102nd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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102nd Infantry Division |
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| active | December 12, 1940 to May 5, 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Branch of service | infantry |
| Type | Infantry Division |
| structure | structure |
| Strength | 15,000 debit |
| Installation site | Groß Born military training area |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 102nd Infantry Division (102nd ID), the "Silesian", was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht . It was set up on December 12, 1940 at the Groß Born military training area as part of the 12th wave of deployment in Wehrkreis VIII from parts of the 8th Infantry Division and the 28th Infantry Division . By March 1941, the division was the XX. Army Corps and the 11th Army , then served as a reserve and at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa was assigned to the 9th Army , from the end of August 1943 to the 2nd Army .
history
Areas of application
- Germany: December 1940 to June 1941
- Eastern Front, Central Section: June 1941 to January 1945
- East Prussia: January to May 1945
Insinuation
- XX. Army Corps December 1940 to March 1941
- Reserve April 1941
- II Army Corps May 1941
- XXXXII. Army Corps June 1941
- XX. Army Corps June to August 1941
- XXIII. Army Corps September 1941 to July 1942
- VI. Army Corps August 1942
- XXXIX. Panzer Corps September 1942 to January 1943
- Reserve February 1943
- XXXIX. Panzer Corps March 1943
- XX. Army Corps April to July 1943
- XXXXVI. Panzer Corps August 1943
- LVI. Army Corps September 1943
- XX. Army Corps October 1943 to April 1944
- XXXX. Panzer Corps May to June 1944
- XXIII. Army Corps July 1944
- I. Cavalry Corps August to October 1944
- XXXXI. Army Corps November to December 1944
- XX. Army Corps January to March 1945
During the Russian campaign in June 1941, the division provided part of the extreme left north wing of Army Group Center . She was the XXXXII. Army Corps and the 9th Army . On June 28, 1941, together with other associations, it formed the Bialystok pocket . During the Taifun operation and the resulting double battle near Vyazma and Briansk , she secured the northern flank of the army unit. In December 1941 she reached the Seeliger See and stood shortly before Kalinin . In January 1942, the division was with associations of the XXII. Army corps at Lake Wolgastausee when the Soviet 29th and 39th armies moved south towards Rzhev. During the Battle of Rzhev it was tasked with holding the front line against Soviet attacks, and was involved in numerous bitter skirmishes on the Rzhev-Sychovka line. In July 1942 the 102nd Infantry Division was involved in the fight against partisans as part of the Seydlitz company . In the winter fighting of the Battle of Rzhev as part of Operation Mars , the German soldiers also encountered People's Army militias, which were recruited from the residents of the surrounding towns and, together with regular Soviet forces, maintained the pressure on the 9th Army from three sides. However, this offensive missed all of the military goals of the Soviet army command and resulted in great losses. On December 18, 1942, the report of the Wehrmacht High Command said: “In weeks of heavy defensive battles for Rzhev, the 102nd (Silesian) Inf.-Div. particularly proven ". At the beginning of January 1943 the division commander General Johannes Frießner received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .
After the "buffalo movement" in March 1943, the division was involved in the battle of Kursk and reduced to the strength of a combat group in the autumn of that year. In the spring of 1944, the division took on the survivors of the 216th Infantry Division and integrated them into its unit. At the beginning of Operation Bagration, the division still had a trench strength of 1,180 and an infantry strength of 4,703 men. In the summer of 1944 she managed to escape the annihilation of the entire Army Group Center by the Red Army in Belarus and got caught in a pocket in East Prussia . Parts of the division broke through to Western Pomerania in 1945 and fought as division group 102 until they capitulated to the Allies on May 5, 1945.
structure
Rules of engagement in December 1940
- 232 Infantry Regiment
- 233rd Infantry Regiment
- 235 Infantry Regiment
- Artillery Regiment 104
- Reconnaissance Department 102
- Panzerjäger detachment 102
- Engineer Battalion 102
- News Department 102
- Supply troops
Rules of engagement in January 1944
- Grenadier Regiment 84
- Grenadier Regiment 232
- Grenadier Regiment 216
- Fusilier Battalion 102
- Artillery Regiment 104
- Engineer Battalion 102
- Panzerjäger detachment 102
- Supply troops
people
Commanders
| Rank | Surname | period of service |
|---|---|---|
| Major general | John Ansat | December 10, 1940 to December 9, 1941 |
| Major general | Horst Grossmann | December 10, 1941 to January 21, 1942 |
| Major general | Albrecht Baier | February 1 to March 10, 1942 |
| Major general | Werner von Räsfeld | March 10 to April 30, 1942 |
| Major General / Lieutenant General | Johannes Frießner | May 1, 1942 to January 19, 1943 |
| Colonel | Otto Hitzfeld | January 20 to March 31, 1943 (in charge of the tour) |
| Major general | Otto Hitzfeld | April 1 to November 4, 1943 |
| Colonel | Werner von Bercken | November 10, 1943 to January 31, 1944 (in charge of the tour) |
| Major General / Lieutenant General | Werner von Bercken | February 1, 1944 to April 4, 1945 |
| Colonel | Ludwig | April 1945 |
General Staff Officers (Ia)
| Rank | Surname | period of service |
|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant colonel | Tschirdewahn | December 1940 to 1941 |
| major | Oskar Berger | October 10, 1941 to August 8, 1942 |
| Lieutenant colonel | Werner Müller | August 8, 1942 to April 14, 1943 |
| Lieutenant colonel | Wolf von Frankenberg and Ludwigsdorf | April 15, 1943 to November 30, 1944 |
| Lieutenant colonel | Kurt Schuster | December 15, 1943 to February 15, 1944 |
| Lieutenant colonel | Fritz Frenzel | November 30, 1944 to April 5, 1945 |
Other people
- Erich Mende (1916–1998), chairman of the FDP 1960/68, deputy to the Federal Chancellor 1963/66
- Franz Meyers (1908–2002), politician (CDU) and 1958/66 Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia
Awards
A total of 21 division members were awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and 112 with the German Cross in Gold.
