6th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

6th Infantry Division - 6th Infantry Division - XX
Troop registration
active	October 1, 1934 to May 8, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry Division
structure	See: Outline
Rod	Bielefeld
Nickname	Westphalian Division
Second World War	Western campaign war against the Soviet Union 1941–1945 Battle for Moscow Battle of Rzhev Company Citadel Operation Bagration Vistula-Oder operation
Commanders
Please refer:	Commanders

The 6th Infantry Division (short: 6th ID ) was a large unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht .

history

As part of the armament of the Wehrmacht , the division staff was formed under the code name Infanterieführer VI on October 1, 1934 in Bielefeld in military district VI . On October 15, 1935, it was officially renamed the 6th Infantry Division. The infantry regiments were formed from the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Division of the Reichswehr .

On August 26, 1939, the division was mobilized as part of the 1st wave of deployment , secured the western border on both sides of the Blies Valley and was then relocated as a reserve to the rear operational area between Nahe and Moselle in the Hunsrück . During the western campaign of 1940, the division marched through Luxembourg and Belgium to the Somme , took part in the breakthrough battle on the Somme, with the division particularly distinguished, and advanced to the Seine , where the mounted reconnaissance division under Lieutenant Georg von Boeselager was the first to swim near Mousseaux Part of the armed forces crossed the river because the bridges of Les Andelys, Courcelles and Andé had blown up. The division pursued the retreating enemy across the Eure and, after further advancing battles, especially at Marchainville and La Lande, reached the Loire at Ingrandes and Montjean .

1941 during the invasion of the Soviet Union , the division broke eastward Goldap by the Soviet border fortifications, was in Prienai on the Memel , moved to the Daugava River in Polotsk before and broke through there the Stalin Line . After fighting on the Mjesha, the division took part in the battles near Vyazma and the Ossotnja, captured Ssytschewka and pursued the evasive Soviet troops via Rzhev , Subzow and Pogoreloje to Staritza. There the division attacked across the Volga into the Glebowo area and on to Tma near Eremkino. Before Moscow , the division had to hold a nearly 30 km wide section of the front, from which it had to go back to the Königsberg position after heavy losses on the Tma before the Soviet counteroffensive .

Defensive battles followed in the Rzhev area in 1942 and fights on the southern bank of the Volga in 1943, as well as the successful evacuation of the promontory near Rzhev, in which 12 German divisions escaped enclosure. The commander of the 18th Infantry Regiment Carl Becker was sentenced to a prison term of 25 years in prison by a military court in a war crimes trial in Kalinin in 1945 while he was a Soviet prisoner of war. The reason given was his behavior as town commander of Rzhev from 1941 to 1942.

This was followed by trench warfare on the Vopjez, the gang companies "Buffalo" and "Freischütz" to fight partisans northwest of Bryansk , the defensive battles in the Dorogobush area, battles in the Yasnaya Polyana, Podoljan and Kutyrki area. In July 1943, the division took part in the Association of XXXXVII. Panzer Corps took part in Operation Citadel .

In the retreat to the "Hagen" position, the division, deployed as rearguard, took part in the defensive battles near Ssewsk, the Dessna, the Ssosh, in the Gomel area and the Dnieper. Then she sat down on the Dessna and on to the Ssosh, where she took part in the defensive battles at Sherebnaya and Nekrasov.

In 1944 there were retreat fights in the area of ​​Schlobin on the Dnieper, over the Dobyssna to the Ola. After the collapse of Army Group Center and the Soviet breakthrough on the Rogachev-Bobruisk road, the division was enclosed and destroyed in June 1944, and then officially dissolved on July 18, 1944.

From remnants and the 552nd Grenadier Division, the 6th Grenadier Division was reorganized on July 25, 1944 and renamed the 6th Volksgrenadier Division on October 9, 1944, but no longer had any division strength. It was used as a combat group on the Vistula and destroyed in January 1945. The remainder of the division withdrew to Silesia.

On March 10, 1945, the 6th Infantry Division was re-established from the remains of the 6th Volksgrenadier Division , the 291st Infantry Division and the Shadow Division Dresden (Gneisenau) . She took part in the Battle of Lauban , where she disbanded in May 1945.

structure

Formation of Infantry Leader VI October 1934

Association	commander
Infantry Regiment Oldenburg (later Infantry Regiment 16/22nd Infantry Division)	Colonel Athos von Schauroth (until September 30, 1936)
Infantry Regiment Osnabrück (later Infantry Regiment 37)	Colonel Kurt Beuttel (until February 1, 1937)
Artillery Regiment Minden (later Artillery Regiment 6)	k. A.
Pioneer Battalion Minden (later Pioneer Battalion 6)	k. A.
News Department Hanover (later News Department 6)	k. A.

