52nd Security Division (Wehrmacht)

Troop registration number 52nd Security Division, World War II

The 52nd Security Division was a German infantry division of the Army during World War II in the western Ruthenian military area of Army Group Center .

Division history

The United Association was on 19 April 1944 renaming of Staff of the 52nd Field Training Division (formerly also staff of the 52nd Infantry Division ) in Baranovichi in Belarus only as example 52. Security Division V. been set up. The new division took over the regiments of Oberfeldkommandantur 400, commanded by Major General Gerhard Poel .

Until the end of the war, the large association was only used in the area of the Eastern Front (Belarus, Kovel and Kurlandkessel ). In July 1944; after the destruction of Army Group Center; was the division in the XXVI. Army corps of the 3rd Panzer Army , took part in Operation Bagration and was almost completely wiped out.

Due to the lack of combat strength, a non-use period followed from September to October with the stationing in Courland . Subsequently, the division remained in Courland , now only as Staff 52nd Security Division with the subordination of the SS Panzer Brigade Gross, the group of SS Sturmbannführer Heimo Hierthes and the combat group Mäder , but was assigned to the 18th Army . On May 9, 1945, the divisional headquarters , which had been employed as the fortress command in the fortress Libau in the Kurland basin from February, surrendered and went into Soviet captivity.

Commanders

Major General Albert Newiger : April 1944 to September 1944, former commander of the 190th Infantry Division , 112th Infantry Division and 52nd Field Training Division
Lieutenant General Albrecht Baron Digeon von Monteton (1887–1946, executed in Riga ): from September 1944, former commander of the 206th Infantry Division , the 391st Field Training Division and the 391st Security Division zbV

structure

Security Regiment 37 with four battalions, later to the 201st Security Division
Security Regiment 88 with four battalions (until the end of 1944)
Security Regiment 611
Resupply Troops 52

literature

Samuel W. Mitcham (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. Pp. 100 + 101, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .

Web links

52nd Infantry Division / 52nd Field Training Division / 52nd Security Division on EHRI portal from the Federal Archives

Individual evidence

^ Gordon Williamson: German Security and Police Soldier 1939-45 . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78200-039-6 , pp. 15 ( google.de [accessed December 31, 2018]).
^ Gerd Niepold: Tank operations "Doppelkopf" and "Caesar," Kurland-Sommer ʼ44 . ES Mittler, 1987, p. 21 .
↑ Mike Schmeitzner, Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947): A historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015, ISBN 978-3-647-36968-6 , pp. 466 ( google.de [accessed on January 1, 2019]).

[1] Gordon Williamson: German Security and Police Soldier 1939-45 . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78200-039-6 , pp. 15 ( google.de [accessed December 31, 2018]).

[2] Gerd Niepold: Tank operations "Doppelkopf" and "Caesar," Kurland-Sommer ʼ44 . ES Mittler, 1987, p. 21 .

[3] Mike Schmeitzner, Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947): A historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015, ISBN 978-3-647-36968-6 , pp. 466 ( google.de [accessed on January 1, 2019]).