320th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
320th Infantry Division |
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1. Troop registration number |
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active | December 2, 1940 to May 1945 |
Country | German Empire |
Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
Armed forces | army |
Type | Infantry division |
structure | See outline |
Installation site | Lübeck |
Nickname | Grünherz Division |
Second World War | German-Soviet War |
Commanders | |
list of | Commanders |
insignia | |
2. Troop identification: Holstentor |
The 320th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich .
history
The 320th Infantry Division was set up on December 2, 1940 in Wehrkreis X ( Lübeck ) as an indigenous division of the 13th wave consisting of troops from the 58th Infantry Division from Wehrkreis X and the 254th Infantry Division from Wehrkreis VI.
Initially, the division was stationed in France. When the German positions had been breached in many places in the course of the Soviet attacks on the Don , the division was relocated to the Eastern Front, deployed for defense north of Kupyansk and encircled by the Soviet attack units at Stary Oskol north of Kharkov.
After reinforcements and regrouping on September 18, 1943, the division was in the Kirovograd area in January and February 1944 . She then fought in southern Ukraine until it was destroyed in August 1944 and officially declared dissolved on October 9, 1944. In March 1944 the division was refreshed from parts of the Milowitz infantry division .
On October 27, 1944, in Wehrkreis II, the 588th Infantry Division, which was in formation for the 32nd wave and which had been formed a short time before from the Shadow Division Möckern , became the 320th Volksgrenadier Division on the Groß Born military training area repositioned. Remnants of the old division were also used. After the fighting in Krakow and in the Carpathian Mountains , the division was withdrawn and renewed in March 1945 due to heavy losses. In April 1945, the Grenadier Regiment 1243 from Potsdam was incorporated as Grenadier Regiment 585. The division was taken prisoner by the Soviets in Deutsch-Brod, Moravia .
organization
The division was initially composed of battalions from the 58th and 254th Infantry Divisions as a native division and was reclassified as an attack unit in autumn 1942. Another regrouping took place on September 18, 1943.
- Infantry Regiment 585 (I. – III. Btl. From 58th Infantry Division)
- Infantry Regiment 586 (I. – III. Btl. From 254th Infantry Division)
- Infantry Regiment 587 (I. – III. Btl. From 58th and 254th Infantry Division)
- Artillery Regiment 320 (I. – III. Dept. from 58th and 254th Infantry Divisions)
- Fusilier Battalion 320 (from 1943)
- Division units 320:
- Engineer Battalion 320
- Field Replacement Battalion 320
- Panzerjäger detachment 320
- Reconnaissance Division 320
- Divisional News Section 320
- Divisional Supply Leader 320
Commanders
period of service | Rank | Surname |
---|---|---|
December 15, 1940 to December 2, 1942 | Lieutenant General | Karl Maderholz |
December 2, 1942 to May 26, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Georg-Wilhelm Postel |
May 26 to August 20, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Kurt Röpke |
August 20, 1943 to July 10, 1944 | Lieutenant General | Georg-Wilhelm Postel |
July 10 to September 2, 1944 | Major general | Otto Schell |
October 27, 1944 to February 14, 1945 | Major general | Ludwig Kirschner |
14.-19. February 1945 | Colonel | Rolf Scherenberg |
February 19 to May 1945 | Colonel / Major General | Emmanuel of Kiliani |
Storage and operational areas
date | corps | army | Army Group | Operational area |
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December 1940 | Reserve army | Lübeck | ||
May 1941 | XXXVII. | 15th Army | D. | Dunkirk |
January 1942 | LX. | |||
June 1942 | LXXXIV. | 7th Army | Canal in the Cotentin area | |
January 1943 | reserve | laying | ||
February 1943 | XXIV. | Army Department Lanz | B. | Isjum |
March 1943 | Out | Kempf | south | Kharkov |
June 1943 (Kgr.) | XI. | Belgorod | ||
September 1943 | 8th Army | Kharkov | ||
October 1943 | XXXXVII. | |||
October 1943 | Kremenchuk | |||
January 1944 | Kirovograd | |||
April 1944 | LII. | 6th Army | Southern ukraine | Bug |
May 1944 (Kgr.) | XXXX. | Dniester | ||
June / July 1944 | LII. | Kishinev | ||
August 1944 | "Whereabouts unknown" | |||
November / December 1944 | Realignment in Groß-Born ( Silesia ) | |||
January 1945 | XI. SS | 17th Army | A. | Krakow |
February 1945 | XXXXIX. | 1st Panzer Army | center | Carpathians |
April 1945 | Upper Silesia | |||
May 1945 | reserve | Moravia |
literature
- 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, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , pp. 138-142.
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.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f 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, Osnabrück 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 138f.