30th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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30th Infantry Division

Troop registration number of the 30th Infantry Division

Troop registration
active August 26, 1939 to May 8, 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry Division
structure See: Outline
garrison Lübeck
Nickname Briesen Division
Second World War Attack on Poland
French campaign
German-Soviet war
Battle of Demyansk
1-6 Battle of Courland
Commanders
Please refer: List of commanders

The 30th Infantry Division was a large unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht .

history

The division was set up on October 1, 1936 in Wehrkreis X (Hamburg) in Lübeck from the 6th Infantry Regiment.

On August 26, 1939, the division was mobilized as part of the 1st wave of deployment , and received the I./IR through a new deployment. 26 and the III./IR. 6 and a field replacement battalion 30. A squadron of Cavalry Regiment 13 from Lüneburg and the 3rd company of MG Battalion 52 were also subordinated . The II. Division of Artillery Regiment 66 was handed over to the army artillery.

attack on Poland

At the beginning of the attack on Poland , on September 1, 1939, the division advanced on the left open wing of Army Group South as part of the X Army Corps under Artillery General Wilhelm Ulex from the area northeast of Breslau to attack with a general direction Lodsch . In the next few days there were fighting in the Kalisch area, during the Warta crossing near Warta, and also with Kol. Baiin, Niewiesz and Uniejew. On the Bzura, she suffered heavy losses when she had to repel violent counterattacks and breakout attempts by the enclosed Polish troops in order to prevent a breakthrough by the HKL of the 8th Army . Your commander Major General Kurt von Briesen personally led his last battalion in reserve into action, was seriously wounded and lost his right forearm.

The division, henceforth referred to as the "Briesen Division", went on to pursue the defeated enemy as far as the area north of Łowicz .

Western campaign

After the attack on Poland was over, the division was transferred to the Eifel to secure the border . The cavalry squadron was surrendered and the field replacement battalion 30 came to the 170th Infantry Division . The division took over the security of the border at the Limburg tip between Viersen and Mönchengladbach in the winter of 1939/40 .

For the western campaign in May 1940, the division was subordinated to the Radfahr-Schwadron 30 from Lübeck and until May 15, 1940 the reconnaissance department (motorized) from Königsberg brought up by the Army High Command .

The 30th Infantry Division attacked with the 6th Army through South Holland and Belgium, crossed the Maas between Venlo and Roermond , crossed the Albert Canal north of Leuven , took part in the attack over the Dendre , and broke through the Scheldt position Audenarde, forced the crossing over the Lys and the Roulers Canal and led their last attack over the Yser south-east of Ypres .

The division was now placed under the Army High Command as a reserve, followed the advancing army and took over the garrison of Paris from June 16, where it remained until August 1940. Then the division moved to the area between Caen and Lisieux in order to participate in the preparations for the “ Operation Sea Lion ” - the planned landing in England. After these preparations were terminated, the division became an occupation force between Leyden , The Hague and Utrecht until April 1941 .

War against the Soviet Union

In May 1941 the relocation to Insterburg in East Prussia took place . From there, the division took on the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The 30th ID was assigned to Army Group North and had the task of overcoming the Soviet border fortifications south of the Memel . Oberleutnant Weiß from Pioneer Battalion 30 created gaps in the wire obstacles so that the division's infantry regiments could move up. The resistance of the Red Army began only after the grenadiers approached their fortified positions, which, despite strong artillery support and assault guns, could not be eliminated. The Red Army soldiers let themselves be rolled over by the first wave of German attacks and then took up the fight in ambush with sniper activity and targeted fighting of rear units, officers, supply troops and detectors. North of Daugavpils (Dünaburg) the division crossed the Daugava (Düna) and advanced into the Opotschka area. In July and August she took part in the pursuit battles south-east of the Dno and turned to the attack via Staraya Russa to the Lowat to the east. In August 1941, the 30th Infantry Division broke into the Soviet defensive positions at the important Staraya Russa traffic junction, whereby IR 6 and IR 26 failed to completely take down the deeply staggered defense system. The defense was taken over by the Leningrad workers' militias, who defended themselves in close combat . The 30th ID had a number of failures caused by detonation of wood mines which the pioneers could not track down. On August 6, 1942, the fighting shifted to the burning eastern part of the city, where bitter house-to-house fighting broke out . In January 1942 the 34th Soviet Army broke into the division border between 290 ID and 30 ID and opened a series of heavy fighting in the vicinity of Lake Seliger . This started the attack up to the Valdai Heights and from September the trench warfare north of Demyansk between Lushno and Lychkova. The defensive struggle of the German divisions enclosed in the Demyansk pocket since February 1942 , to which the 30th Infantry Division also belonged, developed.

