342nd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
|
342nd Infantry Division |
|
|---|---|
 Troop registration |
|
| active | November 19, 1940 to 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Type | Infantry division |
| structure | See outline |
| Installation site | Koblenz |
| Nickname | Rhine-Mosel Division |
| Second World War | Battle of Rzhev |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 342nd Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht .
Division history
The 342nd ID was established in November 1940 in Koblenz in the military district XII (Wiesbaden) as a division of the 14th line-up shaft erected. It was made up of units from the 72nd and 79th Infantry Divisions . After several months of occupation in France in 1941, the division was relocated to the Balkans and took part in several anti-partisan operations in Yugoslavia.
In February 1942, the division was transferred to the Eastern Front and the division was assigned to Army Group Center . In 1943 she was the IX. Army Corps subordinated to the 4th Army . From March 1942 to February 1943, at the beginning of Operation Buffalo Movement, the division fought in the Battle of Rzhev . With the 9th and 4th Army, the division was in action at Spas-Demensk , Mogilew and Tschaussy .
In November 1943 there was a reclassification into a new type 44 division, parts of the 330th Infantry Division were added. The division was assigned to the 4th Panzer Army in Army Group Northern Ukraine in April 1944 (renamed Army Group A on September 23, 1944). From July 13, 1944, Poland withdrew from the Kovel area as part of the Soviet Lemberg-Sandomir operation . In January 1945 the division held a 20 km section of the front on the northern flank of the Baranow bridgehead , east of Kielce , on the west bank of the Vistula opposite Zawichost , north of Sandomierz and the confluence of the San in the Vistula. There it became - together with the 72nd , 88th and 291st Infantry Divisions - part of the XXXXII. Army corps under General Hermann Recknagel - encircled in the Bend of the Vistula during the Soviet breakthrough. When the corps tried to reestablish the connection with the German front, which had meanwhile been pushed far to the west, the division, like the entire corps, was largely destroyed by 23 January. Only parts of the so-called "Wandering Kessel bei Kielce" of the General of the Armored Troop Walther Nehring reached the connection to the own front.
After its reorganization, now only with combat group strength, the division became part of the 4th Panzer Army in Army Group Center in March 1945 . During the Cottbus-Potsdam operation that broke out on April 16, the division between Guben and Forst was again destroyed by the attack of the Soviet 3rd Guard Army . The remnants of the division pushed back to the 9th Army ended up in the Halbe pocket in April 1945 , where they were finally destroyed or were taken prisoner with General Nickel by the Soviets. Only a few survivors later capitulated to the US Army near Tangermünde .
War crimes
During Operation Mihailović in December 1941, soldiers of the 342nd ID killed 130 people in the Serbian village of Valjevo who were suspected of being members of the Chetniks and partisans and of having carried out attacks on railway lines.
people
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| July 2 to November 1, 1941 | Lieutenant General | Walter Hinghofer |
| November 1, 1941 to May 10, 1942 | Major general | Paul Hoffmann |
| May 10 to July 9, 1942 | Lieutenant General | Albrecht Baron Digeon of Monteton |
| July 9 to August 1, 1942 | Major general | Paul Hoffmann |
| August 1, 1942 to September 25, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Albrecht Baier |
| September 25, 1943 to May 8, 1945 | Lieutenant General | Heinrich Nickel |
structure
| 1940 | 1944 | 1945 |
| 697th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 697 | |
| 698th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 698 | |
| 699 Infantry Regiment | Division group 330 | Grenadier Regiment 554 |
| Artillery Regiment 342 | ||
| Engineer Battalion 342 | ||
| Panzerjäger detachment 342 | ||
| - | Divisional Fusilier Battalion 342 | |
| - | Field Replacement Battalion 342 | |
| Intelligence Company 342 | News Section 342 | |
| Resupply Force 342 | ||
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 . Ed. Dörfler im Nebel-Verlag, Eggolsheim 2005, ISBN 3-89555-274-7 .
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
- ↑ http://weltkrieg2.de/Geschichte/Kriegsgliederungen/Wehrmacht/Kriegsgliederung-04-Oktober-1943.htm
- ^ Olaf Kaul: The 291st Infantry Division in the Baranowbrückenkopf in January 1945 ( Memento from February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ With the 16th and 30th Panzer Divisions and parts of the 17th Panzer Division and the 342nd Infantry Division.
- ↑ http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/antiguer-ops/AG-BALKAN.HTM
- ↑ Ultra Decrypt of November 10, 1941 in The National Archives, Kew, UK, File Number HW5 / 37, CX / MSS / 422
- ↑ http://www.diedeutschewehrmacht.de/342%20inf%20div.htm
