page_title: LIV Army Corps (Wehrmacht)
section_title: September 1941
hierarchical_section_title: LIV Army Corps (Wehrmacht) / History / LIV Army Corps, June 1941 – February 1944 / September 1941
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Erich von Manstein Generalmajor Erich von Manstein, Kommandeur der 18. Division. [Erich von Manstein (Porträt)] Abgebildete Personen: Manstein, Erich von: Generalfeldmarschall, Ritterkreuz (RK), Heer, Deutschland (PND 11857731X)
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: On 12 September, Eugen Ritter von Schobert was killed in action while performing his duties as commander of 11th Army. He was killed when his Fieseler Fi 156 plane attempted to land on ground that happened to contain a freshly deployed Soviet minefield. 
  He was subsequently replaced by Erich von Manstein, who as the new commander of the 11th Army now also oversaw the activities of LIV Army Corps. Manstein arrived at his new headquarters in Mykolaiv on the mouth of the Bug river on 17 September 1941.
  Under Manstein's supervision, the 11th Army broke through the Red Army defenses at the Isthmus of Perekop starting on 24 September 1941. In this assault, the LIV Army Corps served as the main assault force against the Perekop position and were supported by German artillery formations as well as by aerial units of Luftflotte 4. According to the plan, the LIV Army Corps was to achieve the initial breakthrough, with the XXXXIX Mountain Corps as well as the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler standing by to rush through the breach. The Romanian Third Army (Dumitrescu) was on defensive duty on the Ukrainian mainland to plug holes left open by German troops moving into Crimea. At this point, with Bessarabia reclaimed, the Romanians were politically and militarily careful to overcommit to the Ukrainian campaigns now that their principal war aim was fulfilled. Regardless, Manstein would later note in his memoirs that Dumitrescu's personal loyalty had greatly enhanced the joint German-Romanian cause in southern Ukraine.
  The attack on Perekop that started on 24 September 1941 was not perfectly smooth, however. With the 73rd Infantry Division on the right and the 46th Infantry Division on the left, LIV Army Corps advanced into Soviet defenses in almost completely flat terrain. Although the LIV Army Corps enjoyed strong artillery and air support, the Soviet defenses were still in a decent position and reasonably well-constructed, including a remarkable trench and tunnel system that connected the towns of Perekop and Preobrazhenka and through which Soviet infantry and supplies could move underground. Furthermore, there was a trench on the neck of the isthmus, dubbed the Tartar Wall by the German attackers. This trench, some twen to fifteen meters deep, was the main line of Soviet defense and was held by the Soviet 156th, 271st and 276th Rifle Divisions.
  In response, German engineers advanced under the cover of smoke and employed demolition charges and hand grenades against the trenches and bunkers. Losses among the German engineers were high. The German advance across the Tartar Wall and past the defenders north of Armyansk took three days. By then, the Stuka attacks by Luftflotte 4 had taken a significant toll on the number and morale of the Soviet defenders. After the Germans dislodged the defenders from Armyansk, the Tartar Wall was broken; a counterattack by the Soviet 5th Tank Regiment was successful in breaching the German lines, crossing the Tartar Wall and reaching the rear of Germany's 73rd Infantry Division, but this counterattack was fought back using artillery attacks and air strikes. The Soviet armored formation was not enough to reclaim the Tartar Wall line. With the Tartar Wall secure, the Germans had crossed the isthmus, but were now in no position to actually penetrate the breach they opened. The 1st SS Panzer Division, which Manstein initially had intended to be used for this penetration, was now called back to stand by for orders from 1st Panzer Group (von Kleist) that was preparing to attack towards Rostov-on-Don. Furthermore, the losses sustained by the 46th and 73rd Infantry Divisions were substantial.
  The situation was further complicated by a counter attack by units of the Soviet Southern Front that struck against the units of the 11th Army from a position between the Dniepr and the Sea of Azov. The 9th, 12th and 18th Soviet Armies started an offensive against the Germans on 26 September 1941, starting the Battle of the Sea of Azov. This offensive scored considerable initial successes and threatene
caption: Erich von Manstein, commander of the 11th Army between September 1941 and November 1942.
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