unclassified - Sturmpanzer.com

I MARCH 1945Section IV.ORGANIZATION Or THEARMY FOR WARI. Territorial BasisIn peacetime the organization and administrationof the German Army were based on the divisionof the national territory into fifteen corps areas(Wehrkreise). Each one of these contained theheadquarters and component divisions of a corpsand was as the same time the main territorialechelon for conscription, the administration ofarmy property, local defense, and nearly all othermilitary matters. The commander of the corpsarea was simultaneously the commandin’g generalof the corps, which he was destined to lead intothe field on the outbreak of war.The corps areas as well as the corps werenumbered with Roman numerals from I to XIIIplus XVII and XVIII in Austria. Thus theI Corps was located in Corps Area I, and so on.The missing numbers—XIV, XV, and XVI—were used for three non-territorial corps set upto control the motorized, light, and Pa.nzcr divisionsrespectively. After the annexation ofAustria, another non-territorial corps, XIX, wasset up to control Austrian Panzer and light divisions.By 1939 the G&man Army had been expandedfrom the seven divisions of the old Reichswehrto a total of 51 divisions plus corps troops. Theseconsisted of 36 infantry and motorized divisions,numbered from 1 to 36, in Germany proper;three infantry divisions in Austria and the Sudetenareas ; five Pmzer divisions;' four light divisions; and three mountain divisions. They wereorganized as follows:corps(corps area) Headquarters DivisionsI Kiinigsberg 1 11 21II Stettin 12 32III.....Berlin ......,.... 3 23IV...Dresde n 4 14 24V.....Stuttgart 5 25 35VI...Miinste r 6 16 26VII Miinchen 7 27 1 MtVIII Breslau 8 18 28IX Kassel 9 15x Hamburg ....... 22 30XI...Hannove r ...... 19 31XII Wiesbaden ...... 33 34 36XIII... . Niirnberg 10 17 46XVII...Wie n ........... 44 45XVIII Salzburg ...... ‘ . 2Mt 3MtUNCLASSIFIEDTM-E 307451Non-territorialCorpsXIV..Magdebur g 2 Mtz 13 Mtz20Mtz 29 MtzXV..Jen a . 1L 2L 3LXVI Berlin \Pz 3 Ps4P8 5Pzx1X .. M’ ien .... 2P.7 4LAfter the Polish campaign in 1939, two newcorps areas, XX and XXI, were created in annexedterritory in the cast : subsequently CorpsAreas Riihmot lrnd MiihrcI1 and G'efleralgouverye:wnt were added.2. Mobilization PlanThe German mobilization for the present warwas a gradual process lasting several months.The High Command was determined to avoid themistakes of 1914, when millions of men weredrawn into the Army almost overnight to formsecond-rate reserve and Landwehr divisions wjt)serious disruption of the economic life of thgcountry. This time the reservists were callegup individually and deliberately w&-e mixed withthe personnel of regular divisions so that mostof the new units ,formed during the summer of1939 were fully as efficient and well organizedas the original ones. Most of the regular regimentsadded one or more supplementary battalions,composed of men of the older age classeswho had had only 8 or 12 weeks of training;these battalions exchanged pers,onnel with theregular battalions and were then organized intonew divisions just before the attack on Poland.3. Creation of the Field ArmyOn 27 August 1939, in accordance with carefullylaid plans which had been developing since thelatter part of June, the entire German Armywas split from top to bottom into two mutuajlyexclusive parts, which were to perform two distinctfunctions for the duration of the war. Osepart was to be concerned only with military operationsand was known as the Field Army(Feldheer); the other part was devoted to training,procurement, and administration in the Zqneof the Interior and was called the ReplacementArmy (Ersatzhcer). The operational parts .ofthe High Command, including the Commander.­in-Chief and the bulk of the General Staff, es7tablished a field headquarters away from Berlipto control the Field Army. The rest of theHigh Command was placed under a deputy of