Organisation (January 1942): 6th, 26th, 110th, 161st and 256th Infantry Divisions; 1st Panzer Division; heavy artillery, Nebelwerfer, anti-tank and pioneer detachments In Operation Barbarossa, the VI Corps became part of Army Group Centre, to which it remained attached until the very final period of the war.

During the fighting in the Rzhev salient, the civilian population of the area suffered greatly from starvation, partly due to the requisition of stocks by the Wehrmacht, and disease.

Organisation (June 1944): 14th, 95th, 197th, 256th and 299th Infantry Divisions; Sturmgeschutz Brigade 281 On 22 June 1944, after a period of little activity along the front of Army Group Centre, the VI Corps was involved in the defence against the major Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration.

The few elements that retreated to the Berezina River were mostly trapped and annihilated in the subsequent encirclement east of Minsk, while the corps commander, General Georg Pfeiffer, was killed on 28 June.

The Corps took part in the improvised defence against the Russian strategic operations for the remainder of the summer.