XXXXIII. Army Corps (Wehrmacht)
The XXXXIII. Army Corps was a major association of the Wehrmacht . It was set up on April 15, 1940 in Military District XI and existed until May 8, 1945.
history
1940
The XXXXIII established in the military district XI in mid-April 1940 . In the second phase of the western campaign , the Army Corps was brought to the Ardennes as a front reserve for Army Group A at the end of May and was concentrated between the Maas and Semois with the 96th , 293rd and 294th Infantry Divisions assigned . Shortly afterwards subordinated to the 9th Army and with the 88th and 96th Divisions as reserves in the second meeting behind the XVIII. Army Corps deployed in the area north of Laon for the attack ( Fall Rot ). After the Aisne and Marne crossing, the corps followed the previous XXXXII. Army Corps to the Seine until mid-June , where the Kleist Panzer Group had already reached the crossing near Romilly . When the French surrendered on June 25, the corps was in the Bonny-sur-Loire area . In December 1940, the General Command was an occupying force on the Channel coast, subordinate to the 57th and 170th , and in April 1941 the 216th and 225th Infantry Divisions .
1941/42
In May 1941 the corps moved to the 4th Army in eastern Poland . At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the 131st , 134th and 252nd Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the General Command . The troops crossed the bow in the Mielnik area , flanked on the left by the IX. Army Corps . It followed the approach through the Białowieża jungle in the direction of Nowy Dwór, where after Wolkowysk the western basin of Bialystok was formed, which together with the XIII. Army Corps was narrowed. At the end of July, the corps was assigned to the 2nd Army , which was deployed in front of Bobruisk and which faced the Soviet 21st Army in the northern Pripyat area . In early September 1941, the Corps base action at Konotop and Chernigov , the 131st , 260th and 293rd Infantry Division assigned. During the Battle of Kiev , the Corps crossed the Desna and pushed XXXV with the Higher Command . via Priluki against the northern basin front on Pirjatin .
At Operation Taifun , the general command crossed the Desna in the Dubrowka area on October 2 with the 52nd , 112th , 31st and 260th divisions and led the northern pincer arm around the basin that formed between the Bolwa , Brjansk and Chwastowitschi. After the clearing of the Bryansk pocket, the general command moved via Shizdra to Koselsk and at the beginning of November crossed the Oka between Peremyschl (near Kaluga) and Bjelew . After the advance on Tula the corps stopped in the area south of Alexin with the 31st and 131st Inf.-Div. the western front of the front arc formed there by the Panzer Group. The breakthrough of the Soviet 10th Army (General Golikow ) on Kaluga pushed the corps back from the Oka to the northern bank of the Ugra and Juchnow at the beginning of December , whereby the connection to the southern LIII. Army Corps was completely lost. The front was not stabilized until after heavy defensive battles in April 1942 when it reached Spas-Demensk . During this time the 31st, 34th, 131st and temporarily the 10th motorized division of the XXXX motorized army corps to the south were subordinate to the corps, which had to front also in the rear against broken-in Soviet troops until June . During the trench warfare on the Ugra in autumn 1942 and spring 1943 the 34th, 137th and 263rd Infantry Divisions were subordinate to the General Command.
1943
In January 1943 the corps was withdrawn from the Ugra section, transferred to the 3rd Panzer Army and established on the north wing of the group of the Chevallerie in the Welisch area . In April 1943, the General Command in the area west of Velikiye Luki was assigned the 205th Infantry Division and the 20th Motorized Division . The 331st Division then maintained the connection to the II Army Corps to the north . After the Soviet 3rd Shock Army launched its offensive against Newel , the 16th Army extended the command area south to Lake Nesherda after the 1st Army Corps had been transferred . With that came the XXXXIII that remained in the old front area. Corps in the command area of Army Group North .
