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549th Volksgrenadier Division
The 549th Volksgrenadier Division () was a ''volksgrenadier'' infantry division of the German Army during World War II, active from 1944 to 1945. It was formed as the 549th Grenadier Division in July 1944 and became a volksgrenadier division several months later. Fighting on the Eastern Front, it was nearly destroyed in the East Prussian Offensive, with its remnants retreating west and surrendering to American troops at the end of the war. Operational history The 549th Grenadier Division was formed at Schwerin from replacement troops in ''Wehrkreis'' II on 11 July 1944. It was commanded by ''Oberst'' Karl Jank, previously with 4th Mountain Division, destroyed during the Soviet Crimean Offensive. It was composed of the 1097th, 1098th, and 1099th Grenadier Regiments and the 1549th Artillery Regiment, in addition to smaller support units. As a volksgrenadier division, manpower shortages meant its infantry regiments contained two battalions, rather than the standard three. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Army (Wehrmacht)
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the German Air Force, ''Luftwaffe'' (German Air Force). , the German Army had a strength of 62,766 soldiers. History Overview A German army equipped, organized, and trained following a single doctrine and permanently unified under one command in 1871 during the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. From 1871 to 1919, the title ''German Army (German Empire), Deutsches Heer'' (German Army) was the official name of the German land forces. Following the German defeat in World War I and the end of the German Empire, the main army was dissolved. From 1921 to 1935 the name of the German land forces was the ''Reichswehr, Reichsheer'' (Army of the Empire) and from 1935 to 1945 the name ''German Army (We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
3rd Panzer Army
The 3rd Panzer Army (german: 3. Panzerarmee) was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 3rd Panzer Group on 1 January 1942. 3rd Panzer Group The 3rd Panzer Group (german: Panzergruppe 3) was formed on 16 November 1940. It was a constituent part of Army Group Centre and participated in Operation Barbarossa and fought in the Battle of Moscow in late 1941 and early 1942. Later it served in Operation Typhoon, where it was placed under operational control of the Ninth Army. ''Panzergruppe 3'' was retitled the 3rd Panzer Army on 1 January 1942. Orders of battle At the start of Operation Barbarossa the Group consisted of the XXXIX and LVII Army Corps (mot.). 2 October 1941 Part of Army Group Centre. * Commander: Colonel General Hermann Hoth * Chief of Staff: Colonel Walther von Hünersdorff * XLI Motorized Corps under General of Panzer Troops Georg-Hans Reinhardt ** 1.Panzer-Division under Lieutenant General Friedrich Kirchner ** ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Courland Pocket
The Courland Pocket (Blockade of the Courland army group), (german: Kurland-Kessel)/german: Kurland-Brückenkopf (Courland Bridgehead), lv, Kurzemes katls (Courland Cauldron) or ''Kurzemes cietoksnis'' (Courland Fortress)., group=lower-alpha was an area of the Courland Peninsula where Army Group North of Nazi Germany and the Reichskommissariat Ostland were cut off and surrounded by the Red Army for almost a year, lasting from July 1944 until 10 May 1945. The pocket was created during the Red Army's Baltic Offensive, when forces of the 1st Baltic Front reached the Baltic Sea near Memel (Klaipėda) during its lesser Memel Offensive Operation phases. This action isolated the German Army Group North from the rest of the German forces, having been pushed from the south by the Red Army, standing in a front between Tukums and Libau in Latvia, with the Baltic Sea in the West, the Irbe Strait in the North and the Gulf of Riga in the East behind the Germans. Renamed Army Group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memel Offensive
The Battle of Memel or the siege of Memel (german: Erste Kurlandschlacht) was a battle which took place on the Eastern Front during World War II. The battle began when the Red Army launched its ''Memel offensive operation'' (russian: Мемельская наступательная операция) in late 1944. The offensive drove remaining German forces in the area that is now Lithuania and Latvia into a small bridgehead in Klaipėda (Memel) and its port, leading to a three-month siege of that position. The bridgehead was finally crushed as part of a subsequent Soviet offensive, the East Prussian offensive, in early 1945. Prelude The Soviet Belorussian offensive of June–August 1944 (commonly known as Operation Bagration) had seen the German Army Group Centre nearly destroyed and driven from what is now Belarus, most of what is now Lithuania and much of Poland. During August and September of that year, a series of German counter-offensives – Operations Doppelkopf and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
XXVII Army Corps (Wehrmacht)
The XXVII Corps (german: XXVII. Armeekorps, or ''XXVII.AK'') was an infantry corps in the German army. It fought in several notable actions during World War II. The corps was originally raised in August 1939 in Wehrkreis VII. Wartime service 1939 Organisation (September 1939): 16th, 69th, 211th and 216th Infantry Divisions During September 1939 the XXVII Corps was used to screen the Dutch-German border. 1940 Organisation (June 1940): 211th, 213th, 218th and 239th Infantry Divisions The Corps participated in Nazi Germany's Invasion of France as part of Army Group C. In May, it crossed the southern Netherlands and Belgium towards Roubaix, where it helped in surrounding the French 1st Army. Later in the campaign, it attacked from the east bank of the Rhine towards Colmar. It then remained on occupation duties in eastern France until the following year. 1941 Organisation (November 1941): 86th, 129th and 162nd Infantry Divisions; '' Gruppe'' Landgraf (parts of 6th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
4th Army (Wehrmacht)
