14th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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14th Infantry Division
14th Motorized Infantry Division
14th Panzer Grenadier Division

Division badge

Troop registration
active 1939 to 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type Infantry Division
structure structure
garrison Leipzig
Nickname Saxon Division
Commanders
list of Commanders

The 14th Infantry Division (14th ID) and later 14th Infantry Division (motorized) was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht .

Division history

Naming - Commander from Leipzig to Panzer Grenadier Division
  • until April 1934 - formation of the 14th Infantry Division (code name "Commander of Leipzig")
  • November 1940 - motorization and renaming to 14th Infantry Division (motorized)
  • June 1943 - Reorganization, reorganization and renaming in 14th Panzer Grenadier Division
Areas of application

The 14th Infantry Division was set up in Leipzig on October 1, 1934 under the code name "Commander of Leipzig", which ran until October 15, 1935 . The infantry regiments were formed from the 11th Saxon Regiment of the 4th Reichswehr Division. In 1936 the station was moved from the Königsbrück military training area to Naumburg . In 1939 she experienced her first war mission in Poland . After that she was transferred to the Western Front in 1940 and took part in the Battle of Dunkirk . On November 15, 1940, the motorization took place and renamed the 14th Infantry Division ( motorized ). On the Eastern Front, 14th Motorized Infantry Division was subordinate to Army Group Center and marched from Brest-Litovsk to the strategically important Smolensk - Moscow taxiway . During the Taifun operation , it reached the Moskva-Volga Canal just outside Moscow, but the attack was halted due to the sudden onset of winter and a drop in temperature. The battle for the front arch of Klin in November / December 1941 was a high point . From 1942 to spring 1943, the 14th Motorized Infantry Division was involved in the battle of Rzhev , which was costly . In March 1943, their positions as part of the company's Buffalo Movement were given up and a new interception line was formed near Smolensk. On June 30, 1943, it was reorganized as the 14th Panzer Grenadier Division. In the summer of 1943 she retreated across the Desna to Roslavl and fought in the Sukhovka Arch near Vitebsk / Belarus until 1944 . During the Soviet operation Bagration , the 14th PGD was destroyed as a reserve of the 4th Army together with Army Group Center in the Borisov - Berezino - Minsk area . In the late summer of 1944, the 14th PGD had to be reorganized, withdrew fighting over the Nyemen to East Prussia and capitulated to the Red Army in Stutthof . Parts of the division ended up in a British internment camp in Schleswig-Holstein .

Personalities

Commanders

Division commanders of the 14th ID / 14. ID (mot.)
period of service Rank Surname
October 15, 1935 to October 6, 1936 Lieutenant General Franz Freiherr Kreß von Kressenstein
October 6, 1936 to June 15, 1940 Lieutenant General Peter Weyer
June 15 to October 6, 1940 Major general Lothar Rendulic
October 6, 1940 to June 1, 1941 Major general Friedrich Prince
June 1, 1941 to October 1, 1942 Major general Heinrich Wosch
October 1, 1942 to January 1, 1943 Major general Walther Krause
January 1 to May 15, 1943 Colonel Rudolf Holste
May 24, 1943 to December 28, 1944 Colonel,
Major General
from June 1, 1943, Lieutenant General from January 20, 1944		 Hermann Flörke
December 28, 1944 to March 20, 1945 Lieutenant General Erich Schneider
March 20 to April 1945 Major General dR Werner Schulze
April 1945 Colonel Gerhard Kircher
April to May 1945 Colonel Johann Heldmann

Other people

  • Adalbert Lontschar was commander of the 53rd Infantry Regiment and later served in occupied Yugoslavia, including as city commander of Belgrade. After the war ended, he was sentenced to death by a Yugoslav court for war crimes and hanged in 1947.

Awards

A total of 24 members of the 14th ID were awarded the Knight's Cross and 148 with the German Cross in Gold.

structure

Changes in the structure of the 14th ID / 14. ID (mot.) From 1939 to 1943

1939 1943
11th Infantry Regiment Grenadier Regiment 11
53rd Infantry Regiment Grenadier Regiment 53
101st Infantry Regiment Grenadier Regiment 101
Reconnaissance Department 14 Fast division 156
Artillery Regiment 14 Artillery Regiment 14
Anti-tank department 14 Panzerjäger detachment 14
Engineer Battalion 14 Engineer Battalion 14
News Department 14 News Department 14
Observation Department 14
Fusilier Battalion 14th
Field Replacement Battalion 14 Field Replacement Battalion 14

Remarks

  1. From October 1, 1934 to October 15, 1935, ↑ was called the Leipzig Infantry Regiment
  2. From October 1, 1934 to October 15, 1935, ↑ was called the Königsbrück Infantry Regiment
  3. ↑ renamed Rifle Regiment 101 and the 18th Panzer Division issued
  4. ↑ I. – III. Department and I./AR. 50
  5. ↑ 1-3. Company and 5th Company / MG-Btl. 47
  6. ↑ hived off as a unit of army troops in December 1939

literature

  • 14th Infantry Division. In: Veit Scherzer (Ed.): German troops in the Second World War. Volume 4. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2008, ISBN 978-3-938845-14-1 , pp. 385-426.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 . ; P. 292 f.