(right, holding map) in Warsaw during the invasion of Poland, 1939 To prepare for the German
invasion of Poland beginning
World War II in 1939, Weichs was appointed head of his own Army Corps "Weichs". After the Polish surrender, he was made Commander-in-Chief of the
2nd Army, a part of
Gerd von Rundstedt's
Army Group A in the West. After the
Battle of France, he was awarded the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and promoted to
Generaloberst. Leading his army, Weichs later took part in the
Balkans Campaign, where on May 19th, shortly after the capitulation of Yugoslavia, he ordered a target reprisal ratio of one hundred Serbs to be killed for each German soldier wounded by
Yugoslav Partisans. In preparation for
Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he was assigned to lead the
2nd Army as a part of
Fedor von Bock’s
Army Group Centre. He led the 2nd Army in 1941 through the
Battle of Kiev, the
Battle of Smolensk, and then on to
Vyazma and Bryansk. with Weichs in France, June 1940 In 1942, for
Fall Blau, Weichs was assigned to lead the newly created
Army Group B. Army Group B was composed of
Salmuth's
2nd Army,
Hoth’s
4th Panzer Army, and
Paulus's
6th Army. In addition to the German armies, Army Group B included the
2nd Hungarian Army,
8th Italian Army, the
Third and the
Fourth Romanian Armies. The
6th Army was assigned to take the city of
Stalingrad and cover approximately 800 km of front. The Soviet
Operation Uranus broke through the
Romanian armies on his flanks, cutting off the 6th Army inside Stalingrad. Suggesting retreat, Weichs fell out of Hitler’s favor. Consequently, parts of Army Group B were taken away from the command of Weichs and incorporated into a new "Army Group Don", led by
Erich von Manstein. Later in February, the remaining part merged with the Don Group into a newly reinstated Army Group South, also led by Manstein. Weichs was relieved of command. Weichs was promoted to
Generalfeldmarschall on 1 February 1943. In August 1943, Weichs was appointed commander of
Army Group F in the
Balkans directing operations against local
partisan groups. From August 1943, Weichs was also
OB Südost, commander-in-chief of German-occupied Greece and the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Albania and Thrace). His headquarters were first in Belgrade and, from 5 October 1944, in Vukovar. In April 1944, Weichs was appointed the commander of all German troops in Hungary. In late 1944, he oversaw the German retreat from Greece and most of Yugoslavia. == Post-war years ==