What is a "Genkommando"

[waldo]

In looking at some OOB Ost for Feb 1915 I see references to "Stab" & "Genkommando".

"Stab" is used re divisions & I take it to mean the division HQ.

"Genkommando" is used re Armeekorps. Is this just another name for the corps HQ or not? If not, what is the function of the genkommando vis a vis the corps HQ?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on my question,

waldo

[Stoppage Drill]

General Kommando was the HQ which had authority over both the staff of the corps as a tactical formation, and also over the associated military district.

"Stab" just means "staff".

[AOK4]

In wartimes, the Generalkommando is the Corps HQ of the mobile Corps, the stellvertretendes Generalkommando stays behind in germany and is the HQ of the military district.

[waldo]

Thanks guys.

waldo

[bob lembke]

In looking at some OOB Ost for Feb 1915 I see references to "Stab" & "Genkommando".

"Stab" is used re divisions & I take it to mean the division HQ.

"Genkommando" is used re Armeekorps. Is this just another name for the corps HQ or not? If not, what is the function of the genkommando vis a vis the corps HQ?

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on my question,

waldo

Mostly answered, especially by the expert "AOK4", but a few comments. Genkommando I think is merely an abbreviation for Generalkommando, the name of the HQ of an army corps. (Pardon me, I am stuck in italics.) At the beginning of the war my grand-father was the "Id" in the Generalkommando of III. Reservekorps at the siege of Antwerp. (I think that an army had an Armeekommando.) Later, in Russia, mid-1915, my grand-father wrote that his army corps was going to be broken up. After that sometimes one division of the original corps might be on the Western Front, and the other on the Eastern Front. Later some army corps-level HQs were formed without being associated with specific divisions or regiments; at this time the entire situation became more fluid; there might be an army corps in line might have its infantry units rotated out for refit, while the staff and the artillery might stay in place and hook up with new fresh infantry units, while the former infantry rebuild themselves. Some of these new HQs had a different name, which I forget for the moment. Another HQ development was in the division. In 1914 German infantry divisions were "square" divisions of four infantry regiments, and had one divisional staff and two brigade staffs. About 1915-16 divisions changed to "triangular" divisions, with a divisional staff and no brigades, but the division retained one brigade staff, which I don't fully understand. It might serve as a reserve staff in case of a disaster (I recall cases of a HQ hit directly by a large shell, causing a disaster), or possibly provide a second staff to manage a few units sent off for detached duty. Possibly both purposes.