History
The corps was originally formed on 15 December 1940 in Germany as the XLVIII Motorized Corps (XLVIII.Armeekorps (mot)). At the dawn of Operation Barbarossa, on 22 June 1941, it was officially redesignated as the XLVII Panzer Corps. However, the corps seems to have used both names until June–July 1942.
XLVIII Panzer Corps was attached to Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist's Panzer Group 1, a part of Army Group South. The corps was involved in the armored battles near Dubno early in the campaign, and later saw action at Berdichev and Kirovograd.
From late 1941 to May 1942, the corps took part in defensive operations in the Kursk area. Thereafter the corps joined the Fall Blau offensive towards Stalingrad under Army Group South. During the Battle of Stalingrad the corps was trapped and its major units, 22nd Panzer Division and 1st Armoured Division (Romania), were annihilated. However, it was quickly reformed and used by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's Operation Winter Storm efforts to relieve General Friedrich Paulus' trapped Sixth Army still in Stalingrad.
In February 1943, the XLVIII Panzer Corps took part in the battles around Kharkov, and in June it was committed to the southern flank of the Battle of Kursk as part of Hoth's Fourth Panzer Army.
After the failure of Operation Citadel the corps took part in the fighting withdrawal from the Ukraine. By February 1945, the corps found itself in Silesia, and it ended the war defending the Elbe River, where it finally surrendered in May 1945.
Read more about this topic: XLVIII Panzer Corps (Germany)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (18601904)
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (17411794)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)