25th Army (Wehrmacht)

25th Army (25. Armee)
Active	November 1944 – May 1945
Country	Germany
Branch	Heer
Type	Field Army
Engagements	World War II

21st Army Group operations, 1945. 25th Army is to the left.

The 25th Army (German: 25. Armee) was a World War II field army of the German Army.

History

The army was formed on 10 November 1944 in the Netherlands from the staffs of the Armed Forces Commander of the Netherlands and the "Kleffel" (previously known as "Narva") Task Force.^[2] The designation as "army" was for most of the command's existence a deception measure as it did not command more than three divisions until April 1945.

25th Army held the northern-most position of the German front line of the Western Front in late 1944 and 1945, with its right (western) flank anchored on the North Sea and its left (eastern) flank adjoining the 1st Parachute Army. Defending the western Netherlands along the Maas River from the North Sea to Arnhem,^[3] its primary opponent was First Canadian Army.

It was commanded successively by Friedrich Christiansen, Günther Blumentritt, and Philipp Kleffel. From November 1944 until April 1945, the 25th Army was subordinated to Army Group H and subsequently was transferred to the Northwest High Command (OB Nordwest) for the remainder of the war.

The surrender of German forces of the Northwest High Command to British 21st Army Group, including 25th Army, was signed on 4 May 1945 and took effect at 0800 on the following day.^[4]

References

1. Nafziger
2. Tessin, p. 221
3. Stacey, p. 446
4. Stacey, p. 610

Sources

• Stacey, C. P. (1960). The Victory Campaign, The Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationery, Ottawa.
• Tessin, Georg (1976). Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945 (Volume IV), Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück. ISBN 3-7648-1083-1.