286th Security Division (Wehrmacht)
286. Security Division |
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Troop registration |
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active | March 15, 1941 to December 17, 1944 |
Country | German Empire |
Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
Armed forces | army |
Branch of service | Security force |
Type | Fuse division |
structure | Security Regiment 61 Security Regiment 122 III./Polizei-Regiment 8 II./Artillerie-Regiment 213 |
Location | Altkirch , military district VIII |
Second World War |
War against the Soviet Union |
management | |
List of commanders | Commanders |
The 286th Security Division was a German Infantry Division of the Army in World War II in the VIII Military District.
Division history
The division was formed from March 15 to May 1941 mainly from the 213rd Infantry Division and Landwehr units, was subordinate to the " Commanding General of the Security Forces and Commander in Army Area Center" of Army Group Center and was assigned to the IV Army Corps . The division differed from all the other army's security divisions in terms of deployment because it was equipped with an additional regiment and thus comprised a total of three regiments.
The division was used throughout the war mainly in the Soviet Union in the area of the Belarusian city of Orsha . There was also the headquarters of the association, which was used for security tasks in the rear army area. At that time, security tasks were understood to mean the fight against partisans and the support of the SS units commissioned with the extermination of Belarusian Jews. The division was seldom used as a closed unit, but mostly in regiments or groups. Due to the range of tasks, members of the division were often involved in war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union .
The Division's Security Regiment 2, together with the Police Regiment Center and the 221st Security Division in the area around Klitschew , carried out an operation against partisans from September 10 to 12, 1941. During the Battle of Moscow in 1941/42, the division took on security tasks behind the front line and was available to the army advancing with Army Group Center, but was not deployed.
In May 1943, the division was part of the von Gottberg combat group and was jointly responsible for the murder of around 10,000 to 20,000 people, known among other things as the "Cottbus" company . The division was used against partisan units later at the end of 1943 together with the Kaminski Brigade . During the Soviet operation Bagration , the division was largely destroyed in late June 1944.
The division was re-established in the Osowiec-Twierdza area on the upper Narew from the remains of the division and other security troops of the IV Army . On December 17, 1944, the unit, which was being reorganized, was relocated to Memel in East Prussia and reclassified to the 286th Infantry Division , as there was no longer any need for security divisions due to the loss of almost all of Soviet territory. Due to the Soviet offensive in East Prussia that began on January 12, 1945 (→ Vistula-Oder Operation ), the deployment and training were no longer completed. The association got involved in the fighting for East Prussia and was smashed in February 1945 near Neukuhren in East Prussia.
During the Minsk Trial in 1946, division commander Johann-Georg Richert was sentenced to death for war crimes committed by the division in Belarus.
structure
For installation
- Infantry Regiment 354, from October 1942 subordinated to the 403rd Security Division as Grenadier Regiment 354
- Security Regiment 61
- Backup Regiment 122
- III./Police Regiment 8
- II./Artillerie-Regiment 213, from parts of the Infantry Regiment 354
- Division units 286
Additional registration September / November 1943
- Eastern Battalion 601
- Eastern Battalion 605
- East Rider Squadron 286
- East Supply Company 354
Commanders
- Lieutenant General Kurt Müller (1882–1942): March 1941 to June 1942
- Major General Johann-Georg Richert : June 1942 to March 1943
- Major General Dipl.-Ing. Hans Oschmann (1894–1944): November 1943 to August 1944, previously commander of the 174th Reserve Division
- Lieutenant General Friedrich-Georg Eberhardt : August 1944 to December 1944
Well-known members of the division
- Major General Rudolf Bächer (1880–1947): as commander of Artillery Regiment 213 from March 1941 to August 1941
- Colonel Heinrich Scherhorn : assigned to the division's staff and later as commander of the 36th Security Regiment (subordinated to the division from mid-1942 to early 1943, then to the 221st Security Division ), was taken prisoner by the Soviets in June 1944
literature
- Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. Pp. 335 + 336, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .
- Nafziger, George F. (2000). The German Order of Battle Infantry in World War II; Greenhill Books, p. 305.
- Dieter Pohl: The rule of the armed forces. German military occupation and local population in the Soviet Union 1941–1944. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-596-18858-1 .
Web links
- 200th through 370th German Infantry, Security, and Panzer Grenadier Divisions. Organizations and Histories 1939–1945 ( Memento from February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 461 kB), Nafziger Collection, Combined Armed Research Library.
- 286th Security Division / 286th Infantry Division on EHRI portal from the Federal Archives
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Norbert Kannapin: The German field post: Organization u. Location 1939-1945 . Biblio-Verlag, 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1169-2 , p. 98 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 11, 2018]).
- ↑ Werner Haupt: The Germans before Moscow: 1941/42; Pictorial chronicle of a battle of failed strategy . Dörfler, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89555-528-2 , pp. 195 ( google.de [accessed on May 22, 2020]).
- ↑ Hannes Heer and Birgit Otte, Hamburg Institute for Social Research (eds.): War of Extermination: Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944 . Hamburger Edition, 1996, ISBN 3-930908-24-7 , pp. 170 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 11, 2018]).
- ^ Heinz Kühnrich: The partisan war in Europe 1939-1945 . Sn, 1968, p. 171 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 11, 2018]).
- ^ Rolf Michaelis : The Kaminski Brigade: Combating Partisans in Russia, Belarus, Warsaw . Michaelis-Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-930849-24-0 , p. 142 ff . ( Limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed October 11, 2018]).