You can never have enough corps markers. Well, maybe not, but members of the Europa Association will be receiving markers for ALL the corps and armies of Germany in the very near future. (You're NOT a member? How can you live with yourself? Better still, how can you live without these great markers? Join the Association today!) Here's a master listing of the corps HQs included on the bonus counter sheet:

German Corps Markers

German Army:

22x Pz XXX HQ3, 7, 14, 15, 16, 19, 2 2, 2 4, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 47, 48, 56, 57, 58, 76, DAK, FH, GD

8x Mtn XXX HQ 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 36, 49, 51

82x Inf XXX HQ1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 97, 101, FId, Frs, Lmb, Mth, Oder, Raus, Tet

1x Fort XXX HQ Brs

3x Border XXX HQEif, OR, Saar

1x Cav XXX HQ 1

1x Res Pz XXX HQ 58

6x Res XXX HQ61,62,64,66,67,69

Abbreviations

Brs Breslau [German city]
DAK DAK, or Deutsches Afrika Korps [German Africa Corps]
Eif Eifel [German region]
FH Feldherrnhalle ["Hall of Heroes," Honorary title originating with Nazi SA unit guarding the Bavarian Hall of Heroes monument]
Fid Feldt [Commander's name]
Frs Forster [Commander's name]
GD Grossdeutsch land [Greater Germany]
Lmb Lombardia [Lombardy; this HQ controlled a mixed German-Italian corps]
Mth Mieth [Commander's name]
Oder [German river east of Berlin]
OR Oberrhein [Upper Rhine, German region]
Raus [Commander's name]
Saar Saarpfalz [German region]
Tet Tetau [Commander's name]

Luftwaffe:
1x Pz XXX HQ HG Fs
2x Para-Inf XXX HQ 1,2
4x Inf XXX HQ 1, 2, 3, 4

Abbreviations:
HG FsHermann Goring Falischirm [Hermann Goring Parachute. "Parachute" is an honorary title signifying the corps' troops came from the elite parachute branch. The title does not mean the corps was capable of airborne operations.]

SS
4x Pz XXX HQ 1,2,3,4
2x Mtn XXX HQ 5,9
6x Inf XXX HQ 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18
1x Cav XXX HQ 15

In the course of preparing these corps markers for publication, I put together a historical order of battle for all major German field headquarters. Here's the story: German Field Headquarters of WW2

The German High Command controlled its combat forces through a hierarchy of field headquarters, which linked the formations in the field to the high command itself.

Combat units in most cases took their orders from corps (Korps) HQs. A corps would control a varying number of units, depending upon its mission and the military situation, typically two to five divisions plus independent regiments and battalions.

The basic corps was the "army corps," that is, a corps of army troops. These were infantry corps, controlling infantry divisions and other formations. Panzer corps, called "army corps (motorized)" until mid-war, controlled mechanized divisions: panzer, panzergrenadier, and motorized infantry. Mountain corps were usually assigned to mountainous or remote regions, where they controlled all forces there, including the mountain divisions. Often there were few actual mountain troops in the area. Thus by late war, the German Army had roughly the same number of mountain corps HQs as it did mountain divisions. Other corps HQs controlled specialized troops, such as a cavalry corps for cavalry forces.

Corps HQs usually controlled divisions of their particular specialty, plus smaller units of all types. The Germans did not rigidly adhere to this, however, and a corps HQ would command whatever divisions the situation demanded. For example, panzer corps would occasionally control infantry divisions in the course of operations.

When the Germans deployed their reserve divisions in late 1942 to help occupy the conquered lands, they organized reserve corps HQs to control these divisions: a reserve panzer corps and several reserve infantry corps. When the occupied regions were invaded by the Allies, most reserve divisions became field divisions, with the reserve corps HQs converting to field commands.

The German Army actually had two kinds of infantry corps HQ: general commands and high commands. An "army corps general command" (Generalkommando der Armeekorps) was used for general operations: attack, defense, occupation. A "high command" (Hohere Kommando) corps originally may have been restricted to occupation duties and to defending inactive areas facing potential enemy invasions.

For example, the original high command corps were organized in late 1939 to occupy Poland and guard against a possible Soviet incursion, while the general command corps were in western Germany preparing for the invasion of France. High command corps were often deployed in occupied France and Norway. In practice, however, the high command corps were often used the same as general command corps. (When the Germans bothered, they sometimes redesignated high command corps as general command corps. More often, when a high command corps was destroyed, the Germans reraised it as a general command corps.) Thus, the distinction between these two kinds of corps is ignored for purposes of the OB included in this article.

Some sources mention a third kind of corps, the "corps group" (Korpsabteilung), but this wasn't actually a corps. By 1943, the relentless combat in the Soviet Union had reduced many divisions to regimental-sized units. The Germans took to grouping three burned-out divisions together as a corps group, a formation that approximated a full-strength division. Thus, a corps group is not a corps in the traditional sense of the word.

