20th Infantry Division (motorized) (Wehrmacht)

20th Infantry Division, 20th Motorized Infantry Division, 20th Panzer Grenadier Division
Troop registration
active	October 1, 1934 to 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
garrison	Hamburg
Nickname	Hamburg Division
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 20th Infantry Division and later the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht .

Division history

The 20th Infantry Division (ID) was set up in Hamburg on October 1, 1934 under the code name Reichswehrdienststelle Hamburg. The infantry regiments (IR) were formed from the 6th IR of the 2nd Reichswehr Division. The motorization of the division took place at the end of 1937. In October 1938 she took part in the Association of the XVI. Army Corps participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland .

The beginning of the war for the division was the attack on Poland . In 1941 she was involved in the capture of Brest-Litovsk . From June 22 to July 10, 1941, she took part in operations in Białystok and Minsk . In July 1941 she was sent to the northern section of the Eastern Front, where she fought Soviet units on the Daugava in the direction of Vitebsk . From July 11 to August 18, 1941, she fought in the Battle of Smolensk . Then she was subordinated to Army Group North. During the advance on Leningrad operated the 20th ID (mot) south of Lake Ladoga and should the Soviet bridgeheads of Annenskoje and Lobanov eliminate and eventually Schlüsselburg taking. From September 1941 to July 1942 the division was in action in the Chudowo area at the Volkhov position. In the winter of 1941/42 she fought at Tikhvin .

In July 1943 it was renamed the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division . In 1943, the 20th PGD fought against the advancing Red Army in Kiev and on the Dnieper . In the spring of 1944 the division was enclosed in the so-called Hube-Kessel near Kamenez-Podolsk , but was able to free itself again and retreated towards Lemberg and Kamionka on the Bug . In 1945 the 20th PGD was involved in the battles around the Vistula and backed away in the direction of Lausitzer Neisse , Stettin and Oderbruch . Later she took part in the battles for Berlin and Potsdam . On May 5, 1945, she capitulated to the US Army in Tangermünde .

structure

Changes in the structure of the 20th ID (motorized) and 20th PGD from 1939 to 1945

20th ID (mot.) 1939	20th PGD 1943	20th PGD 1945
Motorized Infantry Regiment 69	-
Motorized Infantry Regiment 76	Motorized Grenadier Regiment 76	76th Panzer Grenadier Regiment
Motorized Infantry Regiment 90	Motorized Grenadier Regiment 90	90th Panzer Grenadier Regiment
Artillery regiment (motorized) 20 Artillery regiment (motorized) 56	Artillery Regiment (motorized) 20
Pioneer Battalion (motorized) 20
Anti-tank department 20	Panzerjäger detachment 20
News Department 20	Panzergrenadier Division News Department 20
Reconnaissance Department 20	Panzer Reconnaissance Division 120
Observation Department 20	-
Field Replacement Battalion 20	Combat school of the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division
Infantry Division Supply Leader (motorized) 20	Panzergrenadier division supply troops 20
Administrative services 20
Medical services 20

people

Division commanders of 20th ID and 20th PGD

period of service	Rank	Surname
October 1, 1934 to November 10, 1938	Lieutenant General	Maximilian Schwandner
November 10, 1938 to November 10, 1940	General of the Infantry	Mauritz von Wiktorin
November 10, 1940 to January 12, 1942	Major general	Hans Zorn
January 12, 1942 to January 3, 1943	Lieutenant General	Erich Jaschke
January 3, 1943 to January 1, 1945	Lieutenant General	Georg Jauer
January 1 to April 23, 1945	Major general	Georg Scholze

General staff officers (Ia) of the 20th ID and 20th PGD

period of service	Rank	Surname
May 1, 1935 to June 1, 1938	major	Nikolaus von Vormann
June 1, 1938 to January 6, 1941	Lieutenant colonel	Werner Friebe
January 6, 1941 to May 7, 1942	Lieutenant colonel	Joachim Ziegler
May 7 to July 15, 1942	-	unknown
July 15 to November 26, 1942	major	Richard Mendrczyk
November 26, 1942 to February 1, 1943	-	unknown
February 1 to June 1943	major	Benno von Bonin
June to November 1943	Captain	Otto Burk
November 1943 to May 1944	Lieutenant colonel	Count von Pückler
June 1944 to? 1945	Lieutenant colonel	Benno von Bonin
1945	major	Altmayr

• Kurt von Briesen (born May 3, 1883 in Anklam ; † November 20, 1941 near Isjum )

Commander of IR 69 from 1935 to 1938; later general of the infantry and commanding general of an army corps; Briesen barracks named after them

• Hans Gollnick (born May 22, 1892 at Gut Gursen in Pomerania ; † February 15, 1970 in Hamburg )

Commander of the IR 76 (motorized) from May 1939 to June 1941; later General of the Infantry and Commander-in-Chief of the Samland Army Department

• Karl Mauss (born May 17, 1898 in Plön ; † February 9, 1959 in Hamburg)

served in the 20th ID (mot), in 1945 he was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds .

• Gerhard Graf von Schwerin (born June 23, 1899 in Hanover ; † October 29, 1980 in Rottach-Egern )

Commander of the IR 76 (motorized) from August 1941 to July 1942; later general of the armored forces and commanding general of an armored corps; After the war he was head of the Home Service Center

• Helmuth Weidling (born November 2, 1891 in Halberstadt ; † November 17, 1955 in the Wladimirowka prison camp )

Commander of AR 56 and AR 20 from November 1938 to April 1940; later general of the artillery and commanding general of various corps; in April 1945 appointed combat commander of Berlin

• Joachim Ziegler (born October 18, 1904 in Hanau ; † May 2, 1945 in Berlin )

served as Ib and Ia in the division staff of the 20th ID (mot) and later became division commander in the Waffen SS

Awards

46 members of the 20th ID (mot) were awarded the Knight's Cross and 125 the German Cross in gold.

Well-known members of the division

• Hermann Wulf (1915–1990), was from 1965 to 1971, as Brigadier General of the Army of the Bundeswehr , commander of the Army Officer School II
• Lothar Freutel (1894–1944) was battery chief in Artillery Regiment 20 from October 1936 to October 1938 and then commander of the III. Department

literature

• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 4. The Land Forces 15–30 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1976, ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 .
• Dietwart Asmus: The 20th Inf.Div. (Mot) (later 20th Pz.Gren.Div.), Published by the working group of former members of the 20th PGD, part 1–5, Hamburg 1992.
• Dietwart Asmus: The history of the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division 1935-1945.
• Artur Römer: Diary notes and memories with Regiment 76 1938–1945.
• Hans Wijers: Diary No. 8 of the command division of the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division, Ia.

Remarks

1. ↑ In April 1940 reclassified to the Rifle Regiment and subordinated to the 10th Panzer Division .
2. ^ Staff and Division I
3. ^ In December 1939 to the army troops

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )