454th Security Division (Wehrmacht)
The 454th Security Division was a German infantry division during World War II .
Division history
Division command zbV 454
On June 1, 1940, a divisional command zbV 454 was set up in Dresden in Wehrkreis IV for control tasks of units on the march on the Western Front . The division was relocated to the Netherlands in the summer and was involved in the preparation of the Seelöwe company. In mid-March 1941 the regrouping to the 454th Security Division takes place .
454th Security Division
The division was set up on March 19, 1941 in Trachenberg in Silesia in military district VIII from the division command zbV 454 and parts of the 221st Infantry Division and was subordinate to the Commander Rear Army Area 103 in June 1942 . During the entire war, the division was mainly on the Eastern Front for security tasks in the rear army area , first with the 17th Army , then with the 6th Army and finally in the XI. Army Corps assigned to the 1st Panzer Army . In this position, parts of the division took part in the Battle of Kharkov in June 1942 . For this period, the division is said to have been formed from just under 6,000 men with outdated equipment from German and Soviet production. For this purpose, the large formation was in the so-called Army Group Reserve from October 1942 at the Battle of Moscow . At the beginning of 1944 the division was assigned to the XIII. Army Corps subordinated to the 4th Panzer Army , was used for the defense of Rovno and took part in the Rovno-Lutsk operation . Rovno was held against the Soviet forces from January 6 to February 2, 1944.
The division was also involved in the pursuit and shooting of partisans in the Ukraine and surrounding areas from 1941 to the end of 1943 . For this purpose, they were placed under the command of Friedrich Jeckeln from July to September 1941 .
The unit was largely broken up in the Brody pocket in 1944 and many division members, including the wounded commander Nedtwig, were taken prisoner by the Soviets. On August 5, 1944, the division was dissolved.
Commanders
- Major General / Lieutenant General Rudolf Krantz : promoted to Lieutenant General from the formation until September 1941
- Major General / Lieutenant General Hermann Wilck : September 1941 to December 1941, promoted to Lieutenant General in this capacity
- Major General / Lieutenant General Hellmuth Koch : December 1941 to April 1944, promoted to Lieutenant General in this capacity
- Colonel Joachim Wagner: April 1944 to May 1944
- Major General Johannes Nedtwig : May 1944 until dissolution
structure
- Security Regiment 57 (formerly Landesschützen-Regiment 57, until August 1942, then with Army Group B )
- Security Regiment 375 (formerly Infantry Regiment 375 of the 221st Infantry Division ), from October 1942 Grenadier Regiment 375 (disbanded in March 1943 and divided between the 111th Infantry Division and 304th Infantry Division )
- Security Regiment 602 (from August 1942, from the 213rd Security Division )
- III./Artillery Regiment 221 (later Artillery Battalion 454)
- Ostreiter-Bataillon 454 (formerly Reiter -teilung 454, later Ostreiter-Regiment 454)
- East Engineer Battalion 454
- News Section 829
- Division units 454
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. 125 + 126, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 .
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.
Individual evidence
- ^ Antonio J. Muñoz: The German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944 . McFarland, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4766-3104-2 , pp. 167 ( google.de [accessed on January 16, 2019]).
- ↑ a b c Robert Forczyk : Kharkov 1942: The army strikes back . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-78096-159-0 ( google.de [accessed January 16, 2019]).
- ↑ Dieter Pohl: The Rule of the Wehrmacht: German Military Occupation and Local Population in the Soviet Union 1941-1944 . Walter de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70739-7 , p. 165 ( google.de [accessed on January 16, 2019]).
