245th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

245th Infantry Division
active	September 8, 1943 to May 8, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry division
structure	See outline
Installation site	room Rouen
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 245th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich .

history

The division was formed from Division D from the Bergen Training Area and set up on September 8 at Rouen in France by the military district XI as the 245th Infantry Division. Since the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944 , it has been in continuous action and fought in France near Dieppe , in Belgium, in the Netherlands near Tilburg and Breda , in Germany on the Lower Rhine near Wesel , on the Weser near Bremen and north of the Elbe in the Lauenburger Land .

The division was held ready at the end of April 1945 as a counter-attack reserve for the paratrooper landing north of Lauenburg expected with the British Elbe crossing . After this had not taken place, it was released by the Commander in Chief Northwest to defend against the British forces advancing north from the Lauenburg bridgehead .

The division was led by Lieutenant General Erwin Sander . On the night of April 30, 1945, he had the division deployed on both sides of the Witzeeze . Then he deployed two attack columns: to the west of Witzeeze the Grenadier Regiment 937 under Lieutenant Colonel Walter Nass , in Witzeeze and east of the village the Grenadier Regiment 935 under Lieutenant Colonel Werner Lutze , reinforced by the Panzerjäger Company . In terms of artillery support, Sander did not have his own guns, but had two heavy 12.8 cm railway anti-aircraft batteries. They had taken up their firing positions immediately south of Büchen and in the cut of the railway line in Müssen .

After considerable losses in the first assault, the division changed its fighting style: from the positions occupied close to the enemy, the grenadiers worked their way up to the enemy in small groups, in order to finally break into his positions through close combat in "fencing with fire". But the British positions held. British artillery sealed off the combat area, thereby preventing the deployment of the second attack squadron. After high casualties, the attack stalled and the appearance of British tanks, the attack was broken off and the division withdrew to the Steinau- Mühlenau line.

The delay line established on the evening of April 30, 1945 between the Elbe-Lübeck Canal near Büchen via Nüssau, along the Mühlenau until shortly before Müssen was only as strong as a regimental combat group after the losses in the counterattack on Basedow . In order to fill in the gaps and almost achieve the target strength, the division was assigned not only to the field replacement battalion 245 but also members of the air force, the navy, the state riflemen and the Volkssturm.

The British VIII Corps under its commanding General Evelyn Barker continued to attack. It had not yet been decided whether the British or the Soviets would take the two Baltic cities of Lübeck and Wismar . The resistance in Sahms , Kankelau and Büchen had temporarily stopped the British divisions.

On May 2, 1945, the divisional headquarters of the 245th Infantry Division declared its readiness to surrender to the British reconnaissance and infantrymen pushing after. At that time he was in the Kühsen- Anker area, where he had retired with the 2,500 soldiers who were still there after the counterattack on Basedow and the defense of the Steinau near Büchen and Pötrau. General Sander was captured on the evening of May 2, 1945.

The remainder of the division arrived in British captivity, first in Ratzeburg and Mölln , later in the restricted zone F .

As part of Operation Eclipse , the German armed forces still in existence at the time of the surrender were disarmed, but not disbanded. Rather, they were assigned lounges in which they were initially supposed to continue to exist as an organization that was as intact as possible and to take care of and manage themselves in order to ensure orderly processing. In the British occupation zone in particular, the dissolution was hesitant because Prime Minister Churchill feared a war with the Soviet Union immediately after the end of the war and wanted to preserve the possibility of using German forces as reinforcements. It was not until the end of 1945, and under considerable Soviet pressure, that the Wehrmacht accelerated. The captured soldiers of the 245th Infantry Division were released from Wehrmacht and captivity on August 2, 1945.

Deposits and operational rooms of the 245th ID
date	army	Army Group	Operational area
October 1943	15th	D.	Rouen
November 1943		D.	Dieppe
August 1944		B.	Belgium
October 1944		B.	Tilburg
December 1944	1.	G	Saar Palatinate
January 1945	1.	G	Northern Alsace
March 1945	z. Vfg.	OB West	Lower Rhine
April 1945	1. Parachute	OB Northwest	Lauenburg

structure

Grenadier Regiment 935
Grenadier Regiment 936
Grenadier Regiment 937
Artillery Regiment 245
Engineer Battalion 245
Field Replacement Battalion 245
Panzerjäger detachment 245
Fusilier Battalion 245
Infantry Division News Department 245
Infantry Division Supply Leader 245

