340th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
340th Infantry Division |
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Troop registration |
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active | November 16, 1940 to April 1945 |
Country | German Empire |
Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
Armed forces | army |
Type | Infantry division |
structure | See outline |
Installation site | Schleswig |
Commanders | |
list of | Commanders |
The 340th Infantry Division and later 340th Volksgrenadier Division was a major military association of the Wehrmacht .
Division history
The 340th Infantry Division was set up in November 1940 as an indigenous division of the 14th wave of deployment in the Schleswig area in military district X. It consisted of units from the 68th , 170th and an infantry battalion of the 290th Infantry Division .
From May 1941 to January 1942 she had her first assignment in northern France. On May 12, 1942, the division was transferred to the Eastern Front and subordinated to Army Group South . In July 1942 she was active with the 4th Panzer Army in the Kiev area . From July 1942 to January 1943 she fought with the 2nd Army near Voronezh and in March 1943 near Kursk . There was the XIII. Army Corps subordinated. At this point in time, her actual strength had dropped to 7,200 men, including the remains of the 377th Infantry Division that had been subordinated to her before. From September 1943, the withdrawal from the Ukraine took place from Kiev via Zhitomir to Vinnitsa . In November 1943 the remnants of the broken 327th Infantry Division were placed under her command (referred to as Divisionsgruppe 327). In the heavy defensive battles that followed, the 340th Infantry Division itself was smashed and pulled out of the front with fewer than 300 men remaining from January 10, 1944. After the reconstruction and reorganization, the division was reinstated on February 13, 1944. In Brody , the 340th ID in April 1944 was included, but could break out again. In July 1944, Brody was again encircled, this time an entire army corps (during the Lviv-Sandomierz operation ). However, the division was able to evade the encirclement by dodging south. In the further course of the division, the division was broken up to such an extent that the OKH ordered its dissolution on August 5, 1944.
The division was reorganized in September 1944 as the 340th Volksgrenadier Division . The 340th VGD was deployed in December 1944 on the Western Front as part of the I. SS Panzer Corps in the Battle of Bastogne and during the Battle of the Bulge . Here under the high command (OK) General of the Infantry Franz Beyer (LXXX. Army Corps). In 1945 operations with the XIII followed. Army corps in the Eifel and in the fighting between the Rhine and Ruhr. In April 1945, the 340th VGD was part of the LIII. Army corps destroyed in the Ruhr basin .
people
period of service | Rank | Surname |
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November 15, 1940 to March 1, 1942 | Lieutenant General | Friedrich Wilhelm Neumann |
March 1 to November 1, 1942 | Lieutenant General | Viktor Koch |
November 1, 1942 to February 24, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Otto Butze |
February 24 to October 25, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Josef Prinner |
October 25, 1943 to June 16, 1944 | Lieutenant General | Werner Ehrig |
June 16 to July 21, 1944 | Major general | Otto Beutler |
period of service | Rank | Surname |
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November 1940 to April 1941 | Lieutenant colonel | Ernst Ebeling |
April 1941 until unknown | major | by Sybel |
July 1943 until unknown | Colonel | Günther Preusse |
December 15, 1943 to February 15, 1944 | Lieutenant colonel | Karl Redmer |
period of service | Rank | Surname |
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September 1, 1944 until unknown | Lieutenant General | Theodor Tolsdorff |
period of service | Rank | Surname |
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September 15, 1944 to 1945 | major | Hans Voigt |
- Theodor Tolsdorff (born November 3, 1909 at Gut Lehnarten , East Prussia ; † May 25, 1978 in Dortmund )
- Division commander of the 340th VGD and since March 18, 1945 bearer of the Knight's Cross with oak leaves, swords and diamonds
structure
340 ID | 340. VGD | |
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1940 | 1944 | 1944/45 |
694th Infantry Regiment | Division group 327 | Grenadier Regiment 694 |
695th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 695 | |
696th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 769 | Grenadier Regiment 696 |
Artillery Regiment 340 | ||
Engineer Battalion 340 | ||
Panzerjäger detachment 340 | ||
- | Division Fusilier Battalion 340 | Division Fusilier Company 340 |
- | Field Replacement Battalion 340 | |
News Company 340 | News Department 340 | |
Supply troops 340 |
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 .
- Werner Haupt : The German Infantry Divisions 1921–1945. 3 volumes. Dörfler Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-89555-274-7 .
- French Maclean: Quiet Flows the Rhine: German General Officer Casualties in World War II. JJ Fedorowicz Publishing, 1996, ISBN 0-921991-32-0 .
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.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Fallen in Brody's Cauldron