252nd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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252nd Infantry Division
Troop identification: Silesian oak leaves
active	August 26, 1939 to May 8, 1945 (surrender)
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry division
structure	See: Outline
Installation site	Wroclaw
Second World War	attack on Poland French campaign Maginot Line War against the Soviet Union Battle of the cauldron near Białystok and Minsk Kettle battle near Smolensk Battle for Moscow Defense battle near Newel Battle for East Prussia
Commanders
Please refer:	List of commanders

The 252nd Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich .

history

The division was set up on August 26, 1939 as part of the 4th wave of formation in Breslau . It comprised supplementary units of military district VIII and a replacement was provided by the infantry replacement battalion 461 from Jauer .

From September 1, 1939, the division served in the attack on Poland and then in December under the command of Lieutenant General Diether von Boehm-Bezing as part of the XXIV Army Corps of Colonel General Erwin von Witzleben's 1st Army , where it served the Maginot Line in Lorraine faced. The 1st Army experienced the occupation of the West Wall (“ Siegfried Line ”), the so-called “ Drole de guerre ”, and remained passive during the simultaneous German attack on the Netherlands and France. It was not until June 14, 1940 that the 1st Army began an offensive as part of the Braun case (Operation “Tiger”) and, after breaking through the Maginot Line, advanced into the Vosges . Together with the 7th Army (General der Artillerie Friedrich Dollmann ) and Panzergruppe Guderian (General der Panzertruppe Heinz Guderian ) the 1st Army took part in the encirclement of 400,000 soldiers of the French 2nd Army Group in Alsace-Lorraine .

On October 8, 1940, the unit surrendered a third of the division to the 134th Infantry Division (Stab / 452, III./452, III./461, III./472, II./AR 252). The taxes were replaced within the division.

In preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union , the 252nd Infantry Division was transferred to the Generalgouvernement in May 1941 and assigned to the Higher Command z. b. V. XXXV subordinated to the 4th Army under General Field Marshal Günther von Kluge (Army Group B). From June 22, 1941, the day of the attack by Operation Barbarossa , the division was henceforth part of Army Group Center and on June 27, 1941 it was assigned to XXXXIII. Army Corps subordinated to the 4th Army.

After operations at Bialystok and Vyazma , the 252nd Infantry Division, now subordinate to Panzer Group 4 , advanced on Moscow in November 1941. The decimated in the Battle of Moscow Infantry Regiment 452 was incorporated into the 7th Infantry Regiment taken over by the 28th Infantry Division on November 11, 1941 . The Soviet counteroffensive from December 1941 threw the division back to Gschatsk , where it was part of the 4th Panzer Army in January 1942 and from May 1942 as part of the 3rd Panzer Army , IX. Army Corps , remained in position.

On January 25, 1943, the 472 Grenadier Regiment was disbanded and the remaining battalions were distributed among the remaining regiments. From February 1943, the entire 252nd Infantry Division moved as part of the IX. Army corps of the 4th Army (Army Group Center) to Jelnja . From November 1943, the division was subordinated to the 3rd Panzer Army and moved to Orsha and then Newel . In December 1943, the remnants of the Ski Jäger Battalion 1 were incorporated into the Divisions Fusilier Battalion 252.

From April 4, 1944, the division was restructured. A substitute provision on June 8, 1944 (Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 7) was located in Schweidnitz . The 472 Grenadier Regiment was reorganized on July 7, 1944. Until August 1944, the division remained part of the IX. Army Corps of the 3rd Panzer Army (Army Group Center). On October 18, 1944, the division was incorporated into the 1072 Grenadier Regiment and the 1039 Combat March Battalion. From December 1944, the withdrawal to Poland took place, taking part in the Battle of East Prussia as part of the Vistula Army Group until the surrender in May 1945. The division, which was still partly transported to the occupied Danish island of Bornholm , was taken prisoner in the bulk near Danzig .

structure

In the course of its loss-making operation, the division carried out numerous reclassifications, expansions and replacements.

• Infantry Regiment 452 (dissolved on November 11, 1941 and replaced by IR 7), Infantry Regiment 461, Infantry Regiment 472, Artillery Regiment 252, Div.Units 252:

Commanders

• Lieutenant General Diether von Boehm-Bezing (August 26, 1939 to March 24, 1942)
• Lieutenant General Hans Schaefer (March 25, 1942 to January 1, 1943)
• General of the Infantry Walter Melzer (January 1, 1943 to October 12, 1944)
• Lieutenant General Paul Dreckmann (October 12, 1944 to May 8, 1945)

Connection with the white rose

From August to the end of October 1942, the medical students of the 2nd student company from Munich, Alexander Schmorell , Hans Scholl , Jürgen Wittenstein and Willi Graf , who belonged to the White Rose resistance group , completed their field internship , presumably with units of the medical services 252 (1st medical company 252: Medical officer Skeide; 2nd medical company 252: Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marketon; 1st and 2nd / ambulance train 252; most likely: field hospital 252). Hubert Furtwängler and Willi Graf were temporarily assigned to the troop formation station of the 461 infantry regiment, Wittenstein was transferred to the divisional hospital in Vyasma on August 7, 1942, while the other students of the 2nd company remained as paramedics at the main formation station Plankenhorn near Gschatsk.

War crimes

During retreat movements in 1942/43, the 252nd Division was also involved in war crimes , as the Soviet side presented at the Nuremberg trials :

“... In Vyazma and Gshatsk, the commander of the 35th Infantry Division, Major General Merker, the Commander of the 252nd Infantry Division, Major General Schaefer, and the Commander of the 7th Infantry Division, Major General Roppert, formed special detachments of torch-bearers and miners, Schools, theaters, clubs, museums, libraries, hospitals, churches, shops and businesses were set on fire and blew up. They left only rubble and ashes on their retreat. "

literature

• Bernage-De Lannoy: Les Divisions de l'Armee de Terre Allemande Vol. I , Heimdal, France 1994.
• Paul Adair: Hitler's Greatest Defeat: The Collapse of Army Group Center, June 1944 . Arms and Armor Press, London, United Kingdom, 1994.
• Lilo Fürst-Ramdohr : Friendships in the White Rose . Verlag Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen , Munich 1995. ISBN 3-931231-00-3 .
• 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. 218 f.

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

1. ↑ ^{a b} Details in: Detlef Bald: The White Rose. From the front to the resistance , Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-351-02546-7 ; see. also: Sönke Zankel : With leaflets against Hitler: the resistance group around Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell , Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2008, p. 294ff., ISBN 978-3-412-20038-1 .
2. ^ Zeno.org: The Nuremberg Trials. (Online, last accessed on May 12, 2020)