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80-583: The officer staff of Army Detachment Kleffel was dissolved and its personnel used to form a full-fledge army-level command, the 25th Army , on 10 November 1944. The LIV Army Corps was formed on 1 June 1941 as a reserve staff under supervision of the DHM (German: Deutsche Heeresmission ), the German military mission in Romania . Its creation had been ordered on 4 April 1941. The initial commander of LIV Army Corps

160-617: A Schwerer Gustav -type railway gun firing 800mm shells, making it the largest rifled weapon ever used in combat. The ground attack was, just like in December 1941, carried out by LIV Army Corps from the north and XXX Army Corps from the southeast. Between them, the Romanian Mountain Corps provided support. The ground attack began on the morning of 7 June 1942. Unlike in December 1941, the Germans were now equipped with all

240-621: A delayed supporting attack from Romania into the Soviet Union. The objective of these three armies was to clear Red Army forces from southern Ukraine, to secure the Black Sea coast and to, if possible, encircle Soviet forces in the Kamianets-Podilskyi and Vinnytsia areas. Other German armies under Rundstedt's supervision included the 6th Army ( von Reichenau ) and 17th Army ( von Stülpnagel ). The shock group struck

320-460: A much larger Soviet force landed at Feodosia, bringing in troops of the Soviet 44th Army . By 29 December 1941, the Soviet Union had brought ashore 41,000 soldiers, 236 guns and 43 tanks. Over the course of January 1942, the Soviet force would be strengthened even further with the arrival of the 47th Army . The 44th, 47th and 51st Armies were officially fused into the newly formed Crimean Front by

400-437: A penetration of Sevastopol's defenses, rains and poor road condition slowed LIV Army Corps so much that its infantry contingents could not keep up with the mobile advance detachments. These detachments proved too weak to take Sevastopol's forward defenses on their own, and the Soviet defenders gained enough time to dig in. LIV Army Corps was halted by the Soviet defenders by 8 November 1941 at a line some six miles north and east of

480-510: A result of the sheer numerical force of Soviet troops advancing against them, the Soviets sustained intense losses and saw only a seven-mile bulge in the northern portion of the line as a reward. With Mekhlis pressuring the Soviet commanders to produce results, the Red Army attacked again on 13 March, 26 March and 9 April. These additional attacks also failed. The Soviet April 1942 offensive

560-636: The 40th , 21st , 38th and 6th Armies . It was formally disbanded on July 12, 1942 and the forces transferred to the Stalingrad Front and Southern Front . The Front was reformed from reserve armies on October 22, 1942. It was renamed the 3rd Ukrainian Front on October 20, 1943. 3rd Ukrainian Front's first operations were the Battle of the Dnieper and the Battle of Kiev (1943) . Composition Subordinate Front units directly under Commander of

640-450: The Battle of Rostov by 2 December, the first major German defeat during Operation Barbarossa , as well as the Battle of Moscow by the end of the year. Kleist responded to the setback at Rostov by retreating his Panzer Group thirty-five miles to the west and entrenching behind the Mius river . This move was approved by Rundstedt, but irritated Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler , and Rundstedt

720-579: The British 21st Army Group , Generaloberst Blaskowitz surrendered his command to I Canadian Corps ' Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes at Wageningen on 5 May 1945 (documents typed and signed the next day, as no typewriter had been available), effectively ending the war in the Netherlands. Southwestern Front (Soviet Union) The Southwestern Front was a front of the Red Army during

800-700: The Mohyliv-Podilskyi area. On 18 July 1941, the 11th Army crossed the Dniester at Mohyliv-Podilskyi. This resulted in a realization at Stavka that the Southern Front and Southwestern Front were threatened by envelopment. Stavka allowed the Soviet 6th , 12th and 18th Armies to withdraw towards the Bila Tserkva line, some 100 kilometers west of the Dnieper river. At the end of August,

