36th Motorized Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

36th Infantry Division 36th Motorized Infantry Division 36th Volksgrenadier Division
Troop registration
active	October 1, 1936 to May 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Type	Infantry Division
structure	See outline
garrison	Kaiserslautern
Second World War	Western campaign against the Soviet Union
Commanders
list of	Commanders

The 36th Infantry Division , from August 3, 1944, 36th Grenadier Division and October 9, 1944, 36th Volksgrenadier Division , was a large military unit of the Wehrmacht .

history

The division was set up in Kaiserslautern on October 1, 1936 and mobilized in August 1939 as part of the 1st wave . A reorganization of the 36th Infantry Division ( mot. ) Took place on November 1, 1940.

On May 14, 1940 the division attacked the Verdun sector together with 76th Infantry Division and 299th Infantry Division .

In June 1941, the Division took as part of the Army Group North as part of Operation Barbarossa on attack on the Soviet Union in part. On June 26, 1941, together with the 1st and 6th Panzer Divisions, they destroyed a large part of the Soviet armored forces in the Baltic States in the Battle of Raseiniai on the Dubysa . In July 1941 it broke through the Stalin Line and took the city of Ostrov as an important traffic point on the way to Leningrad. As part of the XXXXI. Army Corps (mot.) (General Reinhardt ) fought the division in front of Leningrad . During the storming of the position of Ischora in September 1941 shortly before Leningrad, the division played a major role. The 118th Infantry Regiment took the tactically important Duderhofer Heights in cooperation with dive bombers .

After that, the division with the superior General Command XXXXI. Relocated to Army Group Center to take part in the attack on Moscow . Reinforced by the training brigade (mot.) 900 until the beginning of December, the Kalinin area and the Volgastausee (Moscow Sea) were reached. On December 6th, Soviet ski battalions broke through in the division of the division, which had to be fought in polar temperatures and major failures. After the 3rd Panzer Army was forced to abandon the front of Klin, the division had to retreat first to the forest positions north of Klin and then towards Sychovka .

In January 1942 she defended during the Battle of Rzhev near Bor and Baranowa and was in the command area of ​​the 9th Army for several months . In the winter of 1942/43, she was subordinate to the 3rd Panzer Army and fought off several Soviet offensives on the Rzhev- Sychovka line . In the spring of 1943 she was involved in the expansion of the rear Gschatsk position and took part in Operation Buffalo Movement, the evacuation of the Rzhev front arc. From March 24, 1943 she served as a reserve of the 9th Army at Dorogobusch . On May 1, 1943, the division was demotorized and reverted to the status of a normal infantry division. In November 1943 it was reinforced by the incorporation of division group 268 .

In June 1944, the division was completely destroyed during the Soviet summer offensive as part of Operation Bagration near Bobruisk . On August 3, 1944, it was reorganized as the 36th Grenadier Division , but the large unit was reclassified to the 36th Volksgrenadier Division on October 9, 1944 .

Commanders

period of service	Rank	Surname
0September 1, 1939 to October 25, 1940	Lieutenant General	Georg Lindemann
October 25, 1940 to October 1941	Major General / Lieutenant General	Otto Ottenbacher
October 15, 1941 to June 1943	Lieutenant General	Hans Gollnick
June 1st to August 1st, 1943	General of the Infantry
0August 1-10, 1943	Lieutenant General	Rudolf Stegmann
August 10 to September 20, 1943	Major general	Gottfried Frölich
September 20, 1943 to January 1, 1944	Lieutenant General	Rudolf Stegmann
0January 1st to 17th, 1944	Major general	Horst Kadgia
January 17-19, 1944	Lieutenant General	Egon von Neindorff
January 19 to July 1, 1944	Major general	Alexander Conrady

Awards

A total of 25 members of the division were awarded the Knight's Cross and 109 with the German Cross in Gold.

structure

See also : Structure of an infantry division of the Wehrmacht

Changes in the structure from 1939 to 1944

1939	1943-1944
70th Infantry Regiment	Division group 268
87th Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 87
118th Infantry Regiment	118th Grenadier Regiment
36th Artillery Regiment	Artillery Regiment 268
Anti-tank department 36	Panzerjäger detachment 36
Engineer Battalion 36
News Department 36
Commander of Infantry Division Resupply Forces 36
Reconnaissance Department 36
Observation Department 36	-
Field Replacement Battalion 36

literature

• Our garrison Kaiserslautern. On the formation of the 36th division. Based on documents from FB Friedel and from the comradeship archive. In: Old comrades. Independent magazine for young and old soldiers. 24 (1976), No. 11, pp. 19-20. ISSN  0401-5436
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . 2nd Edition. tape 5 . The Land Forces 31-70 . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1977, ISBN 3-7648-1107-2 .
• H.-J. Vogel: To designate the 36th Division as an Panzergrenadierdivision. In: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde. 45 (1981), No. 294, p. 62. ISSN  0044-2852

Web links

Commons : 36th Infantry Division (Germany)  - Collection of images

Remarks

1. ^ Filed by 111 ID on November 5, 1940.
2. ↑ Consisting of group staff, regimental group 488 and regimental group 499.
3. ↑ The Artillery Regiment 36 consisted of three light artillery departments of the AR 36 and the 1st artillery department of the AR 72 as a heavy department.
4. ↑ Consisting of sections I to IV.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dominique Lormier "Comme des Lions (may juin 1940, le sacrifice héroïque de l'armée française)" Paris Editeur: Calmann-Lévy 2005 ISBN 2-7021-3445-9 section 257