Panzer Brigade 106 Feldherrnhalle

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Panzer Brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle"

Troop registration number of the Panzer Brigade 106

Emblem of the PzBrig 106 FHH
active July 28, 1944 to 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service Armored force
Type brigade
structure structure
Commanders
list of Commanders

The Panzer Brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" was an armored combat unit of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . It was one of only 13 tank brigades and the only one that existed as an independent unit until the unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.

The brigade was named after the Feldherrnhalle in Munich , which was of particular symbolic value for the National Socialists since the Hitler putsch in November 1923.

Career

In July 1944, issued Army High Command, the command that for the Eastern Front 15 infantry - blocking divisions were set up and ten armored brigades, including the Panzer Brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" in Mielau and not with this to be confused Armored Brigade 110 "Feldherrnhalle" in Hungary.

Consequently, the Armored Brigade was 106 in Wehrkreiskommando I from the remains of at Army Group Center destroyed Panzer Grenadier Division "Feldherrnhalle" (early July 1944 in the area south-east of Minsk smash) and their replacement units from Elbing and Danzig on the military training area compiled Mielau. It consisted of:

  • Panzer division 2106 with 4 companies
  • Panzergrenadier Battalion 2106 with 5 companies
  • Brigade units (including engineer company) 2106

The tank brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" was mainly equipped with tanks of the "Panther" type.

Commanders

date commander
July 1944 to January 12, 1945 Colonel Franz Bäke
12.-24. January 1945 Major Bernhard von Schkopp
January 24 to February 3, 1945 Lieutenant Summer
February 3 to March 29, 1945 Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Drewes
March 29 to April 11, 1945 Captain Pohl
April 11 to May 8, 1945 First Lieutenant Ernst Matten

The deployment time for these units was very short given the precarious military situation on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1944 (including the large-scale Soviet offensive Operation Bagration and allied advances in the west - including D-Day ). Surprisingly, some of these newly established units were immediately ordered to the Western Front - including the Panzer Brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle". It was moved from Mielau to the Trier area on August 31, 1944 (arrival there on September 2, 1944).

structure

Structure of the PzBrig 106 FHH

Insinuation

Period Army Corps army Army Group Operational area
1944 August in list BdE East Prussia
September XIII. SS 1st Army G Luxembourg
October LXXXV 19th Army Kolmar / Alsace
Nov./Dec. LXIV
1945 January
February z. Author 15th Army B. Eifel
March z. Author 1st Parachute Army H Lower Rhine
April LXXXI 15th Army B. Ruhrkessel *

* The brigade is split up : some are taken prisoner , others can move north-east to the Elm , east of Braunschweig .

Use in the west

The tank brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" was the only tank brigade that was deployed as an independent unit at many focal points of the final phase of the Second World War in the west until the surrender in May 1945 .

All other tank brigades were gradually added to the various divisions in the last ten months of the war, partly also in dismantled form (including the tank brigade 110 "Feldherrnhalle", which was already part of the 13th Panzer Division ).

From September 1944, the brigade fought in the area between Luxembourg , Alsace-Lorraine and the Swiss border . It was always kept at the immediate disposal of the army (first the 1st and then the 19th) and only assigned to an association for a specific combat operation on command .

Some stops on the way were in September 1944: Aumetz, Château-Salins , Belfort ; in October: Col de la Grosse, Clairefontaine; in November: Badonviller, Schlettstadt ; in December: Kaysersberg, Wettolsheim. In January 1945: Richweiler, Sexau and finally in February: Untermünstertal and Denzlingen, where the loading towards Cologne was carried out until February 21st.

After the abandonment of the Alsatian bridgehead in January 1945 and the retreat across the Rhine , the tank brigade was transferred to Army Group B in February, on the orders of OB West , in the area west of Cologne, where it was deployed in the area from February 1945 until March of the Remagen bridgehead near Bonn with the 15th Army . Heavy fighting with the 78th US Infantry Division took place in Bad Honnef, Aegidienberg and Rottbitze in particular . Numerous US soldiers were killed in the fighting. The German casualty numbers are not known, but amount to around 1200–1500. However, the remnants of the tank brigade withdrew behind the Reichsautobahn and dispersed there. Finally, it was assigned to Army Group H , which meant that Panzer Brigade 106 in the 1st Parachute Army association north of Duisburg was deployed in the so-called Ruhr basin . Because of the fighting that took place there during the last days of the war, part of the brigade withdrew to the southern edge of the boiler and was split up in the final phase; With the surrender of Army Group B, parts of the brigade went into American captivity.

The end

The remaining part of the brigade moved to Großrhüden ( Harz ), from there to the Schwarzenbek area , where the unit was equipped with new tanks. March 16 to Lauenburg on the Elbe. On April 17, the remnants of Panzer Brigade 106 were placed under the newly established Clausewitz Panzer Division as Combat Group II. On April 18, breakthrough through opposing lines and subsequent march across the Lüneburg Heath .

Fallersleben was reached on April 21 , where a defective tank was blown up. On April 22nd, the division was in the Elm , a wooded ridge east of Braunschweig and was involved in heavy fighting with American troops near Langeleben .

The last tank of Panzer Brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" was finally blown up in a hopeless position by its commander, the two remaining tank crews then separated and went their own way.

This ended the story of Panzer Brigade 106 “Feldherrnhalle” on April 22, 1945 near a small village in the Elm, east of Braunschweig.

literature

  • Friedrich Bruns: illustrated book - an illustration about the tank brigade 106 "Feldherrnhalle" from the beginning until today. EA Celle o.J.
  • Friedrich Bruns: The last days. Documents about events at the end of the war and statements about events at that time. EA o. O., o. J.
  • Friedrich Bruns: The Panzer Brigade 106 FHH. A documentation about the deployment in the West from July 1944 to May 1945. 2nd supplementary edition, Celle 1988.
  • Friedrich Bruns: Our end in Alsace. A. Prehistory - A documentation about the final battle of the 19th Army in Alsace in 1945. EA Celle o. J.
  • Friedrich Bruns: Our end in Alsace. B. Allied Offensive - A documentation about the final battle of the 19th Army in Alsace in 1945. EA Celle o. J.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 14: The Land Forces. Name associations. The air force. Flying bandages. Flak deployment in the Reich 1943–1945. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1980, ISBN 3-7648-1111-0 .

Web links