880-580: The Polotsk sector, which was transferred to Army Group North on 10 January 1944. As a result, the order had been given on 14 January to fall back to the Panther Line, ending the Siege of Leningrad after more than 900 days. The Soviet Union subsequently attacked with its Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive and threw some 1.2 million soldiers and 1,580 tanks, supported by 1,386 aircraft and 43,000 partisans behind

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960-857: The Second World War , formed thrice. It was first created on June 22, 1941 from the Kiev Special Military District . The western boundary of the front in June 1941 was 865 km long, from the Pripyat River and the town of Wlodawa to the Prut River and the town of Lipkany at the border with Romania. It connected to the north with the Western Front , which extended to the Lithuanian border, and to

1040-467: The Tartar Wall secure, the Germans had crossed the isthmus, but were now in no position to actually penetrate the breach they opened. The 1st SS Panzer Division, which Manstein initially had intended to be used for this penetration, was now called back to stand by for orders from 1st Panzer Group ( von Kleist ) that was preparing to attack towards Rostov-on-Don . Furthermore, the losses sustained by

1120-640: The Ukrainian SSR . In Ukraine, Kiev was the first major operational target for the Germans, whereas the Romanians would be instructed to attack Odessa . In the opening stages of the invasion, the 11th Army, which the LIV Army Corps was a part of, made up a critical part of one of Rundstedt's shock groups. Schobert's 11th Army was to cooperate with the Third and Fourth Romanian Armies to conduct

1200-559: The 46th and 73rd Infantry Divisions that had been previously part of LIV Army Corps. The XXXXII Corps marched east. In the German center, the XXX Army Corps stood ready with the 22nd Infantry Division as well as the rested 72nd Infantry Division , poised to advance straight towards the Yaila Mountains . On the German right, LIV Army Corps itself stood, with the newly arrived 50th and 132nd Infantry Divisions. Its main goal

1280-703: The 46th and 73rd Infantry Divisions were substantial. The situation was further complicated by a counter attack by units of the Soviet Southern Front that struck against the units of the 11th Army from a position between the Dniepr and the Sea of Azov . The 9th, 12th and 18th Soviet Armies started an offensive against the Germans on 26 September 1941, starting the Battle of the Sea of Azov . This offensive scored considerable initial successes and threatened to penetrate

1360-749: The 50th Infantry Division had successfully breached the Zapun position and would over the course of the day overrung the Inkerman Ridge as well as the Malakov bastion. The decisive breakthrough was achieved by the 170th Infantry Division. In response to this decisive blow, Stalin ordered to evacuate the city on 30 June. Some 30,000 Soviet troops awaited evacuation by the Black Sea Fleet on the Chersonese Peninsula , but were captured by

1440-729: The Axis line at several points. Although Manstein would in his memoirs blame this setback on the Third Romanian Army and specifically the 4th Mountain Brigade , the forces of both Romania and Germany were heavily affected by the Soviet push. To stabilize the situation, the XXXXIX Mountain Corps, which had been the other force besides the 1st SS Panzer Division intended by Manstein to lead the attack against Crimea itself, had to turn around halfway to Perekop and to face

1520-573: The German 17th Army. On the first day of action, the 11th Army overwhelmed the Soviet defenders and reached the Prut river. The Soviet forces, overestimating the strength of the German attack, promptly fell back to the Dniester river line before realizing their mistake. In the resulting Soviet counterattack, the line stabilized between the Prut and Dniester rivers. The Soviet 18th Army was forced to dig in in

1600-487: The German forces engaged at the Siege of Leningrad included the 16th Army and LIV Army Corps' 18th Army. The 16th Army consisted of the X Army Corps , II Army Corps , and the Groups Hahne and Tiemann. The 18th Army was made up, next to the LIV Army Corps, of the L Army Corps , XXVI Army Corps , I Army Corps , XXVIII Army Corps and XXXVIII Army Corps , as well as several divisions in reserve. Erick-Oskar Hansen

