Army Group South

Army Group South Heeresgruppe Süd
Briefing at the headquarters of Army Group South at Poltava on 1 June 1942
Country	Germany
Branch	German Army Group
Engagements	World War II Invasion of Poland Operation Barbarossa Operation Blue
Commanders
Notable commanders	Gerd von Rundstedt Erich von Manstein

World War II

Gerd von Rundstedt

Army Group South (German: Heeresgruppe Süd) was the name of two German Army Groups during World War II. It was first used in the 1939 September Campaign, along with Army Group North to invade Poland. In the invasion of Poland Army Group South was led by Gerd von Rundstedt and his chief of staff Erich von Manstein. Two years later, Army Group South became one of three army groups into which Germany organised their forces for Operation Barbarossa. Army Group South's principal objective was to capture Soviet Ukraine and its capital Kiev.

Ukraine was a major center of Soviet industry and mining and had the good farmland required for Hitler's plans for the Lebensraum ('living space'). Army Group South was to advance up to the Volga River, engaging a part of the Red Army and thus clearing the way for the Army Group North and the Army Group Center on their approach to Leningrad and Moscow respectively.

To carry out these initial tasks its battle order included the First Panzer Group (Gen. Kleist) and the German Sixth (Gen. Reichenau), Seventeenth (Gen. Stulpagel) and Eleventh Armies (Gen. Shobert), Luftlotte 1 (Keller) and the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies.