296th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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296th Infantry Division

active February 1940 to August 1944
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type Infantry Division
structure See outline
Installation site Passau
Commanders
list of Commanders

The 296th Infantry Division (296th ID) was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht .

Division history

The 296th Infantry Division was set up as a division of the 8th  wave of deployment in February 1940 in Passau and Deggendorf in military district XIII. After the campaign in the west , the 296th Infantry Division was relocated to the east and took part in the attack on the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa . She was subordinate to Army Group Center . On June 22, 1941, the start of the attack against the Soviet Union, the division was assigned as a reserve. When the 262nd Infantry Division failed in its attack on border positions and was even thrown back, the 296th Infantry Division was already engaged in combat on June 23. From June 23 to 29 the association had to take fortifications with 34 well-developed, very well camouflaged and ultra-modern bunkers. The Soviet soldiers defended themselves very stubbornly because they had been told that the Germans would shoot them immediately. During the battle for the bunkers, 200 soldiers of the division were killed and 400 wounded. After that, the division was back in the reserve and followed the fighting units in marches. By July 22, 1941, the association had covered 630 km. This resulted in daily marches of up to 50 km. She also fought in Kiev , Tula and Belyov in 1941 . In 1942 it was deployed in the Orel area together with the 2nd Panzer Army and in 1943 in Bobruisk in Belarus . In June 1944, the 296th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Kullmer was destroyed in the Bobruisk pocket during the Soviet summer offensive together with a large part of the 9th Army and later disbanded in August 1944. A military cemetery near Khodosovichi, Rogachev District , Gomel Oblast , Belarus commemorates the fallen. In June 1944, the main first aid station of the 296th Infantry Division was located in the immediate vicinity of the military cemetery .

Anti-Semitism in the division

According to the research results of the historian Christian Hartmann in his habilitation thesis in 2009, there were “very different ranks [...] senior officer, subaltern officer, non-commissioned officer, ordinary soldier [...] signs of frightening anti-Semitism”, a downright “fanatical hatred” in the 296th ID against the Jews and the Bolsheviks ”. Colonel Heinrich Thoma wrote in a letter dated July 19, 1941: “It is not a pity for any Jew if he is shot. The sooner that happens, the better it is. ”According to his diary entry of September 24, 1941, Lieutenant Hans Reinert wanted to“ kick the eaters [of the Jews] with their boots ”.

people

Division commanders of 296th ID:
period of service Rank Surname
January 1, 1941 to January 8, 1942 General of the artillery Wilhelm Stemmermann
January 8 to April 2, 1942 Lieutenant General Friedrich Krischer Edler von Wehregg
April 2 to May 1, 1942 Major general Ulrich Schütze
May 1, 1942 to January 1, 1943 Lieutenant General Karl Faulenbach
January 1, 1943 to June 19, 1944 Lieutenant General Arthur Kullmer
General Staff Officers (Ia) of 296 ID:
period of service Rank Surname
March 1940 to June 21, 1941 major Günther Leutheußer
March 1 to October 1942 major Horst Nitzschmann
October 1942 to February 1944 Colonel Martin Cossmann
February 1944 until unknown major Horst Marticke
Hüttner was in command of the 520 Infantry Regiment in 296 ID. In 1985 the General Hüttner barracks in Hof an der Saale were named after him.

296 Infantry Division losses

For the division, with a nominal strength of 10,267 soldiers during the deployment from June 1941 to December 1943, 9,474 soldiers are documented or calculated as losses. Whereby no data are available for the months of December 1942 and February, April, May and June 1943 and this gap was closed by calculated average values. Among the losses during this period are 2,346 soldiers who died and 556 soldiers who were missing. There are also 8,308 wounded. 3 percent of the casualties were officers killed and 3 percent wounded. The proportion of officers in an infantry division of the Wehrmacht was 3 percent. Officers made up 1 percent of the missing persons. After Operation Bagration , nearly 1,200 soldiers were recorded missing in 1944.

Awards

A total of 22 members of the 296th ID were awarded the Knight's Cross and 57 a German Cross in gold. 11,830 soldiers received an Iron Cross 2nd class and 1,920 an Iron Cross 1st class. In addition there were 46 repeat clasps of both classes of the Iron Cross. 5,075 men were awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords.

structure

  • 519th Infantry Regiment
  • 520 Infantry Regiment
  • 521st Infantry Regiment
  • Artillery Regiment 296 (with four divisions)
  • Panzerjäger detachment 296
  • Engineer Battalion 296
  • News Section 296
  • Resupply Troops 296

literature

  • Christian Hartmann : Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Munich: Oldenbourg 2009. ISBN 978-3-486-58064-8 .
  • 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, ISBN 3-7648-1174-9 .
  • Friedrich Sevenich: The 296th Infantry Division (in documents, reports and orders) to Stalingrad 1941–1943.
  • Theo Tebart: The history of the 296th Infantry Division.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Munich 2009, p. 267 ff.
  2. ↑ http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/2009/chodossowitschi_kgs_wk2_belarus.htm
  3. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Munich 2009, p. 671.
  4. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Munich 2009, p. 674.
  5. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and military hinterland 1941/42. Munich 2009, p. 675.
  6. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and Military Hinterland 1941/42 R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2009, 201ff.
  7. ^ Christian Hartmann: Wehrmacht in the Eastern War. Front and Military Hinterland 1941/42 R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2009, 189ff.
  8. ↑ http://www.diedeutschewehrmacht.de/296%20inf%20div.htm