2nd Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)
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2nd Mountain Division |
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 Troop identification: The reindeer |
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| active | August 26, 1939 to May 8, 1945 (surrender) |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Branch of service | Mountain troop |
| Type | Mountain Division |
| garrison | innsbruck |
| Second World War |
Raid on Poland Company Weser exercise
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The 2nd Mountain Division was a major unit of the mountain troops of the Wehrmacht during World War II .
history
The division was formed from April 1, 1938 in Innsbruck from units of the former Austrian Armed Forces and took part in the invasion of Poland from August 26, 1939 . Then she stood in the St. Goar area to secure the front against France.
In March 1940, the division was subordinated to the Mountain Corps Norway and advanced from May to July from the Namsos area (Norway) in the direction of Narvik . From June 1941 , the division was part of the Lapland Army in the unsuccessful attempt to break through to Murmansk . It first attacked the Soviet border positions near Kuosmaivi from the Parkkina area , followed by trench warfare on the fishing peninsula . From July 1942 to October 1944, the division was still deployed on the Murmansk Front. The division then withdrew to the Norwegian border in defensive battles and then came to Denmark and finally to the Western Front .
From January 1945 she was in Upper Alsace , then in the area south of Trier and in the area near Philippsburg - Heilbronn . The remnants of the division finally capitulated in Tyrol .
guide
Commanders
- Lieutenant General Valentin Feurstein - April 1, 1938 to March 4, 1941
- Lieutenant General Ernst Schlemmer - March 4, 1941 to March 2, 1942
- Lieutenant General Georg Ritter von Hengl - March 2, 1942 to October 23, 1943
- Lieutenant General Hans Degen - November 1, 1943 to February 6, 1945
- Colonel Roschmann - February 6-9, 1945
- Lieutenant General Willibald Utz - February 9, 1945 until surrender
Ia General Staff officers (operational planning)
- Lieutenant Colonel Hans Degen - November 10, 1938 to October 15, 1939
- Colonel Eduard Zorn - October 15, 1939 to January 8, 1943
- Lieutenant Colonel Erwin Fussenegger - January 8 to October 14, 1943
- Major Franz Steinhart-Hantken - October 14, 1943 to January 1, 1944
- Lieutenant Colonel Hans Roschmann - January 1, 1944 to February 15, 1945
- Major Claus Becker - February 15 to March 1945
- Major Hermann Conrad - March to May 1945
structure
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Well-known members of the division
- Erwin Fussenegger (1908–1986), as General of the Infantry , was the first General Inspector of the Army of the Second Republic of Austria
- Klaus Hornig (1907–1997) was a German police officer and lawyer who was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp for allegedly degrading military strength
- Wilhelm Heß (1907–1997), was from 1962 to 1968, as major general of the army of the Bundeswehr , commander in military area VI
- Walter Hummelberger (1913–1995), was an Austrian historian and important arms expert
- Karl Lütgendorf (1914–1981) was Austrian Defense Minister from 1971 to 1977
- Albin Nake (1888–1947), Austrian commander of the 136 Mountain Infantry Regiment, later Lieutenant General
- Hans Riedl (1919–2007), as lieutenant general in the Austrian Armed Forces , from 1978 to 1982, was the military commander of Salzburg
- Ludwig Steiner (1922–2015) was an Austrian diplomat and politician who sat on the National Council for the ÖVP
literature
- Literature related to the 2nd Mountain Division in the catalog of the German National Library .
- Alex Buchner: From the Arctic Ocean to the Caucasus. The German mountain troops in World War II, 1941/42. Podzun, Friedberg 2001, ISBN 3-7909-0329-9 .
- Roland Kaltenegger : The German mountain troops. 1935-1945. Revised and expanded new edition. Universitas Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-8004-1196-2 .
- Matthias Kräutler, Karl Springenschmid : It was an Edelweiss. Fate and path of the 2nd Mountain Division. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz et al. 1962.
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 2. The Land Forces 1–5 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0871-3 .
Web links
- Stock overview of the Federal Archives
- The photo album of the Gebirgsjäger from 2. Gebirgs-Division -Das Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 136 on the Eastern Front, 1942–1944.
- Organizational History of the German Mountain and Ski Division 1939-1945 Nafziger Collection, Combined Armed Research Library.
