11th Flak Division

The 11th Flak Division was a major combat unit of the German Air Force in World War II .

Positioning and renaming

On April 1, 1940, the high command of the fortress anti-aircraft artillery III was set up in the area of the already occupied part of northern France . The commanding officer was Major General Helmut Richter . On February 1, 1941, this command staff was expanded and was given the new designation of Air Defense Command 11 . Richter remained in command even after the command received its final designation 11th Flak Division on September 1, 1941 .

The Air Defense Command 11 or the later 11th Flak Division was entrusted with the management of the flak forces in western occupied France. For the first few months, it is no longer possible to determine which units you were specifically subordinate to in which operating area. The first clear structure of the 11th Flak Division was only known with the transfer of the division headquarters with an intermediate station in Marseille to Avignon on April 15, 1943 . At that time it consisted of Flak Regiment 69 and Flak Regiment 89 in Marseille and Flak Regiment 653 in Narbonne . On November 1, 1943, later Lieutenant General Erich Kreßmann took over the division.

On January 9, 1944, the division staff, without the subordinate regiments, was removed from its previous field of activity and given to the Luftgau Belgium-Northern France . There was from the previous division staff until March 1944, the General Command of III. Anti-aircraft corps formed. During this time Kreßmann resigned as division commander.

Reorganization and end of the war

On September 8, 1944, the 11th Flak Division was reorganized. The new division staff was set up by the colonel and later major general Oskar Kraemer . The primary task of the division was to lead the flak forces in the area of Luftgaukommando VIII in the greater area of the Upper Silesian industrial area and the later fortress of Breslau . The division was subordinate to the following regiments:

Flak Regiment 54 as Flak Group Oberschlesien-Süd
Flak regiment 106 as Flakgruppe Oberschlesien-West
Flak Regiment 107 as Flak Group Upper Silesia East
Flak Regiment 150 as Flakgruppe Breslau
Flak searchlight regiment 84 as the Flak searchlight group Upper Silesia

Shortly before the start of the Soviet offensive in January 1945, the 11th Flak Division had 142 heavy and 16 medium and light batteries . There were also 4 fog companies. Of these, 22 heavy batteries and 2 fog companies were in the Auschwitz area .

As early as January 17, 1945, all of the division's semi-mobile guns had to be used for anti-tank missions in ground combat. The stationary anti-aircraft guns fought until January 28, 1945 and were then blown up. Before that, the 11th Flak Division was tactically subordinated to the 10th Flak Division on January 26, 1945 , as this had already been tried in ground combat, but had lost most of its flak batteries on the Oder front by the end of January . On January 30, 1945, the 11th Flak Division gave up all of its remains.

The division command was moved to Frankfurt (Oder) in order to take over the leadership of the flak forces in the Fürstenberg - Stettin area under the Reich Air Fleet Command . On February 8, 1945, the subordinate regiments were surrendered, the division was subordinated to Air Fleet Command 6 and the division headquarters were relocated to Berlin . On February 12, the divisional headquarters with the command post in Friedeck took over the leadership of the flak forces in the Mährisch-Ostrau area ( Czech Republic ) to protect the industrial areas there.

With the last known structure of April 4, 1945, the 11th Flak Division comprised Flaksturm Regiment 2, Flak Regiment 80 and Flak Regiment 153, which together at the end of April 1945 still had 40 heavy and 22 medium and light batteries.

Oskar Kraemer, division commander and meanwhile promoted to major general, committed suicide on May 11, 1945. Nothing is known about the fate of the remainder of the division command and the three subordinate regiments at the end of the war.

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. 70-72 .
^ Karl-Heinz Hummel: The German flak cartillery 1935-1945. Your major formations and regiments . VDM, Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-048-1 , p. 294, 367, 442 .

[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. 70-72 .

[2] Karl-Heinz Hummel: The German flak cartillery 1935-1945. Your major formations and regiments . VDM, Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-048-1 , p. 294, 367, 442 .