155th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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155th Infantry Division

Troop registration

Troop registration
active February 11, 1945 to May 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry Division
structure structure
Installation site Veneto
Second World War Italian campaign
management
Major general Georg Heinrich Zwade

The 155th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht .

Division history

The division was created on February 11, 1945 from the renaming of the 155th Field Training Division set up in Northern Italy , without any change in the structure. It was placed under Army Group C as an army reserve and, together with the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division, was supposed to prevent any landing operations by the Allies on the upper Adriatic coast .

After the collapse of the German front near Bologna on April 21, 1945 in the course of the Allied spring offensive , the only partially established division was ordered to cover the Po . On the night of April 22nd to April 23rd, she arrived northwest of Ferrara on the north bank of the Po. On the 24th she was involved in fighting in the Gaiba and Stienta area against the British 6th Panzer Division, which was crossing the Po. On April 25, the remnants of the division began to move north.

On May 1, the division tried in vain with other units in the Valsugana north of Bassano del Grappa to stop the advancing 88th US Infantry Division. As a result, the withdrawing troops of the division were embroiled in fierce defensive battles in the Arsiè - Fonzaso area , with significant losses to be lamented a few hours before the armistice came into force . The remnants of the division with the division staff went into US captivity in the Belluno area .

structure

source

people

The division commander was Major General Georg Heinrich Zwade from the establishment of the field training division until the surrender .

literature

  • Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in World War II. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. 2007 ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Seventh volume Die Landstwehr Forces No. 131 - 200.Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1973.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939-1945. Seventh Volume The Land Forces No. 131 - 200. pp. 92–93
  2. ↑ 155 ID. German Historical Institute in Rome, accessed on February 7, 2020 .
  3. ^ William Jackson: The Mediterranean and Middle East: Volume VI Victory in the Mediterranean. Part III - November 1944 to May 1945. Naval & Military Press, Uckfield 2004 ISBN 1-845740-72-6 . P. 235
  4. ↑ Maurizo dal Lago (et al.) (Ed.): Bombs away! Il bombardamento alleato sul quartier generale tedesco di Recoaro (April 20, 1945) e la resa della Wehrmacht in Italia. Menin, Schio 2010, ISBN 978-88-89275-14-6 p. 19
  5. ↑ Marco Belogi, Daniele Guglielmi: Spring 1945 on the Italian front: a 25 Day Atlas from the Apennines to the Po River. Primavera 1945 sul fronte italiano: Atlante dei 25 giorni dall'Appennino al fiume Po. Mattioli 1885, Fidenza 2011 ISBN 978-88-6261-198-5 pp. 284-330
  6. ↑ Maurizo dal Lago (et al.) (Ed.): Bombs away! Il bombardamento alleato sul quartier generale tedesco di Recoaro (April 20, 1945) e la resa della Wehrmacht in Italia. Menin, Schio 2010, ISBN 978-88-89275-14-6 p. 197
  7. ↑ Luca Valente: Dieci giorni di guerra. April 22 – May 2, 1945: La ritirata tedesca e l'inseguimento degli Alleati in Veneto e Trentino. Cierre Edizioni, Sommacampagna 2018 ISBN 978-88-8314-344-1 . Pp. 453-454
  8. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in World War II. [1]