III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps

III SS Panzer Corps
Active April 1943 – 4 May 1945
Country  Germany
Allegiance Adolf Hitler
Branch Waffen-SS
Type Panzer corps
Role Armoured warfare
Size Corps
Engagements World War II

The III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps (III. (germanische) SS-Panzerkorps) was a German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on the Eastern Front during World War II. The (germanische) (lit. Germanic) part of its designation was granted as it was composed primarily of foreign volunteer formations.

History

The Panzerkorps was formed in April, 1943 as a headquarters for the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division Wiking and 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland. The corps was placed under the control of former Wiking commander SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. After training, the corps took part in operations against Yugoslav partisans. The corps was then sent to a quiet sector in Army Group North, now made up of the Nordland Division and the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Netherlands. By this stage, the Wiking had been sent south and came under the control of Army Group South's Eighth Army.

Forced back by the 1944 Soviet winter offensive, the corps participated in the Battle for the Narva Bridgehead in the summer of 1944. It then withdrew with the rest of the army group across Estonia and into the Courland Peninsula. Transferred to the Oder Front and placed under Steiner's Eleventh SS Panzer Army, the corps participated in Operation Sonnenwende before being assigned as the reserve corps to 3rd Panzer Army.

Commanders

Order of battle

15 June 1944 — Narva Front

16 September 1944

References

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