The
5th Army was a field army of Imperial Germany during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
and of the Wehrmacht during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In August 1914 the command of 5th Army was assigned to
Crown Prince Wilhelm of GermanyFrederick William Victor Augustus Ernest of the House of Hohenzollern was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire. He was colloquially known as William or Wilhelm.- Early life :...
, heir to the Hohenzollern throne, with General Schmidt von Knobelsdorf serving as his Chief of Staff, and would remain thus until late 1916. The opening hostilities on the
Western FrontWestern Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the "contested armed frontier" between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West...
saw the Crown Prince's 5th Army, along with the neighboring 4th Army (commanded by
Albrecht, Duke of WürttembergAlbrecht, Duke of Württemberg was a German Generalfeldmarschall and head of the Royal House of Württemberg...
), acting at the center of the
Schlieffen planThe Schlieffen Plan was the German General Staff's early 20th century overall strategic plan for victory in a possible future war where it might find itself fighting on two fronts: France to the west and Russia to the east. The First World War later became such a war with both a Western Front and...
attack into Belgium and France.
The
5th Army was a field army of Imperial Germany during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
and of the Wehrmacht during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
World War I
In August 1914 the command of 5th Army was assigned to
Crown Prince Wilhelm of GermanyFrederick William Victor Augustus Ernest of the House of Hohenzollern was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire. He was colloquially known as William or Wilhelm.- Early life :...
, heir to the Hohenzollern throne, with General Schmidt von Knobelsdorf serving as his Chief of Staff, and would remain thus until late 1916. The opening hostilities on the
Western FrontWestern Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the "contested armed frontier" between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West...
saw the Crown Prince's 5th Army, along with the neighboring 4th Army (commanded by
Albrecht, Duke of WürttembergAlbrecht, Duke of Württemberg was a German Generalfeldmarschall and head of the Royal House of Württemberg...
), acting at the center of the
Schlieffen planThe Schlieffen Plan was the German General Staff's early 20th century overall strategic plan for victory in a possible future war where it might find itself fighting on two fronts: France to the west and Russia to the east. The First World War later became such a war with both a Western Front and...
attack into Belgium and France. On 21 August, 1914, in what became known as the
Battle of the ArdennesThe Battle of the Ardennes was one of the opening battles of World War I. It took place from August 21-23, 1914, part of the Battle of the Frontiers.-Background:...
, 4th and 5th Armies advanced into the
ArdennesThe Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and old mountains formed on the Givetian Ardennes mountains, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
to counter a thrust by the French 3rd and 4th Armies. Over the next two days 5th Army played a major part in halting the opposing French forces. By 23 August, after taking heavy losses and being outmaneuvered strategically, the two French armies were driven into retreat. Following the German 5th Army's victory in the
Battle of the ArdennesThe Battle of the Ardennes was one of the opening battles of World War I. It took place from August 21-23, 1914, part of the Battle of the Frontiers.-Background:...
it moved to
VerdunVerdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....
, where it would remain until 1918. In February 1916 the Crown Prince’s 5th Army would launch
Operation GerichtOperation Gericht was the code name for the German military plan at Verdun during World War I. It was designed by German General Erich von Falkenhayn. The Battle of Verdun was one of the two greatest infantry battles of the war, an exclusively Franco-German struggle lasting 10 months and tallying...
, the German offensive that begun the
Battle of VerdunThe Battle of Verdun was one of the critical battles during World War I on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February to 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France...
, one of the bloodiest and longest battles in history. Late in 1916, after suffering terrible losses in its efforts at
VerdunVerdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....
, General
Max von GallwitzMax Karl Wilhelm von Gallwitz was a German general from Breslau , Silesia, who served with distinction during World War I on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.-Biography:...
assumed control of 5th Army. Before the close of the war 5th Army fought in several noteworthy actions, including the
Battle of Saint-MihielThe Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a World War I battle fought between September 12 - 15, 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Force and 48,000 French troops under the command of U.S. general John J. Pershing against German positions. The United States Army Air Service played a significant role...
, in September 1918, when it was defeated by the
American Expeditionary ForceThe American Expeditionary Forces or AEF was the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France along side British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
under
John J. PershingGeneral of the Armies John Joseph Pershing, Honorary GCB; September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948, was a general officer in the United States Army. Pershing is the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the Armies General of the...
. The Fifth Army continued to oppose the AEF's
Meuse-Argonne OffensiveThe Meuse-Argonne Offensive, also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I that stretched along the entire western front. The whole offensive was planned by Marshall Ferdinand Foch to breach the Hindenburg line and ultimately force the...
until the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
World War II
The 5th Army (German:
5. Armee) was activated on August 25, 1939 with General Kurt Liebmann in command. It acted in defence of the
Siegfried LineThe original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defenses built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I...
(German:
Siegfriedstellung) in the west before seeing operations in Poland. It acted as an occupied security force before disbanding on the Polish surrender.
Commanders
- General Kurt Liebmann (August 25 1939 - November 4 1939)