Army Group Vistula

Briefing at the headquarters of Army Group Vistula

Heinz Guderian had originally urged the creation of a new army group as an essentially defensive measure to fill the gap opening in German defences between the lower Vistula and the lower Oder.[1]

The new Army Group Vistula was duly formed from an assortment of rebuilt, new and existing units. Guderian intended to propose Field-Marshal Maximilian von Weichs as commander.[2] However, in a reflection of Hitler's desire to transfer control of the conflict from the Wehrmacht to the SS, Heinrich Himmler was appointed.[3] Himmler, who lacked any real military knowledge,[note 1] proved inadequate to the task; General Gotthard Heinrici replaced Himmler as commander of Army Group Vistula on 20 March, subsequent to its participation in the German offensive codenamed Operation Solstice and the following defence against the Soviet East Pomeranian Offensive.

The Army Group's only offensive action was Operation Solstice, the failed attempt to relieve the fortress of Kustrin late in March 1945, during which the subordinate XXXIX Panzer Corps took heavy casualties.

Under the command of Heinrici, parts of the army group fought through the Battle of Berlin and Battle of Halbe, with some of its elements not surrendering until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May 1945. Army Group Vistula's strength was in the region of 500,000 troops;[2][note 2] in general, the army group was poorly equipped, many of its units being little more than the 'paper' formations typical of the German military at the end of World War II. Indeed, when first set up it was found that the army group lacked many essential facilities, such as proper maps or a headquarters signals detachment—the sole means of communication being Himmler's private telephone.[4]

The Army Group was originally formed from:

• The Ninth Army of General der Infanterie Theodor Busse, which had previously been part of Army Group A and had been shattered around Warsaw during the Vistula-Oder Offensive. This now held lines on the Oder and was progressively rebuilt.
• The Second Army of Generaloberst Walter Weiß, which as part of Army Group Centre had been defending the line of the Narew river on the borders of East Prussia. The East Prussian Offensive had cut it off from the remnants of its parent formation, and by late January it defended a long sector from Elbing in the east running westwards through Pomerania. It therefore formed the new army group's northern and eastern flank.
• The Eleventh SS Panzer Army was a 'new' formation which had been assembled in western Pomerania. Soon after its formation it received the commander Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner and other staff of the Third Panzer Army, which had been largely destroyed in East Prussia.

During the East Pomeranian Offensive, the Second Army was finally cut off from the remainder of the army group and withdrew into Danzig, where it was eventually destroyed. The rest of Army Group Vistula was forced west of the Oder, though the Third Panzer Army retained a small bridgehead at Altdamm until the middle of March.

Towards the end of April, the Twenty-First Army (itself formed around the remnants of the Fourth Army, which had been destroyed in the Heiligenbeil Cauldron), commanded by General der Infanterie Kurt von Tippelskirch, was added to Army Group Vistula.

• German Third Panzer Army (General der Panzertruppe Hasso von Manteuffel from 9 March 1945 to 8 May 1945)
  • III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps (Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner) (later transferred to Twenty-First Army, below)
  • CI Corps (later transferred to Twenty-First Army, see below)
  • XXVII Corps (later transferred to Twenty-First Army, see below)
  • XXXII Corps
  • XXXXVI Panzer Corps
  • Verteidigungsbereich Swinemünde
• German Twenty-First Army (General der Infanterie Kurt von Tippelskirch)
  • III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps
  • CI Corps
  • XXVII Corps
• German Ninth Army (General der Infanterie Theodor Busse from 20 January 1945 to 2 May 1945)
  • CI Corps (to mid-April)
  • LVI Panzer Corps (General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling from 12 April 1945 to 23 April 1945)
  • XI SS Panzer Corps
  • V SS Mountain Corps

• Battle for Berlin