28th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

28th Infantry Division 28th Light Infantry Division 28th Jäger Division
Troop registration
active	October 1, 1936 to May 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry Division
structure	structure
garrison	Wroclaw
Nickname	Iron Cross, Silesian Division
Second World War	attack on Poland Western campaign against the Soviet Union
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 28th Infantry Division , later the 28th Light Infantry Division and from 1942 the 28th Jäger Division , was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht .

Division history

The 28th Infantry Division was set up in Breslau in Wehrkreis VIII on October 1, 1936 and mobilized as part of the 1st wave of formation on August 1, 1939. She took part in the attack on Poland , in the western campaign and in the war against the Soviet Union . After heavy losses during the Battle of Moscow , she was withdrawn from the front in November 1941 and transferred to France . Here it was reorganized as a light infantry division in December with only two Jäger regiments.

In February 1942, what was now the 28th Light Infantry Division was relocated to the Eastern Front, this time to the Crimea at the disposal of Army Group South . On March 30th, it was classified as fully operational with six infantry battalions in excellent condition and a full divisional artillery unit. She took part in the Bustard Hunt operation in May and then in the attack on Sevastopol . On July 1, 1942, it was renamed the 28th Jäger Division. After security tasks in the Crimea, the 28th JD was transferred to Army Group North on the Volkhov in September , where it took part in the First Ladoga Battle . In 1943 the Second and Third Ladoga Battles followed .

In January 1944 she took on the remains of the 1st Field Division (L) during the Soviet Leningrad-Novgorod operation . In June she was briefly made available to the 4th Panzer Army in Army Group Northern Ukraine in the Kovel area , then transferred to the 2nd Army . After the withdrawal to Poland as a result of Operation Bagration , it was transferred to the 4th Army in East Prussia , which was being reorganized . Here it was smashed in March / April 1945 in the Heiligenbeil Kessel Battle . The division had fewer than 1,000 soldiers when it surrendered to the Red Army at the end of the war .

people

Commanders

period of service	Rank	Surname
October 1, 1936 to May 21, 1940	Lieutenant General	Hans von Obstfelder
May 21, 1940 to May 1, 1943	Lieutenant General	Johann Sinnhuber
May 1 to November 25, 1943	Lieutenant General	Friedrich Schulz
November 25, 1943 to January 1944	Major general	Hubert Lamey
January 28th to April 28th 1944	Lieutenant General	Hans-Ludwig Speth
April 28 to November 20, 1944	Lieutenant General	Gustav Heisterman von Ziehlberg
November 20, 1944 to April 12, 1945	Major general	Ernst King
12.-24. April 1945	Colonel	Hans-Georg von Tempelhoff
April 24 to May 9, 1945	Lieutenant General	Siegfried Verhein

First General Staff Officers (Ia)

period of service	Rank	Surname
July 15, 1938 to October 25, 1940	Lieutenant colonel	Helmuth von Grolman
October 25, 1940 to June 1, 1943	Lieutenant colonel	Kurt Gundelach
June 1, 1943 to June 20, 1944	Lieutenant colonel	Christian Schaeder
June 27th to July 27th 1944	major	Joachim Kuhn
August 5 to November 20, 1944	major	Wernher Freiherr von Schönau-Wehr
20th - 25th November 1944	major	Gerhard Schlie
November 25, 1944 to January 1, 1945	major	Wernher Freiherr von Schönau-Wehr
January 1 to April 1945	major	Franz-Josef von Löbbecke
April to May 1945	Lieutenant colonel	Ernst-August Freiherr von Wangenheim

Well-known members of the division

• Walther-Peer Fellgiebel (1918–2001), author and manager on the board of the Deutsche Zündwaren-Monopol-Gesellschaft
• Helmuth von Grolman (1898–1977), was from 1959 to 1961 the first military commissioner of the German Bundestag
• Hans-Georg von Tempelhoff (1907–1985), was from 1962 to 1967, as Brigadier General of the Army of the Bundeswehr , commander of the 3rd Panzer Division

Awards

A total of 49 knight's crosses were given to members of the 28. ID / 28. lID and 28th JD awarded, as well as 85 German crosses in gold.

structure

28th Infantry Division 1939	28th Light Infantry Division 1941	28th Jäger Division 1943
7th Infantry Regiment	-
49th Infantry Regiment	Jäger Regiment 49
83rd Infantry Regiment	83rd Hunter Regiment
28th Artillery Regiment
Observation Department 28	-
Reconnaissance Department 28	Cycling Department 28	Reconnaissance Department 28
Engineer Battalion 28
Anti-tank department 28	Panzerjäger detachment 28
Field Replacement Battalion 28
Divisional News Department 28
Infantry Division Supply Leader 28		Commander of the Jäger Division Supply Forces 28

literature

• Romuald Bergner - Silesian Infantry (7th Infantry Regiment), Pöppinghaus, Bochum, 1980.
• Bernhard Kranz: History of the Hirschberger Jäger: 1920 to 1945; from the Jägerbataillon d. 7th (Preuss.) Infantry Regiment to the Jäger Regiment 83 . Comradeship Hirschberger Jäger, Bad Salzuflen 1975.
• 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. VI, 300 pages. ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 .
• Peter Hoffmann: Stauffenbergs Freund - The tragic story of the resistance fighter Joachim Kuhn , CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2007, p. 57 f.
• BA-MA RH2 / 429

Remarks

1. ↑ one of which is unofficial and unconfirmed
2. ↑ to the in November 1941 252nd Infantry Division issued
3. ↑ The AR 28 consisted of the I. – III. Department and the I. Department of AR 64.
4. ↑ became an army troop in December 1939