5th Flak Division

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Reason: No documents according to WP: BLG , the font from the VDM-Verlag does not correspond to the specifications resulting from WP: BLG and the SG judgments on portals "Weapons" and "Military" , PimboliDD I and PimboliDD II . - Liberal humanist 03:23, Nov. 10, 2014 (CET)

The 5th Flak Division was a major combat unit of the German Air Force in World War II . She was responsible for the defense of Luftgaus XII (Frankfurt am Main area).

history

Initially set up as Air Defense Command 5 on October 15, 1939 in Frankfurt am Main under the command of Major General Job Odebrecht , the division was subordinate to Luftgau Command XII / XIII . The 29th Flak Regiment is the only traceable regiment of this time. The division's main task was to protect the large industrial areas of Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim / Ludwigshafen . From the end of May 1940, the Kassel area to Koblenz and Saarbrücken also belonged to the area of responsibility.

On 19./20. June 1940, the Air Defense Command, in cooperation with the 1st Army, played a key role in enforcing the breakthrough of the German units through the Maginot Line southwest of Saarbrücken. The 1st Reserve Flak Division 317 and the 4th Reserve Flak Division 193 were entrusted with this task. After the artillery destruction of two tank factories and several machine gun positions, the infantry breakthrough was achieved at this point. In May / June 1940 the Air Defense Command 5 was structured as follows:

• Flak Regiment 29 (Flak Group Frankfurt am Main - Darmstadt )
• Flak regiment ?? (Flak group Mainz / Wiesbaden)
• Flak Regiment 49 (Flak Group Mannheim)

On May 5, 1940, the previous commander of the Odebrecht division was replaced by Major General Wilhelm von Stubenrauch . On September 1, 1940, the air defense command was renamed the 5th Flak Division. On May 5, 1941 there was another change in leadership, so that from that day the new commander of the 5th Flak Division was Major General Kurt Menzel . On December 31, 1941, the division had the following units:

• in Frankfurt am Main:
  • 27 heavy batteries
  • 20 medium and light batteries
  • 12 headlight batteries

• in Mannheim / Ludwigshafen:
  • 21 heavy batteries
  • 11 medium and light batteries
  • 15 headlight batteries

On April 18, 1942, Major General Georg Neuffer became the new division commander, and on November 13, 1942, Major General Julius Kuderna . At the end of 1942, the divisional command was transferred to Ploesti ( Romania ) to take over the leadership of the flak forces there, which were responsible for protecting the oil fields. In the course of the year, the division's command staff was briefly relocated to Milan to take over the command of the flak units there, but in November 1943 the division headquarters was relocated to Ploesti, where it received the 180 flak regiment (Ploesti) and the 202 flak regiment ( Constanza ) were subject. Thus the subordination to the general of the flak cartillery with the Luftgaukommando Südost took place .

When King Michael of Romania changed sides on August 23, 1944 and the former ally Romania declared war on the German Reich, the Romanian army command was aware of the strategic and economic importance of the Ploesti oil fields. Before that, on April 30, 1944, division commander Kuderna had been taken prisoner by the Soviets. On August 26, 1944, Romanian tank units attacked the German positions near Ploesti.

The 5th Flak Division with its subordinate regiments could only withstand until the end of August 1944, so that on August 30, 1944 Ploesti had to be given up. After the heavy fighting, most of the 5th Flak Division was practically crushed. On August 31, 1944, the German aerial reconnaissance was still able to observe isolated division groups on their march to the north, but no trace of these could be found on September 1. Their meager remnants, however, still reached the 15th Flak Division . The 5th Flak Division was organizationally dissolved as a result.

annotation

The successor division often mentioned in the literature , known under the name: 5th Flak Division (W) was not the successor to the 5th Flak Division, as was often wrongly assumed.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 ( google.fr [accessed February 6, 2020]).
2. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 ( google.fr [accessed February 6, 2020]).
3. ^ Karl-Heinz Hummel: The German flak cartillery 1935-1945. Your major formations and regiments . VDM, Zweibrücken 2010, ISBN 978-3-86619-048-1 , p. 55, 56 .