253rd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

253rd Infantry Division
active	August 26, 1939 to May 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
Strength	15,000 debit
Installation site	Muenster
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 253rd Infantry Division (253rd ID) was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht . The division was set up in Wehrkreis VI (Münster) . From 1939 to 1945, 88% of the division's teams came from Wehrkreis VI, which comprised Westphalia, northern Rhineland and eastern Belgium. The division therefore carried the addition of the Rhenish-Westphalian 253rd Infantry Division .

Division history

Areas of application

• Germany: September 1939 to May 1940.
• Belgium and France: May 1940 to April 1941.
• Poland: April to June 1941.
• Eastern Front, Central Section: June 1941 to February 1945.
• Poland (Upper Silesia) and Czechoslovakia (Moravia): February to May 1945.

The 253rd Infantry Division was set up in August 1939 as a division of the 4th wave of deployment in Military District VI in Münster . After it was set up, it was moved to the German western border for border protection. In 1940 the invasion of France began , a year later in June 1941 the 253rd Infantry Division took part in Operation Barbarossa and marched as part of the 9th Army (Wehrmacht) of Army Group North through Lithuania and Latvia to the upper reaches of the Volga and the unsuccessful attack Moscow . At the front of Rzhev , the division was involved in several summer and winter battles that took place for the German positions.

In March 1943 after the buffalo movement and the controlled retreat from the area around Rzhev, the 253rd Infantry Division was deployed further south near Orel , where from the end of 1943 the retreat battles against the superior forces of the Red Army were initiated. In May 1945 the 253rd Infantry Division surrendered to the US armed forces near Prague near Deutsch Brod . From 1941 to 1945, the 253rd Infantry Division was involved in combat operations almost continuously until it was taken prisoner of war in Czechoslovakia.

structure

• 453rd Infantry Regiment
• 464th Infantry Regiment
• 473rd Infantry Regiment
• 253rd Artillery Regiment
• Panzerjäger detachment 253
• Reconnaissance Department 253
• Engineer Battalion 253
• News Department 253
• Supply troops

people

Division commanders of the 253rd

period of service	Rank	Surname
September 1, 1939 to March 7, 1941	Lieutenant General	Fritz Kuehne
March 7, 1941 to January 18, 1943	Lieutenant General	Otto Schellert
January 18, 1943 to June 17, 1944	Lieutenant General	Carl Becker
17.-28. June 1944	Major general	Hans Junck ( mdFb )
June 28, 1944 to May 5, 1945	Lieutenant General	Carl Becker
5th-8th May 1945	Major general	Joachim Schwatlo-Gesterding

General Staff Officers (Ia) of the 253rd

period of service	Rank	Surname
August 26 to October 20, 1939	Lieutenant colonel	Walther von Hünersdorff
October 23, 1939 to July 1, 1940	major	Kurt von One
July 1, 1940 to July 30, 1941	major	Franz Schlieper
July 30, 1941 to January 20, 1943	major	Ernst Lenné
January 20 to November 5, 1943	Lieutenant colonel	Hans-Joachim Ludendorff
November 5, 1943 to December 25, 1944	Lieutenant colonel	Josef Weber
December 25, 1944 to 1945	major	Siegfried Doenges

Awards

The 253rd Infantry Division was mentioned three times in the Wehrmacht report. On March 27, 1942, the Wehrmacht report reported: "The Rhenish-Westphalian 252nd Infantry Division repulsed 120 attacks by the enemy, some of them supported by tanks, in weeks of tough defensive battles, and destroyed the bulk of several Soviet divisions." The division commander announced the division on the same day in a call to mention it in the Wehrmacht report. In a status report of March 13, 1942, Schellert had demanded the recognition and mention of the division with the addition of Rhenish-Westphalian , which was in the most difficult fighting, in a public announcement. On October 24, 1943, the Wehrmacht report reported: “The XXXIX. Panzer Corps under the command of the Artillery General Martinek and the Rhenish-Westphalian 252nd Infantry Division under the leadership of Lieutenant General Becker. "On October 10, 1944 the message came:" The Rhenish-Westphalian 252nd Infantry Division under the leadership of the Knight's Cross bearer Lieutenant General Becker has superbly defeated in the battle for the eastern Beskids. "

A total of 40 members of the 253rd were included in the honorary sheet of the German Army . 104 members of the division received the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

