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W Force
This is the order of battle of the German, Greek and British Commonwealth units on 5 April 1941, prior to the German invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia ("Operation Marita"). The German invasion and conquest of mainland Greece is known as the "Battle of Greece". German forces The German forces were grouped under ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Wilhelm List's 12th Army, which comprised: * 1st Panzer Group (''Generaloberst'' Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist), deployed against central Yugoslavia (Serbia) * XL Panzer Corps (''Generalleutnant'' Georg Stumme), deployed against southern Yugoslavia (Vardar Macedonia) **9th Panzer Division ** 73rd Infantry Division **LSSAH Motorized Regiment * XVIII Mountain Corps (''General der Infanterie'' Franz Böhme), deployed against the Greek forces along the Metaxas Line **2nd Panzer Division ** 5th Mountain Division ** 6th Mountain Division ** 72nd Infantry Division **Reinforced 125th Infantry Division * XXX Army Corps (''General der Artillerie'' Otto Ha ...
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Order Of Battle
In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the armed force. Various abbreviations are in use, including OOB, O/B, or OB, while ORBAT remains the most common in the United Kingdom. An order of battle is distinct from a Table of Organization and Equipment, table of organisation, which is the intended composition of a given unit or formation according to the military doctrine of its armed force. Historically, an order of battle was the order in which troops were positioned relative to the position of the army commander or the chronological order in which ships were deployed in naval situations. As combat operations develop during a campaign, orders of battle may be revised and altered in response to the military needs and challenges. Also the known details of an order of battle may change durin ...
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9th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The 9th Panzer Division was a panzer division of the German Army during World War II. It came into existence after 4th Light Division was reorganized in January 1940. The division was headquartered in Vienna, in the German military district Wehrkreis XVII. Originally raised from Austrian forces annexed into Germany before the war, the 9th Panzer Division was part of most of the German Army's early Blitzkrieg attacks into western Europe. Sweeping east, the division was then a component of Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union; it was badly mauled at the Battle of Kursk. Returning to France to rebuild in 1944, the division was rushed to counter Operation Overlord. It was destroyed several successive times by British and American forces as the German Army was pushed back across Europe. The division suffered massive casualties in armor and personnel until it finally collapsed in March 1945. The division's few survivors were pushed into the Ruhr Pocket where t ...
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General Of The Artillery (Germany)
General der Artillerie ( en: General of the artillery) may mean: 1. A rank of three-star general, comparable to modern armed forces OF-8 grade, in the Imperial German Army and its contingency armies of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg. It also was used in the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht. The second-highest regular rank below Generaloberst; cavalry officers of equivalent rank were called ''general of the cavalry'', and infantry officers of equivalent rank ''general of the infantry''. The Wehrmacht also had ''General der Panzertruppen'' (tank troops), ''General der Gebirgstruppen'' (mountain troops), ''General der Pioniere'' (engineers), ''General der Nachrichtentruppen'' (communications troops) and several branch variants for the Luftwaffe. Today in the Bundeswehr, the rank of lieutenant general corresponds to the traditional rank of general of the artillery. There was no equivalent rank in the army of East Germany, where it was merged into that of Generaloberst. 2. ...
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XXX Corps (Wehrmacht)
German XXX. Corps (XXX. Armeekorps) was a corps in the German Army during World War II. In 1939/40, the corps carried out border surveillance at the German West Border and then took part in the Battle of France and the Balkan campaign. From June 1941, it fought for three years on the Eastern Front, first in the south, then north and center to move south again after the Battle of Stalingrad. In 1944, the Corps retreated to Romania, where it was destroyed during the Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in August 1944. A second deployment followed as the 30th Army Corps z.bV. in the Netherlands in 1944/45. Commanders * General der Artillerie Otto Hartmann, 26 August 1939 - 25 March 1941 * Generalleutnant Eugen Ott, 25 March 1941 - 10 May 1941 * General der Infanterie Hans von Salmuth, 10 May 1941 – 27 December 1941 * General der Artillerie Maximilian Fretter-Pico, 27 December 1941 – 4 July 1944 * General der Kavallerie Philipp Kleffel, 4 July 1944 - 16 July 1944 * Generalleutnant Geo ...
