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The XXXIX Panzer Corps (german: XXXIX.Panzerkorps, also previously designated the ''XXXIX.Armeekorps (mot)'') was a German panzer corps which saw action on the Western and Eastern Fronts during World War II.


Operational history

The Corps whose home station was formed (as the XXXIX Army Corps) in 1940 for the German invasion of France, in which it was part of Group Guderian, the
2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit ...
and
1st First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
Armies. In June 1941 the Corps was assigned to
Army Group Centre Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army fo ...
for Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. It initially attacked towards Vilnius and then took part in the first Battle of Minsk. By August, it was assigned to Army Group North for the
attack on Leningrad ''Attack on Leningrad'', or just ''Leningrad'', is a 2009 war film written and directed by Aleksandr Buravsky, set during the Siege of Leningrad. Plot In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and their troops besieged the city of Len ...
. In 9 July 1942 the Corps was reorganised as the XXXIX Panzer Corps. It was shifted to the Rzhev salient, under the 9th Army of
Army Group Centre Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army fo ...
, where it was involved in
Battle of Rzhev The Battles of Rzhev (russian: Ржевская битва, Rzhevskaya bitva) were a series of Red Army offensives against the Wehrmacht between January 8, 1942, and March 31, 1943, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The battles took place ...
in the summer of 1942. Army Group Centre evacuated the Rzhev salient early in 1943. During the autumn, the Corps took part in the defence against
Operation Suvorov The second Smolensk operation (7 August – 2 October 1943) was a Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943. Staged almost simultaneously with the Lower Dnieper Offensive (13 Aug ...
, withdrawing to positions east of Mogilev. During June 1944 the XXXIX Panzer Corps took part in the defence against the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration; covering the strategically important highway through Mogilev, it was one of the strongest corps in the Army Group at the time, with four high-quality divisions. Soviet breakthroughs to the north and south saw the Corps threatened with encirclement within a matter of days, while the 12th Infantry Division was encircled in Mogilev and destroyed. The corps commander, General
Robert Martinek __NOTOC__ Robert Martinek (2 February 1889 – 28 June 1944) was an Austrian general who served in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. An artillery o ...
was killed on 28 June and his replacement Otto Schünemann, was killed the following day. The Corps disintegrated at the
Berezina River The Berezina or Biarezina ( be, Бярэ́зіна; ) is a river in Belarus and a right tributary of the Dnieper. The river starts in the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve. The length of the Berezina is 613 km. The width of the river is 15-20 m, the ...
crossings as its columns attempted to cross the river under heavy air attack; nearly all its units were destroyed by the
2nd Belorussian Front The 2nd Belorussian Front (Russian: Второй Белорусский фронт, alternative spellings are 2nd Byelorussian Front) was a military formation, of Army group size, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Soviet army g ...
in the subsequent encirclement east of Minsk. The commanders of the 110th, 12th, 31st and ''Feldherrnhalle'' Divisions, Kurowski, Bamler, Ochsner, and Steinkeller respectively, were all captured. The Corps was reformed by redesignating ''Gruppe von Saucken'', composed of ''ad hoc'' battle groups along with the 5th Panzer Division and commanded by Dietrich von Saucken. Renamed XXXIX Panzer Corps, it fought for the control of Minsk and then retreated in the face of the subsequent stages of the Soviet strategic offensive through Belarus, Poland and Lithuania, being pushed back into the Courland Pocket. During this period, the rebuilt Corps was reinforced with the
4th Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...
and 12th Panzer Divisions as well as the Panzergrenadier Division Großdeutschland, taking part in Operation Doppelkopf. Late in the year it was redeployed to
East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
before being reorganised and withdrawn for use in the Ardennes Offensive. It was assigned to Hasso von Manteuffel's
5th Panzer Army 5th Panzer Army (german: 5. Panzerarmee) was the name of two different German armoured formations during World War II. The first of these was formed in 1942, during the North African campaign and surrendered to the Allies at Tunis in 1943. The a ...
. After the defeat of the Ardennes offensive in the Battle of the Bulge, the Corps was redeployed against the Soviet offensives in Pomerania as part of the newly organised
11th SS Panzer Army __NOTOC__ The 11th SS Panzer Army (''SS-Panzer-Armeeoberkommando 11'') was not much more than a paper army formed in February 1945 by Heinrich Himmler while he was commander of Army Group Vistula. The military historian Antony Beevor wrote that wh ...
,
Army Group Vistula Army Group Vistula () was an Army Group of the ''Wehrmacht'', formed on 24 January 1945. It lasted for 105 days, having been put together from elements of Army Group A (shattered in the Soviet Vistula-Oder Offensive), Army Group Centre (similarl ...
. It was employed in Operation Solstice, the failed counter-offensive at
Stargard Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; formerly German language, German: ''Stargard in Pommern'', or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; csb, Stôrgard) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian V ...
against the spearheads of the
1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Белорусский фронт, ''Perviy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian") was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army ...
. On 27 March the Corps was thrown into a disastrous counter-attack to relieve the fortress of Küstrin, and was almost entirely destroyed.