1680-607: The German infantry to regularly dig trenches and foxholes to find cover from Soviet aerial strafe runs. While Luftwaffe forces of Fliegerkorps IV were present, the Wehrmacht units could not operate with the air superiority that they had been accustomed to during most of Operation Barbarossa . The German losses mounted quickly, and especially officers were hard to replace. Within a few days, several battalions were commanded by lieutenant-rank soldiers as their captains were killed. However, Soviet losses were certainly comparable, and

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1760-556: The German lines, against some 397,000 German soldiers (including those on anti-partisan duty). On 2 February 1944, Walter Model , commander of Army Group North between 9 January and 31 March, visited the positions in the Narva region. On this occasion, Model upgraded the LIV Army Corps and bestowed the command of all forces along the Narva river onto Sponheimer in a unit directly subordinate to Army Group North and thus equal in rank to an army. This unit, initially dubbed Group Sponheimer ,

1840-416: The German positions in the north by amphibiously deploying two Soviet infantry brigades on 13 February, but happened to drop their forces directly in front of the Panther Line's artillery fortifications. Nonetheless, the Soviet forces managed to reach and surround Meriküla and the units of Kampfgruppe Berlin within it. The Germans, supported by Tiger tanks of the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion , dislodged

1920-451: The German spearhead, covered by artillery fire, made progress. The Germans proved the experience they had with infantry attacks under artillery cover from previous campaigns, whereas the Soviet defenders were less effective at utilizing their own guns. By 25 October 1941, the German offensive momentum was all but spent, but the Soviet resistance had notably weakened. The twelve divisions of the Soviet 51st Army had already been thrown against

2000-525: The Germans and the Soviet reserves were running dry. The Germans broke the Soviet defensive line in front of Ishun, just south of Krasnoperekopsk , on 28 October 1941. Manstein had kept all other troops in reserve during the breakthrough of the three infantry divisions in front, and was now able to send everything he had through the breach created by the spearhead. On the German left stood the XXXXII Corps with its rested 170th Infantry Division as well as

2080-465: The Germans before the promised ships arrived. Another 60,000 prisoners were taken in Sevastopol itself. The German 11th Army formally entered Sevastopol on 1 July 1942. Manstein was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall by Hitler's order that evening as a reward for the victory. The last elements of resistance were eliminated on 4 July 1942, bringing the Siege of Sevastopol to an end. The LIV Army Corps

2160-469: The Kerch Peninsula ended in an overwhelming Axis victory on 19 May. In June 1942, with the Kerch Peninsula defended, a newly strengthened 11th Army could once again tackle the task of dislodging the Soviet defenders at Sevastopol. The bombardment of the city was reopened with renewed force on 2 June 1942. The Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps VIII , armed with over 600 ground support aircraft, supported

2240-467: The Kerch Peninsula, leaving LIV Corps on its own in front of the Soviet fortress. The Germans recaptured Feodosia, a valuable port from which reinforcements could have been brought in by the Black Sea Fleet, from the Soviets on 18 January. The situation was now in a stalemate, as the Germans held the vast majority of the Crimean peninsula as well as the bottleneck that connected it to mainland Ukraine, but

2320-410: The LIV Army Corps and the 11th Army brought with it the mass murder of the local Jewish population. Between 9 December and 13 December 1941, some 12,000 Jews were murdered outside Simferopol. Many of them had been denounced by their non-Jewish compatriots, whereas others were hunted down and executed by SS forces aided by Wehrmacht units. Although Manstein had called to carry the momentum straight into

2400-537: The LIV Army Corps on the Wehrmacht order of battle on 2 October 1941. In addition to the German reinforcements, the Romanians also strengthened their troops in the area by dispatching the Romanian Mountain Corps , consisting of the 1st Mountain Brigade , 8th Cavalry Brigade and 19th Artillery Regiment . The need to wait for the arrival of these reinforcements delayed the renewed attempt to attack Crimea well into October 1941. Newly strengthened with

