16th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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16th Infantry Division
16th Motorized Infantry Division
16th Panzer Grenadier Division

Troop registrationTriskeles.jpgTroop registration number of the 116th Panzer Division
Lineup October 1, 1934
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry Division
structure structure
garrison Muenster
Nickname Greyhound Division
Commanders
list of Commanders

The 16th Infantry Division and later the 16th Panzer Grenadier Division was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht .

Division history

The 16th Infantry Division (ID) was set up under the code name "Commander of Münster " on October 1, 1934 in Military District VI. The division kept the code until October 15, 1935. Its infantry regiments were formed from Infantry Regiment 18 of the 6th Reichswehr Division .

In 1940 the 16th Infantry Division fought in the western campaign in Luxembourg , Belgium and France . Here she took part in the Battle of Sedan and Stonne . On August 6, 1940, the 16th Infantry Division was divided into the 16th Panzer Division (PD) and the 16th Infantry Division ( motorized ) at the Sennelager military training area . The new division staff was formed from the staff of the dissolved 228th Infantry Division .

In the spring of 1941 the 16th Motorized Infantry Division was relocated to Hungary in order to take part in the Balkan campaign against Yugoslavia from there . In the early summer of 1941 she was in the formation of Panzer Group 1 of Army Group South ready for the attack on the Soviet Union . After the Stalin line was broken at Lubar in July 1941 , heavy fighting broke out at Novo Arkhangelsk, Swerdlikowo and Dobrowodje. In August 1941, the division advanced to the Dnieper via Nikolayev and Krivoy Rog in the Ukraine . In September 1941 she was part of the German attack on Kiev . She spent the winter of 1941/1942 in the winter position near Kursk . The Panzer Division 116 was subordinated to her from May 1942. In the summer of 1942, the 16th Motorized Infantry Division took part in the Voronezh offensive. Motorcyclists of the division crossed the Don near Semiluki in July 1942 and, together with the infantry division (motorized) "Greater Germany", after heavy house-to-house fighting, broke the Soviet resistance in the western part of the city, but were only able to cross the Voronezh River after hard fighting.

On July 26, 1942, the 16th Infantry Division (motorized) crossed the border into Asia as the first German unit on the march to the Caucasus . It reached the village of Labinskaya near the Maikop oil fields on August 6, 1942 . As part of Army Group A and the 1st Panzer Army , the 16th Infantry Division (motorized) had the task of securing the left flank of the front with fortified bases in the Kalmyk steppe . The division commander, Lieutenant General Sigfrid Henrici , sent tank reconnaissance planes towards Astrakhan at the end of August / beginning of September 1942 to explore the upstream area. On September 16, 1942, tank scouting companies penetrated to the tank trenches of Sadowska on the lower reaches of the Volga and were able to take the Soviet base at a stroke . They explored the intact railway line from Kislyar to Astrakhan, which could be used for oil transports, and where the transport chain from Baku and Astrakhan to Arkhangelsk could best be interrupted. It was the Wehrmacht's furthest eastward advance in the war against the Soviet Union. On September 17, 1942, the company had to be broken off. This fast and long advance gave rise to the division's nickname: "Greyhound Division".

In the winter of 1942/43 the division was withdrawn into the Donets Basin during the general withdrawal of Army Group Don . She was then used in the newly formed 6th Army on the Mius front. In June 1943 it was renamed the 16th Panzer Grenadier Division . The division took part in the second half of 1943 with the 6th Army and 1st Panzer Army in the battles on Donets and Mius , in the Donets Basin and the Battle of the Dnepr . In March 1944 it was largely destroyed near Uman during the Dnepr-Carpathian operation . The remnants were pulled from the front and relocated to France for reorganization. In the Paris-Le Havre area, the reclassification to the 116th Panzer Division took place here , for which the 179th Reserve Panzer Division , which was subsequently disbanded , was used.

In August 1944, the 16th ID was to be reconfigured as part of the 30th wave of deployment , using the remnants of the 158th Reserve Division and parts of the 16th Air Force Field Division . In fact, the division was set up as the 16th Volksgrenadier Division in October . Until the end of the war, this was mainly used by the 19th Army on the Upper Rhine.

coat of arms

The coat of arms allegedly shows the dog "Sascha", who ran to members of the 16th Infantry Division in the Kalmyk steppe, half starved. The coat of arms of the division (which later took over the 116th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht) was shown in the Bundeswehr until 2004 in the coat of arms of the 212 Panzer Grenadier Battalion .

