11th Army (Wehrmacht)

The army was formed in 1940 in preparation for the upcoming attack on the Soviet Union .

At the beginning of the invasion of the USSR, the 11th Army was part of Army Group South and participated in border battles in Moldova . In September 1941, Erich von Manstein was appointed army commander. Her former commander, Colonel-General Eugen von Schobert , died in the unsuccessful landing of an airplane in a Soviet minefield. During offensive battles on the territory of the USSR, the tasks of the army included the invasion of the Crimea and the prosecution of Soviet troops on the flank of Army Group South.

The composition of the 11th Army in June 1941:

• 11th Corps (22nd, 45th, 76th and 239th Infantry Divisions );
• The 30th Corps, consisting of the 198th Infantry Division and two Romanian divisions;
• 54th Corps (50th and 170th Infantry Divisions);
• Romanian Mountain Corps.

In early September, the 54th Corps took an active part in the offensive on the Crimean Peninsula. During this period, the 3rd Romanian Army , three mountain rifle brigades and three cavalry brigades were under the command of Manstein.

The 11th Army fought in the southern part of the Soviet Union from 1941 to the end of the summer of 1942 , where, among other military operations, there was also a siege of Sevastopol . When Army Group “South” conducted Operation “Blau” ( German “Fall Blau” ), during which the troops of this group launched an offensive on the Stalingrad direction, the 11th Army remained in the Crimea, in particular near Sevastopol, where it cut off Soviet troops from the sea, thus blocking the defenders of the city. Of these, about 100,000 people were captured. For success in this battle, Manstein was awarded the title of Field Marshal . Also in honor of the successful seizure of the Crimea, in which the 11th Army participated, a special badge with the Wehrmacht army breastplate, worn by servicemen on the sleeve, was established. The subsequent action of the army, Manstein, as its commander, was seen at the intersection of the Kerch Strait and subsequent participation in the capture of Rostov , or in the army in the reserve army group "South". Instead, part of the 11th Army was transferred to Army Group North , while the other part was divided between Army Group Center and Army Group South. On November 21, 1942, the headquarters of the 11th Army suspended its activities and was used as the basis for the newly created Army Group Don .

During the battles for Sevastopol, the 11th Army consisted of 9 German infantry divisions (including two divisions obtained during the battle) in two corps and two Romanian rifle corps . Also in the army included various means of support, several hundred aircraft, 24 self-propelled guns StuG III from the 190th battalion of assault guns and one of the most powerful artillery formations in the history of the Wehrmacht .

• LIV body
  • 22nd Infantry Division - Commander General Ludwig Wolf
  • 24th Infantry Division
  • 50th Infantry Division
  • 132nd Infantry Division
• XXX Corps - Commander General Hans von Zalmut
  • 28th Light Infantry Division
  • 72nd Infantry Division
  • 170th Infantry Division
• Romanian Mountain Rifle Corps
  • 1st Mountain Division
  • 4th Mountain Division
  • 18th Infantry Division

The 11th SS Panzer Army ( SS-Panzer-Armeeoberkommando 11. ), which was only on paper, was created between November 1944 and February 1945 by the SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler during his command of the Vistula Army Group . Writer Anthony Beevor writes that when the 11th SS Panzer Army was created, at best it was possible to form a corps from its units. Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner , was appointed commander. Officially, the army was designated as the 11th army, but its other name was often used — the 11th SS Panzer Army. After the fighting east of the Oder in February 1945, in March of the same year, the 11th Army was transferred to the German command of the troops on the Western Front, reformed and replenished for combat operations, respectively, on the Western Front. After the defeat on the Weser River in Germany and the Harz Mountains , on April 21, 1945, the army surrendered to the Western allies.

• Colonel-General Eugen von Schobert ( October 5, 1940 - September 21, 1941 )
• Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (September 21, 1941 - November 21, 1942 )
• General Anton Grasser (October 1944 - March 1945 )
• General Otto Hitsfeld (March 1945 - March 1945)
• General Walter Lucht (March 1945 - April 10, 1945)

• F. Halder 's The War Diary, Volume 3
• Beevor, Antony. Berlin: The Downfall 1945 , Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5 .
• Tessin, Georg Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS 1939-1945 , Volume 3, Biblio Verlag, 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .