X Army Corps (Wehrmacht)

X Army Corps
X Army Corps
X. Armeekorps
Active	May 1935 – 8 May 1945
Country	Army
Size	Corps
Engagements	World War II Invasion of Poland; Operation Barbarossa; Siege of Leningrad; Demyansk Pocket; Courland Pocket;

X Army Corps (X. Armeekorps) was a corps in the German Army during World War II. It was formed in mid-May 1935 from the Cavalry Division.

After the mobilization of 28 August 1939, the corps was deployed under General Wilhelm Ulex on the right wing of the 8th Army (commanded by General Blaskowitz) during the Polish campaign. After taking part in the Battle of the Bzura the corps was transferred to Warsaw. It later moved to western Europe and was eventually stationed in Normandy.

In April 1941 the corps was transferred to East Prussia to take part in Operation Barbarossa as part of the 16th Army in Army Group North. The invasion of Russia commenced on 22 June following.

In 1942 the corps was trapped in the

Leningrad

, surrounded by Soviet troops and cut off for several months from the rest of the army. They were supplied by air until German troops could break through to them.

After the lifting of the

Novgorod to the Soviet 59th Army in January 1944, the 16th Army was forced to retreat. Having retreated to Riga the corps came under the command of the 18th Army

.

After the breakthrough of the

Soviet 51st Army under General Kreiser on 10 October near Polangen on the Baltic Sea, X Corps, with the 11th, 30th, and 61st Infantry Divisions, took command of the southern front of the Courland Pocket. From October 27 to November 2, 1944, they withstood the main attack of the Soviet 5th Tank Army

and sustained losses of more than 4,000 men. The German Army surrendered on May 8, 1945.

Commanders

Cavalry General (
General der Kavallerie) Wilhelm Knochenhauer
, May 1935 – June 1939

Lieutenant-General Generalleutnant Erich Lüdke, 29. June – 26. August 1939
Infantry General (General der Infanterie) Wilhelm Ulex, 26. August – October 1939
Artillery General (
General der Artillerie) Christian Hansen
, 15. October 1939 – May 1942

Tank general (General der Panzertruppe) Otto von Knobelsdorff, May – June 1942
Artillery General (
General der Artillerie) Christian Hansen
, Juni 1942 bis 1. Juli 1943

Lieutenant-General Generalleutnant Otto Sponheimer, 1. Juli – 31. July 1943 m.st.F.b.
Artillery General (General der Artillerie
) Christian Hansen, 1 August – 4 November 1943
Infantry General (General der Infanterie) Thomas-Emil von Wickede, 4 November 1943 – 23 June 1944
Infantry General (General der Infanterie) Friedrich Köchling, 25 June – 3 September 1944
Infantry General (General der Infanterie) Hermann Foertsch, 21 September – 21 December 1944
Lieutenant-General Generalleutnant Johannes Mayer, 21 – 27 December 1944
Artillery General (
General der Artillerie) Siegfried Thomaschki
, 27 Dezember 1944 – May 1945

Areas of Operation

Poland : September 1939 – May 1940
France : May 1940 – June 1941
Eastern Front, North Sector : June 1941 – October 1944
Courland Pocket : October 1944 – May 1945

References

Based on a translation of the equivalent article ( de:X. Armeekorps (Wehrmacht)) on German Wikipedia
Georg Tessin: Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Volume 3, Frankfurt/Main und Osnabrück 1966, pp 163–164.
Percy Ernst Schramm (Hrsg.): Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, Bernard & Graefe Verlag for Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
- Volume I: 1940/41 written by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen.
- Volume II: 1942 written by Andreas Hillgruber, Bernard & Graefe Verlag for Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
- Volume III: 1943 written by Walther Hubatsch, Bernard & Graefe Verlag for Wehrwesen, Frankfurt am Main 1965.