Army Group B - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Army Group B was the name of three different German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Army Group

Army group

An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area...

s that saw action during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

Battle for France

The first was involved in the Western Campaign in 1940 in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

and the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

which was to be aimed to conquer the Maas bridges after the German airborne actions in Rotterdam. Army Group B had approximately 300,000 men involved in these operations which occurred in May 1940.

Eastern Front

The second Army Group B was formed when Army Group South

Army Group South

Army Group South was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.- Poland campaign :Germany used two army groups to invade Poland in 1939: Army Group North and Army Group South...

was split into two formations for the summer offensive of 1942. Army Group B was given the task of protecting the northern flank of Army Group A, and included the 6th Army's

German Sixth Army

The 6th Army was a designation for German field armies which saw action in World War I and World War II. The 6th Army is best known for fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, during which it became the first entire German field army to be completely destroyed...

attack on Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...

.

In February 1943, the existing Army Group B and Army Group Don

Army Group Don

Army Group Don was a short-lived German army group during World War II.Army Group Don was created from the headquarters of the Eleventh Army in the southern sector of the Eastern Front on 22 November 1942. The army group only lasted until February 1943 when it was combined with Army Group B and...

were combined to create a new Army Group South

Army Group South

Army Group South was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.- Poland campaign :Germany used two army groups to invade Poland in 1939: Army Group North and Army Group South...

. This was done on the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

Italy and northern France

A new Army Group B was formed in northern Italy under Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

Erwin Rommel

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....

in 1943, to defend against a possible allied attack there.

Army Group B was subsequently moved to northern France to defend against the D-Day

D-Day

D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...

landings, 6 June 1944. On 19 July, Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Günther von Kluge

Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...

took command from Rommel. About one month later, on 17 August, Field Marshal Walter Model

Walter Model

Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...

replaced von Kluge. From 1944 to 1945, the army group fought in the campaigns in France. Army Group B participated in the Battle of Normandy

Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...

. Moving to the Low Countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....

, Model received a shock when his HQ was located at Osterbeek close to Arnhem during the 17th September start of Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....

before the army group participated in the Battle of the Bulge

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...

. Finally, Army Group B was isolated in the Ruhr Pocket

Ruhr Pocket

The Ruhr Pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in late March and early April 1945, near the end of World War II, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. For all intents and purposes, it marked the end of major organized resistance on Nazi Germany's Western Front, as more than 300,000 troops were...

in northern Germany

Germany

and, after being divided up into smaller and smaller sections, the final section was surrendered on 21 April 1945.

Commanders

Western Front

12 October 1939 Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarshall who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber"...

Eastern Front

August 1942 to February 1943 Maximilian von Weichs
Maximilian von Weichs
Maximilian Maria Joseph Karl Gabriel Lamoral Reichsfreiherr von Weichs zu Glon was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...

Northern Italy/Northern France

14 July 1943 Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
19 July 1944 Günther von Kluge
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
17 August 1944 Walter Model
Walter Model
Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...

