Army Group South

• 1. Introduction

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  Army Group South was not one German army but three separate army groups sharing the same name at different points in the Second World War. Each incarnation answered to different generals and chased different objectives. Yet the German high command kept returning to the same title rather than retiring it. One version invaded a neighboring country. Another aimed at a river deep inside the Soviet Union. A third dissolved into new formations, only to be rebuilt from the wreckage of a defeated army. What tied these three commands together? And how did a name built for one campaign end up attached to forces fighting in three different corners of Europe?

• 2. A Name Reused

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  In September 1939, Army Group South crossed into Poland alongside Army Group North, launching the campaign that opened the Second World War. Gerd von Rundstedt commanded the operation, with Erich von Manstein serving as his chief of staff.

  By 1941, the same title was assigned again, this time as part of Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. That assignment would place Army Group South alongside two other newly designated army groups, each aimed at a different target somewhere inside Soviet territory.

• 3. Ukraine And The Volga

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  Soviet Ukraine held rich farmland and heavy industry within the wider Soviet Union. Hitler wanted both to fuel his vision of German living space, known as Lebensraum. Capturing Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, stood as Army Group South's stated goal within Operation Barbarossa.

  The advance was meant to push German forces as far as the Volga River, engaging part of the Red Army along the way. That fight was designed to clear a path for Army Group North's push toward Leningrad and Army Group Center's push toward Moscow.

  The invasion force included the First Panzer Group under General Kleist. It also included three German armies: the Sixth under General Reichenau, the Seventeenth under General Stülpnagel, and the Eleventh under General Schobert. Luftflotte 1, commanded by Keller, provided air support, while Romania contributed its Third and Fourth Armies to the effort.

  Within a year, this arrangement would be dismantled and reorganized for an entirely new campaign in southern Russia.

• 4. Splitting For Oil

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  In 1942, Germany prepared Case Blue, a campaign aimed at southern Russia and the Caucasus. Army Group South was split in two for the operation, becoming Army Group A and Army Group B. Army Group A was ordered south to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus.

  By February 1943, Army Group Don and the standing Army Group B were merged and renamed Army Group South once more. A separate, newly formed Army Group B took shape elsewhere as a major formation in its own right. The German Sixth Army, wiped out at Stalingrad, was rebuilt and folded into Army Group South by March 1943.

  By the end of December 1943, Army Group South's ranks had fallen to 328,397 German soldiers. Another 109,816 allied and non-German volunteer troops filled out the remaining strength.

  The next redesignation would arrive within months, as Soviet forces kept pressing the front toward the west.

• 5. Renamed Again

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  On the 4th of April 1944, Army Group South was redesignated Army Group North Ukraine. That name held only until the 28th of September of that year.

  In September 1944, Army Group South Ukraine was renamed Army Group South, this time based in Eastern Hungary.

  The command's structure that autumn survives today in a detailed order of battle, dated October 1944.

• 6. The Hungarian Front

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  That order of battle, dated October 1944, placed General Friessner in command of Army Group South. Two German armies anchored the formation: the Sixth under General Fretter-Pico and the Eighth under General Wöhler. Two Hungarian armies stood alongside them: the Second under General von Dalnoki and the Third under General Heszlényi.

  Within the Sixth Army's III Panzer Corps, commanded by General Breith, rode several Panzer divisions and the Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadier Division. The corps also included the 22nd SS Cavalry Division Maria Theresa and the 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion. Elsewhere in the order of battle, the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer and the Hungarian Szent László Infantry Division held their own sectors.

  Army Group South kept fighting in Western Hungary until March 1945. From there, it withdrew into Austria as the war in Europe drew to its close. On the 2nd of April 1945, it was renamed one final time, becoming Army Group Ostmark.

  Its last soldiers kept fighting around Austria and within the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Army Group Ostmark surrendered to the Allies among the very last of Germany's major army formations still fighting.