Lone Sentry: TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces: Corps Area Responsibilities: Functions of the Corps Area: The German Military System

CHAPTER I. THE GERMAN MILITARY SYSTEM

Section V. FUNCTIONS OF THE CORPS AREA

2. Corps Area Responsibilities

The functions of the corps area headquarters in wartime may be divided into those which it performs as a territorial command and those which accrue to it as the deputy headquarters of a peacetime army corps which is now in the field. As a territorial command it is responsible to the Armed Forces High Command and has responsibilities affecting all three branches of the Armed Forces; in this capacity it is officially referred to as Corps Area Headquarters ... (Wehrkreiskommando ...). In its other capacity it is under the Army High Command alone and is referred to as Deputy Headquarters of the ... Army Corps (Stellvertretendes Generalkommando ... Armeekorps); as such it is responsible for the replacement training system for all the field units which are affiliated with it.

The following are the principal responsibilities of this combined headquarters:

Conscription of manpower, carried out through a system of conscription offices. (See Section VI of this chapter below.)

Training, conducted in training units which come under controlling staffs of regimental and division status and in military schools. (See Section VI.)

Replacement of personnel for the affiliated field units and formation of new units. (See Section VI.)

Local defense is provided for, in the first instance, by static units of various types, particularly the local defense battalions (Landesschützen-Bataillone), local construction units (Landesbaupioniere), and river guard units (Landespioniere). Such units are controlled by a special administrative division staff (Divisions-Kommando z.b.V.), of which one was set up in each corps area early in the war. They provide guards for vital installations and for prisoner of war camps and furnish personnel for local garrison battalions (Standortbataillone) and companies. In case of emergency the corps area commander has extraordinary powers over civilian agencies as well as the military units and installations in his territory; he may then, for example, issue orders to the provincial and local authorities, commandeer transport and supplies, and take any other steps necessary until outside help arrives.

Any General Headquarters units of the Field Army which are temporarily stationed in the corps area are controlled by the corps area headquarters through its special administrative division staff (Div. Kdo. z.b.V.) or other appropriate command channel.

Auditing of the accounts of all field units affiliated with the corps area is another responsibility.

All military personnel, regardless of their own unit affiliation, are subject to the curfews and other disciplinary regulations issued by the local garrison commander within the corps area. These regulations are enforced by a patrol service maintained by the corps area headquarters as well as by the garrison headquarters. In all territorial matters the corps area commander has a large degree of autonomy. He allots units to garrisons and determines the areas controlled by the garrison commanders. He also controls the Corps Area Administration (Wehrkreisverwaltung) and its subordinate administrative offices so far as their activity concerns the troops stationed in the corps area.

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