403rd Security Division (Wehrmacht)

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The 403rd Security Division was a German infantry division of the army in the Second World War .

Division history

Division zbV 403

In October 25, 1939, a division zbV 403 or Landesschützen-Division 403 in Wehrkreis III , Spandau , was set up to lead ten Landesschützen battalions in the defense district. From August 1940, the division was in the 6th Army in Brittany and was renamed the 403rd Security Division in March 1942 .

403. Security Division

The division was set up on March 15, 1941 near Neusalz in Wehrkreis VIII , Silesia , from Division zbV 403 and parts of the 213rd Infantry Division . During the entire war, the division was mainly used on the Eastern Front for security tasks in the rear of the army, including the capture of dispersed Soviet soldiers and commissars. Further anti-Semitic measures by the commander, such as confiscations , dismissals , and education of “purely” Jewish houses, followed. In 1941 the division was in the so-called Army Group Reserve at the Battle of Moscow and the Kessel Battle near Smolensk . During this time, the division was used against the civilian population and burned numerous villages. In early 1942, the division's line of defense was broken by the Red Army at Toropez . Operations for the persecution of Jews in eastern Ukraine followed in the summer of 1942. At the beginning of 1943 the division was part of the XXIV Army Corps of the 2nd Panzer Army and the XXXX. Army Corps assigned to the 4th Army . On May 31, 1943, the division in southern Russia was dissolved.

The former divisional headquarters were transferred to Bergen in June 1943 and formed the headquarters of the 265th Infantry Division .

Commanders

structure

1939/1940

  • Rifle Battalion 303
  • State Rifle Battalion 305
  • State Rifle Battalion 307
  • State Rifle Battalion 311
  • State Rifle Battalion 313
  • State Rifle Battalion 314
  • State Rifle Battalion 316
  • State Rifle Battalion 318
  • State Rifle Battalion 320
  • Landesschützen-Ersatz-Battalion 3

1941

  • Reinforced Infantry Regiment 406 (from the 213rd Infantry Division , from March 1942 to Backup Brigade 201 )
  • Guard Battalion 705
  • III./Artillery-Regiment 213 (from March 1942 from the security brigade 201)
  • Landesschützen-Regiment 177 (later Backup Regiment 177)
  • News Section 826

Later, after a reclassification, the division also included:

  • Security Regiment 177 (from April 1943 to the 213rd Security Division )
  • Security Regiment 610
  • East Rider Department 403 (after dissolution to III. Department of Volunteer Cossack Tribe Regiment 5)
  • II./Polizei-Regiment 8 (from May 1942 from Police Battalion 111 )
  • Supply unit 373 (later renamed as supply unit 493)

Well-known members of the division

literature

  • Samuel W. Mitcham (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume Two: 291st - 999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. Pp. 101 + 102, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfram Wette: Feldwebel Anton Schmid: A hero of humanity . FISCHER E-Books, 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-402583-4 ( google.de [accessed on January 12, 2019]).
  2. ^ A b Christian Gerlach: Calculated murders: The German economic and annihilation policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944 . Hamburger Edition HIS, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86854-567-8 ( google.de [accessed January 12, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Christian Hartmann, Johannes Hürter, Peter Lieb, Dieter Pohl: The German War in the East 1941-1944: Facets of crossing borders . Walter de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70735-9 , p. 172 ( google.de [accessed January 12, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Organizational History of 371st through 719th German Infantry, Security and mechanized infantry divisions from 1939 to 1945