A German Kampfgruppe (plural Kampfgruppen, abbreviated KG or KGr) in the Second World War was an ad-hoc, temporary combined-arms battlegroup formed by the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, or other German forces from available infantry, panzer, artillery, pioneer, reconnaissance, and support elements—often drawn from different divisions, corps, or even services such as the Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine—to accomplish a specific tactical or operational mission, ranging from a few days to several months; rooted in late First World War Sturmtruppen tactics and formalized in interwar doctrine that emphasized flexibility and mission-oriented command (Auftragstaktik), these formations varied widely in size from company- or battalion-level groups of a few hundred men to brigade- or even division-sized forces of several thousand, and were typically named after their commander (e.g., Kampfgruppe Peiper under SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper during the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944, or Kampfgruppe Scherer that held the Kholm Pocket for 105 days in early 1942). Employed extensively on every front, they enabled rapid local breakthroughs, counterattacks, defensive stands, or anti-partisan operations when formal units were depleted, overstretched, or fragmented—examples include the motorized Kampfgruppen that spearheaded advances during the 1940 Western Campaign and Operation Barbarossa, the improvised groups that sealed the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket or fought at Kharkov, the Kampfgruppe Das Reich reconstituted from remnants of the 2. SS-Panzer-Division, and the mixed formations such as Kampfgruppe Spindler that helped contain the British airborne bridgehead at Arnhem in September 1944. Their strength lay in the German army’s ability to improvise cohesive fighting units under experienced officers who coordinated armor, infantry, and supporting arms on the fly, often achieving disproportionate results despite shortages of men, fuel, or heavy equipment in the later war years; however, the same improvisational nature sometimes led to logistical strain, uneven quality, or involvement in war crimes (as with elements of Kampfgruppe Peiper at Malmedy), and by 1944–45 hundreds of such groups were documented as the Wehrmacht increasingly relied on them to plug gaps, conduct delaying actions, and prolong resistance amid collapsing fronts until final surrender.
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KAMPFGRUPPE SCHERER (1942)
Generalleutnant
Theodor Scherer (1889-1951) was born on 17 September 1889 in Höchstädt
an der Donau, Bavaria, and began his military career on 14 July 1908 as a
Fahnenjunker in the 12. Infanterie-Regiment „Prinz Arnulf“ of the
Bayerische Armee, receiving his commission as Leutnant in 1910; during
the First World War he served on the Western Front, was captured by the
British in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, later interned in
the Netherlands, and released after the armistice, thereafter leaving
the army on 30 August 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
and joining the Bavarian Landespolizei, rising to Oberstleutnant der
Polizei by 1935 before re-entering the Wehrmacht that November in the
same rank and serving as Bataillonskommandeur and later Kommandeur of
Infanterie-Regiment 56, then as Oberst and Kommandeur of
Infanterie-Regiment 507 during the Western campaign of 1940, where he
led an assault across the Marne and earned the Spange to both classes of
the Eisernes Kreuz. Promoted to Generalmajor in November 1940, he
briefly commanded Adolf Hitler’s headquarters at the OKH in Zossen from
March to September 1941 before assuming command of the 281.
Sicherungs-Division on 1 October 1941 for rear-area security duties
against partisans in the occupied Soviet Union; in January 1942, when
Soviet forces and partisans attacked and encircled German units at Kholm
(Cholm), Scherer took charge of the ad-hoc Kampfgruppe Scherer,
initially some 3,500 men drawn from elements of his division, police
companies, and other stragglers that later grew to around 5,000–6,000,
organizing improvised defenses without heavy artillery or adequate
supplies amid severe winter conditions, repeatedly repelling superior
Soviet assaults, coordinating limited aerial resupply and wounded
evacuations, and holding the pocket for 105 days until relief forces
linked up on 5 May 1942. For his leadership during the first month of
the siege he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 20
February 1942 as Generalmajor and Kommandeur of the 281.
Sicherungs-Division, and following the successful relief he received the
Eichenlaub (92nd award) on 5 May 1942, along with a mention in
the Wehrmachtbericht and the newly created Cholmschild for the
survivors; subsequently promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 November 1942,
he commanded the 34. Infanterie-Division and then the 83.
Infanterie-Division (which suffered heavy losses at Velikiye Luki),
later served as Inspekteur des Küstenschutzes for the Eastern Front, and
at the war’s end directed field-gendarmerie units in the Elbe sector
before entering captivity, dying in a car accident near Ludwigsburg on
17 May 1951.
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KAMPFGRUPPE FEGELEIN (1942)
SS-Gruppenführer
Hermann Fegelein (1906-1945) was born on 30 October 1906 in Ansbach and
began his career in 1925 with the Reiter-Regiment 17 before joining the
Bavarian State Police and transferring to the SS in 1933, rising
rapidly through equestrian units to command the Haupt-Reitschule München
and later the SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte, which evolved into the
SS-Kavallerie-Brigade deployed on the Eastern Front. As
SS-Standartenführer and Führer of the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade under the
XXIII. Armee-Korps of the 9. Armee in Heeresgruppe Mitte, he received
the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 2 March 1942 for his leadership
in the fighting around Rzhev, where from late January 1942 the brigade
held a sector against breakthroughs, then on 5 February attacked and
captured the road junction and station at Tschertolino against superior
forces, followed by a night assault on 9 February that destroyed an
enemy group of over 1,800 men, and the seizure of Jersowo on 14 February
that enabled the final annihilation of the encircled Soviet forces
southwest of Rzhev. In December 1942, as SS-Oberführer commanding
Kampfgruppe Fegelein in the great bend of the Don with Heeresgruppe B,
he earned the Eichenlaub on 22 December 1942 after launching a personal
counterthrust with staff elements and Sturmgeschütze against a Soviet
penetration into a gap in his lines, defeating the attackers in close
combat, sealing the breach, and on a reconnaissance thrust capturing a
Russian corps headquarters including its commanding general, chief of
staff, and operations documents, though he was twice wounded by snipers
on 21 and 22 December. Appointed commander of the 8.
