The Twelfth Army

The German Twelfth Army had fought in France in 1940. From there, Hitler had positioned them for combat in the Balkans. They had been sent to western Romania in late 1940. One obstacle that would have to be solved was the lack of suitable bridges across the Danube for the army to move through Bulgaria quickly. Ice in the Danube river further complicated the situation. The plan had been for the German engineer units to build additional bridges, but the ice impeded that work so only three were completed. One bridge was damaged by a storm, so the movement into Bulgaria was delayed. The changing political situation in Yugoslavia necessitated additional forces to be used, so the twenty divisions of the 12th Army were augmented by the Second Army. This is based on the account in Vol.II of the Australian Official History.