. Corps was subordinate to the 2nd Army during the Battle of East Prussia and was in contact with the left wing of the 9th Army across from the Serok bridgehead of the Soviet 65th Army . Between Narew and Vistula , the 542nd People's Grenadier Division covered the area against the Soviet 47th Army in the Modlin area, while the 252nd and 35th Infantry Divisions were deployed to the north of it . After Rokossowski's troops broke through on Mława , they retreated to Thorn . Large parts of the German units were pushed south, on January 17 and 18, Modlin , Płońsk and Płock fell into Soviet hands. In the Thorn area, large parts of the German 2nd Army were encircled by the Soviet 70th Army by January 27th: 31st and 73rd Infantry Divisions . The general command escaped and was thrown into West Prussia to defend the Nogat line . In the course of the Battle of East Pomerania, facing the Soviet 49th Army , the corps in the Heiderode- Großwollen area was subordinate to parts of the 31st , 73rd, 227th and 251st Infantry Divisions . Heiderode was lost on February 23, the corps was pushed back north via Schöneck . The command staff was evacuated to the west via Danzig and transferred to the 3rd Panzer Army as a reserve on the Oder front. At the end of April 1945 the association was pushed back by the Soviet 49th and 70th armies via Templin to Fürstenberg . The last units of the corps going back west to the Elbe via Parchim surrendered to American troops on May 4th in the area north of Ludwigslust .

guide

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.
  • Kurt Dieckert , Horst Großmann : The struggle for East Prussia. 10th edition. Engine book, 1994.
  • Rolf Hinze: The Army Group collapsed in mid-1944 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1992.
  • Rolf Hinze: Das Ostfront Drama 1944 , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1987.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 , Vol. 4, Frankfurt / Main and Osnabrück 1966, p. 250.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schramm: OKW war diary volume 1, divisions p. 1143, 1355
  2. ^ Schramm: OKW war diary volume 1, outlines p. 1362, 1368
  3. ↑ Schramm: OKW War Diary Volume 2, Outlines, p. 259