57th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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57th Infantry Division |
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 Emblem of the 57th Infantry Division |
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| active | August 26, 1939 to 1944 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Branch of service | infantry |
| Type | Infantry Division |
| structure | structure |
| garrison | Landshut |
| Second World War |
Attack on Poland French campaign German-Soviet war |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 57th Infantry Division was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II .
Division history
On August 26, 1939, the 57th Infantry Division (as a division of the "2nd wave of deployment" according to the Mob. Plan) was set up in Landshut in military district VII (Munich) . The three infantry divisions that already existed in southern Bavaria set up the three infantry regiments (IR), the artillery regiment (AR) and all independent battalions and departments with reservists . The IR 179 ( Munich ), 199 ( Freising ) and 217 ( Ingolstadt ) were created with three battalions each . The AR 157 was formed with four departments in Munich, the division units with No. 157 in the greater Munich area.
During the attack on Poland , the 57th Infantry Division attacked from the Presov ( Slovakia ) area and was involved in the fighting on the Duklapass . From there she crossed the San and advanced in the direction of Lviv . In Sambor and Grodek the 57th ID has been involved in skirmishes. After the campaign in Poland, the division was relocated to Hanau as OKH reserve in the winter of 1939 . In the western campaign in May 1940, the 57th Infantry Division advanced from Remagen , Trier , Luxembourg to Abbeville and fought in the formation of the 4th Army on the Somme bridgehead. From there she marched on to Carentan and Le Havre in Normandy . After the armistice , the 57th Infantry Division was assigned to the X Army Corps as an occupying force for coastal protection at Dieppe and Carentan.
In preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union , the 57th Infantry Division was subordinated to the 6th Army and relocated to Zamosz in the General Government . From June 22, 1941 she crossed the Bug near Sokal and advanced in the Ukraine through the Stalin Line via Berditschew to the Kesselschlacht near Uman . Then she was subordinated to the 17th Army of Army Group South near Krivoy Rog . In the autumn of 1941 they attacked near Belgorod , followed by trench warfare near Kharkov on the Donets , which lasted until spring 1942.
In the context of the Blau case in the summer of 1942, the 57th Infantry Division advanced as far as the Don , until it later had to hold the Voronezh bridgehead against Soviet counter-offensives. The defensive battles between Don, Oskol and Voronezh continued in the spring of 1943 until the pressure of the Red Army from the Voronezh-Kastornoje operation became too great and the 57th Infantry Division had to withdraw to Sumy . From July to August 1943 there were renewed defensive battles near Belgorod and the retreat on the Dnepr south of Kiev to Cherkassy . Remnants of the 255th Infantry Division were included. On February 9, 1944, the 57th ID, together with the 72nd ID and remnants of the 389th ID, participated in a front closure. This resulted in the Cherkassy basin with the central field airfield near Korsun .
When the enclosed divisions broke out in the direction of Lysyanka , the 57th Infantry Division was assigned to the rearguard east of the Wallonia Brigade . The center of the last arch of the front was the village of Schenderowka , which was overcrowded with heavy military equipment and hundreds of injured people. On February 18, 1944, a large part of the team, only lightly armed and in knee-high snow and thus hopelessly, was taken prisoner by the Soviets near Schenderowka and was taken to Stalino . The other part was able to escape to the southwest with most of the trapped units. In doing so, however, they missed the armored head of the 1st Panzer Division waiting on the Gniloi Tikitsch river . The river was not frozen over, so crossing it claimed more victims. The catchment area was Moledetzkoje, 20 km northeast of Uman . In April 1944 the withdrawal towards Orsha and Mogilev had to be ordered. The 57th ID was destroyed near Mogilev in June 1944. The OKH dissolved them on August 3, 1944.
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replacement
The following units of Division No. 157 replaced the 57th Infantry Division
- Infantry Replacement Regiment 157
- Infantry Replacement Battalion 199
Commanders
- Lieutenant General Oskar Blümm - September 1, 1939 to September 25, 1941
- Major General Anton Dostler - September 26, 1941 to April 9, 1942
- Lieutenant General Oskar Blümm - April 10 to October 9, 1942
- Lieutenant General Friedrich Siebert - October 10, 1942 to February 19, 1943
- Major General Otto Fretter-Pico - February 20 to September 1, 1943
- Lieutenant General Vincenz Müller - September 1st to 19th, 1943
- Major General Adolf Trowitz - September 19, 1943 to July 7, 1944
literature
- Hans Schmidt (Colonel i. G. a. D.) The 57th Infantry Division in the East, I., II. And III. Part (self-published)
- Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry divisions in World War II. Stackpole, 2007. ISBN 0-8117-3416-1 . Pp. 103-105.
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Fifth Volume: The Land Forces 31–70 . Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Frankfurt am Main [1965], pp. 211-213.
Individual evidence
- ^ Nikolaus von Vormann : Cherkassy . Vowinckel , Heidelberg 1954 ( The Wehrmacht in Combat , Vol. 3), p. 104.
- ^ Nikolaus von Vormann : Cherkassy . Vowinckel , Heidelberg 1954 ( The Wehrmacht in Combat , Vol. 3), pp. 116–123.
- ^ Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Fifth Volume: The Land Forces 31–70 . Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Frankfurt am Main [1965], p. 211.
- ↑ Werner Haupt: The German Infantry Divisions: Years 1939 - 1945 (1993) p. 17
Web links
- The history of the 57th Infantry Division Hannes Kiessling
