26th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

26th Infantry Division
Troop registration
active	April 1, 1936 to September 1944
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
garrison	Cologne
Nickname	Cathedral Division
Second World War	Battle of Rzhev
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 26th Infantry Division (26th ID), as of September 17, 1944, the 26th Volksgrenadier Division , was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht .

Division history

The 26th ID was on 1 April 1936 in Cologne in the Military District VI mainly of Westphalia and the Rhine countries set up and was during the mobilization in August 1939 part of the first line-up wave . It was called the Dom Division because of its division badge .

The unit was not active during the attack on Poland and was involved in the western campaign in 1940, but was hardly involved in combat operations in the area of Luxembourg and the Aisne / Champagne region. This was followed by conquest missions on the Franco-Belgian border in May 1941 and then dispatch to Poland . On the Eastern Front she was involved in the advance on Moscow and Leningrad in 1941 , as part of the 9th Army together with the 206th Infantry Division in the Battle of Rzhev and heavily deployed during the 1941/42 winter offensive. In 1942 it was deployed in the central sector of the receding German defense lines. The division took part in Operation Citadel in 1943 and suffered heavy losses. It was reclassified into a division with three regiments , which only had two battalions .

The division fought at Orel and Smolensk in 1943 . During the Soviet summer offensive in 1944 near Kovel in the Ukraine ; At the end of July still refreshed by the 174th Reserve Division ; the division managed to avoid annihilation, but was then overrun on the East Prussian border in September 1944 and had to be withdrawn from the front. The remnants were incorporated into the 253rd Infantry Division .

The 26th Volksgrenadier Division was set up in September / October 1944 on the Warthelager military training area near Posen from the staff of the 26th Infantry Division and troops from the 582nd Volksgrenadier Division, which had been set up shortly before, with conversion to two battalions per regiment . It mainly insisted on naval and air force personnel. The division was deployed to the Western Front in the area of Luxembourg in November 1944 . It was used in the Battle of the Bulge with the siege of Bastogne . After these combat operations, the division was reduced to a combat strength of around 1780 men, but continued to operate in the combat area near Prüm in February 1945. In mid-April 1945 there was another refresh from the dissolution of the Danube infantry division . The remnants of the division, withdrawn from the western front, were taken prisoner in the Harz region in May 1945.

Insinuation

Subordination of the 26th ID during the Second World War

date	corps	army	Army Group	Location
September 1939	z. Vfg.	5th Army	C.	Eifel ( Trier )
October 1939	XXIII	6th Army	B.
December 1939 to January 1940	VII	16th Army	A.
May 1940	z. Vfg.			Luxembourg , Somme
June 1940	XVII	12th Army		Aisne , Champagne
July 1940	XXIII	9th Army		Belgium , France
August 1940	XXXVIII	16th Army
September 1940 to April 1941		9th Army
May 1941		15th Army	D.
June to September 1941	VI	9th Army	center	Polotsk , Daugava
October 1941		Panzer Group 3		Bely
November to December 1941		9th Army		Kalinin
January to July 1942				Rshew
August to October 1942	LIII	2nd Panzer Army		Bolchow , Orel
November to December 1942	XXXV
January 1943	z. Vfg.	8th Italian Army	B.	Donbogen
February 1943		2nd Army		Kursk
March 1943	XIII		center
April to July 1943	VII
August 1943	LIII	2nd Panzer Army		Orel
September 1943	XII	9th Army
October 1943		4th Army		Smolensk ( Gorki )
November 1943 to January 1944	XXXIX
February to April 1944	XXVII
May 1944	LVI	2nd Army		Kovel
June to August 1944		4th Panzer Army	Northern Ukraine

Subordinate to the 26th Volksgrenadier Division during World War II

date	corps	army	Army Group	Location
September / October 1944	BdE			Poses
November 1944	z. Vfg.	7th Army	B.	Eifel
December 1944	LXVI
January 1945	XXXiX	5th Panzer Army		Ardennes
February 1945	LXVII			Eifel
March 1945	Botsch			Rhine
April 1945	Deputy IX.	11th Army	Commander in Chief West	resin

structure

Changes in the structure of the 26th ID from 1939 to 1944

1939	1942	1943-1944
Infantry Regiment 39 ( Düsseldorf )	Fusilier Regiment 39
77th Infantry Regiment ( Bonn )	Grenadier Regiment 77
78th Infantry Regiment ( Aachen )	Grenadier Regiment 78
-		Fusilier Battalion 26th
Reconnaissance Department 26 (Düsseldorf)	Cycling Department 26	-
Artillery Regiment 26
I./ Artillery Regiment 62
Engineer Battalion 26
Anti-tank department 26	Panzerjäger detachment 26
News Department 26
Field Replacement Battalion 26 (from 1940 to 196th Infantry Division )
Commander of Infantry Division Resupply Forces 26

The Artillery Regiment 26 was divided into Divisions I to III and also had Division I / AR 62 under subordination.

Formation at the end of 1944 as the 26th Volksgrenadier Division

• Fusilier Regiment 39 from Grenadier Regiment 1206
• Grenadier Regiment 77 from the Grenadier Regiment 1207
• Grenadier Regiment 78 from the Grenadier Regiment 1208
• Artillery Regiment 26 from the Artillery Regiment 1582
• Division Fusilier Company 26 from Division Fusilier Company 1582 (from November 1944 as a battalion)
• Panzer Jäger Department 26 with Assault Gun Department 1026

Division commanders

Division commanders of 26th ID / 26th VGD

period of service	Rank	Surname
April 1, 1936 to October 31, 1938	Lieutenant General	Fritz Kuehne
November 10, 1938 to January 15, 1941	Lieutenant General	Sigismund von Förster
January 15, 1941 to April 15, 1942	Major general	Walter White
April 15, 1942 to August 5, 1943	Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General	Friedrich Wiese
August 5, 1943 to July 1944	Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General	Johann de Boer
July 1944 to August 10, 1944	Colonel	Hans Frommberger
August 10 until dissolution	Colonel / Major General	Heinz Kokott

Well-known members of the division

• Franz Eccard von Bentivegni (1896–1956) was a convicted war criminal
• Wilhelm Ehm (1918–2009), as admiral, was head of the GDR People's Navy from 1959 to 1987
• Paul Herrmann (1898–1980), as Major General of the Army of the German Armed Forces , was in command of Defense Division IV
• Hans Dietrich Schumann (1911-2001) was a surgeon, urologist and university professor

Awards

A total of 16 members of the 26th ID received the Knight's Cross and 100 were awarded the German Cross in Gold.

Web links

• 26th Infantry Division / 26th People's Grenadier Division on the EHRI portal from the Federal Archives

literature

• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in the Second World War 1939–1945, Volume 4: The land forces . No. 15-30. 2nd edition Osnabrück 1976, ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 , VI, 300 pp.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 72 ( google.de [accessed on November 18, 2019]).
2. ^ ^{A b} Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 , pp. 73 ( google.de [accessed on November 18, 2019]).