October 1941, when the First Panzer Army had been formed, it was a large army consisting of four corps, several infantry, panzer, motorized, mountain, and SS divisions, along with a Romanian army and some Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Slovak divisions. By the spring of 1944, the First Panzer Army had shrunk considerably, consisting of only three corps, two infantry, four panzer, and one SS division. After July 1944 it retreated from Ukraine and Poland before fighting with Army Group A in Slovakia (Battle of the Dukla Pass). 1945 During its existence, from October 1941 to May 1945, the First Panzer Army spent its entire time on the Eastern Front. In the spring of 1945, the First Panzer Army's main task was to defend the Ostrava region in the north of Moravia, which was at the time the last large industrial area in the hands of Third Reich. There the First Panzer Army was facing the advance of 4th Ukrainian Front from the north-east (Ostrava-Opava Operation, 10 March – 5 May 1945) and had lost most of its heavy and medium tanks. At the same time however the Panzer Army was flanked by the 2nd Ukrainian Front from the south (Bratislava-Brno Operation, 25 March – 5 May 1945). German defensive lines finally collapsed in the early hours of Prague Offensive. The staff of First Panzer Army, along with other commands subordinated to Army Group Center, surrendered to the Soviet forces on 9 May 1945 in the area of Deutsch-Brod, while the remnants of its Panzer-units were scattered and captured all the way from Olomouc to Vysočina Region. Its last commander was general Walter Nehring, who abandoned his staff and fled south to surrender to the American forces. Commanders Chiefs of the general staff Generalmajor Kurt Zeitzler (creation – 24 April 1942) Generalmajor Ernst-Felix Fäckenstedt (24 April 1942 – 15 March 1943) Generalmajor Walther Wenck (15 March 1943 – 15 March 1944) Generalmajor Carl Wagener (15 March 1944 – 5 November 1944) See also Battle of Uman Kamenets-Podolsky pocket Notes References Barnett, Correlli. Hitler's Generals. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989. P1 Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945