385th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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385th Infantry Division

Troop registration number of the 385th Infantry Division

Troop identification (Low German farmhouse)
active February 1, 1942 to March 13, 1944
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Type Infantry Division
structure See outline
Installation site Bergen Training Area
Second World War War against the Soviet Union

Voronezh-Kharkiv operation

Commanders
list of Commanders

The 385th Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich .

history

In February 1942, the division was set up on the Bergen military training area near Fallingbostel as one of five divisions of the 18th wave under the heading "Rheingold Division" from replacement troops from military districts VI, X and XI.

Despite lack of combat experience, the division was able to achieve great offensive and defensive successes in the heavy fighting on the Don and in the Voronezh bridgehead and finally took part in the major offensive against Stalingrad in the fall of 1942 as part of the 6th Army . Against the resistance of extensive Soviet army units, the main power of the army was able to take over most of the city by the beginning of November. The division fought at this time - together with allied Romanians and Italians - with great success north of the city on the extreme left flank. Your commander, Major General Karl Eibl , received the oak leaves with swords for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as the 21st soldier in the Wehrmacht on December 19, 1942 for the leadership of the division northeast of Stalingrad .

The division managed to keep outside the containment ring around Stalingrad north of the city and then to disengage. Eibl, promoted to Lieutenant General on January 1, 1943 , now gave up command of the 385th Infantry Division and became the Commanding General of the XXIV Panzer Corps to which the 385th Infantry Division belonged.

On January 17, 1943, armored troops from the Soviet Voronezh Front unexpectedly launched a new offensive and outflanked Eibl's entire corps and some Italian mountain infantry divisions of the Alpini Corps at Nikolajewka . Eibl was only just able to prevent the destruction of his corps. Leaving behind and destroying a large part of the equipment, a corridor to the west was successfully cleared. Divided into different marching groups, the German and Italian troops fled west. In this situation Eibl decided to get a personal impression of the front. On the way to the front, in the thick of fog, he met an Italian unit who thought he and his column were Russian troops. In the brief firefight, Eibl was badly wounded in the leg by a hand grenade. Due to the severe splinter injuries, the emergency amputation of the torn thigh was necessary, which he only survived by a few hours due to the high blood loss. On March 1, 1943, Karl Eibl was posthumously promoted to General of the Infantry .

The remnants of the 385th Infantry Division with 2409 men and NCOs, 30 officials and 83 officers gathered near Kremenchug in February 1943 . With remnants of the 298th and 387th Infantry Divisions , the 387th Infantry Division was re-established. The former staffs of the 385th Infantry Division were used for the re-establishment of other large units of the Wehrmacht and the 385th Infantry Division was officially dissolved.

Evaluation of the division

The military historian Marco Sigg judged the division in 2014: “The 385th Infantry Division was therefore set up under poor conditions, but then quickly developed into a powerful division. This is likely to be largely due to Eibl, who, as we have seen, was a very demanding division commander and made high demands on the quality and performance of his units. "

Shelters and operational areas
Period Army Corps army Army Group room
February to March 1942 in preparation BdE Mountains
April 1942 in feed OKH Juchnow
May 1942 XXXX 4th center Kursk
June 1942 z. Vfg. 4. Pz south Voronezh
July 1942 XIII
August 1942 VII 2.
September to November 1942 XIII B.
December 1942 z. Vfg. 2. Hungarian Don arch
January 1943 XXIV 8. Italian
February to March 1943 Lanz Belgorod
  1. ^ Remnants of the 387th ID.

structure

  • 537th Infantry Regiment
  • 538th Infantry Regiment
  • 539th Infantry Regiment
  • 385th Artillery Regiment
  • Panzerjäger detachment 385
  • Cavalry Squadron 385
  • Engineer Battalion 385
  • News Department 385
  • Supply units 385

At the end of February 1943, the remnants of the division were handed over to the 387th Infantry Division to be reorganized.

Commanders

Division commanders of the 385th ID
Rank Surname Period
Major general Karl Eibl February 7 to December 18, 1942
Major general Eberhard von Schuckmann December 18, 1942 to February 15, 1943

literature

  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . tape 10 . The Land Forces 371-500 . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1975, ISBN 3-7648-1002-5 .
  • Marco Sigg: The Unterführer as a general in pocket size: Theory and practice of contract tactics in the German army 1869 to 1945. Ferdinand Schoningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-78086-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Marco Sigg: The Unterführer als Feldherr im Taschenformat Paderborn 2014, p. 283.
  2. Marco Sigg: Der Unterführer als Feldherr im Taschenformat Paderborn 2014, p. 328.