19th Flak Division

North Africa in June 1942, an 88 gun in combat mode

The 19th Flak Division was a major combat unit of the German Air Force in World War II .

Positioning and dismantling

The command staff of the 19th Flak Division emerged from the former staff of Flak Brigade VII and was set up in Greece at the beginning of August 1942 under the command of Lieutenant General Heinrich Burchard . Shortly after his statement of division headquarters to was Africa relocated to where the leadership of the Flakkräfte in the Panzer Army Africa to take over. To the division headquarters were the AA Regiment 102 and the AA Regiment 135 allocated.

In the course of the planned German-Italian advance into the Nile Delta , the division staff of the 19th Flak Division and its regiments in the El Alamein and El Daba ( Egypt ) area were used for anti-tank defense. However, the air defense was criminally neglected, so that the British air forces could operate almost unhindered. The problem could only be resolved to some extent with a good half of the anti-aircraft guns available. However, the planned advance of the Germans could u. a. will not be continued due to the precarious supply situation. Therefore, Rommel's units dug themselves into the desert sand.

With the start of the British attack in October 1942, the regiments of the 19th Flak Division were still in the advanced terrain and were used there to fight tanks. In the fierce skirmishes that followed with the British armed forces, contact with the German lines was completely broken off. Cut off from all supply lines, most anti-aircraft battery crews had no choice but to blow up the guns and then march to their own lines, provided they were not smashed. On January 8, 1943, Major General Gotthard Frantz took over the division.

With the beginning of the Tunisian campaign , the 19th Flak Division then took over the defense of the southern part of the Tunis bridgehead. The northern part was defended by the 20th Flak Division . There the division again achieved notable individual successes. As a result of the surrender of Army Group Africa by May 13, 1943, the divisional headquarters and the units subordinate to it fell into British captivity.

Reorganization and end of the war

As early as August 1943, a few months after the fall of the old 19th Flak Division, a new division staff was set up in Greece under the command of Colonel Paul Pavel in Athens . He was supposed to take over the command of all anti-aircraft forces in Greece and was subordinate to the Air Force Command Southeast . In November 1943 the division was divided as follows:

AA Regiment 58 room Iraklion - Platanos - Kastellion - Rhodes - Crete
Flak Regiment 91 area Greece and that
Anti-aircraft regiment 201 in the Athens area

With the withdrawal of the German Wehrmacht from Greece in September 1944, as a result of the Soviet advance into the Balkans , the regiments of the 19th Flak Division also withdrew towards Yugoslavia. The exception to this was the anti-aircraft regiment 58, which remained on Crete until the end of the war. The divisional headquarters and the two regiments 58 and 91 finally reached Croatia after heavy fighting in retreat . There the associations took over the security of the railway line Vienna - Graz - Marburg an der Drau - Agram for a short time with the headquarters in the latter location. On April 27, 1945, the division still had 41 heavy and 28 light batteries with a relocated command post in Admont , Upper Styria , where it remained together with Flak Regiment 91 and 210 until the end of the war.

Individual evidence

^ Karl-Heinz Hummel: The German flak cartillery 1935-1945. Your major formations and regiments . VDM, Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-048-1 , p. 92-93 .

[1] Karl-Heinz Hummel: The German flak cartillery 1935-1945. Your major formations and regiments . VDM, Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-048-1 , p. 92-93 .