15th Air Force Field Division

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15th Air Force Field Division

Troop registration

Troop registration
active November 4, 1942 to October 11, 1943
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces air force
Branch of service infantry
Type Air Force Field Division
Location Taganrog
Second World War German-Soviet War

The 15th Air Force Field Division was a military association of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War . It was erected in November 1942 from excess Air Force personnel in southern Russia and was deployed on the German-Soviet front from January to October 1943 . After suffering significant losses during the fighting in western Ukraine , the division was finally disbanded in the fall of 1943.

history

As early as the winter of 1941/42, the Luftwaffe had to set up ground combat units to support the Eastern Front during the Red Army's counter offensives . On September 12, 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to surrender personnel to set up additional ground combat units. These should be organized into several air force field divisions and continue to be subordinate to the air force. The formation of the new divisions finally took place from October 15, 1942 from surplus and expendable personnel of the air force. The officers could volunteer, while the NCOs and crew soldiers were simply transferred to the ground combat units.

Line-up and first fights

Route of the 15th Air Force Field Division 1942/43 from the installation room to the place of dissolution.

As some of the first divisions of this new type, the 7th and 8th Air Force Field Divisions were deployed within the framework of the Hollidt Army Division in southern Russia . They soon suffered heavy losses. In order to catch up the remnants of these formations, the establishment of an initially unspecified air force field division "South-East" in the Salsk - Ekaterinowka area began on November 4, 1942 . The relatives came from the Flieger-, Flak-, Luftnachrichten - and Luftwaffe construction troops of Air Fleet 4 , which were joined by other personnel from home. The IV. Fliegerkorps was to hand over soldiers for the new division for the formation of the Air Force Jägerregiment 29, the VIII. Fliegerkorps for the Luftwaffe Jägerregiment 30. Both regiments comprised three battalions . Its first commander, Lieutenant General Alfred Mahnke , was personally appointed by Hermann Göring in October 1942 . With a deployment order of November 20, 1942, the association was renamed the 15th Air Force Field Division .

Before the line-up was finished and without waiting for the artillery regiment to arrive, the division was moved to the front to repel the major Soviet offensive. On November 22nd, 1942, parts of the unit were used for the first time to seal off local Soviet intrusions into the German front line. In a bridgehead on the Manych near Proletarsk , the association was used for the first time on a larger scale from January 15 to 24, 1943. In December 1942 the division was temporarily scheduled for the relief advance to the Stalingrad pocket. However, since it was still in the process of being drawn up, this was not done and only a few of its anti-aircraft units were called in for the relief advance (→ Winter Storm Company ). In almost uninterrupted fighting over the Rostov - Novocherkassk area , the division withdrew to the Mius by February 17, 1943 . Despite great losses, the division proved itself in these battles. On February 12, 1943, it was therefore mentioned in the report of the 4th Panzer Army .

reorganization

In the spring of 1943, the division's front section remained relatively quiet, so that it could be reorganized. Only now did the Christmas presents from home reach the soldiers. After the soldiers of the unit had already suffered heavy losses over the past few weeks, further losses due to psychological stress followed in this rather calm refreshment phase. In a single fighter regiment, seven officers had to be relieved for this reason.

The division had taken up position on the heights on the western bank of the Mius on both sides of Pokrovskoye . However, there was a lack of material to expand the positions. Therefore, the new division commander Lieutenant General Willibald Spang was forced to assign large parts of his troops to transport building materials behind the front. These in turn had to be protected by additional forces against attacks by partisans . Therefore, the division's lines were thinned out when a new major Soviet offensive (→ Donez-Mius offensive ) began on July 17, 1943 . For example, the 2nd company of the 29th Luftwaffe Jägerregiment had to defend a 1,500 meter wide section of the front with only 91 men, 13 machine guns , four grenade launchers and a 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon. However, only bondage attacks took place in the section of the division, while the largest battles took place further north, so that the division could maintain its positions on the Mius.

More fights and dissolution

Soldier in an Air Force Field Division (1942); he wears the field blue aviator blouse with the ribbon of the Iron Cross . The collar tabs identify him as a corporal .

