385th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
|
385th Infantry Division |
|
|---|---|
 Troop identification (Low German farmhouse) |
|
| active | February 1, 1942 to March 13, 1944 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} 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 |
| 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. "
| 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 |
- ^ 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
| 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
- Organizational History of 371st through 719th German Infantry, Security and Panzer Grenadier Divisions 1939–1945 (PDF; 394 kB), Nafziger Collection, Combined Armed Research Library.
