The German
Army Group G (
Heeresgruppe G)
fought on the
Western Front of
World War II and was a component of
OB West.
When the Allied invasion of Southern France (
Operation Dragoon) took place, Army Group
G had eleven divisions with which to hold France south of the
Loire.Pogue (references)
CHAPTER XII The Campaign in Southern France
p.227 After the successful Allied invasion of Southern France, on
the 17/18 of August the German Armed Forces High Command (
OKW) ordered Army Group G, with the exception of the
fortress ports, to abandon southern France.
The German LXIV Corps, which had been in
charge of troops in the south west since First Army had been withdrawn a few weeks
earlier to hold the line on the River Seine southeast of Paris,
formed three march groups and withdrew eastward toward Dijon
. At
the same time the
German
Nineteenth Army, retreated northward through the Rhône valley
toward the
Plateau de Langres
where it was joined by the
German Fifth Panzer Army which was
assigned to Army Group G so that a counter-attack could delivered
against the
United States Third
Army.Pogue (references) p.228 But the retreat did not go
according to plan, as the Nineteenth Army retreated, many personnel
of Army Group G were taken prisoner
en masse by the
Sixth United States Army
Group. By the time the retreat was over General
Johannes Blaskowitz had lost about half
his force and was relieved on
21
September by General
Hermann
Balck.Pogue (references) p.229 By mid September the Fifth were
in position on the left wing of the German line north of the Swiss
border. From there the Fifth Panzer with elements of the First
attacked the
United States
Third Army, while the much reduced German Nineteenth Army
opposed the
French First Army and
the
U.S. Seventh Army under General
Alexander M. Patch.Pogue (references) p.230
Army Group G fought in the Vosges Mountains, during November 1944,
and retreated through Lorraine and north Alsace during December
1944.
In
late November 1944, Army Group G temporarily lost responsibility
for the German troops in the Colmar Pocket
and on the Rhine River south of the Bienwald
to the
short-lived Army Group
Oberrhein. At least one of its divisions, the
21st Panzer Division, fought
on the southern flank of the
Battle
of the Bulge In January 1945 it was a major component in
Operation Nordwind, the
last major German counter attack on the Western Front. With the
failure of
Nordwind and the ejection of the Germans from
the Colmar Pocket, Army Group Oberrhein was inactivated and Army
Group G reassumed responsibility for the defense of all of
southwestern Germany.
Unable to
halt the offensive by Allied troops that cleared the Rhineland-Palatinate
and subsequently assaulted over the Rhine River,
Army Group G's troops nevertheless managed a spirited defense at
the cities of Heilbronn
, Crailsheim
, Nuremberg
, and Munich
during April
1945.
Army Group
G surrendered to U.S. forces at Haar
, in Bavaria
, in Germany
on May 5, 1945.
Commanders
Order of Battle
| Army Group Headquarters troops |
| Army group signals regiment 609 |
| Subordinated units |
| 1944 |
| May 1944 |
First Army , Nineteenth Army |
| August 1944 |
Nineteenth Army |
| September 1944 |
Nineteenth Army, First Army, Fifth
Panzer Army |
| 1945 |
| January 1945 |
First Army |
| February 1945 |
First Army, Nineteenth Army |
| April 1945 |
First Army, Nineteenth Army |
|
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