2480-401: The LIV Army Corps reached the Dnieper opposite Nikopol with the 11th Army and was now geographically halfway between Kiev in the north and Crimea in the south. On 26 August 1941, commanding general of LIV Army Corps Hansen sent an estimation of the attached Romanian units to the command of 11th Army. Among other examples, he applauded the quality of Romanian anti-tank guns, but surmised that

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2560-556: The LIV Army Corps to operate from Romanian territory. The LIV Army Corps was part of 11th Army ( von Schobert ), which was in turn a part of Army Group South under Gerd von Rundstedt , who had already led Army Group South during the Invasion of Poland . The initial divisions of the LIV Army Corps were the 50th Infantry Division and the 170th Infantry Division . It was the task of Army Group South to advance eastward from occupied Poland and northeastward from northern Romania into

2640-490: The Narva river, but was after initial gains repelled by units of the 227th Infantry Division and the 23rd (Dutch) SS Division . On 12 February, the 90th Rifle Division attacked across Lake Peipus and seized the island of Piirissaar in the hopes of establishing an outpost with which the Red Army could outflank the Germans in the south. The position was immediately counter-attacked by German forces and Estonian militia and retaken. The Red Banner Fleet attempted to outflank

2720-533: The Perekop position and were supported by German artillery formations as well as by aerial units of Luftflotte 4 . According to the plan, the LIV Army Corps was to achieve the initial breakthrough, with the XXXXIX Mountain Corps as well as the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler standing by to rush through the breach. The Romanian Third Army ( Dumitrescu ) was on defensive duty on

2800-468: The Romanian soldiers' bravery was not outmatched by that of their German counterparts. The performance of German aerial units was aided by the bolstering of air units and by the tightly-packed Soviet ground formations. Still, the German performance was not flawless. Manstein wasted much of the newly arrived 22nd Panzer Division by sending it into combat without much preparation on 20 March. The Battle of

2880-432: The Soviet 9th, 12th and 18th Armies; it still stood on the Perekop isthmus, unable to capitalize on the gains made by the 46th and 73rd Infantry Divisions due to the high casualties the corps had sustained. After the close call at the Sea of Azov, it was now clear that the previously ambivalent command direction of the 11th Army, which had been essentially required to push both east towards Rostov and south towards Sevastopol

2960-597: The Soviet defenses in Moldavia on 2 July. A week earlier, on 25 June, the Stavka had formed a new command, the Southern Front , in the sectors opposite the 11th Army. The Southern Front ( Tyulenev ) consisted of the Soviet 9th Army ( Cherevichenko ) and the Soviet 18th Army (Smirnov). It had been Rundstedt's plan to use the German 11th Army to encircle these and other forces in southern Ukraine in cooperation with

3040-586: The Soviet forces, specifically during the Siege of Odessa. Another target on the Crimea was the access to the Kerch Peninsula , which would grant the Axis another access point to the Caucasus region. The beginning of the campaign was carried by three German infantry divisions advancing in a line. Two of these, the 46th and the 73rd, were part of LIV Army Corps and had already done the heavy lifting during

3120-409: The Soviet siege ring the following day and restored contact to the forces trapped in the village. The landing operation left behind the corpses of many killed or drowned Red Army soldiers on the shore. In the meantime, the Red Army also reinforced the bridgehead at Krivasoo , where the 109th Rifle Corps joined the 122nd Rifle Corps . The Soviet units headed north towards Narva in the hope to envelop

3200-549: The Ukrainian mainland to plug holes left open by German troops moving into Crimea. At this point, with Bessarabia reclaimed, the Romanians were politically and militarily careful to overcommit to the Ukrainian campaigns now that their principal war aim was fulfilled. Regardless, Manstein would later note in his memoirs that Dumitrescu's personal loyalty had greatly enhanced the joint German-Romanian cause in southern Ukraine. The attack on Perekop that started on 24 September 1941

