320th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

320th Infantry Division
1. Troop registration number
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 Voronezh-Kharkiv operation Battle of Kharkov (1942) Company Citadel Operation Jassy-Kishinev
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 After the fighting in Krakow and in the Carpathian Mountains , the division was withdrawn and renewed in March 1945 due to heavy losses.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

Storage and operational areas

date	corps	army	Army Group	Operational area
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

1. ↑ ^{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.