Commanders

* Generaloberst
Rudolf Schmidt Rudolf Schmidt (12 May 1886 – 7 April 1957) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 2nd Panzer Army on the Eastern Front. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leav ...
(1 February 1940 – 10 November 1941) * Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen von Arnim (11 November 1941 – 30 November 1942) * General der Artillerie
Robert Martinek __NOTOC__ Robert Martinek (2 February 1889 – 28 June 1944) was an Austrian general who served in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. An artillery o ...
(1 December 1942 – 13 November 1943) * General der Infanterie
Carl Püchler __NOTOC__ Carl Püchler (13 May 1894 – 5 February 1949) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Awards and decorations * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross The K ...
(13 November 1943 – 18 April 1944) * General der Artillerie
Robert Martinek __NOTOC__ Robert Martinek (2 February 1889 – 28 June 1944) was an Austrian general who served in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. An artillery o ...
(18 April 1944 – 28 June 1944) - KIA * Generalleutnant Otto Schünemann (28 June 1944 – 29 June 1944) - KIA * General der Panzertruppe Dietrich von Saucken (29 June 1944 – 15 October 1944) * General der Panzertruppe Karl Decker (15 October 1944 – 21 April 1945) * Generalleutnant
Karl Arndt __NOTOC__ Karl Hermann Arndt (10 March 1892 – 30 December 1981) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded several divisions. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi ...
(21 April 1945 – 8 May 1945)


Orders of battle

* May 1940 ** 208th infantry division ** 225th infantry division * June 1941 ** 14th Infantry Division ** 20th Infantry Division ** 7th Panzer Division **
20th Panzer Division The 20th Panzer Division ( en, 20th Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army during World War II. It was created from parts of the 19th Infantry Division. The division fought exclusively on the Eastern Front, taking part in th ...
* October 1942 ** 78th Infantry Division ** 102nd Infantry Division ** 1st Panzer Division ** 5th Panzer Division * June 1944 ** 12th Infantry Division ** 31st Infantry Division ** 110th Infantry Division ** 337th Infantry Division ** ''Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle'' (reserve) * 27 March 1945 – Küstrin Counterattack ** Korps Stab *** Arko 140 *** Korps-Nachrichten-Abteilung 439 *** Korps-Nachschub-Truppen 439 *** Ost-Bataillon 439 *** schwere-SS-Panzer-Abteilung 502 *** Kampfgruppe ''1001 Nachtes'' ** Panzer-Division Müncheberg ** 20.Panzergrenadier-Division ** 25.Panzergrenadier-Division ** ''Führer''-Grenadier-Division


Footnotes


References

* * * * ;Websites * {{Subject bar , portal1=Military of Germany , portal2=World War II P039 Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945