XXXXI Panzer Corps

XXXXI Panzer Corps (also written as: XLI Panzer Corps[1]) was a Panzer (armoured) corps in the German Army during World War II.

XXXXI Panzerkorps
Unit insignia
Active5 February 1940 - 7 May 1945
Country Nazi Germany
BranchArmy
TypePanzer corps
RoleArmoured warfare
SizeCorps
EngagementsWorld War II
Commanders
Notable
commanders		See Commanders

Operational history
July - December 1941

The corps was originally formed, as the XXXXI Corps, on 5 February 1940 in Wehrkreis VIII (Silesia) 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 XXXXI Panzer Corps was one of the three Panzerkorps that broke through the Ardennes in the Battle of Sedan and drove west to the sea at Abbeville.

In June 1941, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was deployed on the Eastern Front for Operation Barbarossa,[2] 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 tanks[3] and led the advance of Army Group North to the outskirts of Leningrad in October.

It was reorganised in 1942, becoming part of the 2nd Panzer Army of Army Group Centre. The XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at Bely, in the anti-partisan operations at Nikitinka, Yartsevo, Vyazma, and Dukhovshchina.

In March 1943, the corps fought at Smolensk, Kromy, and Bryansk. In April 1943, it fought in Sevsk and Ponyri. Later, the XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at the Battle of Kursk. During this period it transferred several times between the 9th and 2nd Panzer Armies.

In June / July 1944 the corps was almost destroyed during the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration, 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 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 7 it surrendered to US troops at Tangermünde with the rest of the 12th Army.

Commanders

References & Sources
  1. Clark, Lloyd (2011): Kursk: The Greatest Battle: Eastern Front 1943, pages 120, 476
  2. Steven H Newton (2003) 'Panzer Operations - The Eastern Front Memoirs of General Raus 1941-1941' Da Capo Press p9
  3. Steven H Newton (2003) Panzer Operations: The Eastern Front Memoirs of General Raus 1941-1941. Da Capo Press. pp. 14-34
  4. Mitcham 2000, p. 265.
  • Samuel W. Mitcham (2000): The Panzer Legions. Stackpole Books ISBN 0-8117-3353-X
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