XXXIX Panzer Corps ( Germany ) The XXXIX Panzer Corps ( , also previously designated the " XXXIX . Armeekorps ( mot ) " ) was a German panzer corps which saw action on the Western and Eastern Fronts during World War II . Wartime service . 1940 . The Corps ( whose home station was Gotha in " Wehrkreis " IX ) was formed ( as the " XXXIX . Armeekorps " ) in 1940 for the German invasion of France , in which it was successively part of " Gruppe " Guderian , the Second and First Armies . 1941 . Organisation ( June 1941 ) : 20th , 96th , and 254th Infantry Divisions , 8th and 12th Panzer Divisions In June 1941 the Corps was assigned to Army Group Centre for Operation Barbarossa , Nazi Germany ' s invasion of the Soviet Union . It initially attacked towards Vilnius and was then involved in the first Battle of Minsk . By August , it was assigned to Army Group North for the attack on Leningrad . 1942 . Organisation ( October 1942 ) : 78th and 102nd Infantry Divisions ; 1st Panzer Division , 5th Panzer Division Late in the year the Corps was reorganised as the " XXXIX . Panzerkorps " . It was shifted to the Rzhev salient , under the Ninth Army of Army Group Centre , where it was involved in extremely heavy fighting . 1943 . Army Group Centre evacuated the Rzhev salient early in 1943 . During the autumn , the Corps took part in the defence against Operation Suvorov , withdrawing to positions east of Mogilev . 1944 . Organisation ( June 1944 ) : 12th , 31st , 110th and 337th Infantry Divisions ; " Panzergrenadier Division Feldherrnhalle " ( reserve ) During June 1944 the XXXIX Panzer Corps took part in the defence against the Soviet summer offensive , Operation Bagration ; covering the strategically important highway through Mogilev , it was one of the strongest corps in the Army Group at the time , with four high - quality divisions . Soviet breakthroughs to the north and south saw the Corps threatened with encirclement within a matter of days , while the 12th Infantry Division was trapped in Mogilev and lost . The corps commander , General Robert Martinek was killed on 28 June and his replacement Otto Schünemann , was killed the following day . The Corps disintegrated at the Berezina crossings as its columns attempted to cross the river under heavy air attack ; nearly all its units were destroyed by the 2nd Belorussian Front in the subsequent encirclement east of Minsk . The commanders of the 110th , 12th , 31st and " Feldherrnhalle " Divisions , von Kurowski , Bamler , Ochsner , and von Steinkeller , were all captured . Remnants of the Corps were amalgamated with an " ad hoc " battle group based on the 5th Panzer Division and commanded by Dietrich von Saucken . Renamed " XXXIX . Panzerkorps " , it defended Minsk and then conducted a fighting withdrawal against subsequent stages of the Soviet strategic offensive through Belarus , Poland and Lithuania , ending up in the Courland Pocket . During this period , the rebuilt Corps was reinforced with the 4th and 12th Panzer Divisions as well as the Panzergrenadier Division Großdeutschland , taking part in Operation Doppelkopf . Late in the year it was redeployed to East Prussia before being reorganised and withdrawn for use in Operation " Wacht am Rhein " , the German offensive through the Ardennes . It was assigned to Hasso von Manteuffel ' s Fifth Panzer Army . 1945 . After the defeat of the Ardennes offensive in the Battle of the Bulge , the Corps was redeployed against the Soviet offensives in Pomerania as part of the newly - organised Eleventh SS Panzer Army , Army Group Vistula . It was employed in Operation Solstice , the failed counter - offensive at Stargard against the spearheads of the 1st Belorussian Front . On 27 March the Corps was thrown into a disastrous counter - attack to relieve the fortress of Küstrin , and was almost entirely destroyed .