The corps was originally formed, as the XXXXI Corps, on 5 February 1940 in
Wehrkreis VIII (
Silesia) as "Armeekorps (mot)". Reorganised as a Panzer Corps, it was known as the XXXXI Panzer Corps and was commanded by
General Georg-Hans Reinhardt. In the May 1940
Battle of France, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was one of the three Panzerkorps that broke through the
Ardennes in the
Battle of Sedan and drove west to the sea at
Abbeville. In June 1941, the XXXXI Panzer Corps was deployed on the
Eastern Front for
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. It defeated the Soviet
3rd Mechanised &
12th Mechanised Corps in the
Battle of Raseiniai in late June, which destroyed more than 300 Soviet tanks and led the advance of
Army Group North to the outskirts of
Leningrad in October. It was reorganised in 1942, becoming part of the
2nd Panzer Army of
Army Group Centre. The XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at
Bely, in the
anti-partisan operations at
Nikitinka,
Yartsevo,
Vyazma, and
Dukhovshchina. In March 1943, the corps fought at
Smolensk,
Kromy, and
Bryansk. In April 1943, it fought in
Sevsk and
Ponyri. Later, the XXXXI Panzer Corps fought at the
Battle of Kursk. During this period it transferred several times between the
9th and 2nd Panzer Armies. In June / July 1944 the corps was almost destroyed during the Soviet summer offensive,
Operation Bagration, and required complete rebuilding. As part of the reconstructed
4th Army, it faced the
East Prussian Offensive during January 1945. After a week of heavy fighting, its divisions were encircled in the
Heiligenbeil pocket on the
Baltic coast, where they were destroyed in March. The corps headquarters were evacuated by sea to northern Germany and were placed under the
12th Army under General
Walther Wenck. On May 7 it surrendered to US troops at
Tangermünde with the rest of the
12th Army. ==Commanders==