281st Security Division (Wehrmacht)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 281st Security Division was a German infantry division during World War II .

Division history

281. Security Division

The division was set up as the 281st security division on March 15, 1941 on the military training area Groß-Born in Pomerania in military district II from parts of the 207th infantry division . During the entire war, the division was mainly used on the eastern front for security tasks in the rear army area.

In early 1942 fought under the commander of the 281st Security Division Major General Theodor Scherer and his division headquarters in space Chelm standing very different organizations, including parts of Air Force Field and infantry regiments, but also naval personnel and reserve policemen in the cauldron of Chelm . The division had previously performed security tasks against partisans in the rear area of ​​Army Group North and now had to partially strengthen the front troops and became the XXXIX. Assigned to Panzer Corps . Until the city was enclosed at the end of January 1942, however, only its commander Scherer and his staff had arrived in Cholm. Under Scherer's command, the German units were able to hold the boiler for three months and with an air supply, despite the low strength of 3,500 soldiers, later increased to approx. 5,000 men after a successful breakthrough. Until German troops were able to re-establish contact with the occupation through a relief attack in early May 1942.

From August 1942 to February 1943 the reinforced infantry regiment 368 of the division was wiped out in the Battle of Demyansk . The division was subordinate to the 16th Army from April 1944 and was then used in the northern sector of the Eastern Front ( Polotsk and Courland area ), as in 1941 together with the 207th Security Division and the 285th Security Division and in 1943, for so-called partisan combat used. The tasks also included a large number of measures to enforce the occupation regime. In May 1942 z. B. shot by Division 128 " Gypsies ". For 1943, over 2,500 fines, nearly 900 prison terms, and over 500 forced labor sentences against civilians were assigned to the division. In July 1943 the division commander gave the order that the civilian population be forcibly used for mine clearance. In October 1944 he took part in the Battle of Riga . On November 11, 1944, the division in Courland was renamed the 281st Infantry Division , remained the 16th Army in the XVI. Army Corps subordinated.

281st Infantry Division

The 281st Infantry Division fought in the Kurland Basin and was transferred to West Prussia by sea at the end of January / beginning of February 1945, assigned to Army Group Vistula and 11th Army . Participation in the Sonnenwende company followed . The unit later fought, then in the 3rd Panzer Army , in Pomerania and on the Oder front . In April 1945 the division was broken up during the Stettin-Rostock operation on the Eastern Front. In Waren on the Western Front , the remnants of the division joined forces with the Schlageter infantry division .

This unit deployed the American M4 Sherman captured tank on the Eastern Front .

A traditional association of the 207/281 existed for this division after the war . Infantry Division , which issued various publications on the history of the division.

Commanders

structure

1942

  • Reinforced Infantry Regiment 368 (summary of the former Infantry Regiment 368 and parts of the II / Artillery Regiment 207 of the 207th Infantry Division )
  • Guard Battalion 707
  • State Rifle Regimental Staff 107
  • Divisional News Department 822
  • Division units 368

1944

  • Grenadier Regiment 368 (formerly Infantry Regiment 368)
  • Security Regiment 107 (formerly Landesschützen-Regimental Staff 107)
  • III./Police Regiment 9
  • East Rider Department 281
  • Panzer Company 281
  • Artillery Division 281
  • News Department 822
  • Division units 368

1945

  • Grenadier Regiment 322 (from the 285th Security Division , instead of the Security Regiment 107)
  • Grenadier Regiment 368 (formerly Infantry Regiment 368)
  • Grenadier Regiment 418
  • Artillery Regiment 281 (formed from, among other things, parts of the II / Artillery Regiment 207 of the 207th Infantry Division, Artillery Division 281 and Artillery Division 285 of the 285th Security Division)
  • Fusilier Company 281 (later Fusilier Battalion 281)
  • Panzerjäger-Company 281 (equipped with prey tanks)
  • Engineer Battalion 281
  • Field Replacement Battalion 281
  • News Department 822

literature

  • Gottfried Mueller, Friedrich Wilhelm Guttmann: The history of the 207th and 281st Infantry Division with its sub-divisions 1939-1945 . Depressed with W. Straasburger, 1958.
  • Samuel W. Mitcham (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. Pp. 332 + 333, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 9. The Land Forces 281-370, Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Karsten: Cholm , 1944, p. 9
  2. ^ A b c Gordon Williamson: German Security and Police Soldier 1939-45 . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78200-039-6 , pp. 15 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Percy Schramm: War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1942 . Ed .: Percy Schramm. tape 3 , volume I. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-88199-073-9 , p. 44 .
  4. ^ Johann Althaus: Second World War: Hitler's dress rehearsal for Stalingrad was a success . January 21, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed January 12, 2020]).
  5. ^ 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. 332 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ Editorial office Dr Christian Zentner: The Second World War: texts, images, maps, documents, chronicles . Delphin, January 1985, p. 256 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  7. ↑ Jürgen Kilian: Wehrmacht and Occupation in the Russian Northwest 1941–1944: Practice and everyday life in the military administrative area of ​​Army Group North . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012, ISBN 978-3-657-77613-9 , p. 172 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ↑ Helmut Krausnick: Hitler's Einsatzgruppen: The Troop of the Weltanschauung War 1938–1942 . FISCHER Digital, 2016, ISBN 978-3-10-560903-3 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  9. ↑ Jürgen Kilian: Wehrmacht and Occupation in the Russian Northwest 1941–1944: Practice and everyday life in the military administrative area of ​​Army Group North . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012, ISBN 978-3-657-77613-9 , p. 247 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ↑ Paul Kohl: The war of the German armed forces and the police 1941-1944: Soviet survivors report . FISCHER Digital, 2016, ISBN 978-3-10-561151-7 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  11. ↑ Alexander Lüdeke: captured tanks of the Wehrmacht: Great Britain, Italy, Soviet Union and USA 1939-1945 . Motorbuch Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-613-31018-6 ( limited preview in Google book search).