3280-402: The advancing Soviet forces. The Axis forces, now supported by units of Kleist's Panzer Group, were able to surround the overextended Soviet formation and to eventually capture most of the Soviet 9th and 18th Armies. The Soviet 12th Army managed to escape the trap, but the Axis were nonetheless able to make more than 65,000 prisoners. The LIV Army Corps was not part of this victorious effort against

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3360-675: The arrival of additional German and Romanian troops, the 11th Army began the Crimean campaign on 18 October 1941. This resulted in an order by Stavka for the Soviet Black Sea Fleet to evacuate the garrison that defended Odessa and for that evacuated garrison to join the defense of the Crimean peninsula. The objective of the operation was the elimination of Sevastopol , the main port of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet which had proven to be of considerable value to

3440-430: The attack on Perekop. The third division in question was the 22nd Infantry Division of XXX Army Corps. With the rest of the 11th Army forces waiting in the rear, the German attackers engaged some eight Soviet divisions that were supported by four cavalry brigades as well as significant Red Air Force contingents. Soviet airpower made the first few days of the Crimean campaign very painful to the German spearhead and caused

3520-431: The city, but their advance was repelled by the 11th (Scandinavian) SS Division , 170th Infantry Division and the newly arrived Feldhernhalle Division. Further southwest, the Soviet 30th Guards Rifle Corps managed to advance against Auvere and secure the town's railway station before falling under attack by Feldhernhalle units on 17 February. 25th Army (Wehrmacht) The 25th Army ( German : 25. Armee )

3600-509: The city. Both sides started to reinforce. The Germans brought in their supplies over land, whereas the Soviets used the Black Sea Fleet, just like they had done at Odessa. The LIV Army Corps was soon joined by XXX Army Corps from eastern Crimea, whereas the city's defenders were strengthened by detachments from Odessa and the Caucasus. As the siege entered the next phase, the Soviet defenders numbered some 52,000 soldiers and 170 guns, with more on

3680-454: The cover of smoke and employed demolition charges and hand grenades against the trenches and bunkers. Losses among the German engineers were high. The German advance across the Tartar Wall and past the defenders north of Armyansk took three days. By then, the Stuka attacks by Luftflotte 4 had taken a significant toll on the number and morale of the Soviet defenders. After the Germans dislodged

3760-404: The defenders from Armyansk, the Tartar Wall was broken; a counterattack by the Soviet 5th Tank Regiment was successful in breaching the German lines, crossing the Tartar Wall and reaching the rear of Germany's 73rd Infantry Division, but this counterattack was fought back using artillery attacks and air strikes. The Soviet armored formation was not enough to reclaim the Tartar Wall line. With

3840-491: The efforts. On a front of just twenty-one miles, the Germans commanded 611 artillery pieces, resulting in the greatest concentration of fire yet achieved by the German Wehrmacht during World War II, at 29 guns per mile of frontline. In the subsequent bombardment of the city, Sevastopol's defenses were shattered under the constant artillery fire. The German artillery was crowned by the "big three", two 600mm guns as well

3920-524: The entire shore. Meanwhile in the south, XXX Corps had successfully reached the Zapun heights, thus breaching the second of the three defense lines of Sevastopol. Subsequently, the innermost of Sevastopol's defenses had to be tackled. On 17 June, the LIV Army Corps decisively captured six fortifications on the northern front. Just after midnight in the early hours of 29 June 1942, elements of the 50th Infantry Division under LIV Corps carried out an amphibious crossing of Severnaya Bay on assault boats. By daybreak,

4000-407: The fact the anti-tank detachments were horse-drawn detracted from their performance. On 12 September, Eugen Ritter von Schobert was killed in action while performing his duties as commander of 11th Army. He was killed when his Fieseler Fi 156 plane attempted to land on ground that happened to contain a freshly deployed Soviet minefield. He was subsequently replaced by Erich von Manstein , who as

