326th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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326th Infantry Division

active November 9, 1942 to April 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type Infantry division
structure See outline
Nickname "Kriemhilde" division
Second World War Falaise cauldron

Ardennes offensive
Ruhrkessel

Commanders
list of Commanders
insignia
Identification symbol Sword arm

The 326th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich .

history

The 326th Infantry Division was set up on November 9, 1942 from the military districts VI, XII and V as a security division and subordinated to Army Group D in France as an occupation force . On May 5, 1943, the division was reclassified into a down-to-earth one. The division took part in the occupation of southern France in 1943 and was initially stationed in Narbonne.

The division, which was almost fully filled in May, remained stationed in the Pas-de-Calais as an army reserve until mid-July 1944 , despite the Allied landing in Normandy , but partly moved across the Seine on July 22, 1944 to a pick-up line for the to form evasive remnants of the 2nd Panzer Division . In the course of further fighting in the Caumont area, the division must have suffered heavy losses and was destroyed in the Falaise pocket.

The division was re-established as the 326th Volksgrenadier Division on September 4, 1944 in Galanta / Hungary by renaming the 579th Volksgrenadier Division , a new organization of the 32nd wave. The division was relocated to the west on November 21, 1944 and took part in the Battle of the Bulge . From December 1944 there were retreat battles in the Eifel ( St. Vith , Prüm , Gerolstein ) and by April 1945 the division withdrew across the Rhine to Westphalia. There the division, which was divided into two combat groups, was taken prisoner in the Ruhr basin and in the Harz Mountains .

structure

1942 1944
  • Grenadier Regiment 751
    (1st - 3rd Battalion)
  • Grenadier Regiment 752
    (1st - 3rd Battalion)
  • Grenadier Regiment 753
    (1st - 3rd Battalion)
  • Grenadier Regiment 751
    (1st - 2nd Battalion)
  • Grenadier Regiment 752
    (1st - 2nd Battalion)
  • Grenadier Regiment 753
    (1st - 2nd Battalion)
  • Artillery Regiment 326
    (I.-III. Division)
  • Artillery Regiment 326
    (3 departments with a total of 9 batteries)
  • Fast division 326
  • Fusilier Company 326
    (later Fusilier Battalion 26)
  • Panzerjäger detachment 326
  • Engineer Battalion 326
  • Engineer Battalion 326
  • News Section 326
  • News Section 326
  • Field Replacement Battalion 326
  • Field Replacement Battalion 326

Storage and operational areas

date corps army Army Group Operational area
December 1942 LXXXIII Felber D. Narbonne
August 1943 IV. Lw
February 1944 z. b. V. 15th Army Northern France
August 1944 II. Fs 7th Army Normandy
September 1944 listed as VGD. 326 Hungary
December 1944 z. b. V. 7th Army B. Eifel
January 1945 LXXIV 15th Army Ardennes
February 1945 XIII 7th Army Eifel
March 1945 LIII
April 1945 IX 11th Army west resin

Commanders

date Rank Surname
November 11, 1942 Lieutenant General Max Dennerlein
May 8, 1943 Lieutenant General Karl Bottcher
June 1, 1943 Lieutenant General Viktor von Drabich-Wächter
August 2, 1944 Colonel Kretsch
August 15, 1944 Colonel Erwin Kaschner (previous)
December 23, 1944 Major general Erwin Kaschner

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, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-1174-9 .
  • German Red Cross: Tracing Service. Divisional fates. Volume 2. German Red Cross, Munich 1960.

Web links

Individual evidence