4. Boundaries:
(a) With XLI Army Corps, Coulomby–Journy–Tilques–St. Momelin–Vimecelle (all inclusive to XIX Army Corps).
(b) Between 1st and 10th Panzer Divisions, Desvres–Nabrinhen (both to lst)–Guines (to 10th)–Pte. Walde (to 1st).
(c) Between 10th and 2nd Panzer Divisions, Samer–Bainethun–Audres–selles (all to 10th).
(d) With XIV Army Corps, the line of the River Authie.
5. Rifle Brigade 11, under command of the corps as of 18.00 hrs., 24th May, will reach the wooded area north of Desvres on May 25th where it will be at the disposal of the corps.
Tasks for 25th May:
Disarming of enemy forces in the Paris–Plage area. Attack on Cap Gris Nez and capture of this strongpoint.
6. Corps Artillery:
After the capture of Calais Artillery Commander 101 and the Corps Artillery (II Battalion, Artillery Regiment 45, Heavy Battalion 616) will once again be directly subordinate to corps. They will be located in the area Licques–Herbinghen–Bainghen–Hoecqunighen.
7. Security Regiment 1 will be placed under command of 1st Panzer Division as of 16.00 hrs., 25th May.
8. Reconnaissance as far as the Belgian frontier.
9. All crossing-places over the Canal between Momelin and Gravelines are to be prepared for demolition. Demolitions will only be carried out on the orders of corps headquarters or in cases of extreme necessity.
10. Anti-aircraft Protection: in accordance with special order.
11. Corps Headquarters: Château Colembert.
Quartermaster’s Department: Le Vast.
signed: GUDERIAN.
APPENDIX XIX
Headquarters, XIX Army Corps
Operations Department Corps H.Q., Château Colembert
26.5.40, 12.15 hrs.
Order for the Relief of 1st Panzer Division by 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division
1. 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division has once again been assigned to the corps and is being brought up from the south. Beginning today, this division will relieve 1st Panzer Division (including Infantry Regiment Gross-Deutschland) in the sector Holque–Gravelines–the coastal sector to a point north of Pte. Walde.
Leibstandarte ‘Adolf Hitler’ will remain in its present location and will be placed under command of 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division.
Group von Kleist regards it as important that the hand-over of command functions take place during the course of the coming night.
2. 1st Panzer Division, when it has been relieved, will assemble in the area to either side of the Samer–Montreuil road (both villages inclusive) so that it will be in a position rapidly to move off either north or south.
Billeting staff to precede! Location of divisional headquarters to be notified!
It is important that 1st Panzer Division reach its new lodgement area rapidly so that the troops may be given sufficient rest, and equipment and vehicle maintenance be carried out.
3. Corps Headquarters: Le Fresnoy, south-east of Almethun.
Quartermaster Department: Le Vast.
For the Corps Command
The Chief of Staff.
signed: NEHRING.
APPENDIX XX
Headquarters, XIX Army Corps
Operations Department Corps H.Q., Château le Fresnoy
26.5.40, 20.00 hrs.
Corps Order No. 14 for 27th May, 1940
1. The enemy is holding the Aa Canal sector.
2. Group von Kleist will attack in the morning of 27th May, with the left wing of XLI Army Corps (6th or 3rd Panzer Division) from the St. Omer area through Cassel towards Poperinghe.
3. XIX Army Corps will attack with the 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division through the sector held by the Leibstandarte ‘Adolf Hitler,’ axis of advance Watten–Wormhoudt.
4. Tasks:
The following units are placed under command of the 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division:
Artillery commander 101
Leibstandarte ‘Adolf Hitler’
Infantry Regiment Gross-Deutschland, with under command II Battalian Artillery Regiment 56 Move up as already ordered
Heavy Artillery Battalian 616 Commanders to H. Q. Leibstandarte
III(Heavy) Battalian Artillery Regiment 74 A. H. Eperlecques, 20.00 hrs., 26th May.
