Army Detachment Steiner (Armeeabteilung Steiner), was a temporary military unit, something more than a corps but less than an army, created on paper by German dictator Adolf Hitler on 21 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin, and placed under the command of SS Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. Hitler hoped that the units assigned to Steiner would be able to stage an effective counter attack against the northern pincer of the Soviet assault on Berlin. During the situation conference on the 22 April, when it became clear to Hitler that this attack was not going to happen, he fell into a tearful rage. He declared that the war was lost, he blamed the generals and announced that he would stay on in Berlin until the end and then kill himself. Hitler redirects here. ... April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Combatants Soviet Union Communist Poland Nazi Germany Commanders 1st Belorussian Front – Georgiy Zhukov 2nd Belorussian Front – Konstantin Rokossovskiy 1st Ukrainian Front – Ivan Konev Army Group Vistula – Gotthard Heinrici then Kurt von Tippelskirch[2] Army Group Centre – Ferdinand Schörner Berlin Defense Area – Helmuth Reymann then Helmuth Weidling #[3] Strength 2... SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski SS-Obergruppenführer patch SA-Obergruppenführer insignia Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA. Translated as Senior Group Leader, the rank of SA-Obergruppenführer was held by... This article or section is missing needed references or citation of sources. ... April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ...

On the second day of the Battle of Berlin, 17 April, General Gotthard Heinrici, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula, stripped Steiner's III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, (the Army Group's reserve), of its two strongest divisions, the SS Nordland Division and the SS Nederland Divisions. He placed them under the command of General Theodor Busse commander of the Ninth Army as he had most of the other units in the III Corps. The Nordland was sent to the join Helmuth Weidling's LVI Corps defending the Seelow Heights, to stiffen the sector held by the 9th Parachute Division. The Nederland Division was sent south-west of Frankfurt (Oder) and assigned to the V SS Mountain Corps, where it was destined to be destroyed in the Battle of Halbe.^[1] April 17 is the 107th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (108th in leap years). ... Gotthard Heinrici. ... The Army Group Vistula (also known as Army Group Weischel) was formed in 1945 to protect Berlin from the advancing Soviet armies marching from the Vistula river. ... The III.(gemanische) SS-Panzerkorps was a German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on the Eastern Front during World War II. The (gemanische) (lit. ... Kampfverband Waräger Germanische-Freiwilligen-Division SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 (Germanische) 11. ... SS-Freiwilligen Standarte Nordwest SS-Freiwilligen Verband Niederlande SS-Freiwilligen Legion Niederlande SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Brigade Nederland 4. ... General der Infanterie Theodor Busse (15 December 1897 in Frankfurt † 21 October 1986 in Wallerstein). ... The German Ninth Army (German: ) was a World War II field army. ... General Helmuth Weidling was the German officer who surrended Berlin to the Soviet forces in the final stages of world war two. ... The Seelow Heights were the scene of the bloodiest battle on German soil during the Second World War. ... The German 9th Parachute Division was one of the final parachute divisions to be raised by Germany during World War II. The division was destroyed during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945. ... Frankfurt (Oder) ( Sorbian/Lusatian: Frankobord ) is a city in Brandenburg, Germany located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the city of Słubice. ... Combatants Third Reich Soviet Union Commanders Theodor Busse Ivan Konev Strength 80,000 280,000 Casualties 30,000 killed 25,000 Captured up to 10,000 civilian dead 20,000 killed The Battle of Halbe lasted from April 24 to May 1, 1945. ...

Heinrici ordered the III Corps, reduced to three battalions and a few tanks, to scrape together whatever forces it could find to set up a screening line along the Finow Canal to protect the southern flank of the Third Panzer Army from an attack by the Soviet Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front which had broken through the Seelow Heights' defences and was encircling Berlin.^[2][3] The German Third Panzer Army (German: ) was a German panzer army that saw action during World War II. The Third Panzer Army was a constituent of Army Group Centre and fought in the Battle of Moscow in late 1941 and early 1942. ... Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgi Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (Russian: Гео́ргий Константи́нович Жу́ков) (December 1, 1896 - June 18, 1974), Soviet military commander and... The 1st Belorussian Front (alternative spellings are 1st Byelorussian Front and 1st Belarusian Front) was a Soviet Army Front during the Great Patriotic War. ... Combatants Germany Soviet Union Commanders Gotthard Heinrici Georgy Zhukov Strength 100,000 men 512 Tanks 344 artillery pieces 400 Anti-aircraft guns 1,000,000 men 3,155 Tanks 16,934 artillery pieces Casualties 12,000 Killed 33,000 Killed The Battle of the Seelow Heights was one of the...

