XXXIX Panzer Corps (Germany)

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=XXXIX. Panzerkorps
dates=June 1940 - March 1945
country=Germany
allegiance=
branch=Heer
type=Army Corps
role=
size=
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=06/40 Invasion of France
06/41 Vilnius, Minsk, Smolensk
08/41 Ladoga
09/41 Cholm
08/42 - 01/43 Rzhev salient
08/43 - 10/43 Defence of Smolensk, Orsha
11/43 - 05/44 Mogilev
06/44 Defense against Operation Bagration
07/44 - 08/44 Defence against Schaulyai offensive
10/44 Courland pocket 11/45 - 01/45 Defence of East Prussia
01/45 Ardennes
02/45 Pomerania
03/45 Silesia, Küstrin
notable_commanders=General Dietrich von Saucken
anniversaries=

The XXXIX Panzer Corps ( _de. 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.

Wartime service

1940

The Corps (whose home station was Gotha in "Wehrkreis" IX ) was formed (as the "XXXIX. Armeekorps") in 1940 for the German invasion of France, in which it was successively part of "Gruppe" Guderian, the Second and First Armies.

1941

Organisation (June 1941): 1st and 3rd "Fallshchirmjäger" Divisions; 20th, 96th, and 254th Infantry Divisions, 8th and 12th Panzer Divisions

In June 1941 the Corps was assigned to Army Group Centre for Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. It initially attacked towards Vilnius and was then involved in the first Battle of Minsk. By August, it was assigned to Army Group North for the attack on Leningrad.

1942

Organisation (October 1942): 78th and 102nd Infantry Divisions; 1st Panzer Division, 5th Panzer Division

Late in the year the Corps was reorganised as the "XXXIX. Panzerkorps". It was shifted to the Rzhev salient, under the Ninth Army of Army Group Centre, where it was involved in extremely heavy fighting.

1943

Army Group Centre evacuated the Rzhev salient early in 1943. During the autumn, the Corps took part in the defence against Operation Suvorov, withdrawing to positions east of Mogilev.

1944

Organisation (June 1944): 12th, 31st, 110th and 337th Infantry Divisions; "Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle" (reserve)

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 trapped in Mogilev and lost. The corps commander, General Robert Martinek was killed on 28 June and his replacement Otto Schünemann, was killed the following day. The Corps disintegrated at the Berezina crossings as its columns attempted to cross the river under heavy air attack; nearly all its units were destroyed by the 2nd Belorussian Front in the subsequent encirclement east of Minsk. The commanders of the 110th, 12th, 31st and "Feldherrnhalle" Divisions, von Kurowski, Bamler, Ochsner, and von Steinkeller, were all captured.

Remnants of the Corps were amalgamated with an ad-hoc battle group based on the 5th Panzer Division and commanded by Dietrich von Saucken. Renamed "XXXIX. Panzerkorps", it defended Minsk and then conducted a fighting withdrawal against subsequent stages of the Soviet strategic offensive through Belarus, Poland and Lithuania, ending up in the Courland Pocket. During this period, the rebuilt Corps was reinforced with the 4th 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 before being reorganised and withdrawn for use in Operation "Wacht am Rhein", the German offensive through the Ardennes. It was assigned to Hasso von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army.

1945

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 Eleventh SS Panzer Army, Army Group Vistula. It was employed in Operation Solstice, the failed counter-offensive at Stargard against the spearheads of the 1st Belorussian Front.

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 (1 Feb 1940 - 10 Nov 1941)
* Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen von Arnim (11 November 1941 - 30 Nov 1942)
* General der Artillerie Robert Martinek (1 Dec 1942 - 13 Nov 1943)
* General der Infanterie Carl Püchler (13 Nov 1943 - 18 Apr 1944)
* General der Artillerie Robert Martinek (18 Apr 1944 - 28 June 1944)
* Generalleutnant Otto Schünemann (28 June 1944 - 29 June 1944)
* General der Panzertruppen Dietrich von Saucken (29 June 1944 - 15 Oct 1944)
* General der Panzertruppen Karl Decker (15 Oct 1944 - 21 Apr 1945)
* Generalleutnant Karl Arndt (21 Apr 1945 - 8 May 1945)

Orders of Battle

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

ee also

* Panzer, Panzer Division
* Corps, Military unit
* Wehrmacht, List of German military units of World War II