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125th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 125th Infantry Division (German: ''125. Infanteriedivision'') was a German Army infantry division in World War II. History The 125th Infantry Division was raised on October 5, 1940 as part of the 11th deployment wave, in October 1940, where it remained in Münsingen until April 1941, when it was moved to the Balkans as part of the 2nd Army's 52nd Corps in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The following June, the Army attacked through the Ukrainian SSR. Barbarossa Moving to the front from Austria, where the division was registered with Höheres Kommando XXXIV, it was now organized into the 17th Army, part of Army Group South. For the remainder of the year the 125th Division stayed with Army Group South in Ukraine, assisting in both the battles at Uman and Kiev. Case Blue In July 1942 the division returned to the 17th Army from the 1st Panzer Army, now as Army Group A's 5th Corps, as it began an assault on the Black Sea city of N ...
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72nd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 72nd Infantry Division (german: 72. Infanterie-Division) was formed on 19 September 1939 in Trier from Grenz-Division Trier, a border security unit. It was later refitted in Poland in March 1944 as part of the 24th wave ( Aufstellungswelle). The division surrendered to the Red Army in May 1945, after which '' Generalmajor'' Karl Arning was convicted of war crimes in the Soviet Union. Commanding officers * General der Infanterie Franz Mattenklott (19 September 1939 – 25 July 1940) * General der Infanterie Helge Auleb (25 July 1940 – 4 September 1940) * General der Infanterie Franz Mattenklott (4 September 1940 – 6 November 1940) * Generalleutnant Philipp Müller-Gebhard (6 November 1940 – 10 July 1942) * Generalmajor Curt Souchay (10 July 1942 – 24 November 1942) * Generalleutnant Philipp Müller-Gebhard (24 November 1942 – 17 February 1943) * Generalleutnant Ralph Graf von d'Oriola (17 February 1943 – 3 May 1943) * Generalleutnant Philipp Müller-Gebhard (3 ...
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6th Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)
The 6th Mountain Division (german: 6. Gebirgs Division) was a German army Division of World War II. It was established in June 1940, and was deployed to France for occupation duties. In December it was relocated to Poland, where it remained until the spring of 1941. It then took part in Operation Marita, the invasion of Greece during the Balkans Campaign. In September it was relocated to northern Finland, where it operated in Lapland (west of Murmansk). From July 1942 onward it was part of the 20th Mountain Army along the Arctic coast. It withdrew into Norway when the Germans evacuated Finland in late 1944, and surrendered to the British at the end of the war in 1945. Commanding officers * Generalmajor Ferdinand Schörner (1 June 1940 - 1 February 1942) * Generalleutnant Christian Philipp (1 February 1942 - 20 August 1944) * Generalmajor Max-Josef Pemsel __NOTOC__ Max-Josef Pemsel (15 January 1897 – 30 June 1985) was a ''Generalleutnant'' in the German Army during Second W ...
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5th Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)
The 5th Mountain Division (german: 5. Gebirgs Division) was a World War II division of the German Army. It was established in the Wehrkreis XVIII in October 1940, out of units taken from the 1st Mountain Division and the 10th Infantry Division. Its first action was in the 1941 Balkans Campaign, when it took part in Operations Marita and Merkur; in the latter it was used in an air-landing role. In November, it returned to Germany for refitting, and in April 1942 it was deployed to the Eastern Front, where it joined Army Group North on the Volkhov Front. In April 1943 it was redeployed to Italy. It fought out the remainder of the war in Italy and the Western Alps, and surrendered to the U.S. Army near Turin in May 1945. Commanders *Julius Ringel (1 November 1940 – 10 February 1944) *Max-Günther Schrank (10 February 1944 – 18 January 1945) * Hans Steets (18 January 1945 – 2 May 1945) War crimes The division was implicated in the Grugliasco massacre, Piedmont, alongside t ...
