Army Detachment Steiner
| Army Detachment Steiner | |
|---|---|
| Active | 21 April – May 1945 |
| Country |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Allegiance |
 Wehrmacht Waffen-SS
|
| Branch | Army |
| Size | more than a Corps but less than an Army |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Obergruppenfuhrer Felix Steiner |
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 counterattack against the northern pincer of the Soviet assault on Berlin. In the event, Steiner realised that the forces under his command were inadequate, and refused to attack.
On the second day of the Battle of Berlin, 17 April, Generaloberst 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 Division. He placed them under the command of General der Infanterie Theodor Busse, commander of the Ninth Army, as Busse had most of the other units in the III Corps. The Nordland was sent to join Helmuth Weidling's LVI Panzer 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.
...
Wikipedia