290th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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290th Infantry Division |
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|---|---|
 Troop identification: sword pointing vertically upwards (from 1944) |
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| active | February 6, 1940 to May 1945 (surrender) |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Type | Infantry Division |
| structure | See outline |
| Installation site | Munster Training Area |
| Nickname | Sword division |
| Second World War |
Western campaign
|
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
| insignia | |
| Troop registration before 1944 |
|
The 290th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the Third Reich .
history
The division was set up on February 6, 1940 as a division of the 8th wave of deployment in Munster for military district X ( Hamburg ) with the involvement of three battalions of the 1st wave of deployment, two of the 2nd wave of deployment and one battalion of the 3rd wave of deployment. The division was trained until the end of April 1940.
From mid-May, the division took part in the advance through Belgium to France as part of the campaign in the west . The 501 Infantry Regiment broke the Weygand Line in the same month . She was instrumental in the taking of Soissons . From October 1940 to February 1941 the unit was on the Atlantic coast . In the period from May to early June 1940, the division lost almost 1,300 soldiers.
In March 1941 the division was sent to East Prussia and stayed there until July 1941. In June 1941, the division supported the 8th Panzer Division in taking Jurbarkas . Used in the capture of Daugavpils , the Battle of the Baltic States and the Battle of Luga , the unit moved to the Sebesch area . At the beginning of 1942, a major Soviet offensive broke through the division's front on the southern bank of Lake Ilmen , interrupting the rail connection to Schimsk and Ostashkow in the area of the II Army Corps . In June 1942, the division had supported Panzer Group 4, later 4th Panzer Army, at the Memel crossing. From August 1942 there was the first fighting at the Ilmensee.
In the winter of 1942/1943 the division was reclassified and one battalion of the infantry regiments was disbanded.
Fighting at Lake Ilmen followed until March 1942 and then until February 1943 the operation in the Demyansk pocket . After the Demjansk pocket had been cleared in March 1943, the almost completely destroyed division took up positions in the Staraya Russa area. This was followed by relocation to the Dedowitschi ( Dno ) area for two months to refresh .
Subordinate to the 16th Army again, fighting on Lake Ladoga followed from June to November 1943 with participation in the Third Ladoga Battle from July to September 1943. In December 1943 the division moved to the Newel area at the interface with Army Group Center. Due to the considerable losses, the division had shrunk to six grenadier battalions and had to merge the armored units. There the division fought until February 1944 and came to the Polotsk area via Idriza from March to June 1944 . At the end of June, the unit was deployed in the Vitebsk Battle .
In September 1944 the division was in Latvia and from October 1944 was pushed back to Courland . The unit remained in the Kurland basin until the end of the war, was almost completely wiped out and the remnants of the unit were taken into Soviet captivity as Kampfgruppe 290 .
Structure and subordination
When they were set up, the 290th Infantry Division consisted of
- the Infantry Regiment 501 (three battalions) with personnel from a battalion of Infantry Regiment 208 (Koblenz) from the 79th Infantry Division and one of the infantry regiment 469 (Hamburg) of the 269th Infantry Division ,
- the Infantry Regiment 502 (three battalions) with personnel from a battalion of Infantry Regiment 220 (Rendsburg) from the 58th Infantry Division and one of the infantry regiment 39 (Mülheim) of the 26th Infantry Division ,
- the Infantry Regiment 503 (three battalions) with staff from the staff of the Infantry Regiment 64 (Soest) and a battalion of the Infantry Regiment 64 (Bielefeld) from the 16th Infantry Division and one from the Infantry Regiment 37 (Osnabrück) the 6th Infantry Division ,
- the Artillery Regiment 290 from department staffs of the 6th Infantry Division and
- Division units 290.