By 21 April, Adolf Hitler, ignoring the facts, started to call the ragtag units that came under Steiner's command "Army Detachment Steiner". He ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the huge salient created by the 1st Belorussian Front's breakout while the Ninth Army which had been pushed south of the salient was to attack north in a pincer attack. To facilitate this attack Steiner was assigned the three divisions of the Ninth Army's CI Army Corps, the 4th SS Police Division, the 5th Jäger Division, the 25th Panzer Grenadier Division — all were north of the Finow Canal^[4] — and Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps which was still east of Berlin with it's northern flank just below Werneuchen.^[2][3] April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... Hitler redirects here. ... In military terms, a salient is a battlefield feature that projects into enemy territory. ... Werneuchen is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, in the district of Barnim northeast of Berlin within the metropolitan area. ...

The three divisions to the north were to attack south from Eberswalde (on the Finow Canal and 24 kilometres (fifteen miles) east of Berlin) towards the the LVI Panzer Corps, so cutting the 1st Belorussian Front's salient in two. Steiner called Heinrici and informed him that the plan could not be implemented because the 5th Jäger Division and the 25th Panzer Grenadier Division were deployed defensivly and could not be redeployed until the II Naval Division arrived from the coast to relieve them. This left only only two battalions of the 4th SS Police Division were available and they had no combat weapons. Heinrici called Hans Krebs Chief German General Staff of (OKH), told him that the plan could not be implemented and asked to speak to Hitler, but was told Hitler was too busy to take his call.^[2][3] Eberswalde is a major town and the administrative seat of the district Barnim in the German Federal State (Bundesland) of Brandenburg, about 50 km northeast of Berlin. ... General of Infantry Hans Krebs (4 March 1898, Helmstedt - d. ... The chief of staff is the chief aide to the commander of larger military formations and units. ... The German General Staff or Großer Generalstab was the most important German weapon for nearly two centuries. ... The Oberkommando der Heeres (OKH) was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. ...

When, on 22 April, at his afternoon conference Hitler became convinced that Steiner was not going to attack he fell into a tearful rage. He declared that the war was lost, he blamed the generals and announced that he would stay on in Berlin until the end and then kill himself.^[5][6] After 22 April "Army Detachment Steiner" was little mentioned in the Führerbunker.^[7] April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... This is a reconstruction of the layout of the Führerbunker. ...

See also

• Eleventh SS Panzer Army, was part of Army Group Vistula and was under the command of Steiner while it was fighting east of the Oder River during February 1945. The Eleventh was assigned to OB West and reorganized (and given the command of new units) for combat against the Western Allies in March 1945. Steiner remain in command of the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps and it remain in Army Group Vistula transferring from the Eleventh to Third Panzer Army. As Steiner also commanded the Eleventh army during 1945, it can easily be confused with Army Detachment Steiner.

The Eleventh SS Panzer Army ( ) was not much more than a paper army formed between November 1944 and February 1945 by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler while he was commander of Army Group Vistula. ... The Army Group Vistula (also known as Army Group Weischel) was formed in 1945 to protect Berlin from the advancing Soviet armies marching from the Vistula river. ... The Oder River (Czech/Polish: Odra, German: Oder, Ancient Latin: Viadua, Viadrus, Medieval Latin: Odera, Oddera) is a river in Central Europe. ... The Western Allies were the democracies and their colonial peoples, within the broader coalition of Allies during World War II. The term is generally understood to refer to the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations (from 1939), exiled forces from Occupied Europe (from 1940), the United States, (from 1941), Italy... The German Third Panzer Army (German: ) was a German panzer army that saw action during World War II. The Third Panzer Army was a constituent of Army Group Centre and fought in the Battle of Moscow in late 1941 and early 1942. ...

References

• Beevor, Antony. Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88695-5
• Ziemke, Earl F. Battle For Berlin: End Of The Third Reich, NY:Ballantine Books, London:Macdomald & Co, 1969.

Footnotes

1. ^ Beevor p.141
2. ^ ^{a b c} Beevor p.267-268
3. ^ ^{a b c} Ziemke pp.87-88
4. ^ To assign units on the far side of an enemy salient from their own command to that of the local command is not unusual. For example in the Battle of the Bulge General Eisenhower reassigned the US First and US Ninth armies on the north side of the salient to the 21st Army Group (also on the north side), because it was now fighting side by side with the armies of the 21st Army Group, while its parent army group (the 12th) was on the south side of the salient with the rest of the 12th's armies.
5. ^ Beevor p.275
6. ^ Ziemke p.89
7. ^ Beevor p.298