SS-Kavallerie-Division “Florian Geyer” in May 1943 and promoted to
SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS, then later
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS, Fegelein received
the Schwerter on 30 July 1944 for the division’s successes near
Orel, extensive anti-partisan operations in the Pripet Marshes during
summer 1943 including Operations Weichsel, Zeithen and Seydlitz, and
defensive fighting south of Kharkov in late summer 1943, where between
26 August and 15 September the division repulsed five assaults of divisional
strength and about eighty-five of battalion strength, notably around
Bespalowka and Bol’shaya Gomol’sha. After severe wounds in September
1943 he became Waffen-SS liaison officer at the Führerhauptquartier,
married Gretl Braun on 3 June 1944, was lightly wounded in the 20 July
bomb plot, and on 28 April 1945 was arrested in civilian clothes in
Berlin, court-martialed for desertion, and executed by firing squad in
the garden of the Reichskanzlei.
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KAMPFGRUPPE MIKOSCH
Generalleutnant Hans Mikosch (1898-1993) was born on 7 January 1898 in Kattowitz and volunteered for the Imperial German Army in 1914, serving as a pioneer officer and receiving a commission as Leutnant after two years of combat in the First World War before leaving the military in 1920 to join the police. He returned to the Heer on 15 October 1935 as Hauptmann, was promoted to Major in 1936 and to Oberstleutnant in 1939, and from October 1937 commanded Pionier-Bataillon 51, leading it in the invasion of Poland and later in the Westfeldzug. On 10 May 1940 his battalion advanced through fortified and heavily defended Belgian positions to relieve the Fallschirmjäger who had landed on Fort Eben-Emael, enabling the definitive German capture of the fort; for this action he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 21 May 1940 as Oberstleutnant und Kommandeur of Pionier-Bataillon 51. Promoted to Oberst in 1942, he commanded Pionier-Regiment 677 and later Pionier-Regiment-Stab z.b.V. 677 while also leading Kampfgruppe Mikosch on the Eastern Front. After the Soviet Operation Uranus, his Kampfgruppe retreated from the Kalatsch bridgehead to the Chir railway station on 24 November 1942 and was subordinated to the 384. Infanterie-Division, holding positions near Werch-Tschirskij in the Chir-Don triangle for four weeks against repeated Soviet tank and infantry assaults. On 14 December 1942 the Soviet 7th Tank Corps broke through with thirty tanks into the village itself, yet Kampfgruppe Mikosch destroyed twenty enemy tanks despite losing nearly all its anti-tank weapons and thereby prevented the Soviets from rolling up the entire Chir defensive front westward, actions for which he was awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 6 March 1943 as Oberst und Kommandeur of Pionier-Regiment-Stab z.b.V. 677 und Führer einer Kampfgruppe im Raum Stalingrad. He later temporarily commanded the 10. Panzergrenadier-Division from October to December 1943, then the 13. Panzer-Division until May 1944, receiving promotion to Generalmajor in January 1944, served as commandant of Boulogne and Higher Pionier Commander, and ended the war as Generalleutnant responsible for fortifications in East Prussia and leader of another Kampfgruppe Mikosch near Königsberg. Captured by Soviet forces on 8 April 1945, he remained a prisoner until 1955 and died on 18 January 1993 in Reichshof.
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KAMPFGRUPPE STRACHWITZ (1944)
Generalleutnant
der Reserve Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche (1893-1968), known
as the "Panzergraf", was born on 30 July 1893 in Groß-Stein in Upper
Silesia into an old Silesian noble family and entered the Prussian
military academies before joining the Garde du Corps as a Leutnant,
serving with distinction as a cavalry officer in the opening weeks of
the First World War until his capture by the French in October 1914.
After the war he led a Freikorps in the Upper Silesian uprisings of
1921, for which he received the Schlesischer Adler, and later managed
the family estates while joining the NSDAP and SS in the early 1930s.
Recalled to active service with the Panzerwaffe at the outbreak of the
Second World War, he participated in the invasion of Poland and the
Battle of France before transferring to the 16. Panzer-Division. As
Major der Reserve and Kommandeur of the I. Abteilung/Panzer-Regiment 2
he earned the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 25 August 1941 for
decisive actions that contributed to the closing of the Uman pocket and
the seizure of key junctions such as Perwomaisk. Promoted to
Oberstleutnant der Reserve he received the Eichenlaub on 13 November
1942 as the 144th recipient for his Abteilung’s outstanding performance
during the advance on Stalingrad, including the destruction of large
numbers of Soviet tanks near Kalach and being among the first German
troops to reach the Volga north of the city. As Oberst der Reserve and
Kommandeur of the Panzer-Regiment Großdeutschland he was awarded the
Schwerter on 28 March 1943, the 27th such award, for the regiment’s
successes in the Third Battle of Kharkov, particularly the recapture of
Belgorod. On 15 April 1944, while commanding a Panzer-Kampfgruppe
under Heeresgruppe Nord on the Narva front, he received the Brillanten
as the 11th recipient for leading a mixed Panzer and Sturmgeschütz force
through difficult terrain to break Soviet encirclements and restore the
defensive line. Promoted to Generalmajor der Reserve and later
Generalleutnant der Reserve, he continued to lead panzer formations
until the end of the war, after which he lived as a landowner and
military adviser until his death on 25 April 1968 in Prien am Chiemsee.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampfgruppe
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/unstoppable-strachwitz/
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