340th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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340th Infantry Division
340th People's Grenadier Division

340th Volks-Grenadier Division Logo.svg


Troop registration
active November 16, 1940 to April 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) 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

Division commanders of 340th ID:
period of service Rank Surname
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
General staff officers (Ia) of 340th ID:
period of service Rank Surname
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
Division commander of the 340th Volksgrenadier Division:
period of service Rank Surname
September 1, 1944 until unknown Lieutenant General Theodor Tolsdorff
General Staff Officer (Ia) of the 340th Volksgrenadier Division:
period of service Rank Surname
September 15, 1944 to 1945 major Hans Voigt
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
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

Notes and individual references

  1. Fallen in Brody's Cauldron