Gruppe Nehring, 1945

[I have questions]

Hello, I recently read about Walther Nehring's retreat from southern Poland during the Soviet offensives of January 1945 in Robert Citino's book "The Wehrmacht's Last Stand":

"...the reserve panzer formations of 4th Panzer Army (the 16th and 17th Panzer Divisions belonging to General Walther Nehring's XXIV Panzer Corps) were deployed too close to the frontline. The decision belonged to Hitler, suspicious as ever of his commanders' operational intentions and willingness to retreat. Located just a few thousand yards behind the Hauptkampflinie, however, Nehring's corps suffered mightily in the opening bombardment, especially in terms of command, control, and radio facilities. Within an hour, Nehring was out of communication with his divisions, and as much as General Gräser, he was commanding blindly for the entire opening sequence. He finally received orders in the late afternoon to close up his two divisions to the town of Kielce--dead center in the path of onrushing Soviet tank armies. His signal troops had restored communications with his divisions by now, but it hardly mattered: the orders were already obsolete. Soviet armor had already overrun the assembly areas for his panzers, catching one Tiger tank battalion being refueled out in the open and destroying it completely. The two divisions struggle gamely toward Kielce in disconnected and isolated fragments, and the commander of 17th Panzer Division, Colonel Albert Brux, was wounded in a Soviet bombardment and taken prisoner.
Not that it mattered. Soviet armored spearheads had already taken Kielce. Nehring's corps never did manage to launch a counterattack. Rather, it found itself fighting for its life against superior forces from the start. Soon, 4th Panzer Army had ceased to exist as a military formation. It had degenerated into an onrushing stream of men and vehicles, along with thousands of ethnic German refugees, all heading west and northwest, desperately trying to get to safety. This almost always meant off-road movement, however, since Soviet armor was prowling all the good highways. In the course of the first few days, small groups of survivors from the neighboring XXXXII Corps and XXXXVIII Panzer Corps coalesced around the remnants of Nehring's Panzer Corps to form Gruppe Nehring--all that was left of the army.
Nehring was a tested commander and managed to form the motley command into a "roving Kessel". Surrounded on all sides by Soviet units heading west at top speed and barely thinking it worthwhile to stop and fight a pitched battle with German forces who were already obviously defeated, under constant air attack, and low on supplies and ammunition, Nehring's little band (fewer than 10,000 men all told) managed to thread the needle again and again over the next ten days. Unbeknownst to him, he had hit the seam between the two Soviet fronts, Zhukov to his north and Konev to his south. Moving mainly at night, hiding the tanks and vehicles among the houses and barns of this rural land, Nehring avoided Soviet concentrations, launching the occasional attack only when absolutely necessary and crashing through roadblocks. Kielce to Piotrków, Lask to the crossing over the Warthe River at Sieradz, and finally crossing the Oder River to safety at Glogau: Gruppe Nehring had traveled nearly 200 miles to safety. Like the Rückkämpfer of 1944, Nehring had beaten the odds..."(431-432).

Sorry for the length of this post. I was wondering where I could learn more about this episode, as to my knowledge the only other instance of this sort of large "wandering pocket" was Hube's 1st Panzer Army in March-April 1944, and that has been well documented. Another question comes to mind as well, why isn't Gruppe Nehring as famous as Hube's wandering pocket? Or am I just out of the loop?

[Jeff Leach]

Panzergrenadiers to the Front!, The Combat History of Panzergrenadier Division 'Brandenburg' on the Eastern Front 1944-45 by Stephan Hamilton has some information about the Grupp Nehring.

[I have questions]

Thank you, I'll definitely check that one out.

[marthus]

For fans of combat stories on the Eastern Front, the retreats of the mobile Kessels of Hube and of Nehring are both of the same interest without forgetting of course that of the 11th and 42nd corps of the Kessell of Cherkassy in January / February 1944.
What makes the big difference between the Kessels of Hube and of Nehring, It is especially the importance of the forces which were surrounded there and their combat forces.
In the case of the Kessel de Hube, it was an entire Army, combat units and rear services, roughly twenty divisions with still a significant combat force, including about 8 armored divisions or fighting groups of divisions. armored, a division of Panzer-Grenadiers, 8 infantry divisions, several brigade of assault guns and battalions of Tiger tanks. The total represented a force of over 200,000 soldiers. Note that already in this Kessel were several divisions which would later form part of that of Nehring (68th and 16th infantry divisions, 20th Panzergrenadier division and 16th and 17th armored divisions)
The Kessel of Nehring, was much less important, but much higher than the 10,000 men which are indicated in your message. This kessel if it included many elements of divisions (16th and 17th armored division, 20th Panzer-Grenadier division, elements of the 68th, 168th, 88th and 291st infantry division and a little later 342nd infantry division and von group Ahlfen, and even later dust from the divisions and corps of the 9th Army). Apart from the 342nd Infantry Division and the von Ahlfen Combat Group and the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division, which still had good fighting strength, all other divisions were very weak.