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2nd Panzer Division
The 2nd Panzer Division ( en, 2nd Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army, the Heer, during World War II. Created as one of the original three German tank divisions in 1935, it was stationed in Austria after the Anschluss and then participated in the campaigns in Poland (1939) and France (1940) before it returned to Poland for occupation duties (1940–1941). It took part in the Balkans campaign (1941) and then transferred to the Eastern Front in September 1941. The division fought with Army Group Centre in the battles of Moscow (1941) and Kursk (1943). After heavy losses on the Eastern Front it was sent to France for rehabilitation (1944). It fought in Normandy and was almost completely destroyed in the Falaise Pocket (1944). It was rebuilt once more and fought in the Battle of the Bulge (1944) and in the defence of the Rhine (1945), surrendering to US forces at war's end. History Formation The 2nd Panzer Division was formed on 15 October 1935 and was h ...
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Metaxas Line
The Metaxas Line (, ''Grammi Metaxa'') was a chain of fortifications constructed along the line of the Greco-Bulgarian border, designed to protect Greece in case of a Bulgarian invasion after the rearmament of Bulgaria. It was named after Ioannis Metaxas, then Prime Minister of Greece, and chiefly consists of tunnels that led to observatories, emplacements and machine gun nests. The constructions are so sturdy that they survive to this day, some of which are still in active service. Some of them are open to the public. The Metaxas Line consists of 21 independent fortification complexes, the largest of which is Fort Roupel as it covers 6.1 out of the 155 km of the full line and had been constructed at a height of 322 m. Illumination was initially mostly provided by oil-lamps, although generators were also installed. Currently, the fortifications are supplied with public electricity, but they are also equipped with generators. Ventilation was achieved both naturally and art ...
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Franz Böhme
Franz Friedrich Böhme (15 April 1885 – 29 May 1947) was an Army officer who served in succession with the Austro-Hungarian Arny, the Austrian Army and the German Wehrmacht. He rose to the rank of general during World War II, serving as Commander of the XVIII Mountain Corps, Hitler's Plenipotentiary Commanding General (''Bevollmächtigter Kommandierender General'') in the Balkans, and commander-in-chief in German-occupied Norway during World War II. Böhme was arrested for trial by a US Army Tribunal in Nuremberg in the Hostages Trial on a charge of having massacred thousands of Serbian civilians. He committed suicide in prison. Life and career Franz Böhme was born in Zeltweg in Styria, Austria on 15 April 1885. He entered the Austro-Hungarian Army in October 1900 as a cadet and was commissioned as a lieutenant in an infantry regiment in 1905. He served in World War I and remained in the Austrian Bundesheer after 1918, transferring to the Wehrmacht on the Anschluss with G ...
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General Of The Infantry (Germany)
General of the Infantry (german: General der Infanterie, abbr. ) is a former rank of the German army (). It is currently an appointment or position given to an OF-8 rank officer, who is responsible for particular affairs of training and equipment of the ''Bundeswehr'' infantry. Former rank in the German ground forces General of the Infantry was a former rank of General of the branch OF-8 in the German land forces ( Imperial Army, ''Reichswehr'' and ''Wehrmacht'') and also in the Prussian Army and the Austro-Hungarian Army. It was the third-highest general officer rank, subordinate only to Colonel General and Field Marshal. It is equivalent to a three-star rank today. The same rank was adopted by the Finnish Army ( fi, Jalkaväenkenraali) between the world wars. German cavalry officers of equivalent rank were called ''General der Kavallerie'' and those in the artillery corps were ''General der Artillerie''. In 1935 the Wehrmacht added the ranks of ''General der Panzert ...
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