125th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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125th Infantry Division |
|
|---|---|
 Association badge |
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| active | October 1940 to April 1944 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Type | Infantry division |
| structure | See outline |
| Installation site | Münsingen military training area |
| Nickname | "Wiesel Division" |
| Second World War | German-Soviet War |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 125th Infantry Division (125th ID) was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II . It is unofficially known as the "Wiesel" division.
Division history
The division was set up in October 1940 as part of the 11th wave of deployment on the Münsingen military training area in military district V. For this purpose, charges of one third each of the 5th , 260th and 25th motorized infantry divisions were used. After completing the formation, she was used in April 1941 in the occupation of Yugoslavia as part of the Balkan campaign , where she was a member of the 2nd Army attacking from the north .
At the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union , the division was initially as a reserve of the 17th Army of Army Group South tracked. At the beginning of July she was subordinated to the IV Army Corps and transported directly to the front line near Ternopol . In the first two months of the fighting in Ukraine , during which it took part in the Uman and Kiev battles , the division lost 300 dead and 1,800 wounded. In December 1941 it was subordinated to the 1st Panzer Army and was used on the Mius Front until June of the following year .
At the beginning of the German summer offensive in 1942 ( Fall Blau ) the division belonged to the von Wietersheim group . In July 1942 she was involved in the bitter house- to- house fighting for the capture of Rostov-on-Don and the Don bridges near Bataisk and then took part in the advance into the Caucasus with the 5th Army Corps of the 17th Army . Among other things, she was involved in the capture of Novorossiysk . After the retreat from the Caucasus in early 1943, the fighting over the Kuban bridgehead followed until September , before the division was reassigned to the 1st Panzer Army during the Battle of the Dnepr . At the end of 1943 it was reclassified to a "Division of the New Type 44".
From January 1944 at the XVII. Army Corps of the 6th Army , the division was largely destroyed a little later in the course of the Nikopol-Krivoy Roger operation of the Red Army in the Nikopol pocket. The strong regiment "Divisionsgruppe 125" was formed from the remains that had broken out and was subordinated to the 302nd Infantry Division . This was destroyed in August 1944 in the course of Operation Jassy-Kishinev in the Army Group of Southern Ukraine .
Allegations
| date | Army Corps | army | Army Group | place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 1940 to January 1941 | XVIII | 2nd Army | C. | Münsingen military training area |
| February / March 1941 | LV | |||
| April 1941 | LII | Southeast | Yugoslavia | |
| May 1941 | 11th Army | |||
| June 1941 | Higher Command XXXIV | 2nd Army | south | Styria , Austria |
| July 1941 | IV | 17th Army | Vinnitsa , Ukraine | |
| August 1941 | XXXXIX | Uman , Ukraine | ||
| September / October 1941 | XI | Kiev , Poltava | ||
| November 1941 | to disposal | Kharkov | ||
| December 1941 | 1st Panzer Army | Mius | ||
| January 1942 | III | |||
| February 1942 to May 1942 | XIV | |||
| June 1942 | - | |||
| July 1942 | LVII | Rostov | ||
| August 1942 to October 1942 | V | 17th Army | A. | Novorossiysk |
| November 1942 | LVII | Caucasus | ||
| December 1942 to January 1943 | Command staff e.g. V. von Förster | |||
| February 1943 to May 1943 | XXXXIV | Novorossiysk | ||
| June 1943 | XXXXIX | Kuban , Taman | ||
| July 1943 to September 1943 | XXXXIV | |||
| October 1943 to December 1943 | XVII | 1st Panzer Army | south | Zaporozhye , Krivoy Rog |
| January / February 1944 | 6th Army | Nikopol |
structure
| 1940 | 1943 |
|---|---|
| Infantry Regiment 419 Infantry Regiment 420 Infantry Regiment 421 (each 1st - 3rd battalion) |
Grenadier Regiment 419 Grenadier Regiment 420 Grenadier Regiment 421 (each 1st - 2nd battalion) |
| 125th Artillery Regiment | |
| Reconnaissance Department 125 | Divisional Fusilier Battalion 125 |
| Panzerjäger detachment 125 | |
| Engineer Battalion 125 | |
| Divisional News Department 125 | |
| Divisional Supply Leader 125 | |
| - | Field Replacement Battalion 125 |
people
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| October 5, 1940 to December 24, 1942 | Lieutenant General | Wilhelm Schneckenburger |
| December 24, 1942 to March 31, 1944 | Lieutenant General | Helmut Friebe |
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| October 16, 1940 to September 15, 1942 | major | Friedrich Niemeyer |
| September 15, 1942 to October 20, 1943 | Lieutenant colonel | Ernst Golling |
| October 20, 1943 to March 5, 1944 | major | Hermann Adam |
Well-known members of the division
- Karl Göbel (1900–1945), was temporarily commander of the III. Battalion of the 420 Infantry Regiment and later commander of the 420 Infantry Regiment.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 125th Infantry Division (inventory) - German Digital Library. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Cf. Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in the Second World War 1939–1945. Volume 6. The Land Forces 71-130 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1172-2 . ; P. 307 f.
