The 24th Army (German: ''24. Armee'') was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, Air army, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, ...

of the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

History

The army was formed in October 1944 and was tasked with the defence of southern Germany. The army was commanded by

General der Infanterie General of the Infantry is a military rank of a General officer in the infantry and refers to: * General of the Infantry (Austria) * General of the Infantry (Bulgaria) * General of the Infantry (Germany) ('), a rank of a general in the German Imp ...

Hans Schmidt. Formed on the basis of the staff of the ''V. Armeekorps'', between February and April 1945, the army had no units assigned to it. Part of the

Alpenfestung The Alpine Fortress (german: Alpenfestung) or Alpine Redoubt was the World War II national redoubt planned by Heinrich Himmler in November and December 1943"Himmler started laying the plans for underground warfare in the last two months of 194 ...

, its immediate task was to stop a possible Allied advance through neutral

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. In April 1945, the 405th Division was transferred to it from the 19th Army to serve as the nucleus around which the 24th Army was to be built, but the army never had a paper strength of more than 9,000 men and capitulated to the American VI Corps commander

Edward H. Brooks Lieutenant General Edward Hale Brooks (April 25, 1893 – October 10, 1978) was a senior officer of the United States Army, a veteran of both World War I and World War II, who commanded the U.S. Second Army during the Korean War. He received th ...

, along with the 19th Army, in May 1945 without having engaged in combat operations.

History

Commanders

Further reading