III Battalian Artillery Regiment 677(11 Rifle Brigade)
Light Anti-aircraft Battalian 91 (only for the attack)
The division will attack from the Watten–St. Pierre bridgehead and will capture the dominating heights east of Watten. It will send a strong right wing through Arncke–Ledringhem to Hezeele.
Reinforced Infantry Regiment Gross-Deutschland will cover the left flank of the attack by advancing on Drincham and capturing the high ground in the Crochte–Pitgam area. It will then face north.
II Battalion, Artillery Regiment 56 of 1st Panzer Division is instructed to collaborate with the Regiment and will receive more precise orders on this subject through Artillery Commander 101.
The advance of Infantry Regiment Gross-Deutschland from its jumping-off area is to be further supported by Artillery Regiment 73.
III Battalion Artillery Regiment 677 will only take part in the preparatory bombardment. It will then be left behind on the east bank at the disposal of Rifle Brigade 11.
The bringing up of long-barrelled artillery for the bombardment of Dunkirk is envisaged.
Divisional Headquarters: First of all Eperlecques.
Time of attack: x-hour.
5. Air Reconnaissance: Combined squadrons of 4/(Army) 31 and 2/(Army) 23 in the area St. Omer-Poperingen-Veurne-the coast as far as Gravelines. East of the Franco-Belgian frontier reconnaissance by 3/(Long Range) 31.
6. Anti-aircraft Regiment 102 will be responsible for protecting the assembly area for the attack west of Watten. It will protect the attacking troops during the attack.
7. Signal Regiment 80 will lay a main line to Eperlecques.
8. Corps Reserve. Rifle Brigade 11 will be in readiness to move off from its lodgement area at x plus 1. Roads to be examined towards the Canal. Commander to report to corps headquarters.
9. On receipt of this order 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division will detach two officers, with vehicles, to report to corps headquarters.
10. Corps Headquarters: Château le Fresnoy. At the beginning of the attack the Corps Commander will be at Eperlecques.
signed: GUDERIAN.
Addition to Corps Order No. 14
As of 16.00 hrs., 27th May, the following chain of command becomes effective:
The attack will be as follows:
Right: 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division, with under command, Leibstandarte ‘Adolf Hitler.’
Left: 2nd Panzer Division with under command, Infantry Regiment Gross-Deutschland.
Rifle Brigade 11.
4th Panzer Brigade.
Boundary: Between 20th (Motorised) Infantry Division and 2nd Panzer Division (Rifle Brigade 11): Merkeghen-Zegerscappel-Rexpoede (all inclusive to Rifle Brigade 11).
For the Corps Command
The Chief of Staff.
signed: NEHRING.
APPENDIX XXI
Headquarters, XIX Army Corps
Operations Department Corps H.Q., Château Louches
28.5.40, 23.15 hrs.
Corps Order No. 15
1. XIX Army Corps will be relieved by XIV Army Corps on 29th May, 1940. Time of command hand over, 10.00 hrs.
2. 2nd and 1st Panzer Divisions will during the course of the day be relieved by 9th Panzer Division. Reliefs will take place in accordance with instructions issued by XIV Army Corps.
The following units will remain in position and will be placed under command of XIV Army Corps:
11th Rifle Brigade.
Infantry Regiment Gross-Deutschland.
Leibstandarte ‘Adolf Hitler.’
Heavy Artillery Battalion 740.
Heavy Battery 607.
(Temporarily) Army Recce Squadrons of XIX Army
Corps.
3. When the relief has been satisfactorily completed all steps are to be taken to make the divisions fully operationally effective once again.
4. The divisions will be lodged in the following areas: 1st Panzer Division: Audruicq (inclusive)–Ardres (exclusive)–Licques–Alquines–Coulomby–Vaudringhem–Lumbres (all inclusive).
10th Panzer Division: Ardres (exclusive)–Guines–Rinxens–the northern edge of the wood east of Bainethun (all inclusive)–Le Vast–Colembert–Licques (all exclusive).
