164th Africa Light Division
|
164th Infantry Division |
|
|---|---|
 Troop registration number of the 164th Africa Light Division |
|
| active | November 27, 1939 to May 13, 1943 (surrender) / 30. June 1943 (formal dissolution) |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Type |
Infantry Division , Panzer Grenadier Division |
| Installation site | Königsbrück near Dresden |
| Second World War |
Western campaign |
| insignia | |
| First troop registration number |
|
The 164th Infantry Division was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II . From it emerged the fortress division Crete and the 164th light Africa division .
history
The 164th Infantry Division was set up on November 27, 1939 at the Königsbrück military training area in Defense District IV as a division of the 7th wave of replacement troops from Defense District IV. By assigning the field replacement battalions 4 ( Reichenberg ), 14 ( Leipzig ) and 44 ( Vienna ), it was expanded to a full infantry division from January 20, 1940. Until May 1940 the reorganization and training (as a teaching division) took place in the homeland war area. After that, the 164th Infantry Division moved to the west as OKH reserve and advanced to Reims in the western campaign as part of the 9th Army , where it served as an occupation force until December 1940 , first with the 16th Army and then with the 1st Army , remained.
In January 1941 the division was relocated to Romania . In the association of General Field Marshal Wilhelm List's 12th Army , she took part in the campaign against Greece from April 9, 1941 and conquered the Saloniki area , where she subsequently remained as an occupying force.
In September, the division was transferred first to occupied Yugoslavia , then from November 1941 by sea and air transport to the island of Crete , whose occupation troops were to be reinforced on direct orders from Hitler . Comparable to the Channel Islands , where German troops had also been deployed, Crete was also to be secured against possible British attacks in any case. On January 10, 1942, the 164th ID was renamed Fortress Division Crete and partially reclassified. The commander of the fortress division Crete was Lieutenant General Josef Folttmann .
From July 7, 1942, some of them were flown to Tobruk by air . Other parts were brought by ship from Crete (Suda) to Tobruk. The ship's squadron consisted of: Mitragliere, ZG 3, torpedo boats Sirio and Cassiopeia, the U-Jäger 2104, 2107, the steamers Citta di Alessandria, Citta di Savona, Citta di Agrigento, Delos, Santa FeIm. After arriving in Tobruk, the troops were immediately brought to the front in El Alamein , where half of the troops were assigned to the two German tank divisions ( Panzer Army Africa ). On August 15, 1942, the 164th Light Africa Division was set up in the Association of the Panzer Army Africa under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel . The armored infantry regiments 125 (previously army troops in Africa), 382 and 433 (previously infantry regiments of the fortress division Crete ) and the armored reconnaissance division 164 were created.Other divisions were the artillery regiment 220 and the division units 220.
The troops that were not transferred to Africa remained in the fortress brigade of Crete until September 1942 . The 440 Infantry Regiment came to the 1st Fortress Brigade Crete . Parts of the 220 Artillery Regiment came as Artillery Regiment 619 to the 2nd Fortress Brigade Crete .
The 164th Light Africa Division fought in the association of the Panzerarmee Afrika (later German-Italian Panzerarmee) from August to November 1942 on the front line at El Alamein and suffered considerable losses during the major offensive of the British 8th Army under General Bernard Montgomery . It was only with difficulty that she was able to break away from the enemy and help carry out the withdrawal of the army from Egypt and Libya as far as southern Tunisia .
The last combat missions of the 164th African Light Division took place in the association of the 1st Italian Army under Colonel General Giovanni Messe from February 1943. In this composition, the unit together with the 21st German Panzer Division in March 1943 unsuccessfully defended the narrowness already fortified in Roman times by Tebaga . In the ensuing battles of withdrawal, the 164th African Light Division continued to operate in partnership with the Italian unit until the surrender of Army Group Africa on May 13, 1943 in the combat area north of Tunis.
The division was formally dissolved on June 30, 1943 and not reorganized.
structure
| 164th Infantry Division 1940 |
164th Africa Light Division 1942 |
|---|---|
|
|
| Artillery Regiment 220 | |
| Engineer Battalion 220 | |
| Anti-tank department 220 | Reconnaissance Department 220 |
| Field Replacement Battalion 220 | |
| News Department 220 | Panzer News Department 220 |
| Resupply Troops 220 | |
- ↑ renamed to Panzer Reconnaissance Department 220 on October 10, 1942 and Panzer Reconnaissance Department 164 on April 29, 1943
Commanders
| Rank at that time | Surname | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Major general | Konrad Haase | December 1, 1939 to January 10, 1940 |
| Lieutenant General | Josef Folttmann | January 10, 1940 to August 9, 1942 |
| Colonel | Carl-Hans Lungershausen | 10.-31. August 1942 |
| Colonel | Hermann Hans Hecker | August 31 to September 9, 1942 |
| Major general | Carl-Hans Lungershausen | September 9 to December 6, 1942 |
| Colonel | Siegfried Westphal | December 6, 1942 to January 1, 1943 |
| Colonel | Kurt Freiherr von Liebenstein | 1. – 16. January 1943 |
| Colonel | Rudolf Becker | January 16 to February 17, 1943 |
| Major general | Fritz Krause | February 17 to March 13, 1943 |
| Major general | Kurt Freiherr von Liebenstein | March 13 to May 13, 1943 |
literature
- Battistelli, Pier Paolo: Rommel's Afrika Korps - from Tobruk to El Alamein . Osprey Battle Orders 20. 2006. ISBN 978-1-84176-901-1 .
- Wolf Heckmann : Rommel's War in Africa . Tosa, 2006. ISBN 978-3-85003-040-3 .
- 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 .
Web links
- 164th Infantry Division / Fortress Division Crete / 164th Light Africa Division on EHRI portal from the Federal Archives
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Pier Paolo Battistelli: Rommel's Afrika Korps: Tobruk to El Alamein . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4728-0041-1 ( google.de [accessed January 5, 2019]).
- ↑ Ken Ford: The Mareth Line 1943. The end in Africa. Osprey Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78096-093-7 .
