246th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

246th Infantry Division
active	August 26, 1939 to August 3, 1944
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
Installation site	Darmstadt
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 246th Infantry Division (246th Inf-Div.) Was a major military unit of the German Wehrmacht , which was used during the Second World War , especially in the Western campaign and the war against the Soviet Union .

Division history

The 246th Inf.-Div. was repositioned in Darmstadt as part of the 3rd wave from August 26, 1939 . After the necessary training in Germany , the division belonged to the so-called "vacation divisions", which were not active until January 1940. Then she was used to secure the border between Karlsruhe and Brühl , then on the Lauter . During the western campaign, the division remained in position and served the rear section of the Maginot Line . She then returned to Germany for leave of absence from August 1940 to February 1941. From March 1941 to February 1942 she was again stationed in occupied France and was then transferred from March 1942 to the central section of the Eastern Front, where she was subordinate to the Army Group Center and mainly defended her positions on the so-called "taxiway" Smolensk - Moscow including the city of Bely against the 22nd Soviet Army and took part in the 1942 Battle of Rschew in the Seydlitz company against partisan activities south of Rschew . In 1943, she and the 9th Army withdrew to rear positions near Duchowschtschina as part of the Buffalo Movement Company . In June 1944, the 246th Infantry Division with the 35,000 strong 53rd Army Corps was enclosed in Vitebsk during Operation Bagration . It came about on June 25, 1944 to heavy fighting in the city area, in which the division suffered heavy losses. The unit was broken up near Vitebsk, between Shilki and Ostrowno. The surviving division commander, Major General Claus Müller-Bülow , was taken prisoner by the Soviets.

The division was officially dissolved on August 3, 1944. The division number 246 was reassigned a little later when the 565th Volksgrenadier Division was renamed the 246th Volksgrenadier Division .

people

Division commanders of the 246th ID:
period of service	Rank	Surname
September 1, 1939 to December 13, 1941	Lieutenant General	Erich Denecke
December 13, 1941 to May 16, 1943	Lieutenant General	Maximilian Siry
May 16 to September 12, 1943	Major general	Konrad von Alberti
September 12 to October 5, 1943	Major general	Heinz Fiebig
October 5, 1943 to April 20, 1944	Lieutenant General	Wilhelm Falley
April 20 to June 27, 1944	Major general	Claus Müller-Bülow

General Staff Officers (Ia) of ID 246:
period of service	Rank	Surname
August 26, 1939 to April 20, 1940	Captain	Wilhelm Knüppel
April 20 to August 1, 1940	major	Peter Pantenius
August 1940 to February 1941	major	unknown
February to December 1941	Lieutenant colonel	Friedrich Kuhn
December 1941 to January 1943	Lieutenant colonel	Max Freiherr von Schade
January 1943 to June 1944	Lieutenant colonel	Gerhard Rauch

structure

The 313 Infantry Regiment was transferred to the 337th ID in December 1941 .
The 689 Infantry Regiment came from 337 ID in December 1941.
352nd Infantry Regiment
404 Infantry Regiment
Artillery Regiment 246
Anti-tank department 246
Engineer Battalion 246
Field Replacement Battalion 246
Reconnaissance Department 246
Infantry Division Supply Troops 246

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.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Norbert Kannapin: The German field post: Organization u. Location 1939-1945 . Biblio-Verlag, 1979, ISBN 978-3-7648-1169-3 , pp. 82 ( google.de [accessed on October 11, 2018]).
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Rolf Hinze: The collapse of Army Group Center in the East in 1944 . Motorbuch Verlag, 1980, ISBN 978-3-87943-681-1 ( Google Books ).

[:0-1] A ^b Norbert Kannapin: The German field post: Organization u. Location 1939-1945 . Biblio-Verlag, 1979, ISBN 978-3-7648-1169-3 , pp. 82 ( google.de [accessed on October 11, 2018]).

[wehrkundearchiv-2] Rolf Hinze: The collapse of Army Group Center in the East in 1944 . Motorbuch Verlag, 1980, ISBN 978-3-87943-681-1 ( Google Books ).