20th Flak Division

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The 20th Flak Division was a major combat unit of the German Air Force in World War II .

history

The command staff of the 20th Flak Division was set up in Leipzig in November 1942 under the command of Major General Georg Neuffer and, after being set up, will be transferred to North Africa in order to be the second division command (next to the 19th Flak Division ) there stationed German flak forces in the area of ​​the Panzer Army High Command 5 in Tunisia . After the withdrawal of the Wehrmacht and Italian units, which reached their climax with the formation of the Tunis bridgehead, the 20th Flak Division was tasked with defending the northern part of the bridgehead. As is usual with the Flak Divisions of the Luftwaffe, the structure of the 20th Flak Division was subject to constant fluctuations. On March 4, 1943, it was structured as follows:

• Anti-aircraft regiment 78 Sousse
• heavy flaka division 372 Tunis and the
• heavy flaka division 503 Biserta .

Before the surrender of Army Group Africa on March 13, 1943, the batteries of the 20th Flak Division managed to shoot down 37 enemy tanks in ground combat on March 10, 1943. With the surrender, the division's management staff with their commander Neuffer and the forces still available to them went into Allied captivity .

Realignment

Only four months later, on October 1, 1943, a new division staff was set up, which emerged from the brigade staff of the stage manager of the anti-aircraft cartillery at the Air Force Command Southeast . Division commander was Colonel Otto Sydow , who was in charge of the division until November 14, 1944. The division took over the leadership task of the flak forces in Yugoslavia and Albania . On February 1, 1944, the division was then divided as follows:

• Flak Regiment 38 (East Yugoslavia)
• Flag Regiment 40 (West Yugoslavia and Albania)
• Flag Regiment 37 ( Bor to Skopje airspace from September 1944)

As a result of the heavy German defensive battles with the Red Army, which also reached the Yugoslav theater of war in autumn 1944, the 37th flak regiment was wiped out and the 38th flak regiment in the Belgrade area was almost completely destroyed. However, what was left of them managed to move to Hungary . On November 15, 1944, Colonel Johann-Wilhelm Doering-Manteuffel became the new commander of the 20th Flak Division. He carried out this command until January 18, 1945, after which he was replaced by Major General Theodor Herbert , who, however, only held the command for a few weeks until March 22, 1945.

As of February 18, 1945, the 20th Flak Division had only a meager combat strength of seven flak divisions with 15 heavy and 15 medium and light batteries. In the period that followed, the division, meanwhile under its new commander, Colonel Ernst Schluchtmann , had to withdraw to Styria before the Soviet armed forces. The command post was initially in Sankt Ruprecht until April 26, 1945 and then in Bruck until the end of the war . As a few days before the end of the war, the 20th Flak Division still had 52 heavy and 13 medium and light flak batteries at its disposal as other flak units were quickly added. Further details regarding their surrender have not yet become known.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl-Heinz Hummel: The German flak cartillery 1935-1945. Your major formations and regiments . VDM, Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-048-1 , p. 93, 94 .