IV SS Panzer Corps

IV SS Panzer Corps

The IV.SS-Panzerkorps was a German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on the Eastern Front and in the Balkans during World War II.

The Panzerkorps was formed in August, 1943 in Poitiers, France. The formation was originally to be a skeleton formation to supervise those SS divisions that were being reformed as SS Panzer divisions.

On 30 June 1944, the formation absorbed the VII SS Panzer Corps and was reformed as a headquarters for the 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf and 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking. The Corps was placed under the control of former Wiking commander SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille.

The corps was placed into the line around Warsaw, Poland, where it saw action against the Red Army as a part of the 9.Army. In August, 1944, elements of the corps took part in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. After holding the line near Warsaw, the corps was pushed back to the area near Modlin, where it saw heavy fighting until December.

When SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Pfeffer Wildenbruch's IX.SS-Gebirgskorps and large numbers of Hungarian troops were encircled in Budapest in December 1944, the corps was shifted south to join 6. Armee and to take part in the relief efforts. The operations were named Konrad.

After the failure of Operation Konrad III, the corps was moved west to the area around Lake Balaton, where it was responsible for defending the left flank of Operation Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakening), near Stuhlweissenberg. After the failure of this offensive, the Soviet Vienna Operation tore a gap between the IV.SS-Panzerkorps and the neighboring 3.Hungarian Army. After escaping an encirclement thanks to the efforts of the 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen, the corps executed a fighting withdrawal towards Vienna. The remnants of the corps surrendered to the Americans on 9 May 1945.