XIV Panzer Corps (also: XIV Army Corps or XIV. ''Armeekorps'') was a

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

-level formation of the German Army which fought on both the Eastern Front and in the Italian Campaign.

History

The XIV Panzer Corps was originally formed as the XIV Motorised Corps in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

on 1 April 1938 to take command of units in the process of motorisation, where it was placed under the leadership of Gustav von Wietersheim. The Corps participated in the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in 1939 where it fought in the Battle of Kock. The Corps later saw action in the Battle of France in 1940, as part of

Panzer Group Kleist The XXII Motorised Corps (''XXII. Armeekorps (motorisiert)'') was a German army corps during World War II.'' History The XXII. Armeekorps (motorisiert) was created on 26 August 1939 in Wehrkreis X (Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen). The Cor ...

, where the 2nd Motorised Division, 13th Motorised Division and the 29th Motorised Division served under it. It was renamed the XIV Panzer Corps on 21 June 1942. In June 1941, it participated in

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

, where as part of Panzer Group 1, it served with

Army Group South Army Group South (german: Heeresgruppe Süd) was the name of three German Army Groups during World War II. It was first used in the 1939 September Campaign, along with Army Group North to invade Poland. In the invasion of Poland Army Group So ...

on the southern sector of the eastern front, advancing via

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

and

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative ...

Kremenchuk Kremenchuk (; uk, Кременчу́к, Kremenchuk ) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnipro River. The city serves as the administrative center of the Kremenchuk Raion (district) in Poltava Oblast (pr ...

and in the

Mius The Mius (, ) is a river in Eastern Europe that flows through Ukraine and Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of .Миус< ...

sector. It took part in

Case Blue Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the German Armed Forces' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of the Cauc ...

where it commanded the 60th Motorised Infantry Division,

16th Panzer Division The 16th Panzer Division (german: 16. Panzer-Division) was a formation of the German Army in World War II. It was formed in November 1940 from the 16th Infantry Division. It took part in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union ...

and the 3rd Motorised Infantry Division. Elements of the Corps were the first German units to reach Stalingrad. It was surrounded in the Stalingrad pocket in November 1942. Hitler ordered its commander, ''

General der Panzertruppe General der Panzertruppe () was a General of the branch OF8 rank of the German Army, introduced in 1935. A ''General der Panzertruppe'' was a Lieutenant General, above Major General (Generalleutnant), commanding a Panzer corps. Rank and ran ...

Hans-Valentin Hube Hans-Valentin Hube (29 October 1890 – 21 April 1944) was a German general during World War II who commanded armoured forces in the invasions of Poland, France and the Soviet Union. In the course of the war, Hube led the 16th Infantry Divisi ...

, to be flown out of the Stalingrad pocket on 15 January 1943. ''

Generalleutnant is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of ...

Helmuth Schlömer __NOTOC__ Helmuth Schlömer (20 May 1893 – 18 August 1995) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II and commanded the XIV Panzer Corps in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Helmuth Schlömer joint the army in March 1913 and was ...

, who succeeded Hube, surrendered the Corps to the Soviets. Re-formed and reorganized at Dnipro and

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populat ...

in 1943, it was transferred to the West and directed all German forces in the

Battle of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...

under Hube where it commanded the 1st Parachute Division, 15th Panzergrenadier Division, 1st Paratroop Panzer Division ''Hermann Göring'' and elements of the

29th Panzergrenadier Division The 29th Infantry Division was a unit of the German army created in the fall of 1936. It was based on the old Reichswehr 15th Infantry Regiment and drew its initial recruits from Thuringia. It was upgraded to 29th Motorized Infantry Division in ...

. It was briefly commanded by Hermann Balck in September and October 1943, before he was seriously injured in a plane crash. The Corps also participated in the Battle of Monte Cassino under the command of General von Senger und Etterlin and included among its formations, the 1st Parachute Division, the 15th Panzergrenadier Division and the 29th Panzergrenadier Division, which had previously fought under it in Sicily. It remained on the Italian front until its surrender at the end of the war.

Commanders

Gustav Anton von Wietersheim Gustav Anton von Wietersheim (11 February 1884 – 25 April 1974) was a German general during World War II. He led the XIV Motorized Corps (after 21 June 1941, XIV Panzer Corps) from its creation in 1938 until 14 September 1942 during the Battle ...

1 April 1938 – 13 September 1942 *

14 September 1942 – January 1943 *

17 January 1943 – 4 March 1943 * Hans-Valentin Hube 5 March 1943 – 1 September 1943 * Hermann Balck 2 September 1943 – 30 September 1943 * Hans-Valentin Hube 1 October – 21 October 1943 * Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin 22 October 1943 – May 1945

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Panzer corps of Germany in World War II Military units and formations established in 1938 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945