104th Jäger Division (Wehrmacht)

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104th Jäger Division

Troop registration number of the 104th Jäger Division

Troop registration
active April 1, 1943 as the 704th Infantry Division surrendered until May 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry division
Butcher Partisan war in Yugoslavia
Battle of the Sutjeska

The 104th Jäger Division was a major unit of the Wehrmacht .

history

On April 15, 1941, the division was set up in Serbia as the 704th Infantry Division . It was part of the 15th wave of deployment . Between 1941 and 1943, the division operated mostly under the command of the military commander in Serbia as an occupation force.

On April 1, 1943, the reclassified in the 104th Jäger Division with simultaneous placement under Army Group E . During the battle of the Sutjeska , the division could not prevent the outbreak of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army .

With Army Group E, the division went to Greece as an occupation force from July 1943 , where it was distributed to the Greek islands . From November 1944, Army Group F carried out the Belgrade operation and the division withdrew via Serbia to Croatia . In March 1945 the division was involved in the Lake Balaton offensive.

Most of the troops were captured by Yugoslavia near Celje in May 1945 .

War crimes

The occupying divisions 704th Infantry Division, 707th Infantry Division , 714th Infantry Division , 717th Infantry Division, and 718th Infantry Division were responsible for a variety of war crimes in the occupied territory.

Parts of the 104th Jäger Division were involved in the massacre on Kefalonia at the end of September 1943 , in which 5,200 soldiers from the Italian "Acqui" division died.

Commanders

704th Infantry Division
104th Jäger Division
  • April 1, 1943 Lieutenant General Hartwig von Ludwiger
  • April 29, 1945 Lieutenant General Friedrich Stephan

structure

704th Infantry Division 104th Jäger Division
724 Infantry Regiment 724th Hunter Regiment
734 Infantry Regiment 734th Hunter Regiment
Artillery Division 654 Artillery Regiment 654
Cycling Company 704 Reconnaissance Department 104
- Panzerjäger detachment 104
Engineer Battalion 704 Engineer Battalion 104
News Department 704 News Department 104
Divisional Supply Leader 704 Divisional Supply Leader 104

literature

  • Crimes of the Wehrmacht. Dimensions of the War of Extermination 1941–1944. Exhibition catalog, Hamburg 2002, pp. 550–557.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 6. The Land Forces 71-130 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1172-2 .

Well-known members of the division

  • Adalbert Lontschar : Commander of the 724 Infantry Regiment, hanged as a war criminal in Yugoslavia after the end of the war

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle, Volume 2: 291st-999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in World War II. Stackpole, 2007. pp. 250f.