4080-577: The final days of its existence. The 25th Army held the northernmost position of the Nazi German front line of the Western Front for less than six months in late 1944 and early 1945, with its western flank anchored on the North Sea and its eastern flank adjoining the 1st Parachute Army . Defending the western Netherlands along the Meuse ( Maas ), from the North Sea to Arnhem , its primary opponent

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4160-420: The forces of the XXXXII Corps were tied down guarding the area between Feodosia and Kerch. Still, the success scored by the meager German infantry formations was remarkable. The 22nd Infantry Division managed to pierce two of the three defensive rings around Sevastopol. Just as the units of the 22nd Infantry Division had dispatched of the defenders from the 40th Cavalry Division and were about to decisively take

4240-740: The formal reassignment of LIV Army Corps as an army detachment in February 1944. Starting on 14 January 1944, the LIV Army Corps was part of the withdrawal of Army Group North from Leningrad to the Panther Line . Army Group North had been decisively weakened by Soviet attacks as well as troop transfers away from the northern sectors to other parts of the Eastern Front. Between July 1943 and January 1944, it lost two fifths of its troops, or 18 divisions, to other sectors. Additionally, it had also been burdened with additional pieces of frontline like

4320-498: The forward forces. These forces took part in the tank battles in western Ukraine and were surrounded and destroyed at the Battle of Uman and the Battle of Kiev (1941) in August and September 1941. Kirponos himself was killed during the Battle of Kiev . The Front was immediately re-established with new forces. During the period of the Battle of Moscow it was under the command of Marshal Timoshenko, and included from north to south

4400-502: The ground, artillery and aerial forces necessary to penetrate the Soviet defense lines, and the LIV Corps made its way forward against tenacious Soviet resistance. By 13 June, forward elements of the 22nd Infantry Division reached the north shore of the bay, clearing out Fort Stalin , the fortification against which the attack of December 1941 had failed. To the right of the 22nd Division, the 24th and 132nd Infantry Divisions, would clean

4480-400: The high ground that would grant them the key to victory over Sevastopol, the arrival of the 79th Independent Marine Brigade tipped the balance in the Soviet favor. Over the next few days, the arrival of the 345th Rifle Division from Tuapse in the Caucasus strengthened the Soviet position. The Soviets managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and the German attack against Sevastopol

4560-462: The mounting Soviet threat made the continuation of the attack unfeasible. The attack on Sevastopol was halted on 31 December 1941. On 26 December 1941, the Soviet forces used their naval supremacy provided by the Black Sea Fleet to make several landings on the Kerch peninsula. Elements of the Soviet 51st Army landed on both sides of Kerch. This started the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula . Two days later,

4640-567: The new commander of the 11th Army now also oversaw the activities of LIV Army Corps. Manstein arrived at his new headquarters in Mykolaiv on the mouth of the Bug river on 17 September 1941. Under Manstein's supervision, the 11th Army broke through the Red Army defenses at the Isthmus of Perekop starting on 24 September 1941. In this assault, the LIV Army Corps served as the main assault force against

4720-415: The order of Joseph Stalin on 28 January. While organizationally impressive, the Soviet landings happened under awful conditions. The Soviet soldiers were faced with strong winds and temperatures around -20°C. Six of the ten Soviet landing sites were quickly recaptured by local German forces. Nonetheless, the sheer numerical force of the Red Army allowed the Soviet Union to recapture the Kerch Peninsula with

4800-502: The presence of Lev Mekhlis , Stalin's personal political watchdog, whose intrusive behavior paired with his military incompetence was a factor of obstruction in the Soviet officers' proceedings. The Soviet Union attacked the positions of the 11th Army in a large attack on 27 February. This Battle of the Parpach Narrows achieved little that was of use to the Soviet forces. Although the Germans suffered considerable casualties as