2nd Panzer Division: Licques–Colembert (both exclusive)–the wood east of Alquines (villages exclusive)–the road through Jeury to Licques (exclusive).
The divisions will occupy their lodgement areas in such a way as to be able either to make a counter-attack eastwards or to march off southwards.
5. Besides arranging billeting areas for their light anti-aircraft battalions the divisions will also allow for billeting in each divisional area one heavy anti-aircraft battalion. Arrangements will be made with the commander of Anti-aircraft Regiment 102.
6. The Panzer Brigades can move off to their new areas on the morning of 29th May, 1940, provided that the divisional commanders regard the situation on their respective fronts as tactically sufficiently secure.
7. The location of divisional headquarters will be notified to Corps Headquarters by 12.00 hrs., 29th May, 1940, by telephone so that Signal Battalion 80 can make the necessary arrangements.
There is no objection to the headquarters of 10th Panzer Division remaining in its present location.
8. Corps Headquarters will for the time being be at Louches Chau., Quartermaster Department, Landresthun.
For the Corps Command
The Chief of Staff.
signed: NEHRING.
APPENDIX XXII
The Führer and Supreme Commander of the
Armed Forces
OKW/WFSt./Abt.L (I) Nr. 33 408/40 g.Kdos.
Chefsache.
Top Secret. 18 December, 1940
Directive No. 21
OPERATION BARBAROSSA
The armed forces of Germany must be prepared, even before the conclusion of the war with England, to defeat Soviet Russia in one rapid campaign (‘Operation Barbarossa.’)
The Army must in this case be prepared to commit all available formations, with the proviso that the occupied territories must be secured against surprise attacks.
The Air Force will have to make available for the support of the army in the Eastern Campaign forces of adequate strength to ensure a rapid termination to the land action and to give the East German territories maximum protection against enemy air raids. This making of the main effort in the East must not be carried to a point at which we can no longer adequately protect the totality of our battle and our armament zones against enemy air attacks, nor must the offensive against England, and in particular against England’s supply routes, suffer in consequence.
For the Navy the point of main effort will remain consistently against England, even while the Eastern Campaign is in progress.
I shall give the order for the assembly of troops, etc., for the proposed operation against Soviet Russia, should the occasion arise, eight weeks before the operation is due to begin.
Preparations that require more time than this shall—so far as they have not already been made—be begun at once and are to be completed by the 15th May, 1941.
Great stress, however, must be laid on disguising any offensive intentions.
Preparations by the high commands are to be based on the following considerations:
1. General Intention
The mass of the army stationed in Western Russia is to be destroyed in bold operations involving deep penetrations by armoured spearheads, and the withdrawal of elements capable of combat into the extensive Russian land spaces is to be prevented.
By means of a rapid pursuit a line is then to be reached from beyond which the Russian air force will no longer be capable of attacking the German home territories. The final objective of the operation is to be the attainment of a line sealing off Asiatic Russia and running, in general, the Volga-Archangel. From such a line the one remaining Russian industrial area in the Urals can be eliminated by the air force should the need arise.
In the course of this operation the Russian Baltic Fleet will rapidly be deprived of its bases and thus will no longer be capable of combat.
Effective intervention by the Russian air force is to be prevented from the very beginning of the operation by means of powerful attacks against it.
2. Anticipated Allies and their Tasks
1. On the wings of our operation we can count on active co-operation in the war against Soviet Russia by Rumania and Finland.
How exactly the combat forces of those two countries will be under German control when they go into action is a matter that the Armed Forces High Command will arrange and lay down at the proper time.
2. Rumania’s task will be to pin down the enemy’s forces opposite that sector and to give assistance in rearward areas.
3. Finland will cover the movement of the Northern German Group coming from Norway (elements of Group XXI) and will then operate in conjunction with this group. The elimination of Hangö will also be Finland’s responsibility.
