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4. Armee
4th Army
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Flag of the Staff of an Armee Oberkommando (1871?1918)
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Active
| 2 August 1914 ? 28 January 1919
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Country
|
German Empire
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Type
| Army
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Engagements
| World War I
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Abbreviation
| A.O.K. 4
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Military unit
The
4th Army
(
German
:
4. Armee / Armeeoberkommando 4 / A.O.K. 4
) was an
army
level command of the
German Army
in
World War I
. It was formed on mobilisation in August 1914 from the
VI Army Inspection
.
[1]
The army was disbanded in 1919 during demobilization after the war.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
At the outset of war, the 4th Army, with the
5th Army
, formed the center of the German armies on the
Western Front
, moving through Luxembourg and Belgium in support of the great wheel of the right wing that was to pin down and defeat the French armies. The 4th Army defeated Belgian forces on the
frontier
, drove the French out of the
Ardennes
and then encountered the
British Expeditionary Force
in the "
Race to the Sea
" at the
First Battle of Ypres
. The 4th Army faced the British in Flanders for the rest of the war, notably defending in the
Battle of Passchendaele
(1917), attacking in the 1918
German spring offensive
and finally being pushed back in the
Hundred Days Offensive
from August 1918.
At the end of the war it was serving as part of
Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht
.
[3]
Order of Battle, 30 October 1918
[
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]
By the end of the war, the 4th Army was organised as:
Noteworthy individuals
[
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]
Commanders
[
edit
]
The 4th Army had the following commanders during its existence.
[5]
Others
[
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]
The later
World War II
-era
Wehrmacht
general
Heinz Guderian
served as an assistant signals officer (initially as a
lieutenant
) at 4th Army HQ until his reassignment to the
German general staff
in 1918.
[6]
Glossary
[
edit
]
- Armee-Abteilung
or Army Detachment in the sense of "something detached from an Army". It is not under the command of an Army so is in itself a small Army.
[7]
- Armee-Gruppe
or Army Group in the sense of a group within an Army and under its command, generally formed as a temporary measure for a specific task.
- Heeresgruppe
or
Army Group
in the sense of a number of armies under a single commander.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Cron, Hermann (2002) [1937].
Imperial German Army 1914?18: Organisation, Structure, Orders-of-Battle
. Helion.
ISBN
1-874622-70-1
.
- Ellis, John; Cox, Michael (1993).
The World War I Databook
. Aurum Press.
ISBN
1-85410-766-6
.
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Numbered Armies
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Armee-Abteilung
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Named Armies
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Related
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