The 4th Army () was a field army of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Invasions of Poland and France The 4th Army was activated on 1 August 1939 with General Günther von Kluge in command. It took part in the Invasion of Poland of September 1939 as part of Army Group North, which was under Field Marshal Feodor von Bock. The 4th Army contained the II Corps and III Corps, each with two infantry divisions, the XIX Corps with two motorized and one panzer divisions, and three other divisions, including two in reserve. Its objective was to capture the Polish Corridor, thus linking mainland Germany with East Prussia. During the attack on the Low Countries and France, the 4th Army, as part of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A, invaded Belgium from the Rhineland. Along with other German armies, the 4th Army penetrated the Dyle Line and completed the trapping of the Allied forces in France. The then Major-General Erwin Rommel, who was under Kluge, contributed imm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 1st Infantry Division, (german: 1. Infanterie-Division) was one of the original infantry divisions of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht that served throughout World War II. History Before World War II Originally formed as the beginning of Germany's first wave of rearmament, the division was first given the title of ''Artillerieführer I'' and only later called ''Wehrgauleitung Königsberg''. These names were an effort to cover Germany's expansion of infantry divisions from seven to twenty-one. The division's infantry regiments were built up from the ''1.(Preussisches) Infanterie-Regiment'' of the ''1.Division'' of the Reichswehr and originally consisted of recruits from East Prussia.Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr, ''Hitler's Legions, The German Army Order of Battle, World War II Dorset Press, New York, 1985 '' The unit's Prussian heritage is represented by the Hohenzollern coat of arms that served as the divisional insignia. Upon the official revelation of the Wehrmacht in October 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
5th Army (Soviet Union)
The 5th Combined Arms Red Banner Army (5-я общевойсковая армия) is a Russian Ground Forces formation in the Eastern Military District. It was formed in 1939, served during the Soviet invasion of Poland that year, and was deployed in the southern sector of the Soviet defences when Adolf Hitler's Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941 during World War II. In the disastrous first months of Barbarossa, the 5th Army was encircled and destroyed around Kiev. Reformed under Lelyushenko and Govorov, it played a part in the last-ditch defence of Moscow, and then in the string of offensive and defensive campaigns that eventually saw the Soviet armies retake all of Soviet territory and push west into Poland and beyond into Germany itself. The 5th Army itself only advanced as far as East Prussia before it was moved east to take part in the Soviet attack on Japan. Since 1945, under the Soviet and now Russian flag it has formed part of the Far East Military District keepi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
33rd Army (Soviet Union)
The Red Army's 33rd Army was a Soviet field army during the Second World War. It was disbanded by being redesignated HQ Smolensk Military District in 1945. Initial Operations It was initially formed in the Moscow Military District in July 1941, consisting of the 1st, 5th, 9th, 17th, and 21st Moscow People's Militia divisions, plus artillery and other support units. Kombrig Dmitry Onuprienko (July — on October, 25th 1941) took command. It conducted defensive operations as a part of the Mozhaisk Defence Line and the Soviet Reserve Front. It was at Naro-Fominsk under General Lieutenant Mikhail Yefremov in October 1941. With the arrival of the German 2nd Panzer Army to Kashira and its 4th Panzer Group to the Moskva-Volga Canal, the conditions for the German capture of Moscow were created. But on December 1, the Germans hit the centre of the Soviet front. Two German divisions with 70 tanks broke through in the 33rd Army's sector in the 222nd Rifle Division's area to the north of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
11th Guards Army
The 11th Guards Army () was a field army of the Red Army, the Soviet Ground Forces, and the Russian Ground Forces, active from 1943 to 1997. History World War II For its prowess in battle, the second formation of the 16th Army was redesignated as the 11th Guards Army on 1 May 1943 in accordance with a Stavka directive of 16 April, under the command of Lieutenant General Ivan Bagramyan, who was promoted to colonel general on 27 August. The army included the 8th and 16th Guards Rifle Corps and one rifle division directly controlled by the army headquarters. On 1 June 1943 the 11th Guards Army consisted of the 8th Guards Rifle Corps ( 11th, 26th and 83rd Guards Rifle Divisions), 16th Guards Rifle Corps (1st, 16th & 31st Guards, and 169th Rifle Divisions), and the 5th, 18th, and 84th Guards, and the 108th and 217th Rifle Divisions, several artillery divisions, armoured units, and other support units. The army fought in Operation Kutuzov, during which it included the 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
6th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The 6th Panzer Division ( en, 6th Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the ''Heer'', during World War II, established in October 1939. The division, initially formed as a light brigade, participated in the invasions of Poland, Belgium, France and the Soviet Union. From 1941 to 1945 it fought on the Eastern Front, interrupted only by periods of refitting spent in France and Germany. It eventually surrendered to US forces in Czechoslovakia in May 1945 but was handed over to Soviet authorities, where the majority of its remaining men would be imprisoned in Gulag hard labour camps. History The 1st Light Brigade was a mechanized unit established in October 1937 in imitation of the French '' Division Légère Mécanique''. It was intended to take on the roles of army-level reconnaissance and security that had traditionally been the responsibility of cavalry. It included mechanized reconnaissance units, motorized infantry, and a battalion of tanks. The concept ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
561st Volksgrenadier Division (Wehrmacht)
The 561st Volksgrenadier Division (german: 561. Volksgrenadier-Division) was a division of the Wehrmacht active during World War II. When it was formed in July 1944, it was originally designated as the 561st Grenadier Division. History The 561st Grenadier Division was raised in July 1944 and placed under the leadership of Major General Walter Gorn on 21 July 1944. The division was sent to occupy the central sector of the Eastern Front, which was rapidly diminishing due to the successes of the Soviet's Red Army. In October 1944, the division was re-designated the 561st Volksgrenadier Division. In January of 1945 The 561st division took part in the Battle of Königsberg and eventually surrendered after the Soviet troops were victorious. See also * List of German divisions in World War II Commanding officers The following officers commanded the 561st Volksgrenadier Division: * ''Generalmajor'' Walter Gorn __NOTOC__ Walter Gorn (24 September 1898 – 10 July 1968) was a highl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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