9th Army ( Wehrmacht ) The 9th Army ( ) was a World War II field army . It was activated on May 15 , 1940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz in command . History . 1940 . The 9th Army first saw service along the Siegfried Line when it was involved in the invasion of France . It was kept as a strategic reserve and saw little fighting . 1941 . By 1941 , the Army was heavily strengthened and was deployed with Army Group Center for the invasion of the Soviet Union . In the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa the 9th Army formed the southern pincer of a massive encirclement of Soviet troops deployed at Białystok with the German 4th Army forming the northern pincer . It continued its advance where it launched another pincer movement of Soviet troops at Smolensk . Even though successful in encircling Soviet troops , due to the large distances it had to cover , many Soviet troops escaped the pockets . Hitler changed strategies and send the Panzer forces from Army Group Center to the northern and southern fronts to inflict severe economic damage to the Soviet Union . The 9th Army remained static from late July 1941 until October 1941 when Hitler finally decided to launch his long awaited attack on Moscow . In front of Moscow were two elaborate defensive lines , the first was 250 km long in front of Vyazma and the second on Mozhaysk . The 9th Army struck from the north out flanking the Vyazma defensive line and along with the 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies , and encircling Soviet forces at Vyazma . This would prove to be the last major encirclement operation launched by the 9th Army . The 9th Army was placed on the northern flank as the German 2nd , 3rd and 4th Panzer and 4th Army would spearhead the offensive on Moscow . However the attack failed due to the cold weather , deteriorating supply situation and stubborn Soviet resistance . The Germans suffered severe losses in men and large parts of the 9th Army ' s troops were reallocated to the other depleted German Armies . 1942 . The 9th Army remained in defensive positions in 1942 , dug in 200 miles outside of Moscow as the Germans concentrated their offensive in Southern Russia . As the tide of the battle turned in Southern Russia , the Soviets launched Operation Mars , a major offensive against Army Group Center . The well dug in positions of Army Group Center defeated the Soviet offensive with heavy casualties . 1943 . The Germans tried again in 1943 to regain the momentum in the Eastern Front by launching a massive pincer movement at the Kursk salient where 1 / 6th of all Soviet forces were deployed . The spearheads would be the German 9th Army and the 2nd Panzer Army from the north and the 4th Panzer Army along with Army Detachment Kempf from the south . The Soviets believed the heaviest blow would come from the north and massively reinforced the sector directly opposite 9th Army . By July 1943 , the 9th Army had become the largest army ever fielded by the Germans even surpassing the much vaunted 6th Army with 335 , 000 men along with 600 tanks . Leading the advance from the north , the 9th Army ran into powerful Soviet defenses , and it gained no more than 10 km on the first day . Walter Model ordered the capture of the key and heavily fortified Ponyri railway station , which was needed to continue the advance towards Kursk . However , the Soviets had massively reinforced the town ' s defenses , which meant the attackers took very heavy losses . After a week of ferocious fighting , the 9th Army had gained just 20 km . After being unable to breach the enemy lines , the army was then forced to deal with the Soviet offensive which if not checked could have encircled the entire 9th Army . It fought a fighting withdrawal westwards throughout the remainder of 1943 . 1944 . By 1944 , the 9th Army was exhausted , but it had received some badly needed reinforcements and was defending the area of Bobruisk in the first half of that year . On 22 June , the third anniversary of Operation Barbarossa , the Soviets began their colossal Operation Bagration whose overall objective was the destruction of Army Group Center . The 9th Army suffered nearly 80 , 000 casualties during Bagration of which 65 , 000 were taken prisoner . Nearly 40 % of the 9th Army was destroyed in the summer of 1944 . The army was then rebuilt by German units redeployed from Italy and was involved in the defence of Warsaw in autumn and winter of 1944 . 1945 . The Soviets began their invasion of Germany on January 12 , 1945 and forced the 9th Army to retreat all along the front until it was deployed westward to the river Oder . Three of the 9th Army ' s formations were tasked with defending the Seelow Heights , which was the last defensible region before Berlin . To the north was the CI Army Corps , in the centre General Helmuth Weidling ' s LVI Panzer Corps , and to south the of the Heights was the XI SS Panzer Corps . In addition south of Frankfurt ( which was defended by the Frankfurt Garrison ) was the V SS Mountain Corps . In total the 9th Army was reduced to 100 , 000 men and 800 tanks and assault guns against which the Soviets had over 1 , 000 , 000 men and 10 , 000 tanks and assault guns . The Battle of the Seelow Heights started on 16 April 1945 when Marshal Georgy Zhukov ' s 1st Belorussian Front attacked across the Oder . The 9th Army was able to hold the line for about 3 days . After very heavy fighting Weidling ' s LVI Panzer Corps was driven back towards Berlin . Most of the CI Army Corps divisions , now north of the salient created by the 1st Belorussian Front were reassigned to along with LVI Panzer Corps to Army Detachment Steiner which was tasked with counter - attacking and pinching off the salient – a fantasy created in Hitler ' s mind which was never possible . In the end Weidling ' s corps was driven back into Berlin and he was promoted to commander of the Berlin Defensive Area , reporting directly to Hitler . Theodor Busse and the rest of the 9th Army were driven into a pocket in the Spree Forest south of the Seelow Heights and west of Frankfurt . From inside the pocket east of Frankfurt Busse organised a breakout to the west to join up with the 12th Army . The breakout , known as the Battle of Halbe proved to be a very costly resulting in the destruction of the Ninth Army as a coherent force . The survivors of the 9th Army that were not killed , and did not surrender to the Soviets during the breakout , crossed the Elbe and surrendered to the US Army .