169th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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169th Infantry Division

169th Infantry Division Logo 1.svg
active 1939 to 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 Offenbach am Main
Nickname Elk head, Lapland
Commanders
list of Commanders

The 169th Infantry Division was a major unit of the Army of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .

Division history

  • Germany: November 1939 to May 1940
  • France : May 1940 to March 1941
  • Finland : June 1941 to November 1944
  • Norway and Denmark: November 1944 to March 1945
  • Brandenburg / Berlin: March to May 1945

The 169th Infantry Division was reorganized from November 28, 1939 in Wehrkreis IX in the Offenbach area as part of the 7th wave of deployment . In January 1940 she was assigned to field replacement battalions 9, 15 and 35 in order to achieve full nominal strength. By the beginning of May 1940, the formation and training in military district IX took place.

The 169th Infantry Division was used during the Yellow Case in June 1940 in the association of the 16th Army in the western campaign in Lorraine and then in the association of the 1st Army as an occupation force in eastern France. In March 1941 she was transferred back to the home military district. From there she came to the Norwegian Army in Finnish Lapland.

After the attack on the Soviet Union , the 169th Division fought in the Association of the Norwegian Army (from July 1942 20th Mountain Army) under the leadership of the Higher Command XXXVI (later XXXVI. Mountain Army Corps), together with the SS Division North and the Finnish 6th Division, later at the side of the 163rd Infantry Division in the Salla area , where the division crossed the Finnish-Soviet border in June 1941. On July 8, 1941, the 169th Infantry Division captured Salla. She managed to advance further to the Vermanjoki River. The goal of interrupting the Murman Railway was not achieved, as was the case on the Liza front further north and on the Finnish front further south.

This was followed by an almost three-year positional war that did not involve any major combat operations for the division.

After the armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union on September 2, 1944, the German 20th Mountain Army had to withdraw from Finnish Lapland to Norwegian Lapland. Enormous logistical problems had to be overcome, large storage facilities had to be destroyed and, from September 16, 1944, there were also fighting with the following Finnish troops, who were obliged to expel the Germans from their national territory. The 169th Infantry Division was involved in various battles, but was able to survive them without major losses and secure their orderly route of retreat through all of Lapland to Norway.

Originally intended as an occupation division for Norway, it was reclassified in February 1945 into a "New Art 1945 Division" and transferred from southern Norway to Denmark by March 1945, the penultimate major unit to leave Norway. The division moved from Denmark to the Oder front, where it experienced the major Soviet offensive on Berlin from April 16, 1945 in the association of the 9th Army and suffered very heavy losses in the unsuccessful defensive battles. The remnants of the 169th Infantry Division were taken into Soviet captivity southwest of Berlin in April and May 1945.

Commanders and Outline

Division commanders of the 169th ID:
period of service Rank Surname
November 29 to December 1, 1939 Lieutenant General Philipp Müller-Gebhard
December 1, 1939 to February 1, 1941 Lieutenant General Heinrich Kirchheim
February 1 to September 29, 1941 Lieutenant General Kurt Dittmar
September 29, 1941 to June 22, 1943 General of the artillery Hermann Tittel
June 22, 1943 to May 8, 1945 Lieutenant General Georg Radziej
General Staff Officers Ia of 169th ID:
period of service Rank Surname
January 5 to July 15, 1940 major Herbert Deinhardt
July 15, 1940 to August 20, 1941 major Hans Friedrich Behle
August 20, 1941 to August 15, 1944 Lieutenant colonel Helmut Siemoneit
August 15, 1944 to May 8, 1945 Lieutenant colonel Helmut Schon
structure
  • 378th Infantry Regiment
  • 379th Infantry Regiment
  • 392nd Infantry Regiment
  • Artillery Regiment 230
  • Engineer Battalion 230
  • Anti-tank department 230
  • Infantry Division Intelligence Division 230
  • Infantry Division Supply Leader 230

literature

  • Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 7. The Land Forces 131–200. 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1173-0 , p. 294f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945.