Commanders

period of service Rank Surname
October 15, 1935 to October 12, 1937 Major General / Lieutenant General Gerhard Glokke
October 12, 1937 to January 31, 1940 Major General / Lieutenant General Gotthard Heinrici
0February 1 to June 1, 1940 Lieutenant General Heinrich Krampf
0June 1 to August 6, 1940 Colonel / Major General Hans-Valentin Hube
August 12, 1940 to March 15, 1941 Lieutenant General Friedrich-Wilhelm von Chappuis
March 16, 1941 to August 15, 1942 Major general Sigfrid Henrici
August 15 to November 15, 1941 Major general Johannes Streich
November 15, 1941 to November 12, 1942 Major general Sigfrid Henrici
November 13, 1942 to May 20, 1943 Major general Gerhard Graf von Schwerin
May 20 to June 27, 1943 Major general Wilhelm Crisolli
June 27, 1943 to January 1944 Major general Gerhard Graf von Schwerin
January 10 to March 15, 1944 Colonel Günther von Manteuffel
March 15-28, 1944 Major general Karl Stingl
August 5, 1944 to November 1944 Lieutenant General Ernst Haeckel
November 1944 Colonel Tillessen
November 15, 1944 to December 29, 1944 Colonel Eberhard Zorn
December 29, 1944 to March 25, 1945 Colonel / Major General Alexander Moeckel
March 25, 1945 to April 6, 1945 Colonel Friedrich Trumpeter
April 6, 1945 until dissolution Colonel Robert Kaestner

Awards

32 members of the 16th ID were awarded the Knight's Cross and 113 the German Cross in gold.

structure

Officer ranking of the 64th Infantry Regiment in June 1940
Structure of the 16th ID Structure of the 16th PGD
  • Panzer Division 116
  • Panzer Grenadier Regiment 60
  • 156th Panzer Grenadier Regiment
  • Artillery Regiment 16
    I. - III. Department, as well as the I./AR 52.
  • 146th Artillery Regiment
  • Observation Department 16
  • Reconnaissance Department 16
  • Armored Reconnaissance Battalion 116
  • Anti-tank department 16
    1st – 3rd Company and the 4th Company of MG Battalion 46.
  • Panzerjäger detachment 228
  • Army Flak Battalion 281
  • Engineer Battalion 46
  • Engineer Battalion 675
  • News Department 16
  • News Department 16
  • Field Replacement Battalion 16
  • Infantry Division Supply Leader 16
  • Administrative services 16
  • Medical services 16
  • Veterinary company 16
  • Infantry Division Supply Leader (Motorized) 66

literature

  • Fritz Memminger: The War History of the Greyhound Division, 16th Infantry Division (motorized), 16th Panzer Grenadier Division, 116th Panzer Division, Pöppinghaus-Verlag, Bochum, 1962–1980.
  • Kurt Wendt: We For All: The knight's cross bearers of the division. The knight's cross bearers of the 16th ID (mot), 16th Pz.Gren.Div. u. 116. Pz.Div., Self-published by the Kameradschaft, Hamburg, 1996.
  • Kurt Wendt: Why, pourquoi, pocemu, why Greyhounds ?: Photo book of the 116th Panzer Division, formerly 16. Pz.Gren.Div and 16. ID (mot), compiled by Kurt Wendt, Ahrweiler and Gottschalk, Halstenbeck 1976
  • Kurt Wendt: Finale of the Invasion Why, porquoi, pocemu, why? Part 2 - compiled by Kurt Wendt, self-published, Hamburg 1985
  • Heinz G. Guderian : The last year of the war in the West. The history of the 116th Panzer Division - Greyhound Division - 1944–1945. 2nd Edition. SZ-Offsetdruck-Verlag, Sankt Augustin 1997, ISBN 978-3-932436-01-7 .
  • Werner Haupt: The German infantry divisions . Ed. Dörfler im Nebel-Verlag, Eggolsheim 2005, ISBN 3-89555-274-7 .
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 4. The Land Forces 15–30 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1976, ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ released from army troops in December 1939
  2. ↑ released as II. Btl./IR 362 from the 196th ID in January 1940