4. It may be anticipated that the Swedish railways and roads will be made available for the movement of the Northern German Group, at the latest when the operation has begun.
3. The Conduct of the Operations
{A) Army (in approbation of the intentions submitted to me):
The area of operations is divided into southern and northern halves by the Pripet Marshes. The point of main effort will be made in the northern half. Here two army groups are to be committed.
The southern of these two army groups—in the centre of the whole front—will have the task of breaking out of the area around and to the north of Warsaw with exceptionally strong armoured and motorised formations and of destroying the enemy forces in White Russia. This will create a situation which will enable strong formations of mobile troops to swing north; such formations will then co-operate with the northern army group—advancing from East Prussia in the general direction of Leningrad—in destroying the enemy forces in the area of the Baltic states. Only after the accomplishment of these offensive operations, which must be followed by the capture of Leningrad and Kronstadt, are further offensive operations to be initiated with the objective of occupying the important centre of communications and of armaments manufacture, Moscow.
Only a surprisingly rapid collapse of the Russian ability to resist could justify an attempt to achieve both objectives simultaneously.
The primary task of Group XXI, even during the Eastern operations, remains the protection of Norway. Forces available other than those needed for this task (Mountain Corps) will first of all be used to protect the Petsamo area and its mines together with the Arctic road, and will then advance, in conjunction with Finnish forces, against the Murmansk railway and will cut the Murmansk area’s land supply route.
Whether an operation of this nature can be carried out by stronger German forces (two to three divisions) coming from the area Rovaniemi and to the south is dependent on Sweden’s willingness to make the Swedish railways available for such a move.
The mass of the Finnish army will have the task, in accordance with the advance made by the northern wing of the German armies, of tying up maximum Russian strength by attacking to the west, or on both sides, of Lake Ladoga. The Finns will also capture Hangö.
The army group south of the Pripet Marshes will make its point of main effort from the Lublin area in the general direction of Kiev, with the object of driving into the deep flank and rear of the Russian forces with strong armoured formations and of then rolling up the enemy along the Dnieper.
The German-Rumanian group on the right flank will have the task of
(a) protecting Rumanian territory and thus of covering the southern flank of the whole operation;
/> (b) in co-ordination with the attack by the northern wing of Army Group South of tying up the enemy forces on its sector of the front; then, as the situation develops, of launching a second thrust and thus, in conjunction with the air force, of preventing an orderly enemy withdrawal beyond the Dniester.
Once the battles south or north of the Pripet Marshes have been fought, the pursuit is to be undertaken with the following objectives:
In the south the rapid occupation of the economically important Donetz Basin,
In the north the speedy capture of Moscow.
The capture of this city would be a decisive victory both from the political and from the economic point of view; it would involve, moreover, the neutralisation of the most vital Russian rail centre.
(B) Air Force:
It will be the task of the air force, so far as possible, to damage and destroy the effectiveness of the Russian air force, and to support the operations by the army at the points of main effort, that is to say in the sectors of the central army group and in the area where the southern army group will be making its main effort. The Russian railways will either be destroyed, or, in the case of more important objectives close to hand (i.e. railway bridges), will be captured by the bold use of parachute and air-borne troops. In order that maximum forces may be available for operations against the enemy air force and for direct support of the army, the munitions industry will not be attacked while the major operation is in progress. Only after the conclusion of the mobile operations will such attacks, and in particular attacks against the industrial area of the Urals, be considered.
(C) Navy:
During the war with Soviet Russia it will be the task of the navy to protect the German coast line and to prevent any hostile naval force from breaking out of the Baltic. Since once Leningrad has been reached the Russian Baltic fleet will have lost its last base and will thus be in a hopeless position, major naval operations are to be previously avoided. After the destruction of the Russian fleet it will be the responsibility of the navy to make the Baltic fully available for carrying sea traffic, including supplies by sea to the northern wing of the army. (The sweeping of minefields!)
Panzer Leader Page 65