In the Demyansk pocket, the division primarily held the north-eastern section of the pocket front. After the demyansk fighting area had been cleared, she took over the defense of Staraya Russa, where she took part in the following defensive battles. Their defensive front extended to Lake Ilmen and later to Schimsk.

With the start of the Soviet winter offensive in January / February 1944 between Leningrad and Lake Ilmen, the positions had to be evacuated and the retreat to the "panther position" began. The division was now fighting east of Ostrow and Opotschka, later south of Pleskau. From July to October 1944, the withdrawal fights followed as far as the Baltic States. The division fought in the "Marienburg" position, fought on the Embach and withdrew to Courland via Riga in October .

The division experienced the 1st Kurland battle north of Vainode and east of Prekuln . In the 2nd Battle of Courland the soldiers fought northeast of Preekuln, after which they were relocated southeast of Libau . During the last months of the war in 1945, the division fought on the Barta sector west of Skuodas and southeast of Prekuln. After the surrender , the division first marched in the direction of what was then the German border to Krottingen , until it was taken captive by Soviet troops in early June.

structure

1939

  • 6th Infantry Regiment
  • 26th Infantry Regiment
  • 46th Infantry Regiment
  • Artillery Regiment 30
  • Engineer Battalion 30
  • Field Replacement Battalion 30
  • Anti-tank department 30
  • Reconnaissance Department 30
  • Infantry Division News Department 30th
  • Infantry Division Resupply Leader 30th

During mobilization, the 1st Division of Artillery Regiment 66 was subordinated to the regiment as a heavy division.

In December 1940 the III./IR. 6, III./IR. 26 and II./IR. 46 surrendered to the 110th Infantry Division .

For the Eastern campaign, the division received its own reconnaissance department 30 (AA. 30) in 1941.

The 26th Infantry Regiment was renamed Fusilier Regiment 26 on December 10, 1942, the other regiments became grenadier regiments.

The heavy losses during the fighting for Demyansk led to the dissolution of II./IR. 6, III./IR. 26 and II./IR. 46, the AA. 30 was renamed Divisions Fusilier Battalion 30.

1943

  • Grenadier Regiment 6
  • Fusilier Regiment 26
  • Grenadier Regiment 46
  • Division Fusilier Battalion 30
  • Artillery Regiment 30 (with I. Department of Artillery Regiment 66 as a heavy division)
  • Engineer Battalion 30
  • Field Replacement Battalion 30
  • Panzerjäger detachment 30
  • Reconnaissance Department 30
  • Divisional News Department 30
  • Commander of Infantry Division Resupply Forces 30

During the final battle in Courland II./GR. 6 and ll./Füs.R. 26 dissolved due to heavy losses. The 30th Infantry Division only had four battalions in the last weeks of the war.

Commanders

date Rank Surname
July 1, 1939 Major general Franz Boehme
July 19, 1939 General of the Infantry Kurt von Briesen
January 5, 1941 General of the Infantry Kurt von Tippelskirch
June 5, 1942 General of the Infantry Thomas-Emil von Wickede
October 29, 1943 Major general Gerhard Henke
September 1943 Lieutenant General Paul Winter
November 5, 1943 General of the Infantry Wilhelm Hasse
March 15, 1944 Lieutenant General Hans von Basse
August 15, 1944 Colonel Otto Barth (in charge of the tour)
November 9, 1944 Major general Otto Barth
January 30, 1945 Lieutenant General Albert Henze

Well-known members of the division

Commemoration

The Panzer Battalion 184 of the Bundeswehr stationed in Neumünster took over the sponsorship of the traditional association of the former Infantry Regiment 46 of the 30th Infantry Division in 1981.

literature

  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 4. The Land Forces 15–30 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1976, ISBN 3-7648-1083-1 .
  • Hans Breithaupt: The history of the 30th Infantry Division 1939–1945 . Bad Nauheim: Podzun 1955.
  • Christian Kinder : Men of the Nordmark on the Bzura. From combat activities of an infantry division in Poland , Berlin: ES Mittler & Sohn 1941.
  • Karl Ernst Laage : Russia from the perspective of a soldier , in: ders .: Russia - yesterday and today. Personal encounters , Heide: Boyens 2009, pp. 8–22.
  • Heinz Eduard Tödt : Five years on the front lines of the Second World War , in: ders .: Risk and leadership. Beginnings of a theological biography , Münster: LIT Verlag 2012, pp. 95–286.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the hospital, von Briesen von Keitel and Hitler personally visited and awarded the Knight's Cross.