On August 18, 1943, the Soviet southern front began a new offensive (→ Donets Basin operation ) against the German 6th Army . Within a few days, the Soviet troops broke through the German lines and then turned south to the Sea of ​​Azov . On August 29, 1943, they reached the coast, cutting the German XXIX. Army corps of General Erich Brandenberger . In addition to the 15th Air Force Field Division, this corps included three other divisions, which were now attacked from all sides by superior Soviet forces and crowded together north of Taganrog . In extremely loss-making battles, the German units, the so-called Corps Group Recknagel under Lieutenant General Hermann Recknagel , succeeded on August 31, 1943 in breaking through the Soviet containment ring near Konkowo and first behind the Jelantschik and then the Kalmius (the so-called "turtle position") ) to withdraw. From September 4 to 12, 1943, only remnants of the division held their position in this position. The Air Force Fighter Regiment 30 counted only 400 of its original 2600 soldiers. By September 20, the division continued via Temryuk to the Molotschna north of Melitopol (so-called “Wotan position”). There she remained involved in the defense against Soviet attacks until mid-October 1943.

On September 20, 1943, Hitler issued instructions that the remaining Luftwaffe field divisions should be transferred to the army by November 1 of that year . The 15th Air Force Field Division, which was barely usable, was no longer directly affected by this development. It was pulled from the front on October 11, 1943 and practically dissolved. The remnants of the unit were divided between the 5th Air Force Field Division , but above all the 336th Infantry Division . The division's staff was relocated to Cherson and at times still listed as the 15th field division (L) in the Wehrmacht lists. It was finally dissolved in February 1944. The field post numbers were deleted in July 1944. Only the 4th (Flak) Division of Artillery Regiment 15 (L) remained and was reclassified to the 1st Division of Motorized Flak Regiment 46.

Data

Division commanders

The exact dates of the appointments are not known in every case:

Subordinate units

In addition to numerous smaller company-sized units, the division essentially comprised the following units:

  • Luftwaffe Jäger Regiment 29 (1st - 3rd Battalion)
  • Air Force Jäger Regiment 30 (I. – III. Battalion)
  • Luftwaffe Artillery Regiment 15 (I.–IV. Department)
  • Air Force Engineer Battalion 15th
  • Tank destroyer division of Air Force Field Division 15
  • Commander of the Air Force Field Division 15 replenishment troops

Subordination

Subordination of the 15th LwFD
time corps army Army Group place
January 1943 - 4th Panzer Army Army Group Don North Caucasus
February 1943 Don
March 1943 XXIX. Army Corps 6th Army Army Group South Mius
April to September 1943
October 1943 XXXXIV. Army Corps Army Group A Molochna

Well-known members of the division

attachment

literature

  • Kevin Conley Ruffner: Air Force Field Divisions 1941-1945 , Osprey Publ., Oxford 1990. ISBN 1-85532-100-9 .
  • Peter Schmitz / Klaus-Jürgen Thies / Günter Wegmann / Christian Zweng: The German Divisions 1941–1945 , Vol. 3, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1996. ISBN 3-7648-2458-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Haupt: The German Air Force Field Divisions 1941–1945 , Eggolsheim 2004, p. 20.
  2. ^ A b c Egon Denzel: The Air Force Field Divisions 1942–1945 , Neckargemünd 1976, p. 29.
  3. ↑ a b c Peter Schmitz et al: The German divisions 1941–1945 , Osnabrück 1996, p. 440
  4. ↑ Heinz Schröter: Stalingrad “... up to the last cartridge” , Klein 1954, p. 101.
  5. ↑ Manfred Kehrig: Stalingrad - Analysis and Documentation of a Battle , Stuttgart 1974, p. 328.
  6. ↑ Kevin Conley Ruffner: Luftwaffe Field Divisions 1941-1945 , Oxford 1990, p. 13.
  7. ↑ Kevin Conley Ruffner: Luftwaffe Field Divisions 1941-1945 , Oxford 1990, pp. 15f.
  8. ↑ Kevin Conley Ruffner: Luftwaffe Field Divisions 1941-1945 , Oxford 1990, p. 16.
  9. ↑ Peter Schmitz et al.: The German Divisions 1941–1945 , Osnabrück 1996, p. 440; Werner Haupt: The German Air Force Field Divisions 1941–1945 , Eggolsheim 2004, p. 62.
  10. ↑ Werner Haupt: The German Air Force Field Divisions 1941-1945 , Eggolsheim 2004, p. 26f
  11. ↑ Peter Schmitz et al .: The German divisions 1941–1945 , Osnabrück 1996, p. 179.
  12. ↑ Peter Schmitz et al .: The German Divisions 1941–1945 , Osnabrück 1996, p. 180.
  13. ↑ Peter Schmitz et al .: Die German Divisions 1941–1945 , Osnabrück 1996, p. 179 (since the location information here is incorrect, it had to be corrected in lines 1, 2 and 5 according to the information on p. 440.)