131st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

131st Infantry Division
active	October 5, 1940 to April 16, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
Sites	Bergen , Hanover
Nickname	Sword division
Second World War	Double battle near Vyazma and Bryansk
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 131st Infantry Division (131st ID) was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht .

Division history

Areas of application:

• Germany : October 1940 to June 1941
• Eastern Front , central section: June 1941 to July 1943
• Eastern Front, Southern Section: July to September 1943
• Eastern Front, central section: September 1943 to January 1945
• East Prussia : January to February 1945

The 131st Infantry Division was set up as a division of the 11th wave of formation in October 1940 on the Bergen military training area in the Lüneburg Heath near Celle from parts of the 31st , 269th and 19th Infantry Divisions. It was made available for Operation Barbarossa , the attack on the Soviet Union, in the spring of 1941. The 131st ID was subordinate to Army Group Center and marched from Lyskowo , Ruzhany, Pogost, Gluska, in a southerly direction from Bobruisk to Paritschi. She fought with the 4th Army in June 1941 near Brest-Litowsk and Białystok on the Belarusian border. As a reserve of the OKH , the division crossed the Dnepr at Schlobin and stayed in the Gomel area in August 1941 . A number of skirmishes developed on the Gomel - Marino line on the Sosh Novosybkow near Bryansk . From there she received orders to turn south in the direction of Kiev . On the Snow there was further fighting at Chernigov , Kulikowka and Neshin . Thereafter, in November 1941, the division was relocated north to the 2nd Panzer Army in Smolensk in the Roslavl area. The 131 ID reached Alexin in the central Russian Oblast of Tula via Kaluga on the Oka , Sukhinichi , Koselsk , Belew . At Alexin and Kostrowo the 131st Infantry Division was involved in numerous battles with the Red Army, so that they had to withdraw to Kaluga and set up for defense there. For the 131st Infantry Division , 1942 was marked by battles near Kostino and Juchnow , with prolonged positional battles with the Soviet troops over the strategically important transport route on the runway between Juchnow and Roslavl. To the north of Spas-Demensk , a Red Army unit was included in the summer of 1942, which was destroyed by the 131st Infantry Division together with paratroopers . In 1943 the 131st Infantry Division was deployed at Kirov and was exposed to defensive battles with the Red Army at Kirov, Jakimowo and Bjeloy. The pressure of the enemy became too strong, so that the division had to withdraw over the Desna, from there it went further west over Bogdanowo, over the Sosch to the Pronja south of Tschaussy. The unit was again involved in trench warfare on the Pronja River. In January 1944, Army Group Center moved it to Vitebsk , where it was supposed to hold a line of defense southeast of Vitebsk on the Luchessa River. After the Red Army broke into this area, the division was relocated to Kovel in order to keep the city , which was designated as a fixed place , at all costs. Battles continued on the Turja River until they had to withdraw to Calvary in July 1944. The division's escape route led across the Szeschupa River, the Lithuanian Suwałki , the Wystiter See , the Masurian-East Prussian fortified churches , Rominter Heide to Gołdap . The 131st Infantry Division fought in the Battle of Heiligenbeil, Rosenberg and Balga and is destroyed by the Red Army. It was possible to disembark the divisional headquarters to Swinoujscie , where it served on April 16, 1945 to set up the 4th RAD Division.

people

Division commanders of the 131st ID:

period of service	Rank	Surname
October 1, 1940 to January 10, 1944	Major General / Lieutenant General	Heinrich Meyer-Bürdorf
January 10 to October 28, 1944	Major General / Lieutenant General	Friedrich Weber
October 28, 1944 to January 1, 1945	Colonel / Major General of the Reserve	Werner Schulze
January 1, 1945 until dissolution	Colonel	Nobiz

General Staff officers (Ia) of 131st ID:

period of service	Rank	Surname
October 5, 1940 to December 18, 1941	major	Fritz Merker
December 18, 1941 to June 30, 1944	Lieutenant colonel	Günther von Steinsdorff
June 30, 1944 to February 1, 1945	major	Nice
February 1 to April 1945	major	LG Bärwinkel

structure

Changes in the structure of the 131st ID from 1940 to 1944

1940	1943	1944
431 Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 431
432nd Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 434	Grenadier Regiment 432
434th Infantry Regiment	Division Battalion 131	Grenadier Regiment 434
-		Fusilier Battalion 131
Artillery Regiment 131
Engineer Battalion 131
Panzerjäger detachment 131
Reconnaissance Division 131	Field Replacement Battalion 131
News Section 131
Resupply Troops 131

literature

• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . 2nd Edition. tape 7 . The Land Forces 131–200 . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1173-0 .
• Werner Haupt : The German Infantry Divisions 1921–1945 , 3 volumes, Dörfler Verlag 2005, ISBN 978-3-89555-274-8 .
• Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. Pp. 182-184, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .
• Wilhelm Blankenhagen: In the sign of the sword: memories of the path of the 131st Infantry Division , Giebel & Oehlschlägel, 1982.

Web links

• Between Korbach and Spas Demensk - division history of the 131st ID

Notes and individual references

1. ^ Tributary of the Belarusian Desna .
2. ↑ Kalvarja probably in Lithuania.
3. ↑ promoted to lieutenant general in October 1941
4. ↑ promoted to lieutenant general in July 1944
5. ↑ Promoted to Major General of the Reserve in early January 1945
6. ↑ missing in action.
7. ↑ http://www.diedeutschewehrmacht.de/131%20inf%20div.htm