10th Flak Division

The 10th Flak Division was a major combat unit of the German Air Force in World War II .

history

Initially set up as Air Defense Command 10 in February 1941 in Ploesti ( Romania ) under the command of the later Lieutenant General Johann Seifert , Air Defense Command 10 was renamed the 10th Flak Division with effect from September 1, 1941. Seifert was in charge of the division until June 26, 1943, after which Major General Franz Engel was the successor, who held the command until the end of the war. Initially, the main task of the division was to protect the oil fields of Ploesti and the local transport facilities such as railway systems, etc.

In June 1941 the division was divided into the Flak Regiment 180 and the Flak Regiment 229 with a total of 20 heavy and 18 medium and light batteries . The division also had two headlight batteries. In March 1942, the 20th Flak Division was transferred to the Crimea , albeit without its previous regiments , where it was involved in the Battle of Sevastopol , among other things . It is no longer possible to determine which regiments you were subordinate to during this period. In May 1942, the 10th Flak Division was then in the space Kursk and in the section of Army Group B active. Their command post was in May 1942 in Kharkov . Within six months the regiments of the 10th Flak Division managed to destroy a total of 400 tanks and 210 aircraft by January 15, 1943. In July 1943, the 10th Flak Divisions were then subordinate to Flak Regiments 4, 7, 48, 77, 99, 153 and the Flak Kampfgruppe Köppen.

With this structure, the 10th Flak Division reached its largest deployment number, which then continuously decreased. In November 1943 only the flak regiments 77, 99 and 133 were subordinate to her. In the winter of 1943 her regiments were involved in the ground combat in the Kiev , Zhitomir and Cherkassy area , among other things . When the German Wehrmacht withdrew in 1944, the 10th Flak Division was relocated to the central section of the Eastern Front, where its new command post was Lemberg ( Ukraine ). As of September 1, 1944, the division was subordinate to the flak regiments 7, 48, 99 and 153.

As the war situation worsened, the command post had to be relocated to Krakow in January 1945 . The main task of the regiments subordinate to her was the defense of the Oder crossings in the Opole and Breslau area . On January 26, the 10th Flak Division was subordinated to the 11th Flak Division, which had to cede its units to the 10th Division. Both divisions together formed the Engel division group , which existed until February 1945. In the last division of the 10th Division on April 6, 1945, it still had the following forces:

Flak Regiment 48 ( Schweidnitz - Waldenburg )
Flak Regiment 106 (being refreshed)
Flak regiment 150 (included in the fortress of Wroclaw )
Flak Regiment 229 (Weidendorf)

In the last weeks of the war the 10th Flak Division was deployed in the 17th Army and on April 27, 1945 still had 37 heavy and 14 medium and light batteries . Flak regiments 48 and 229 fell into Soviet captivity at the end of the war. The anti-aircraft regiment 150 in the fortress Breslau went into Soviet captivity on May 6, 1945. The 106 Flak Regiment, which was being refreshed, was disbanded by its commander on April 28, 1945. There every member of the regiment was supposed to find their way west on their own.

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. 68, 69, 326, 364, 384 .

[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. 68, 69, 326, 364, 384 .