The Army, the Luftwaffe, and the SS all had corps HQs controlling their field forces. The Luftwaffe also had six flak corps HQs, which are not included in the OB as they were not field HQs.

Army headquarters (Armee-Oberkommandos) controlled the operations of corps. On occasion, they directly controlled actual field forces. The Germans had infantry, panzer, mountain, and parachute army HQs, but any type of army HQ could command any type of corps. Mountain and parachute armies were so named mostly for prestige purposes-they did contain mountain arid, parachute troops, but not exclusively.

Panzer armies arose from the panzer groups. In 1939- 40, ad-hoc panzer groups, usually named after their commanders, controlled panzer corps for specific operations. These groups were subordinate to army HQs. For example, in May 1940 Panzer Group Kleist contained two panzer corps and was under the command of the 12th Army. By 1941, panzer groups had become permanent HQs, independent of and equal to army HQs.

In 1941- 42, the Germans officially recognized this situation by renaming the groups armies. (The OB tracks the groups, as armies, from the first appearance of the permanent HQs.) Panzer armies at first controlled panzer corps but most also controlled one or more infantry corps, which often operated as "follow-up" troops during mobile operations. Once the Germans were forced on the defensive in the Soviet Union, panzer armies were little more than infantry armies with fancy names.

Almost all army HQs were German Army organizations. The SS and Luftwaffe eventually each had a "prestige" army HQ: the 6th SS Panzer Army and the Luftwaffe 1st Parachute Army. Neither army was composed exclusively of SS or Luftwaffe troops, and Army units in fact made up the majority of the troops.

The "army detachment" (Armee-Abteilung) was in theory a temporary detachment of army forces that operated like an army. In some cases, corps HQs would become army detachment HQs for a month, controlling a sector of the front and the corps there, and then resume their duties as corps HQs. In other cases, army detachment HQs would be formed around available commanders and would control sections of the front for long periods of times-sometimes eventually becoming official army HQs. Army detachments were used extensively in the Soviet Union, often formed in crises to patch together a front torn apart in a Soviet offensive. In the OB, only the more permanent army detachments are shown, as army HQs.

Army group HQs (Heeresgruppenkommandos) grouped two or more armies together and coordinated their operations. Almost all German forces in the field ultimately answered to one of the army group headquarters. (The exceptions consisted of single armies deployed in isolated areas: Army Norway in Norway, 20th Mountain Army in Lapland, and Panzer Army Africa in North Africa. These armies reported to the high command directly.)

The Germans also had a second type of army group, the army grouping (Armeegruppe). This was a temporary grouping 4f two or three armies, usually but not always includi0ig a German army and an army from another Axis nation, and was named after the grouping's commander. For example, Army Grouping Hoth existed in December 1942 and January 1943, over the German 4th Panzer Army and the Romanian 4th Army. Army groupings were strictly temporary formations and thus are ignored in the OB. Confusingly, Army Grouping Felber was called an "army grouping" but functioned the same as an army detachment.

On occasion, a "theater" HQ (Oberbefehlshaber, abbreviated Ob. or OB) coordinated two or more army groups operating in the same region. For example, Ob. West controlled Army Groups B and G in France and the Low Countries.

A theater HQ wasn't exactly a separate HQ like an army group. An army group itself could function as a theater HQ, for itself and any other army group assigned to the theater-sometimes the army group commander would be the theater commander, sometimes the theater would have a separate commander. Sometimes a theater would contain only a single army group, such Ob. Sudwest in Italy, coterminous with Army Group C.

As you can see, the Germans didn't run their war for the convenience of game players (or game designers!). What you'd think would be German "theaters" never had a theater HQ or commander. The glaring example is the German eastern front, which was run directly by the Army High Command, OKH. Other examples were Norway (run directly by the Wehrmacht High Command, OKW) and Africa (shared haphazardly by Germany and Italy).

Army group and theater HQs were all part of the German Army, although they had non-Army commanders on occasion. For example, the Luftwaffe's Field Marshall Kesselring commanded Army Group C and Ob. Sudwest. Kesselring , like most upper Luftwaffe officers, had joined that service from the Army and thus knew how to command field forces.

The same was not true for Himmler, head of the SS. In late 1944, the SS progressively gained control of many aspects of the Army. This led to Himmler becoming the nominal commander of army groups on occasion: Army Group Upper Rhine in late 1944 and Army Group Vistula in early 1945. Himmler had no field command experience and was an inept commander.

The army group HQ and the theater HQ were the final links in the chain of command connecting the field forces to the German High Command. (For a description of the high command, see the First to Fight Designer's Notes in issue #23's "Inside Europa.")

Inside Europa WWII German Field Command Headquarters

Historical Background
Europa Order of Battle: German Field HQs
Special Stacking Side