To my knowledge there is not really a book which deals completely with the history of Nehring's Kessel, several books speak about it but these are not short passages.
The only books that deal with it to my knowledge are:
indeed the book by S. Hamilton "Panzer-grenadier Brandenbourg at the front
von Ahlfen's book "der kampf um Schlesien
Norbert Baczyk's book "Kielce 1945"
Günter Karweina's book "der gross treck

[Art]

"...the reserve panzer formations of 4th Panzer Army (the 16th and 17th Panzer Divisions belonging to General Walther Nehring's XXIV Panzer Corps) were deployed too close to the frontline. The decision belonged to Hitler, suspicious as ever of his commanders' operational intentions and willingness to retreat. Located just a few thousand yards behind the Hauptkampflinie, however, Nehring's corps suffered mightily in the opening bombardment, especially in terms of command, control, and radio facilities. Within an hour, Nehring was out of communication with his divisions, and as much as General Gräser, he was commanding blindly for the entire opening sequence. He finally received orders in the late afternoon to close up his two divisions to the town of Kielce--dead center in the path of onrushing Soviet tank armies. His signal troops had restored communications with his divisions by now, but it hardly mattered: the orders were already obsolete. Soviet armor had already overrun the assembly areas for his panzers, catching one Tiger tank battalion being refueled out in the open and destroying it completely.

This part seem to follow the Guderian's memoir with usual rants about Hitler's stupid orders. In fact, it doesn't seem that the Soviet artillery preparation inflicted that much damage to reserves. Neither the Tiger battalion (Schwere Panzer Abteilung 424) was caught without fuel. It was was forced to abandon some of its heavy tanks which were damaged or ran out of fuel, but only after some considerable fighting. There is a neighbor topic about these events:
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=252970

as to my knowledge the only other instance of this sort of large "wandering pocket" was Hube's 1st Panzer Army in March-April 1944

There was a number of similar episodes in the winter of 1942/43. For example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nikolayevka

[otto1]

In german
Nehring Der Wandernde Kessel

[marthus]

I know this Nehring story exists (Nehring Der Wandernde Kessel), but I can't find it .... !!
if anyone knows how to find it !!!

[Jeff Leach]

It is more correctly

Der "wandernde Kessel" des XXIV. Pz. Korps im Raum von Kielce bis zur Warthe in den Tagen vom 12.- 22.1. 1945. - Ausarbeitung, Presseausschnitte, Korrepondenz

Archivaliensignatur: Bundesarchiv, BArch N 543/131

doesn't seem to be digitalized.

https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothe ... 4OBUJIYWU4

[marthus]

I went to the link below
https: //www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothe ... 4OBUJIYWU4
but I could not find the document in question

[Account deleted]

Entschuldigen Sie die Qualität der Übersetzung. Leider ist alles, was in diesem Thread geschrieben steht, wenig wahr. Es gab mehr als 14 Abteilungen in der Nering-Gruppe. 19 Panzer und Brandenburg gingen tatsächlich auch mit dieser Gruppe. Die vollständige Liste kann hier eingesehen werden. https://smolbattle.ru/threads/%D0%96%D1 ... 25/page-10
Das Panzerkorps Nering 24 wurde durch die russische Artillerie nicht beschädigt. Bis auf einen Teil der Artillerie der 17. Panzerdivision. Diese Einheit wurde in der ersten Zeile an die 168. Infanteriedivision übergeben.Es gab keine Auswirkungen auf die Luftfahrt. Das Wetter war schlecht. Nering selbst hat viel geschrieben, aber nie über den Kessel. Dafür gibt es Gründe. Der Grund für den Tod seines Korps in drei Tagen des Kampfes ist er und sein Hauptquartier. 2 Kp 2 Rght Klaus Werner war Zeuge dieser Schlachten. Ich weiß nicht, ob diese Memoiren in Deutschland veröffentlicht wurden. Ich habe sie im Manuskript gelesen. Der größte Teil der Ausrüstung ging ohne große Schlachten unbeholfen verloren. Insbesondere alle Panther der 16. Panzerdivision im Gebiet Radomitsa-Marzhis. Außer 11 Panther, die in Kielce durchgebrochen sind. Panzer der 17. Panzerdivision, zuerst in Lugi - Malesovo, und dann eine Nachtschlacht in Chalupki während eines Durchbruchs. 424 sPzAbt haben die meisten Tigris-Panzer in Lisow - Morawica verloren. Die Tiger waren nach einem harten Kampf in der Nähe von Lisow wirklich ohne Treibstoff und Munition. Außerdem ging das 614. Panzerabwehr-Zerstörerbataillon verloren. Wurden fast kampflos 10 Ferdinand Elephant verloren. Lelyushenkos 4. Panzerarmee erlitt fast keine Verluste. Zum Beispiel haben die Russen in der berühmten Schlacht in der Region Lisow unwiderruflich nur vier T-34/85 verloren. Diese Dokumente befinden sich unter demselben Link. Nering erhielt Auszeichnungen für seine Siege und schwieg darüber. Nachdem er gerade geschrieben hatte, half sein Genie, aus der Umwelt herauszukommen. welche Passage. Aber Nering ist nicht ganz schuld. Wir müssen auch Marschall Konev und dem Panzerkorps der 10. Garde der sowjetischen Elite dafür danken, was passiert ist. In der Tat, Chuprovs 10. Panzerdivision.Ich selbst interessiere mich ständig für dieses Thema. Damit bin ich nicht allein. Es gibt einen anderen Historiker, der das Schicksal dieser Spaltungen kennt. Das ist Konrad Maj aus Polen. Nehmen Sie Kontakt mit ihm auf. Auf Wiedersehen.