The official AHF WW2 in Eastern Europe quiz thread

[Max Payload]

No, that didn't become of serious concern until the fourth week of March.
Hint - consider why this section of railway was of strategic significance in the first place. Then consider what was happening elsewhere during the second week of March - say, further to the southeast?

[GregSingh]

That railway to Odessa was cut by Soviets near Vapniarka on the 16th of March.

[Max Payload]

That's it. The Ternopol to Khmelnitsiy rail line was part of the main supply route to Odessa (via Zhmerinka and Vapnyarka), and Odessa was the main supply base for Army Group A. By the second week of March Second Ukrainian Front was breaking across the Southern Bug and heading for the Dniester. The centre of Army Group South was falling back in disarray and by mid-March, when Konev's forces had a firm hold on Vapnyarka, Kleist's main supply line had been irretrievably cut 200km southeast of Ternopol. So by then the rail line in the Ternopol to Khmelnitsiy sector had ceased to be of strategic significance. (It was my understanding that Vapnyarka had been secured by the 15th and that the line had been cut north of the town some days earlier, but that's a minor detail.)
Over to you for the next question.

[GregSingh]

Yes, you are right. Vapniarka had been secured by the 15th of March.

Now a question:
In April 1945 in the area of LVII.Panzer-Korps an enemy divisional commander was captured. What was his name?

[GregSingh]

Nobody interested in April 1945 fighting?

[Max Payload]

After a month of no progress, how about a hint?
A Soviet divisional commander captured in April '45 couldn't have been held captive for very long.

[GregSingh]

First, find where LVII.Panzer-Korps was in April '45 and what was the name of the battle.
Second, Google the battle and you will find the commander name.

[Max Payload]

As clues go, that was a pretty good one.

First, find where LVII.Panzer-Korps was in April '45 and what was the name of the battle.

It was in the Goerlitz area as part of Fourth Panzer Army with 6th and 72nd Grenadier Divisions subordinated. It was facing the left wing of First Ukrainian Front (52nd Army and 2nd Polish Army).

Second, Google the battle and you will find the commander name.

I guess the answer is Colonel Aleksander Laski commanding Polish 9th Division who was captured on 26 April during the Bautzen battle.

[GregSingh]

Bingo! That's the one. Wasn't that difficult, was it?

[Max Payload]

OK, next question, also not that difficult.
One of the Soviet armies involved in the successful Jassy-Kishinev Operation in 1944 was subsequently removed from Front command to be assigned independent army status in Bulgaria. Which army was this, and when did the transition to independent army status take place?

[GregSingh]

37th Army, on the 15th Dec 44, according to Stavka directive from the 12th of Dec.

[Max Payload]

Correct.
Over to you for the next question.

[Max Payload]

Nothing from GregSingh for several months.
Let's try another question.
One of the people executed in the aftermath of the July '44 bomb plot against Hitler had received a death sentence two and a half years earlier (subsequently commuted to a term of imprisonment in the Germersheim Fortress in the southern Rhineland-Palatinate). He was executed on 23 July and his remains were subsequently interred further west (10km north of the French border in a cemetery for soldiers of the Palatinate and Alsace who died in the Battle of the Bulge). Who was he and what was the reason for the original death sentence?
(Broad hint - it had something to do with events on the Eastern Front.)

[GregSingh]

Totally forgot about it. Thanks for restarting this again.

von Sponeck, for disobeying "stand firm" order in Crimea in December 1941?

[Max Payload]

Correct.
Too easy maybe?
Anyway, over to you.