4880-509: The reserves that would have been provided by the 73rd Infantry Division that was called to assist the Rostov sector, the LIV Corps had only one battle-worthy division, the 22nd Infantry Division. Manstein would single out the bravery and excellence displayed by the forces of the 22nd Infantry Division during the December 1941 activities in his memoirs, but the attack was nonetheless very likely to fail. Additional units could also not be called up, as

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4960-614: The south with the Southern Front , which extended to the city of Odessa on the Black Sea. The Southwestern Front was on the main axis of attack by the German Army Group South during Operation Barbarossa . At the outbreak of war with Germany, the Front was commanded by Mikhail Kirponos and contained the Soviet 5th , 6th , 26th , and 12th Armies along the frontier. 16th and 19th Armies were in reserve behind

5040-459: The threat to regain control of Crimea as a whole. The arrival of three Soviet armies threw the local German commander, Hans von Sponeck of XXXXII Corps, into a panic. Sponeck requested the right to retreat three times, and was refused by Manstein every time. He eventually fell back to the west of peninsula on his own accord. As a result of this development, the attack on Sevastopol had to be postponed yet again, as Manstein called off XXX Corps towards

5120-496: The towns of Perekop and Preobrazhenka and through which Soviet infantry and supplies could move underground. Furthermore, there was a trench on the neck of the isthmus, dubbed the Tartar Wall by the German attackers (after the common European name for the inner city walls of Beijing ). This trench, some ten to fifteen meters deep, was the main line of Soviet defense and was held by the Soviet 156th , 271st and 276th Rifle Divisions. In response, German engineers advanced under

5200-600: The two objectives that the Wehrmacht had invaded Crimea for in the first place, Sevastopol and Kerch, were in the hands of the Red Army. With the Kerch Strait frozen, the Soviet forces could simply walk towards the frontline in eastern Crimea from the Taman Peninsula in Russia. These reinforcements also included T-34 tanks. The high-ranking Soviet officers were however hindered in the execution of their duties by

5280-430: The way. This defense force, headed by Ivan Petrov , was dubbed the Independent Coastal Army . The German failure to take the city with the momentum of the October advance doomed the chances to take Sevastopol before the end of the year. The winter 1941/42 came early, and brought with it heavy rain and snowfall, as well as cold temperatures. Furthermore, the strategic situation changed for the worse, with German defeats at

5360-456: Was Erick Hansen , who would hold that office until 20 January 1943. The German DHM in Romania was one of two army deployments by Germany that were initially intended for noncombat circumstances, next to the German military mission in Finland. Hansen was previously the head of the DHM, but had only little faith in Germany's Romanian allies. Hansen described the Romanian units as 'useless for difficult offensive actions'. The creation of LIV Army Corps

5440-449: Was Sevastopol in the southwest of Crimea. The German advance was swift. On 1 November, Simferopol was taken by a single anti-tank battalion. On 4 November, Feodosia in the southeast was taken. The Crimean campaign lasted until 16 November 1941 when Kerch was captured. marking the German conquest of the entire peninsula with the exception of Sevastopol, which the Germans had started to besiege on 30 October. The capture of Crimea by

5520-495: Was a World War II field army of the German Army . It had the highest ordinal number of any of the numbered German armies. The 25th Army was formed on 10 November 1944 in the Netherlands , from the staffs of the Armed Forces Commander of the Netherlands and Armeeabteilung Kleffel (previously known as "Narva Task Force"). The designation as "army" was a deception measure for most of the command's existence, as it did not command more than three divisions until April 1945, during

5600-461: Was formally named Army Detachment Narva on 23 February, when Sponheimer was relieved of command and replaced with Johannes Frießner . Army Detachment Narva was fed additional reinforcements until the end of February to strengthen it against the imminent Soviet attacks. Among the new units was the Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle . In the meantime, the Red Army was also bolstering its forces. The 43rd Rifle Corps sent additional forces across

