XXXXI Panzer Corps (also written as: XLI Panzer Corps) was a

Panzer This article deals with the tanks (german: panzer) serving in the German Army (''Deutsches Heer'') throughout history, such as the World War I tanks of the Imperial German Army, the interwar and World War II tanks of the Nazi German Wehrmacht, ...

(armoured)

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 ...

in the German

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Operational history

The corps was originally formed, as the XXXXI Corps, on 5 February 1940 in ''

Wehrkreis The military districts, also known in some English-language publications by their German name as Wehrkreise (singular: ''Wehrkreis''), were administrative territorial units in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. The task of military distr ...

'' VIII (

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

) as "Armeekorps (mot)". Reorganised as a Panzer Corps, it was known as the XXXXI Panzer Corps and was commanded by General Georg-Hans Reinhardt. In the May 1940

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was one of the three Panzerkorps that broke through the

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

in the

Battle of Sedan The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War from 1 to 2 September 1870. Resulting in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and over a hundred thousand troops, it effectively decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, ...

and drove west to the sea at Abbeville. In June 1941, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was deployed on the Eastern Front for

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 ...

, the invasion of the Soviet Union. It defeated the Soviet 3rd Mechanised & 12th Mechanised Corps in the Battle of Raseiniai in late June, which destroyed more than 300 Soviet tanksSteven H Newton (2003) ''Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoirs of General Raus 1941-1941''. Da Capo Press. pp. 14-34 and led the advance of Army Group North to the outskirts of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in October. It was reorganised in 1942, becoming part of the

2nd Panzer Army The 2nd Panzer Army (german: 2. Panzerarmee) was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 2nd Panzer Group on October 5, 1941. Organisation Panzer Group Guderian (german: Panzergruppe Guderian) was formed on 5 June 1940 ...

Army Group Centre Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army fo ...

. The XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at Bely, in the anti-partisan operations at Nikitinka, Yartsevo, Vyazma, and

Dukhovshchina Dukhovshchina (russian: Духовщина) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Dukhovshchina, Smolensk Oblast, a town in Dukhovshchinsky District of Smolensk Oblast ;Rural localities * Dukhovshchina, Irkutsk ...

. In March 1943, the corps fought at Smolensk, Kromy, and Bryansk. In April 1943, it fought in

Sevsk Sevsk (russian: Севск) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Sevsk, Bryansk Oblast, a town in Sevsky District of Bryansk Oblast; ;Rural localities * Sevsk, Kemerovo Oblast, a settlement in Burlakovskaya R ...

and

Ponyri Ponyri (russian: Поныри) is the name of several inhabited localities in Kursk Oblast, Russia. ;Urban localities *Ponyri, Ponyrovsky District, Kursk Oblast, a work settlement in Ponyrovsky District ;Rural localities *Ponyri, Fatezhsky Dist ...

. Later, the XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at the

Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front engagement between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in the southwestern USSR during late summer 1943; it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history. ...

. During this period it transferred several times between the

9th 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

and 2nd Panzer Armies. In June / July 1944 the corps was almost destroyed during the Soviet summer offensive,

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп� ...

, and required complete rebuilding. As part of the reconstructed 4th Army, it faced the East Prussian Offensive during January 1945. After a week of heavy fighting, its divisions were encircled in the Heiligenbeil pocket on the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

coast, where they were destroyed in March. The corps headquarters where evacuated by sea to northern Germany and where placed under the 12th Army under general Walther Wenck. On May 7th it surrendered to US troops at Tangermünde with the rest of the 12th Army.

Commanders

* Lieutenant General Georg-Hans Reinhardt:

Samuel W. Mitcham Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. is an American author and military historian who specializes in the German war effort during World War II and the Confederate war effort during the American Civil War. He is the author of more than 40 books and has collabo ...

(2000): ''The Panzer Legions''. Stackpole Books p. 265 5 February 1940 – 5 October 1941 * Lieutenant General

Otto-Ernst Ottenbacher __NOTOC__ Otto-Ernst Ottenbacher (18 November 1888 – 7 January 1975) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded several corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Ottenbacher was wounded durin ...

: 5 October – 1 November 1941 * General of Panzer Troops

Walther Model Otto Moritz Walter Model (; 24 January 1891 – 21 April 1945) was a German field marshal during World War II. Although he was a hard-driving, aggressive panzer commander early in the war, Model became best known as a practitioner of defen ...

: 1 November 1941 – 10 January 1942 * General of Panzer Troops Josef Harpe: 10 January 1942 – 15 October 1943 * General of Artillery Helmuth Weidling: 15 October 1943 – 19 June 1944 * Lieutenant-General Edmund Hoffmeister: 19 June – 1 July 1944 * General of Artillery Helmuth Weidling: 1 July 1944 – 10 April 1945 * Lieutenant-General Wend von Wietersheim: 10–19 April 1945 * Lieutenant-General Rudolf Holste: 19 April – 7 May 1945

References & Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xxxxi Panzer Corps (Germany) P041 Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945