page_title: LIV Army Corps (Wehrmacht)
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: LIV Army Corps (Wehrmacht) / History / LIV Army Corps, June 1941 – February 1944 / Formation
caption_attribution_description: Axis Invasion of the Soviet Union, 22 June to 25 August 1941.
context_page_description: The LIV Army Corps was a Wehrmacht army corps during World War II. It was formed in June 1941. After February 1944, it was upgraded to an command equivalent in rank but not in name to an army, something that the Wehrmacht dubbed an army detachment. It operated under the following names:
  Under its initial name LIV Army Corps, it was active between June 1941 and February 1944.
  It was renamed Army Detachment Narva on 2 February 1944.
  It was again renamed and became Army Detachment Grasser on 25 September 1944.
  It was redesignated again in October 1944, becoming Army Detachment Kleffel.
  The officer staff of Army Detachment Kleffel was dissolved and its personnel used to form a full-fledge army-level command, the 25th Army, on 10 November 1944.
context_section_description: The LIV Army Corps was formed on 1 June 1941 as a reserve staff under supervision of the DHM (German: Deutsche Heeresmission), the German military mission in Romania. Its creation had been ordered on 4 April 1941. 
  The initial commander of LIV Army Corps was Erick-Oskar Hansen, who would hold that office until 20 January 1943. The German DHM in Romania was one of two army deployments by Germany that were initially intended for noncombat circumstances, next to the German military mission in Finland. Hansen was previously the head of the DHM, but had only little faith in Germany's Romanian allies. Hansen described the Romanian units as 'useless for difficult offensive actions'. The creation of LIV Army Corps was part of the immediate preparation for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Unternehmen Barbarossa. Romania, under the leadership of Ion Antonescu, had agreed to take part in the invasion. Romania would provide four divisions and six brigades to the initial invasion force, with another nine divisions and two brigades in reserve. Furthermore, the Romanian government allowed German units like the LIV Army Corps to operate from Romanian territory.
  The LIV Army Corps was part of 11th Army (von Schobert), which was in turn a part of Army Group South under Gerd von Rundstedt, who had already led Army Group South during the Invasion of Poland. The initial divisions of the LIV Army Corps were the 50th Infantry Division and the 170th Infantry Division.
caption: The plan of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa. The 11th Army, which the LIV Army Corps was part of, is second from the bottom.
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