251st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
|
251st Infantry Division |
|
|---|---|
| active | August 26, 1939 to March 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Branch of service | infantry |
| Type | Infantry Division |
| structure | structure |
| Strength | 15,000 debit |
| Installation site | Hersfeld |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 251st Infantry Division (251st ID) was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht .
Division history
The 251st Infantry Division was set up in Hersfeld in August 1939 as part of the 4th wave of deployment .
At the beginning of the Second World War she took part in the case of Gelb and the campaign against Belgium. Then in the Red case against France, where she carried out operations in Brittany . As part of Operation Barbarossa , the 251st Infantry Division marched into Lithuania and took part in Operation Taifun against Moscow in autumn 1941 . This was followed by protracted fighting at Rzhev , with the rapid war of aggression turning into a material-intensive positional war. In 1943, he withdrew from the front arch at Rzhev as part of the company buffalo movement and then took part in the tank battle of Kursk . The division had to be disbanded in November 1943 after extremely heavy losses on the Eastern Front. On September 27, 1944, the 251st ID was reorganized. The new division staff was formed from the staff of Corps Department E, which also included division group 251. In January 1945, the 251st ID. heavy losses in the Warka bridgehead near Warsaw and was finally destroyed in West Prussia in March 1945 .
Parts of the 251st ID. formed the basis of the leader corps of the infantry division "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" (RAD Division 2) set up in Jüterbog in March / April 1945. In addition, the complete division staff of the 251st ID, with parts of the news department. 251 (only with portable device) and the rods of Art.Rgt. 251 and the Pi.Btl. 251, before the fighting for the Oxhöfter Kämpe north of Gotenhafen on the night of April 1st, 1945 to Hela. From there they reached Jüterbog on the evening of April 5, 1945.
| date | Army Corps | army | Army Group | place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1939 | to disposal | 5th Army | C. | Eifel |
| October 1939 | V | 4th Army | B. | |
| January 1940 | ||||
| May 1940 | A. | Belgium | ||
| June 1940 | available OKH | - | - | Lille |
| July 1940 | XXVIII | 6th Army | A. | Brest |
| August 1940 | B. | |||
| September 1940 | C. | |||
| December 1940 | D. | |||
| January 1941 | ||||
| May 1941 | to disposal | - | C. | East Prussia |
| June 1941 | XXIII | 16th Army | North | |
| July 1941 | to disposal | - | Dünaburg | |
| August 1941 | L. | 9th Army | center | Newel |
| September 1941 | XXIII | Dubno, Kalinin | ||
| December 1941 | XXVII | Rzhev | ||
| January 1942 | ||||
| February 1942 | VI | |||
| April 1942 | XXXXVI | |||
| May 1942 | XXVII | |||
| August 1942 | VI | |||
| November 1942 | XXVII | |||
| January 1943 | ||||
| February 1943 | Burdach group | |||
| March 1943 | to disposal | 2nd Panzer Army | Oryol | |
| April 1943 | XX | |||
| July 1943 | 9th Army | |||
| September 1943 | LVI | 2nd Army | Desna | |
| October 1943 | XXXXVI | Gomel | ||
| October 1944 | VIII | 9th Army | Warka (Poland) | |
| December 1944 | A. | |||
| January 1945 | ||||
| February 1945 | XXVII | 2nd Army | Vistula | East Prussia |
structure
- 451st Infantry Regiment
- 459th Infantry Regiment
- 471st Infantry Regiment
- Artillery Regiment 251
- I.–IV. Department
- Anti-tank department 251
- Reconnaissance Department 251
- Engineer Battalion 251
- News Department 251
- Supply troops
people
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| September 1, 1939 to August 6, 1941 | Lieutenant General | Hans Kratzert |
| August 6, 1941 to March 10, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Karl Burdach |
| March 10 to November 15, 1943 | General of the artillery | Maximilian Felzmann |
| Realignment | - | - |
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| 1939 to November 30, 1939 | Colonel | Friedrich Krischer Edler von Wehregg |
| 1940 | Captain | Gundelach |
| 1940 | major | Hoeffner |
| 1940 to May 1941 | major | Wolf-Arnim Zabel |
| May 5, 1941 to December 15, 1942 | major | Hans Meier-Welcker |
| December 15, 1942 to November 12, 1943 | Lieutenant colonel | Peter Knapp |
| August 25, 1944 to April 10, 1945 | Lieutenant colonel | Werner Reerink |
- Major Baron von Recum
- Battalion commander, prevented with his unit in the summer battle of Rzhev 1942 the Soviet invasion of the northern position
- Major Gerhard Konopka (born March 27, 1911 Tirschtiegel / Brandenburg; † January 29, 1997 Darmstadt )
- Konopka was awarded the close combat clasp in gold and the Knight's Cross several times during his deployment on the Eastern Front. In 1945 he took over a regiment of the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Infantry Division from the remains of the 251st ID.
literature
- Karl-Wilhelm Maurer: The Hessian-Thuringian 251st Infantry Division in World War II turns from hunter to hunted, Verlag Books on Demand, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-3111-9 .
- 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 .
- Henrik Schulze: 19 days of war. The RAD infantry division "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" in the gap between the 9th and 12th Army . Hoppegarten b. Berlin 2011. ISBN 978-3-932566-45-5 .
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.