Knight's Cross bearer

Rank	Surname	unit	Award date
First lieutenant	Hermann Maek	Company commander 5th Kp./IR 453	March 20, 1942
First lieutenant	Heinz Crusius	Company commander 4th Kp./IR 453	0May 3, 1942
Private	Hans Sturm	Detector 6th Kp./IR 473	September 26, 1942
Lieutenant colonel	Richard Schmidt	Regimental commander IR 473	0November 6, 1942
Sergeant	Bernhard Walterbach	Platoon leader 2.Kp./PiBtl. 253	September 22, 1943
Lieutenant colonel	Siegfried Grotheer	Regimental commander GR 464	0November 6, 1943
Captain	Heinz Emmerling	Battalion Commander II. Btl./GR 464	February 23, 1944
grenadier	Karl Orth	13. Kp./GR 453	0March 3, 1944
Private	Othmar Hermes	Company reporter 6. Kp./GR 464	June 11, 1944
Fahnenjunker-Oberfeldwebel	Friedrich Piefer	Leader 2. Kp./GR 464	0September 2, 1944
Captain	Heinz Remmert	Battalion Commander II. Btl./GR 464	September 10, 1944
lieutenant	Josef Wittrock	Leader 1.Kp./GR 453	September 10, 1944
Captain	Hans-Georg Weisleder	Battalion Commander III. Btl./GR 453	September 21, 1944
Sergeant major	Johann Thelen	Battery Officer 5th Battery / AR 253	0November 3, 1944
Sergeant major	Leo-Otto Debiel	Battery Officer 2nd Battery / AR 253	November 19, 1944
major	Johann Hörstermann	Commander combat group GR 473	March 28, 1945
Lieutenant General	Carl Becker	Division commander 253rd ID	April 14, 1945, RK with oak leaves
Lieutenant colonel	August-Friedrich Ebke	Regimental commander GR 464	April 14, 194514
Lieutenant colonel	Wilhelm Viehmann	Regimental commander GR 453	April 17, 1945
Captain	Ernst Herlt	Battery chief 9th battery / AR 253	April 17, 1945
sergeant	Gustav Springer	Platoon leader 2.Kp./Panzerjäger-Abtlg. 253	April 30, 1945
First lieutenant	Paul Gehl	Leader I.Btl./GR 453	0May 9, 1945
Sergeant	Karl Nohr	Staff company / GR 453	May 1945

War crimes

In his book “Menschenmaterial”, Christoph Rass describes the crimes of the Wehrmacht , the increasing brutality and acts of violence against the civilian population in the occupied Soviet Union , using reports from the 253rd ID. The martial law decree of 1941 largely abolished the prosecution of crimes against the civilian population. The murder of civilians was only punished in individual cases with arrest sentences lasting several days. During the advance in 1941, parts of the 253rd Infantry Division formed the front lines. In the vicinity of the fighting, prisoners were murdered and alleged partisans were executed. The members of the division witnessed killing of prisoners by the SS or police units, in which they participated. While the units at the head were rotating, the combat troops of the 253rd Infantry Division cleared the hinterland. Together with the SS, the secret field police and the Einsatzgruppen , units of the 253rd ID were also part of a mobile terrorist apparatus. Half a year after the start of the Russian campaign , the division reported 230 alleged partisans killed. These were usually made up of dispersed soldiers from the Red Army , civilians, political commissars and Jews . The supply units, reserves and logistics units of the 253rd ID followed behind the combat troops. These took over the plunder of the occupied territories. With the transition to position war the 253. ID-established in their designated section of about 40-90 kilometers in width and 15-25 kilometers deep a permanent crew structure for securing the area and the economic exploitation. In the division's actual retreat, behind the five-kilometer-deep combat section, the units of the 253rd Infantry Division also undertook political tasks. These were expressed in the identification of the Jewish population and the routine cooperation with SD and the secret field police. In the war against the partisans, the arrest of hostages, retaliation against villages and their economic exploitation became a principle. From the late summer of 1941, forced laborers were used to clear mines . For this purpose, the 253rd ID set up work commands for mine clearance and ammunition transport. The work details consisted of women and men between the ages of 14 and 60. If one of the civilians deployed was missing from the morning roll call, the people present who had the following and previous number were shot. The division obtained replacements for dying and incapacitated prisoners from nearby prisoner-of-war camps. From the retreat in 1943, the principle of "scorched earth" was consistently applied with catastrophic consequences for the Russian population. During the retreat in 1942 and 1943 alone, the 253rd Infantry Division devastated an area of ​​5000 km². In March 1944, units of the 9th Army of the Wehrmacht , including the 35th ID and the 253rd ID, deported 46,000 Belarusian civilians to the "no man's land" between the German and Soviet main battle lines, specifically to the improvised Osaritschi death camp south of the city Bobruysk . About 9,000 civilians were murdered in this war crime. They died from shooting, starvation, disease and disease.

literature

• Clemens Freiherr von Boenninghausen: 253rd Infantry Division: Way and end of a Rhenish Westphalian division in the east. 1941-1945. Self-published, 1972.
• Christoph Rass: "Human material": German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Interior views of an infantry division 1939–1945. Schöningh Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-506-74486-0 ( online ).
• 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 .

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. ↑ Christoph Rass: Human material. Paderborn 2003. Section Regional Origin, pp. 101–107.
2. ↑ with four departments.
3. ↑ The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht . (5 volumes), Cologne 2004. Volume III, p. 70.
4. ↑ Christoph Rass: Human material. Paderborn 2003, pp. 104-105.
5. ↑ The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht . (5 volumes), Cologne 2004. Volume IV, p. 261.
6. ↑ The reports of the High Command of the Wehrmacht . (5 volumes), Cologne 2004. Volume V, p. 341.
7. ↑ Christoph Rass: Human material: German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Interior views of an infantry division 1939–1945. Schöningh Verlag 2003, p. 252
8. ↑ Orth received the first and second grade classes at the same time.
9. ↑ ^{a b} unconfirmed and unofficial, guaranteed by the Dönitz decree .
10. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Johannes Hürter, Ulrike Jureit : Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, p. 82.
11. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Johannes Hürter, Ulrike Jureit: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, p. 83.
12. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Johannes Hürter, Ulrike Jureit: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, p. 84.
13. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Johannes Hürter, Ulrike Jureit: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, p. 86.
14. ↑ Christoph Rass: "Menschenmaterial": German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Interior views of an infantry division 1939–1945. Paderborn 2003, pp. 386-402. (Review Die Zeit ) .