214th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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214th Infantry Division |
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|---|---|
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| active | August 26, 1939 to January 16, 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Type | Infantry division |
| structure | see structure |
| Installation site | Hanau , Offenbach am Main |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 214th Infantry Division was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II .
Division history
The 214th Infantry Division was set up as a division of the 3rd wave of deployment in August 1939 from the Frankfurt area in Hanau in military district IX . The division then served under the XXX. Army corps for border protection in the Saar-Palatinate . During the limited French Saar Offensive in 1939, the 214th ID was one of the central units in defense, with 79th ID on the right and 34th ID on the left.
In April 1940 the division took part in the invasion of Norway , was loaded to Stavanger and reached Kristiansand and Arendal , where it united with 163rd Infantry Division . After the fighting ended, the 214th Infantry Division remained in Norway as an occupying force .
At the beginning of 1944, the 214th Infantry Division was being prepared for its upcoming deployment on the Eastern Front in the East Prussia deployment area. In order to be able to be used in the field, the Mielau Shadow Division placed the Grenadier Regiment 568, the Reserve Grenadier Regiment 311 and the 1st Battalion / Artillery Regiment Mielau under their command.
In the spring of 1944, the 214th Infantry Division moved into position on the Narva in order to replace the 227th Infantry Division there and was later subordinated to the Army Group Northern Ukraine . There she was involved in the battle for the " Feste Platz " Kovel in Ukraine in 1944 , but was only able to withdraw afterwards with the mass of the fleeing armed forces units. This was followed by the fighting over the Baranov bridgehead on the Vistula , from which the 1st Ukrainian Front launched its attack in January 1945 during the Vistula-Oder operation . Only smaller combat groups remained of the 214th Infantry Division, which withdrew to Breslau in Silesia . The division was not reorganized before the end of the war.
War crimes of 214 ID
On November 20, 1942, Colonel Petri ordered the soldiers of III. Battalion / IR 355 reported the shooting of 14 British commandos who surrendered after an emergency landing during Operation Freshman and were captured. During a later trial, General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst , the commander of the German troops in Norway, was also convicted of passing on the command .
people
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| August 26, 1939 to January 30, 1940 | Lieutenant General | Theodor Groppe |
| January 30, 1940 to December 31, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Max Horn |
| December 31, 1943 to February 15, 1944 | Major general | Carl Wahle |
| 15.-28. February 1944 | Lieutenant General | Max Horn |
| February 28, 1944 until unknown | Lieutenant General | Harry von Kirchbach |
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 to March 1941 | major | Hans Fromberger |
| March 10, 1941 to April 20, 1944 | Lieutenant colonel | Hans-Wilhelm Tilgner |
| April 20, 1944 to January 1945 | Lieutenant colonel | Heinrich Gehm |
structure
| 1939 | 1944 |
|---|---|
| 355th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 355 |
| 367th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 367 |
| 388th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 568 |
| Artillery Regiment 214 | |
| Engineer Battalion 214 | |
| Anti-tank department 214 | Panzerjäger detachment 214 |
| Reconnaissance Division 214 | Division Fusilier Battalion 214 |
| News Department 214 | |
| Supply troops 214 | |
literature
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . Volume 8: The Land Forces 201–280 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1174-9 .
- Werner Haupt: The German infantry divisions . Ed. Dörfler im Nebel-Verlag, Eggolsheim 2005, ISBN 3-89555-274-7 .
Web links
- 200th through 370th German Infantry, Security, and Panzer Grenadier Divisions. Organizations and Histories 1939–1945 ( Memento from February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 461 kB), Nafziger Collection, Combined Armed Research Library.
Notes and individual references
- ^ British Military & Criminal History in the period 1900 to 1999 ( Memento of May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ in Büdingen by training manager Wetzlar
- ↑ in Bad Orb by training manager Hanau
- ↑ in Aschaffenburg by training manager Aschaffenburg
