11th Air Force Field Division
The 11th Air Force Field Division was a military association of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War.
Division history
The 11th Air Force Field Division was formed in October 1942 from excess Luftwaffe personnel on the Munster military training area from the Flieger Regiment 21 ( Heiligenbeil , Hilversum ) and, after the training was completed, from January 1943 on the Aegean Islands as an occupation unit for the 12th Army deployed. From March 1943 the division was subordinate to Army Group E. The area of responsibility of the division changed from the commander of the German troops in Crete (February to April), then to the commander of southern Greece and in September 1943 to the 11th Italian Army.
On November 1943 the division was transferred to the army and from then on as “11. Field Division (L) ”. When the island of Leros was captured at the end of 1943, parts of the division were involved. In February 1944 he was relocated to the Megara region for operations against partisans . The division stayed there until August. From September 1944, the division withdrew from the Balkans via Macedonia (in the Macedonia Defense Area ), Serbia (first subordinated to the XXII. , Then to the XXXIV. Army Corps ) and Croatia (first to the XXXIV. Army Corps, then to the LXXXXI. Army Corps ).
At the beginning of 1945 the division was on the southern section of the Eastern Front . It was not officially dissolved and the troops were taken prisoner in Yugoslavia .
structure
- Luftwaffe Jäger Regiment 21 (with three battalions), later Jäger Regiment 21 (L)
- Air Force Jäger Regiment 22 (with three battalions), later Jäger Regiment 22 (L)
- Luftwaffe Artillery Regiment 11 (with four battalions), later Artillery Regiment 11 (L)
- Luftwaffe Panzerjäger Division 11
- Air Force Engineer Battalion 11th
- Air Force Bicycle Company 11
- Air Force News Company 11
Commanders
- Major General / Lieutenant General Karl Drum : from the establishment to November 1943
- Colonel Alexander Bourquin : from November 1943 to December 1943
- Major General / Lieutenant General Wilhelm Kohler : December 1943 to November 1944
- Major General Gerhard Henke : November 1945 until the end of the war
literature
- Kevin Conley Ruffner: Luftwaffe Field Divisions 1941-1945 , Osprey Publ., Oxford 1990. ISBN 1-85532-100-9 , pp. 17, 33, 38.
- Samuel W. Mitcham (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume Two: 291st - 999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 309 + 310.
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . ES Mittler & Sohn , Frankfurt, 1965, pp. 200, 201 + 216.