1944
In January, the General Command in the area north of Newel reported the 15th Latvian SS Division, the 83rd and 263rd Infantry Divisions . After the 16th Army had withdrawn from the area between Ilmensee and the chain of lakes north of Newel to "manufacture panties", the general command was released. In March 1944 the XXXXIII. Corps relocated to Narva Army Detachment . On March 26, 1944, the General Command under Lieutenant General Boege began a counterattack with the 11th and 227th Infantry Divisions. Another attack on an eastern promontory straightened the front southwest of Narva . In June the General Command was assigned the 58th and 122nd Divisions . In July 1944, the corps was transferred to the northern section and was briefly responsible for coastal protection in Estonia . This included the 207th Security Division , which was located in the area around Windau . On the north coast the 12th Air Force Field Division and the 83rd Infantry Division , which secured the coast to the Gulf of Riga . In September, again placed in the area of the 16th Army, the Corps took over during the Baltic operation the Daugava section in the Riga front bow. The XXXXIII. Corps was entrusted with the leadership of the 58th, 225th, 205th and 389th Infantry Divisions on the southern front opposite Friedrichstadt . Even before the loss of Riga on October 15, the General Command was dragged across the Kemmen corridor into the Kurland basin. In November 1944, Lieutenant General Versock also led the defense of the Sworbe peninsula , which had to be evacuated on November 24th.
1945
After the defensive and retreat battles in Northern Courland, the XXXXIII. Corps in the area of the 16th Army security tasks in Courland. The fortress of Windau and the coastal group northwest and southwest were subordinate. In March 1945 the General Command was withdrawn from the Courland Basin and transferred to the 8th Army in Northern Hungary . After the loss of the Danube bridgehead from Gran and the offensive of the 2nd Ukrainian Front across the Waag section, the general command from Slovakia was pushed back to Znojmo . In mid-April the corps was deployed to defend against the Soviet 23rd and 68th Rifle Corps advancing in the Lower Austrian Weinviertel , subordinate to the 48th Volksgrenadier - the 96th Infantry - and remnants of the 101st Jäger Division . The general command surrendered to the Americans in the Linz area in May 1945 .
people
Commanding general
| Rank | Surname | date |
|---|---|---|
| General of the artillery | Hermann Ritter von Speck | May 1 to May 31, 1940 |
| General of the Mountain Forces | Franz Boehme | May 31 to June 17, 1940 |
| Colonel General | Gotthard Heinrici | June 17, 1940 to January 20, 1942 |
| Major general | Gerhard Berthold | January 20 to February 19, 1942 (in charge of the tour) |
| General of the Infantry | Kurt Brennecke | February 19 to June 27, 1942 |
| General of the Infantry | Joachim von Kortzfleisch | June 28 to August 15, 1942 |
| General of the Infantry | Kurt Brennecke | August 15, 1942 to January 23, 1943 |
| General of the Infantry | Karl von Oven | January 24, 1943 to March 25, 1944 |
| Lieutenant General | Ehrenfried Boege | March 25 to 31, 1944 (in charge of the tour) |
| General of the Infantry | Ehrenfried Boege | April 1 to September 3, 1944 |
| General of the Mountain Forces | Kurt Versock | September 3, 1944 to April 20, 1945 |
| Lieutenant General | Arthur Kullmer | April 20 to May 8, 1945 |
First General Staff Officer (Ia)
See also: First General Staff Officer
| Rank | Surname | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant colonel | Wilhelm Knüppel | April 1940 | December 1942 |
| major | Emil Lorenz | December 1942 | August 1943 |
| major | Richard Lang | August 1943 | August 1944 |
| major | Hans-Joachim von Raison | August 15, 1944 | February 1945 |
| major | Eßbach | 1st March | May 1945 |
Emergency rooms and shelters
| time | army | Army Group | operation area |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 1940 | 9th Army | B. | Chemin des Dames |
| July 1940 | 16th Army | A. | Channel coast |
| August 1940 | 9th Army | ||
| January 1941 | |||
| May 1941 | 4th Army | B. | General Government |
| June 1941 | center | Brest-Litovsk , Bialystok | |
| August 1941 | 2nd Army | Bobruisk , Kiev , Bryansk | |
| November 1941 | 2nd Panzer Army | Tula | |
| January 1942 | 4th Army | Juchnow , Spas-Demensk | |
| January 1943 | Spas-Demensk | ||
| April 1943 | 3rd Panzer Army | Welisch | |
| August 1943 | 16th Army | North | Newel |
| January 1944 | |||
| April 1944 | Narva Army Division | Narva | |
| August 1944 | 16th Army | North Courland , Oesel | |
| January 1945 | Courland | ||
| February 1945 | Courland | ||
| April 1945 | 8th Army | south | Northern Hungary , Slovakia |
| May 1945 | Ostmark | Austria , Linz |
literature
- Werner Haupt : Army Group North. Bad Nauheim 1967.
- Werner Haupt: Kurland 1944/45. The forgotten army group. Friedberg 1979.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Percy E. Schramm : OKW-KTB Volume 1, pp. 1125 and 1131