257th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

257th Infantry Division
active	August 26, 1939 to October 9, 1944
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
Strength	15,000 debit
Installation site	Berlin-Karlshorst
Nickname	Berlin bears

The 257th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich . The division was also known as the "Berlin Bear Division". The division was in service during World War II .

Division history

The 257th Infantry Division was set up as a division of the 4th  wave of formation on August 26, 1939 in Berlin-Karlshorst . From the end of 1939 she was subordinate to the 1st Army on the Western Front, stationed in the Saar Palatinate and in June 1940 active on the Maginot Line . In July she was transferred to Poland, where she was assigned to the 17th Army in 1941 .

In June 1941, the 257th Infantry Division took in conjunction with the Army Group South at the attack on the Soviet Union in part and marched towards Lemberg . In September it reached the Dnieper . From November 1941 to July 1942 she was involved in fighting near Slovyansk . It was then moved to France and used until March 1943, among other things, to secure the coast in Brittany .

In April 1943, the 257th Infantry Division was relocated back to the Donets region as part of the 1st Panzer Army and deployed at Isjum until September . Until February 1944 she fought near Krivoy Rog and at the Nikopol bridgehead , after which she had to withdraw gradually with the 6th Army to what is now Moldova . There it was destroyed in August 1944 and officially dissolved on October 9, 1944.

Remains of the Division arrived at the military training area hiking in the Mark Brandenburg and were on 13 October 1944 together with the Infantry Division wholesale Görschen in the list of 257 people Grenadier Division included. This was active on the Western Front in the winter of 1944/1945 . In April remnants of the division were taken prisoner of war by the Americans near Füssen .

Commanders

date	Rank	Surname
0September 1, 1939	Lieutenant General	Max von Viebahn
0March 1, 1941	Lieutenant General	Karl Sachs
0May 1, 1942	Lieutenant General	Karl Gümbel
0June 1, 1942	Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General	Carl Püchler
0November 5, 1943	Major general	Anton Reichard Freiherr von Mauchenheim called Bechtolsheim
0July 2, 1944	Major general	Friedrich Blümke
0October 1, 1944	Colonel / Major General	Erich Seidel

structure

Structure of the 257th Infantry Division

1939	1942	1943-1944
457th Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 457
466th Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 466
477th Infantry Regiment	477th Grenadier Regiment
Artillery Regiment 257
Anti-tank department 257	Panzerjäger-Department 257 (from March 1940)
Reconnaissance Department 257	Cycling department 257 (from winter 1942/43)	Reconnaissance Department 257 (from April 1943)
-		Fusilier Battalion 257 (from July 1943)
Construction Battalion 257		Construction Pioneer Battalion 257 (from August 1943)
News Department 257
Supply units 257
-	Field Replacement Battalion 257

literature

• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Eighth volume: The Land Forces 201–280 . Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , pp. 245-250.
• Albert Benary: The Berlin Bear Division. History of the 257th Infantry Division 1939–1945 . Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Bad Nauheim 1970 [1955].
• Herbert Schrödter: Diary Fragments from the Second World War

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c d e} Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Eighth volume: The Land Forces 201–280 . Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1973, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , pp. 245-250.