181st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

181 Infantry Division
active	December 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry division
structure	structure
Installation site	Braunschweig
Nickname	Hanover Division
Second World War	Operation Weser Exercise ; Belgrade operation

The 181st Infantry Division (181st ID) was a large unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .

Division history

The formation of the 181st Infantry Division took place on December 1, 1939 in Military District XI (Hanover) in the Braunschweig area . From January 12, 1940 it was expanded to a full division with initially eight infantry battalions.

Installation and training took place until March 1940. The 181st ID was first used on April 9, 1940 during the Weser Exercise company as part of Group XXI during the occupation of Norway . The division remained there as an occupation force in the Union of the Norwegian Army in the Drontheim area until September 1943. The 181st Infantry Division then moved - but only with 2 grenadier regiments and 5 battalions - from Central Norway to the Balkans to Montenegro , where they were part of the association the 2nd Panzer Army was used for coastal defense and to fight partisans. Reclassifications and transfers brought the 181st ID to the status of a "Division of the New Kind 1944".

For more than a year, the division fought varied battles with partisan formations as part of Army Groups F and E and was largely able to secure the allocated space. The withdrawal of the Wehrmacht from Greece, Albania and Macedonia resulted in loss-making battles and retreats for the 181st Infantry Division in autumn 1944, which were made more difficult by the poorly developed terrain and the weather. The Fusilier Regiment 334 was almost completely destroyed in October / November 1944 in Montenegro and had to be re-established from January 1945. The 181 ID fought in Bosnia and Croatia until the end of the war in 1945 . She surrendered to the Tito partisans on the border with Styria near Celje in May 1945 and was taken prisoner of war in Yugoslavia.

Incorporation and subordination of the 181 ID
date	Army Corps	army	Army Group	Location
December 1939 to March 1940	set up in military district XI	-	-	Braunschweig
April to August 1940	Group XXI	-	-	Norway
September to December 1940	XXXIII	Group XXI	-	Drontheim
January 1941 to August 1943	XXXIII	Norway	-
September 1943	reserve	Norway	-
October to November 1943	XXI	2nd Panzer Army	F.	Montenegro
December 1943	V. SS
January to September 1944	XXI
October to December 1944	XXI	E.
January 1945	LXXXXI			Croatia
February to March 1945	XXI
April 1945	XXI	-	E.
May 1945	LXIX	-	Southeast	Styria

structure

Divisions of the 181 ID
December 1, 1939	January 12, 1940	April 1, 1944
334th Infantry Regiment	334th Infantry Regiment	Fusilier Regiment 334 (two battalions)
349th Infantry Regiment	349th Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 363 (two battalions)
-	359th Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 359 (as III Turk Battalion)
light artillery division 222	222 Artillery Regiment
-	-	Division Fusilier Battalion 181
-	Division units 222

On October 15, 1942, all infantry regiments were renamed Grenadier regiments.

Commanders

Lieutenant General Peter Bielfeld - December 1939 to January 1940
Lieutenant General Kurt Woytasch - January 1940 to March 1942
Lieutenant General Friedrich Bayer - March 1942
Lieutenant General Hermann Fischer - March 1942 to October 1944
Lieutenant General Eugen-Heinrich Bleyer - October 1944 until the end of the war

According to

literature

Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Seventh volume. The Land Forces 131–200. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , pp. 207-211.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Seventh volume. The Land Forces 131–200. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 207.
^ ^A ^b ^c Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Seventh volume. The Land Forces 131–200. Page 207–210. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 208.
↑ Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle, Volume 1: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in World War II. Stackpole, 2007, p. 234

[Tessin7-207-1] A ^b ^c ^d Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Seventh volume. The Land Forces 131–200. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 207.

[Tessin7-208-2] A ^b ^c Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Seventh volume. The Land Forces 131–200. Page 207–210. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 208.

[3] Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle, Volume 1: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in World War II. Stackpole, 2007, p. 234