5680-425: Was not perfectly smooth, however. With the 73rd Infantry Division on the right and the 46th Infantry Division on the left, LIV Army Corps advanced into Soviet defenses in almost completely flat terrain. Although the LIV Army Corps enjoyed strong artillery and air support, the Soviet defenses were still in a decent position and reasonably well-constructed, including a remarkable trench and tunnel system that connected

5760-466: Was part of the immediate preparation for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union , Unternehmen Barbarossa . Romania, under the leadership of Ion Antonescu , had agreed to take part in the invasion. Romania would provide four divisions and six brigades to the initial invasion force, with another nine divisions and two brigades in reserve. Furthermore, the Romanian government allowed German units like

5840-553: Was particularly bleak, as the improving weather conditions strengthened the performance of the German artillery and thus further increased the death toll on the Soviet side. In total, the Crimean Front had suffered a casualty rate of 40%. The German XXX Corps and XXXXII Corps as well as the Romanian Third Army held their positions and stood firm against the Soviet pressure. Despite Manstein's claims in his memoirs,

5920-413: Was repelled. A renewed attempt to take the fortress starting on 27 December was diluted by the Soviet landings on the Kerch peninsula. In spite of the Soviet activity at the Kerch peninsula, Hitler insisted that the attack of Sevastopol should be continued, in the hopes of scoring a politically valuable victory to improve German military and civilian morale. However, the commanders in Crimea determined that

6000-416: Was subsequently sacked. The heavily bolstered Soviet forces in the Rostov sector reduced the priority of attacking Sevastopol, and the 73rd Infantry Division, previously with LIV Army Corps, was taken away from XXXXII Army Corps and sent to aid Kleist. On 17 December 1941, Manstein's 11th Army attempted to breach the fortress at Sevastopol. LIV Corps attacked from the north, XXX Corps from the south. Robbed of

6080-446: Was succeeded as corps commander of LIV Army Corps by Carl Hilpert on 20 January 1943. Hilpert would hold the office for seven months, until 1 August 1943. Hilpert had previously served as the commander of XXIII Army Corps , chief of staff of Army Group B and chief of staff of 1st Army . On 1 August 1943, Carl Hilpert was succeeded as corps commander of LIV Army Corps by Otto Sponheimer . Sponheimer would hold this office until after

6160-471: Was the First Canadian Army . Its first, and longest commander was Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Friedrich Christiansen , Supreme Commander of Reichskommissariat Niederlande . He was followed by General der Infanterie Günther Blumentritt , then General der Kavallerie Philipp Kleffel . From November 1944 until April 1945, the 25th Army was subordinated to Army Group H and subsequently

6240-638: Was transferred to 18th Army ( Lindemann ) in September 1942, then briefly transferred back to the 11th Army in October 1942. LIV Army Corps was permanently transferred to the 18th Army in November 1942. At the time of transfer, the LIV Army Corps only commanded the 250th "Blue" Infantry Division , made up of Spanish Wehrmacht volunteers. The LIV Army Corps joined the Siege of Leningrad . On 1 January 1943,

6320-627: Was transferred to the Northwest High Command ( Oberbefehlshaber Nordwest ). On 7 April 1945, the 25th Army was converted into the Netherlands High Command ( Oberbefehlshaber Niederlande ), under command of Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz , to defend Fortress Holland ( Festung Holland ), the area west of the New Dutch Waterline . Two days after the surrender of the Northwest High Command to

6400-574: Was unacceptable. Manstein's 11th Army was now unequivocally instructed to commit to an attack across Crimea towards Sevastopol, whereas Rostov was to be left to Kleist's Panzer Group. The 11th Army was also assigned additional reinforcements in the form of the XXX Army Corps and the XXXXII Army Corps . The LIV Army Corps specifically was expanded by adding the 50th Infantry Division. The 50th Infantry Division first appears as part of

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