Army Group B

Flag for the Commander in Chief of Army Group 1941–1945

Army Group B was the name of three different German Army Groups that saw action during World War II.

Battle for France

The first was involved in the Western Campaign in 1940 in Belgium and the Netherlands 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 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 attack on Stalingrad.

In February 1943, the existing Army Group B and Army Group Don were combined to create a new Army Group South. This was done on the Eastern Front.

Italy and northern France

A new Army Group B was formed in northern Italy under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in 1943, to defend against a possible allied attack there.

Army Group B was subsequently moved to northern France to defend occupied France against the D-Day landings, on 6 June 1944. On 19 July, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge took command from Rommel. About one month later, on 17 August, Field Marshal Walter Model replaced Kluge. From 1944 to 1945, the army group fought in the campaigns in France. Army Group B participated in the Battle of Normandy. Moving to the Low Countries, Model received a shock when his HQ was located at Osterbeek close to Arnhem during the 17 September start of Operation Market Garden^[1] before the army group participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Finally, Army Group B was isolated in the Ruhr Pocket in northern 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 to August 1940 Generalfeldmarshall Fedor von Bock

Eastern Front

• August 1942 to February 1943 Generaloberst Maximilian von Weichs

Northern Italy/Northern France

• 14 July 1943 Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel
• 19 July 1944 Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge
• 17 August 1944 to April 1945 Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model

Order of battle

Army Group HQ troops

• 537th Signals Regiment
• 605th Signals Regiment (2nd list)

Subordinated units

References

Bibliography

• Builder, Carl H., Bankes, Steven C. & Nordin Richard, Command concepts: a theory derived from the practice of command and control, RAND, Santa Monica, CA, 1999

See also

• Army Group D
• Army Group South
• German Fifth Panzer Army

Army Groups of the Wehrmacht Army Group A Army Group Africa Army Group B Army Group C Army Group D Army Group Don Army Group E Army Group F Army Group G Army Group H Army Group Courland Army Group Centre Army Group North Army Group Oberrhein Army Group Ostmark Army Group North Ukraine Army Group South Army Group South Ukraine Army Group Vistula

Battle of Stalingrad Airfields Axis order of battle Red Army order of battle Bombing of Stalingrad in World War II German commanders German units   Operations  Nazi Germany Donnerschlag Winter Storm  Soviet Union Little Saturn Koltso Saturn Uranus   Formations Army groups and fronts B Centre Don Don Southwestern Stalingrad Voronezh Armies Axis German 4th Panzer German 6th Hungarian 2nd Italian 8th Romanian 3rd and 4th 1st Guards 2nd Guards 3rd Guards 21st 51st 62nd 64th 65th Corps XIV Panzer XL Panzer XLVIII Panzer IV VIII XI LI 8th Air Tank 1st 4th 13th 16th 24th 26th others 4th Mechanised 13th Mechanised 3rd Guards Cavalry 4th Cavalry 8th Cavalry Divisions Panzer 6th 14th 16th 17th 22nd 24th Infantry 3rd Motorised 29th Motorised 60th Motorised 5th 44th 71st 76th 79th 94th 100th 113th 295th 297th 305th 371st 376th 384th 389th Guards Rifle 13th 15th 33rd 35th 36th 37th 39th Rifle 38th 45th 62nd 64th 91st 93rd 95th 112th 138th 157th 169th 173rd 181st 193rd 196th 204th 214th 221st 248th 284th 302nd 308th 422nd others 414th Anti-Tank 149th Artillery 60th Cavalry 81st Cavalry   Notable participants Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler Alexander Edler von Daniels Hermann Göring Wilhelm Hoffman Hermann Hoth Hans-Valentin Hube Erwin König (apocryphal) Erich von Manstein Friedrich Paulus Wolfram von Richthofen Arthur Schmidt Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach Karl Strecker Romania Constantin Constantinescu-Claps Petre Dumitrescu Mihail Lascăr Other Axis members Viktor Pavičić (Croatia) Italo Gariboldi (Italy) Gusztáv Jány (Hungary) Soviet Union Joseph Stalin Hazi Aslanov Vasily Badanov Vasily Chuikov Nikolay Dyatlenko Sasha Filippov Peter Gitelman Vasily Grossman Nikita Khrushchev Dmitry Lelyushenko Rodion Malinovsky Yakov Pavlov Alexander Rodimtsev Konstantin Rokossovsky Alexander Shcherbakov Semyon Timoshenko Aleksandr Vasilevsky Nikolay Voronov Erich Weinert Andrei Yeremenko Vasily Zaytsev Aleksey Zhadov Georgy Zhukov   Significant locations Barmaley Fountain Barrikady Factory Grain Elevator Gumrak Kalach Mamayev Kurgan Pavlov's House Pitomnik Airfield Red October Steel Factory River Don River Volga Tatsinskaya Airfield Tsaritsa Gorge Tractor Plant   In memoriam The Motherland Calls Stalingrad Madonna Sword of Stalingrad Battle of Stalingrad in popular culture See also Battle of the Caucasus Battle of Kursk Battle of Nikolayevka Case Blue Operation Barbarossa Second Battle of Kharkov Third Battle of Kharkov Volgograd