Army Detachment Steiner

Army Detachment Steiner (German: Armeeabteilung Steiner), also referred to as Army Group Steiner (German: Armeegruppe Steiner) or Group Steiner (German: Gruppe Steiner), was a temporary military unit (Armeegruppe-type), mid-way in strength between a corps and an army, created on paper by Adolf Hitler on 21 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin, and placed under the command of SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. Hitler hoped that the units assigned to Steiner would be able to stage an effective counterattack against the northern pincer of the Soviet assault on Berlin, but Steiner refused to attack upon realizing the units were inadequate. His force was made up of some soldiers, Hitler Youth teenagers, emergency Luftwaffe ground personnel, and Kriegsmarine dockworkers. The only tanks available were approximately a dozen captured French tanks from 1940. It was the failure of this offensive that led Hitler to admit out loud for the first time that Germany had lost the war.