Subordinated units

Date	Subordinated commands	Stationed at...
1939
November 1939	4th Army German Fourth Army The 4th Army was a field army of Imperial Germany during World War I and of the Wehrmacht during World War II-World War I:At the outset of war, the Fourth Army, with the Fifth Army, formed the center of the German armies on the Western Front, moving through Luxembourg and Belgium in support of the... , 6th Army German Sixth Army The 6th Army was a designation for German field armies which saw action in World War I and World War II. The 6th Army is best known for fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, during which it became the first entire German field army to be completely destroyed... , 18th Army German Eighteenth Army The 18th Army was a World War I and World War II field army.-World War I:The 18th Army was formed in 1918 by the German OHL and commanded by General Oskar von Hutier.-World War II:...	Add Ref
1940
May 1940	6th Army, 18th Army	Add Ref
June 1940	9th Army German Ninth Army The 9th Army was a World War II field army.The 9th Army was activated on May 15, 1940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz in command.-1940:The 9th Army first saw service along the Siegfried Line when it was involved in the invasion of France... , 6th Army, 4th Army, Panzer Group Kleist Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was a leading German field marshal during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...	Add. Ref
July 1940	7th Army German Seventh Army The 7th Army was a World War I and World War II field army of the German land forces.-Origins:The 7th Army was activated in Stuttgart on August 25, 1939 with General Friedrich Dollmann in command. At the outbreak of the war, the 7th Army defended the German border and manned the Westwall in the... , 4th Army	Add. Ref
August 1940	7th Army, 4th Army, 6th Army	Add. Ref
September 1940	18th Army, 4th Army, 6th Army	Add. Ref
1941
January 1941	18th Army, 4th Army, 17th Army, 2nd Panzer Group, Military commander in the General Government General Government The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...	Add. Ref
May 1941	9th Army, 4th Army	Add. Ref
1942
August 1942	2nd Army, Hungarian 2nd Army Hungarian Second Army The Hungarian Second Army was one of three field armies raised by the Kingdom of Hungary which saw action during World War II. All three armies were formed on March 1, 1940... , Italian 8th Army Italian Army in Russia The Italian Army in Russia was an army-sized unit of the Italian Royal Army which fought on the Eastern Front during World War II... , XXIX Army Corps, 6th Army, 4th Panzer Army	Add. Ref
September 1942	2nd Army, Hungarian 2nd Army, Italian 8th Army, 6th Army, 4th Panzer Army	Add. Ref
October 1942	2nd Army, Hungarian 2nd Army, Italian 8th Army, 4th Panzer Army, Romanian 3rd Army Romanian Third Army The 3rd Army was a field army of the Romanian Land Forces active from the 19th century to the 1990s. It that fought as part of the German Army Group B during World War II, in Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucasus... , Romanian 4th Army Romanian Fourth Army The 4th Infantry Division Gemina is one of three major units of the Romanian Land Forces, with its headquarters in Cluj-Napoca. Until June 15, 2008 it was designated as the 4th Territorial Army Corps "Mareşal Constantin Prezan" .-Structure in April 2007 :This structure was in force when the...	Add. Ref
November 1942	2nd Army, Hungarian 2nd Army, Italian 8th Army, Romanian 3rd Army, 6th Army, 4th Panzer Army, Romanian 4th Army	Add. Ref
December 1942	2nd Army, Hungarian 2nd Army, Italian 8th Army	Add. Ref
1943
January 1943	2nd Army, Hungarian 2nd Army, Italian 8th Army, Army Detachment Fretter-Pico	Add. Ref
February 1943	2nd Army, Army Detachment Lanz Hubert Lanz Karl Hubert Lanz was a German Army officer who rose to the rank of General der Gebirgstruppe during the Second World War, in which he led units in the Eastern Front and in the Balkans. After the war, he was tried and convicted for several atrocities committed by units under his command in the... , Italian 8th Army, Hungarian 2nd Army	Add. Ref
September 1943	LI Army Corps, II SS Corps, LXXXVII Army Corps	Add. Ref
December 1943	in disposal of the OKW in Denmark	Add. Ref
1944
May 1944	7th Army, 15th Army German Fifteenth Army The 15th Army was a World War II field army.The 15th Army was activated on January 15, 1941 with General Curt Haase in command. First seeing service in France, the army was involved in the protection of the Channel coast from a possible Allied invasion... , Wehrmacht commander in the Netherlands	Add. Ref
June 1944	7th Army, 15th Army, Wehrmacht commander in the Netherlands, Panzer Group West	Add. Ref
August 1944	1st Army German First Army -First World War:The 1st Army during World War I, fought on the Western Front and took part in the Schlieffen Plan offensive against France and Belgium in August 1914. Commanded by General Alexander von Kluck, the 1st Army's job was to command the extreme right of the German forces in attacking... , 5th Panzer Army German Fifth Panzer Army The 5th Panzer Army, also known as Panzer Group West and Panzer Group Eberbach was a panzer army which saw action in the Western front and North Africa... , 7th Army, 15th Army, stock the Netherlands	Add. Ref
September 1944	7th Army, 1st Parachute Army German 1st Parachute Army The German 1st Parachute Army was formed in September 1944 to consolidate the various Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger-Units and the Luftwaffe Field Division... , 15th Army	Add. Ref
November 1944	7th Army, 5th Panzer Army, Student Kurt Student Kurt Student was a German Luftwaffe general who fought as a fighter pilot during the First World War and as the commander of German Fallschirmjäger during the Second World War.-Biography:... Army Group	Add. Ref
December 1944	7th Army, 5th Panzer Army	Add. Ref
1945
January 1945	7th Army, 5th Panzer Army, 6th Panzer Army, 15th Army	Add. Ref
February 1945	7th Army, 5th Panzer Army, 15th Army	Add. Ref
April 1945	15th Army, 5th Panzer Army, Army Detachment von Lüttwitz	Add. Ref

Battle for France

Eastern Front

Italy and northern France

Commanders

Subordinated units

See also