At the beginning of the war in September 1939, the Corps, under the leadership of General Werner Kienitz, was assigned to the 14th Army in south Poland with the 44th and 45th Infantry Division.

During the second phase of the Western campaign, XVII Corps was transferred in June 1940 to the 12th Army and deployed for the attack on the Aisne.

When Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, commenced on 22 June 1941, XVII Corps, supplemented by the 56th and 62nd Divisions, was positioned on the Northern wing of the 6th Army.

In late 1943 and early in 1944 the corps was forced to retreat through Bessarabia in northern Romania and were then transferred to the Bukovina region as part of the 8th Army.

In late 1944, after the destruction of the 6th Army in the Jassy region, XVII corps had to undertake a fighting retreat to take up a defensive position in Hungary.