| Rank | Surname | unit | Award date |
|---|---|---|---|
| major | Artur Schulz | Battalion Commander I.Btl./IR 233 | August 7, 1942 |
| Colonel | Konrad Barde | Regimental commander AR 104 | January 5, 1943 |
| major | Hans Drexler | Commander III. Btl./GR 232 | August 14, 1943 |
| Captain | Erwin Kunsch | Battalion Commander II.Btl./GR 232 | November 24, 1943 |
| Captain | Alfred Pandel | Battalion Commander I.Btl./GR 84 | December 19, 1943 |
| major | Wolfgang Lampp | Commander Field Replacement Battalion 104 | December 19, 1943 |
| lieutenant | Leo Cygan | Platoon leader 1.Kp./PiBtl. 102 | January 5, 1944 |
| Chief Sergeant in Arms | Karl Wolf | GR. 84 | Knight's Cross and Order of War Merit February 21, 1944 |
| Sergeant Major | Alfred Peters | Platoon leader 14.Kp./GR [Grp.] 348 | August 3, 1944 |
| Sergeant | Erich Matuschewitz | 2.Kp./GR 232 | September 30, 1944 |
| Sergeant Major | Walter Näfe | Platoon leader 5th Kp./GR 232 | October 4, 1944 |
| Private | Erhard Bauer | Troop leader 1.Kp./PiBtl. 102 | October 4, 1944 |
| First lieutenant | Ernst Neumüller | Leader 14. Panzerjäger-Kp. / Div.Grp. 216 | October 5, 1944 |
| Lieutenant General | Werner von Bercken | Division commander 102nd ID | October 23, 1944 |
| Flagjunker sergeant | Johann Maas | VB 12.Bttr./AR 104 | October 25, 1944 |
| major | Wilhelm Kilian | Battalion Commander Division Fusilier Btl. 102 | February 8, 1945 |
| Colonel | Fritz Klasing | Regimental commander GR 232 | RK with oak leaves February 19, 1945 |
| major | Erich Mende | Regimental commander GR 216 | February 28, 1945 |
| lieutenant | Eberhard Schmalz | Platoon leader Panzerjäger-Kp. 1102 | March 11, 1945 |
| Sergeant Major | Richard Isczinski | Platoon leader 3.Kp./Divisions-Füsilier-Btl. 102 | March 17, 1945 |
| Sergeant Major | Hermann Poppe | Platoon leader 13.Kp./GR 216 | March 23, 1945 |
| First lieutenant | Manfred Heidrich | Company commander 2.Kp./GR 232 | April 5, 1945 |
literature
- David M. Glantz : Counterpoint to Stalingrad. Operation Mars (November-December 1942): Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Defeat. June 1997 (online at mr-home.staff.shef.ac.uk)
- Horst Grossmann : Rshew. Cornerstone of the Eastern Front , Friedberg: Podzun-Pallas 1962.
- David Kahn : An Intelligence Case History: The Defense of Osuga, 1942 , in: Aerospace Historian, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter / December 1981): 242-252.
- Erich Mende: The damned conscience. Munich: Herbig 4th ed. 1999, pp. 271-350.
- Franz Meyers: Brave Silesians: With the 102nd Infantry Division in Russia. Prime Minister a. D. Franz Meyers, self-published, 1983.
- Robert Schumacher: It really was like that. A contemporary witness reports. Niebüll: Videel 2002.
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 6: The Land Forces. No. 71-130. 2nd Edition. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1979. VI, ISBN 3-7648-1172-2 .
Web links
- Horst Kasten: Draft for a "history of the 102nd ID" in particular about the Gren.-Rgt. 232 (from autumn 1940 to autumn 1942). (online at pkgodzik.de) (PDF; 1.3 MB)
- Peter Godzik : Helmut Godzik in the Eastern Campaign - Reports and Documents , 2012 (online at pkgodzik.de) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Werner Haupt : Moscow, Rshew, Orel, Minsk . Photo report of the Army Group mid-1941–1944. 1st edition. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag GmbH, Dorheim (Friedberg) 1978, ISBN 3-7909-0066-4 . , P. 8.
- ^ Franz Meyers: Brave Silesians… p. 78; see. on this David M. Glantz : Counterpoint to Stalingrad. Operation Mars (November-December 1942): Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Defeat. June 1997, p. 7 f. (online at mr-home.staff.shef.ac.uk)
- ↑ Changed his name to Carl Hardy Svenson after the war.