In autumn 1944 the division was reclassified again. The Grenadier Regiment 503 (the former Infantry Regiment 503) was disbanded. In addition, a battalion of the 290 Artillery Regiment was also disbanded.
| date | corps | army | Army Group | Operational area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1940 | - | - | OKH | near Münster |
| June 1940 | XVIII. | 9th Army | B. | France |
| July / August 1940 | XI. | 4th Army | ||
| September / October 1940 | 6th Army | Atlantic coast | ||
| November 1940 | D. | |||
| December 1940 to February 1941 | XXV. | |||
| March 1941 | z. b. V. | 18th Army | B. | East Prussia |
| April 1941 | I. | |||
| May 1941 | C. | |||
| June 1941 | North | |||
| July 1941 | LVI. | 4th Panzer Army | Sebesch | |
| August / December 1941 | X. | 16th Army | Ilmensee | |
| January to March 1942 | ||||
| April to December 1942 | II. | Demyansk | ||
| January / February 1943 | ||||
| March 1943 | X. | Staraya Russa | ||
| April / May 1943 | z. b. V. ( refresher ) | Dno | ||
| June to November 1943 | XXVI. | 16th Army | Lake Ladoga | |
| December 1943 to January 1944 | I. | Newel | ||
| February 1944 | XXXXIII. | Idriza | ||
| March / June 1944 | X. | Polotsk | ||
| July / September 1944 | I. | Latvia | ||
| October 1944 | L. | Kurland boiler | ||
| November 1944 | VI. SS | |||
| December 1944 | XXXVIII. | |||
| January 1945 | L. | |||
| February 1945 | I. | 18th Army | Courland | |
| March 1945 | II. |
Commanders
| date | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| February 1940 | Major General / Lieutenant General | Max Dennerlein |
| June 8, 1940 | Major General / Lieutenant General | Theodor Freiherr von Wrede |
| September 19, 1940 | Major general | Helge Auleb (in charge of the tour) |
| October 14, 1940 | Lieutenant General | Theodor Freiherr von Wrede |
| May 1, 1942 | Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General | Konrad-Oskar Heinrichs |
| February 1, 1944 | Major general | Gerhard Henke |
| June 1944 | Colonel | Rudolf Goltzsch |
| August 18, 1944 | Lieutenant General | Bruno Ortner (representative for Colonel Hans-Joachim Baurmeister ) |
| September 19, 1944 | Colonel / Major General | Hans-Joachim Baurmeister (in charge of the command, regular commander from November 1944) |
| April 25, 1945 | Major general | Carl Henke |
| April 27, 1945 | Lieutenant General | Bruno Ortner |
Well-known members of the division
- Hans Sottorf : from 1939 to July 1941 battalion commander in the 502 infantry regiment
- Willy Johannmeyer : from 1939 to April 1940 leader of the intelligence train in the 503 Infantry Regiment, then company commander and later until March 1944 battalion commander; Awarded the Knight's Cross with the Oak Leaves for his commitment
- Johannes Mayer : from February 1940 to March 1942 commander of the 501 infantry regiment ; Awarded the Knight's Cross for his work in 1941
- Günther Pröhl : As leader of the Panzer Jäger Department 290, he was awarded the Knight's Cross in early 1942 for his service
- Diedrich Lilienthal : from mid-1941 until his death in August 1944 in the 1st company of Panzerjäger detachment 290 ; Awarded the Knight's Cross for his work in 1943
- Theobald Lieb : from June 1941 to November 1941 deputy commander of the division
- Heinrich Nickel : from September 1941 to April 1943 commander of the 502 infantry regiment
- Hinrich Warrelmann : from April 1943 to November 1944 commander of the 502 infantry regiment ; Awarded the Knight's Cross with the Oak Leaves for his commitment
- Lothar Freutel : from October 1943 until his death in February 1944, commander of the 503 infantry regiment
literature
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Ninth volume. The land forces 281-370. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , pp. 27-30.
Web links
- 200th through 370th German Infantry, Security, and Panzer Grenadier Divisions. Organizations and Histories 1939–1945 ( Memento from February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 461 kB), Nafziger Collection, Combined Armed Research Library.
- 290th Infantry Division on EHRI portal from the Federal Archives
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i 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. 337 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Robert Forczyk: Case Red: The Collapse of France . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4728-2444-8 , pp. 310 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Gregory Liedtke: Enduring the Whirlwind: The German Army and the Russo-German War 1941-1943 . Helion and Company, 2016, ISBN 978-1-911096-87-0 , pp. 85 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ A b Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Ninth volume. The land forces 281-370. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 27.
- ^ Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Ninth volume. The land forces 281-370. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 27 f.
- ↑ Intended for the tour, fatally wounded on arrival.
- ↑ In some sources Alfred Hemmann is incorrectly stated as the new commander. From August 1944 until the end of the war he was in command of the 263rd Infantry Division .
