17th Army (Wehrmacht)
| 17th Army | |
|---|---|
German army (  Wehrmacht) | |
| Size | Field army |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
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The German Seventeenth Army (German: 17. Armee) was a field army of Nazi Germany during World War II.
Operation Barbarossa
On 22 June 1941, the 17th Army was part of
In October 1941, the army came under the command of
Every sign of active or passive resistance or any sort of machinations on the part of Jewish-Bolshevik agitators are to be immediately and pitilessly exterminated ... These circles are the intellectual supports of Bolshevism, the bearers of its murderous organisation, the helpmates of the partisans. It is the same Jewish class of beings who have done so much damage to our own Fatherland by virtue of their activities against the nation and civilisation, and who promote anti-German tendencies throughout the world, and who will be the harbingers of revenge. Their extermination is a dictate of our own survival.
Under Hoth's command, units of the 17th Army took part in the hunt for and murder of Jews in its territory of control.[3]
Battle of Stalingrad
In 1942, Army Group South was to spearhead the German summer offensive in Russia known as
While
Crimea
By October 1943, the 17th Army was forced to retreat from the
By the end of 1943, the Soviet command began landing troops in Kerch Strait.
On 2 February 1944, the 17th Army trapped on Crimea consisted of the V Army Corps with the 73rd German Infantry Division, 98th German Infantry Division, 3rd Romanian Mountain Division and 6th Romanian Cavalry Division, the "Group Conrad" constructed around the German XXXXIX Mountain Corps and the Romanian Cavalry Corps with the 10th Infantry Division and 19th Infantry Division under the Cavalry Corps and the 50th German Infantry Division, 336th German Infantry Division and 9th Romanian Cavalry Division under the XXXXIX Corps, and finally the 1st Romanian Mountain Corps with Fortress Commander Sevastopol and the Romanian 1st Mountain and 2nd Mountain Divisions. Additionally, the 17th Army had the 111th Infantry Division in reserves.[5]: 467
By 10 April 1944, moving troops near the Sivash and together with an attack at the Perekop Isthmus forced 17th Army to fall back to Sevastopol. The German Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) intended to hold Sevastopol as a fortress, much as the Red Army had done during the first battle for the Crimea from 1941 to 1942. Inadequate repair to the defenses of Sevastopol made this impossible and, on 9 May 1944, Sevastopol fell in less than one month after the start of the battle.
Eastern Front mainland, 1944/45
The Army lost much of its heavy equipment in the Crimea. Considerable losses were suffered in terms of men lost in battle and losses associated with the sea evacuation. The Army was subsequently reorganized and continued to fight on the Eastern Front, including in the Battle of Bautzen.
On 1 January 1945, the 17th Army (then under Army Group A) contained the
Subordinate foreign units
- Hungarian Mobile Corps - 1 July 1941 to 24 November 1941
- Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia - 3 June to July 1942
- Slovak Mobile Command (Pilfousek Brigade), reorganized in early August 1941 as Slovak 1st Division
Commanding officers
| No. | Portrait | Commander | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | General der Infanterie Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel (1886–1944) | 20 December 1940 | 4 October 1941 | 288 days | |
| 2 | Generaloberst Hermann Hoth (1885–1971) | 5 October 1941 | 19 April 1942 | 196 days | |
| 3 | Generaloberst Hans von Salmuth (1888–1962) | 20 April 1942 | 31 May 1942 | 41 days | |
| 4 | Generaloberst Richard Ruoff (1883–1967) | 1 June 1942 | 24 June 1943 | 1 year, 23 days | |
| 5 | Generaloberst Erwin Jaenecke (1890–1960) | 25 June 1943 | 1 March 1944 | 250 days | |
| 6 | Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner (1892–1973) | 2 March 1944 | 31 March 1944 | 29 days | |
| (5) | Generaloberst Erwin Jaenecke (1890–1960) | 1 April 1944 | 28 April 1944 | 27 days | |
| 7 | General der Infanterie Karl Allmendinger (1891–1965) | 1 May 1944 | 25 July 1944 | 85 days | |
| 8 | General der Infanterie Friedrich Schulz (1897–1976) | 26 July 1944 | 30 March 1945 | 247 days | |
| 9 | General der Infanterie Wilhelm Hasse (1894–1945) | 1 April 1945 | 7 May 1945 | 36 days |
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References
Citations
- ^ Hebert 2010, p. 213.
- ^ Burleigh 1997, p. 69.
- ^ Hebert 2010, p. 273.
- ^ Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer, Chapter 19 (1969, English translation 1970)
- ^ ISBN 9783421062352.
- ISBN 9783421062376.
Bibliography
- ISBN 9780521588164.
- ISBN 978-0-7006-1826-2. Archived from the originalon 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
- Hebert, Valerie (2010). ISBN 978-0-7006-1698-5.
- ISBN 978-0-521-76847-4.
- Tessin, Georg (1970). "Die Landstreifkräfte 15–30" [Ground forces 15 to 30]. Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS 1939-1945 (in German). Vol. 4. Osnabrück: Biblio.