168th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

168th Infantry Division

active December 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type Infantry Division
structure structure
Installation site Goerlitz
Nickname Iron Division
Second World War Battle of Kharkov (1943)
Commanders
list of Commanders

The 168th Infantry Division was a major unit of the Army of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .

Division history

Operational areas:

  • Germany: December 1939 to June 1940
  • Generalgouvernement : July 1940 to June 1941
  • Eastern Front , Southern Section: July 1941 to December 1944
  • Eastern Front, Central Section: January to May 1945

The 168th Infantry Division was reorganized from December 1, 1939 in Görlitz in military district  VIII as part of the 7th  wave of formation . In January 1940 she was assigned to field replacement battalions 8, 18 and 45 and thus reached her full nominal strength. In May and June 1940 it served as OKH reserve in its home location in Görlitz. Only after the campaign in the west were enough weapons and equipment captured in France so that the division could be fully equipped with artillery, vehicles and numerous other weapons from booty stocks. From July 1940 onwards, the 168th Infantry Division was an occupying force in the Generalgouvernement and completed its training there.

On the Eastern Front she was subordinated to Army Group South and fought in the 6th Army until July 1942 near Shitomir , Kiev , Romny , Bjelgorod and Charkow . From August 1942 (see: Case Blau ) she belonged to the 2nd Army and was deployed near Voronezh and in the great Donbogen. The 168th Infantry Division experienced the loss-making retreat fighting in the winter of 1942/43 as part of the 2nd Hungarian Army, until it was subordinated to the newly formed Kempf Army Department , which defended the Kharkov / Bjelgorod area. Renamed the 8th Army on August 22, 1943 , this major unit withdrew to the Dnieper in September 1943 , which was to be permanently defended as the "Eastern Wall" .

On November 2, 1943, after heavy losses, the division was merged with the 223rd Infantry Division and re-formed as the "New Type 44 Division". Now the 168th Infantry Division was subordinate to the 4th , from March 1944 to the 1st Panzer Army and fought near Kiev , Zhitomir, Vinnitsa and Kamenets-Podolsk .

It still belonged to the 1st Panzer Army and withdrew to the Carpathian Mountains until August 1944 , where it successfully defended its positions, at last only as a "combat group".

At the beginning of January 1945 it was relocated to the Baranow bridgehead on the Vistula . There, the division was almost completely destroyed from January 12, 1945 during the major Soviet offensive . The division was then reorganized in Silesia . They then fought under the leadership of the 1st Panzer Army, most recently the 17th Army in Silesia until the surrender on May 8, 1945. The last units surrendered near Glatz and were taken prisoner by the Soviets.

people

Division commanders of the 168th ID:
period of service Rank Surname
January 11, 1940 to July 8, 1941 Lieutenant General Hans Mundt
July 8, 1941 to March 9, 1943 Lieutenant General Dietrich Kraiss
March 9 to December 1, 1943 Lieutenant General Walter Chales de Beaulieu
December 1, 1943 to September 8, 1944 Lieutenant General Werner Schmidt-Hammer
September 8 to December 9, 1944 Major general Carl Anders
December 9, 1944 to January 6, 1945 Lieutenant General Werner Schmidt-Hammer
January 6 to April 1945 Major general Maximilian Rosskopf
April 1945 to May 8, 1945 Lieutenant General Werner Schmidt-Hammer

structure

Changes in the structure of the 168th ID from 1939 to 1943
1939 1940 1943
417th Infantry Regiment Grenadier Regiment 417
429th Infantry Regiment Division group 223
- 442nd Infantry Regiment Grenadier Regiment 442
- Cycling squadron 248 Divisional Fusilier Battalion 168
- - Field Replacement Battalion 248
light artillery division 248 Artillery Regiment 248
- Anti-tank department 248 Panzerjäger detachment 248
- Engineer Battalion 248
- News Department 248
- Supply units 248

Individual evidence

  1. Olaf Kaul: The 291st Infantry Division in the Baranowbrückenkopf in January 1945. ( Memento from February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) 2007 (PDF; ½ MB).

literature

  • 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 .
  • Wolf Keilig: The generals of the army Podzun-Pallas-Verlag Friedberg 1983

Web links