268th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

268th Infantry Division
active	August 26, 1939 to November 2, 1943
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure

The 268th Infantry Division was a division of the Army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II .

Division history

The 268th Infantry Division was set up on August 26, 1939 in Füssen in military district VII (Munich) as a division of the 4th wave of deployment and one third was equipped with units from military district XVIII (Salzburg) . Initially, the division was stationed in the Saar Palatinate, on the western campaign it took part as part of the XII. Army Corps and the 1st Army . From September 1940 the division was stationed with the 4th Army in Poland .

In June 1941, the 268th Infantry Division became the Army Group Center allocated and took the attack on the Soviet Union at the Battle of Białystok-Minsk in part. Together with the army group Guderian , she then fought near Smolensk , from September 1941 on the Yelnya offensive and at the beginning of October at the Battle of Vyazma . The easternmost point the division reached in the German-Soviet War was Tula in December 1941 .

Throughout 1942 the division was stationed in the Juchnow area in Kaluga Oblast . In 1943 she was involved in defensive battles for the town of Spas-Demensk , a little further to the west . It became two-part on January 21, 1943 through the dissolution of the 468 regiment. On November 2, 1943, the entire division was dissolved, the remnants of which were continued as division group 268 and initially assigned to the 36th Infantry Division . However, division group 268 was split up and distributed even before the 36th Infantry Division was destroyed.

structure

On October 12, 1940, the division gave a third of its soldiers to the 132nd Infantry Division . When the 268th Infantry Division was dissolved, the supply troops and the 268 intelligence department came to Italy to set up the 362nd Infantry Division .

468 Infantry Regiment (disbanded January 1943)
488th Infantry Regiment
499th Infantry Regiment
Artillery Regiment 268
Engineer Battalion 268
Field Replacement Battalion 268 (1941–1943)
Anti-tank department 268 (from 1942 also rapid department, tank destroyer and reconnaissance department)
Reconnaissance Department 268 (linked to parts of the anti-tank department in 1942)
News Department 268

Well-known members of the division

Rüdiger von Reichert (1917–2007) was from 1974 to 1978, as Lieutenant General of the Army of the German Armed Forces , Deputy Inspector General of the German Armed Forces

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. 289-293.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d 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. 289-293.

[Tessin8,289ff-1] A ^b ^c ^d 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. 289-293.