Commanders

Entry into service	Rank	Surname
September 8, 1943	Lieutenant General	Erwin Sander
December 6, 1944	Major general	Gerhard Kegler
January 1945	Lieutenant General	Erwin Sander
April 1, 1945	Major general	Kuno Dewitz

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 . ; P. 193.
André Feit, Dieter Bechtold : The last front. The fighting on the Elbe in 1945 in the area of Lüneburg - Lauenburg - Lübeck - Ludwigslust , Helios-Verlag, Aachen 2011; bes. pp. 131 ff., 240 ff., 294 ff., 306 ff., 314 f., 325 f.
Cord von Hobe: Use of the 245th Infantry Division (July to October 44 ). Military Study P-173, 1954. NARA, Washington DC.

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.

Individual evidence

↑ Werner Lutze described his regiment after the war, which he wrongly called the number 934: “The Grenadier Regiment 934 was one of the bled-out regiments of the 245th Infantry Division, which had been in operation since the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944 until 1944 was in action without interruption in March 1945, so that in mid-March 1945, when the remnants of the regiment were pulled out of the battle front on the Lower Rhine near Wesel , only the regimental staff, and this already weakened by losses, was actually present. These pathetic remnants were pulled out of the battle front on the Weser near Bremen and moved in one go across the Elbe to the Kühsen- Anker area near Mölln , where they were replenished, re-armed and refreshed. Those who had recovered from the hospitals were brought to the regiment, so that by April 20, 1945, the 934 regiment had a crew of around 1,500 men of decorated and experienced combatants who were divided into two battalions and a regimental staff with an intelligence train, an engineer train and a 14th (anti-tank ) Company was divided. Unfortunately, the weapons equipment left a lot to be desired, so that the target for lMG, sMG, grenade launchers, anti-tank rifles and anti-tank guns or vehicles was not even remotely achieved. The experienced fighters at the front and their good spirit and commitment were of no use because the weapons required for combat were missing. The 934 Grenadier Regiment, which was being deployed and trained in the Kühsen-Anker- Panten area, was in this condition in April 1945. ”(Werner Lutze: Report of April 20, 1954 , Lauenburg City Archives; published by Feit, Bechtold: Die last Front ... , p. 131 f.)

↑ Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 240 ff.

↑ Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 294 ff.

↑ Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 133.

↑ Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 306 ff.

↑ Feit, Bechtold: Die last Front… , p. 314 f.

↑ ^a ^b Cf. 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 . ; P. 193.

↑ On May 15, 1945, on the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces, Field Marshal Montgomery , the division commander Erwin Sander wrote a letter to the soldiers under his command with the most important rules of conduct in the circumstances of the situation at the time (letter online at pkgodzik.de) (PDF; 43 kB).

[1] Werner Lutze described his regiment after the war, which he wrongly called the number 934: “The Grenadier Regiment 934 was one of the bled-out regiments of the 245th Infantry Division, which had been in operation since the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944 until 1944 was in action without interruption in March 1945, so that in mid-March 1945, when the remnants of the regiment were pulled out of the battle front on the Lower Rhine near Wesel , only the regimental staff, and this already weakened by losses, was actually present. These pathetic remnants were pulled out of the battle front on the Weser near Bremen and moved in one go across the Elbe to the Kühsen- Anker area near Mölln , where they were replenished, re-armed and refreshed. Those who had recovered from the hospitals were brought to the regiment, so that by April 20, 1945, the 934 regiment had a crew of around 1,500 men of decorated and experienced combatants who were divided into two battalions and a regimental staff with an intelligence train, an engineer train and a 14th (anti-tank ) Company was divided. Unfortunately, the weapons equipment left a lot to be desired, so that the target for lMG, sMG, grenade launchers, anti-tank rifles and anti-tank guns or vehicles was not even remotely achieved. The experienced fighters at the front and their good spirit and commitment were of no use because the weapons required for combat were missing. The 934 Grenadier Regiment, which was being deployed and trained in the Kühsen-Anker- Panten area, was in this condition in April 1945. ”(Werner Lutze: Report of April 20, 1954 , Lauenburg City Archives; published by Feit, Bechtold: Die last Front ... , p. 131 f.)

[2] Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 240 ff.

[3] Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 294 ff.

[4] Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 133.

[5] Feit, Bechtold: The Last Front ... , p. 306 ff.

[6] Feit, Bechtold: Die last Front… , p. 314 f.

[Tessin-7] Cf. 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 . ; P. 193.