September 1939

Association	Locations	commander
Infantry Regiment 18 ⁽¹⁾	Bielefeld and Detmold	Colonel Edler von Daniels
Infantry Regiment 37 ²⁾	Osnabrück and Lingen	Colonel von Hartmann
58th Infantry Regiment	Herford, Minden and Bückeburg ⁽³⁾	Colonel Windeck
Engineer Battalion 6	Minden	Major meadow
Anti-tank division 6	Herford	Major Lederer
News Department 6	Bielefeld	Major Bush
Medical department 6	Bielefeld	Colonel Walter
Artillery Commander 6	Bielefeld	Lieutenant General Pellengahr
Artillery Regiment 6	Osnabrück, Lingen and Minden	Colonel Steibauer
Artillery Regiment 42 (I.)	Bielefeld	Lieutenant Colonel Kruse
Observation Department 6	Lemgo	Major Froben

⁽¹⁾ - Chief on November 1, 1938, the adopted Colonel General Gerd von Rundstedt

⁽²⁾ - its 2nd battalion was formed in 1936 from the Prussian state police and kept the former police flag

⁽³⁾ - III. Battalion = "Bückeburger Jäger", inherited from the tradition of the Westphalian Jäger Battalion No. 7

December 1943

• 18th Grenadier Regiment
• 37th Grenadier Regiment
• 58th Grenadier Regiment
• Artillery Regiment 6
• I. / Artillery Regiment 42
• Fusilier Battalion 6
• Panzerjäger detachment 6
• Engineer Battalion 6
• Commander of Infantry Division Supply Forces 6

September 1944

• Grenadier Regiment 18th
• Grenadier Regiment 37
• Grenadier Regiment 58
• Artillery Regiment 6
• I. / Artillery Regiment 42
• Division Supply Regiment 6

October 1944

• People's Grenadier Regiment 18th
• People's Grenadier Regiment 37
• People's Grenadier Regiment 58
• Fusilier Battalion 6
• Artillery Regiment 6
• I./ Artillery Regiment 42
• Division Supply Regiment 6

April 1945

The monument to Infantry Regiment No. 15 was later expanded after 1945 to include a dedication to II./ IR 58

• Grenadier Regiment 18th
• Grenadier Regiment 37
• Grenadier Regiment 58
• Fusilier Battalion 6
• Artillery Regiment 6
• Engineer Battalion 6
• Division Supply Regiment 6

Commanders

date	Rank	Surname
February 1, 1935	Major general	Konrad von Goßler
May 15, 1935	Major General / Lieutenant General	Walter Kuntze
March 1, 1938	Lieutenant General	Arnold von Biegeleben
October 10, 1940	Lieutenant General	Gustav Hundt
October 14, 1940	Major General / Lieutenant General	Helge Auleb
January 25, 1942	Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General	Horst Grossmann
December 16, 1943	Major general	Egon von Neindorff
January 12, 1944	Colonel	Alexander Conrady
January 19, 1944	Colonel	Günther Klammt
February 1944	Lieutenant General	Horst Grossmann
June 1, 1944	Lieutenant General	Walter Heyne
March 1945	Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General	Otto-Hermann Briicker
May 4, 1945	Major general	Friedrich-Wilhelm Liegmann

General Staff Officers Ia

date	Rank	Surname
September 1, 1939	Lieutenant Colonel i. G.	Siegfried von Waldenburg
5th February 1940	Lieutenant Colonel i. G.	Walter Reissinger
June 17, 1940	Major i. G.	Heinz Pomtow
February 7, 1941	Major i. G.	Hans Lassmann
September 10, 1941	Lieutenant Colonel i. G.	Friedrich-Wilhelm John
January 1943	Lieutenant Colonel i. G.	Hans Gerstung
August 1943	Lieutenant Colonel i. G.	Hans-Thilo Mittermüller
April 1944	Major i. G.	Franz Steinhart-Hantken
March 10, 1945	Lieutenant Colonel i. G.	Johann Heitzmann

In the division, the two resistance fighters of July 20, 1944, Georg Freiherr von Boeselager († 1944, fallen) served in the 15th Cavalry Regiment and Günther Smend († 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) in the 18th Infantry Regiment.

Storage and operational areas

date	corps	army	Army Group	Operational area
September 1939	reserve	1st Army	C.	Saar Palatinate
October 1939	XXIV.
January 1940	reserve	16th Army	A.	Moselle
May 1940
June 1940	XXXVIII.	4th Army	B.	Somme , Loire
July 1940	VI.			France
September 1940	II.	6th Army	C.
November 1940			D.
March 1941	XXVIII.
April 1941	VI.	18th Army	B.	East Prussia
May 1941		9th Army
June 1941			center	Vitebsk
October 1941	XXXXI.	Panzer Group 3		Kalinin
November 1941	VI.	9th Army		Rzhev
November 1942	XXVII.
April 1943	XXXIX.	4th Army		Smolensk
June 1943	reserve	2nd Panzer Army
July 1943	XXXXVII.	9th Army		Orel , Kursk
September 1943	XX.	2nd Army		Desna
October 1943				south of Gomel
December 1943	LV.	9th Army
January 1944	XXXV.			Schlobin, Bobruisk
June 1944				south of Rogachev
August 1944	XXXXVI.			Warsaw , Radom
September 1944	VIII.			south Warsaw, Radom
February 1945	Friedrich	4th Panzer Army		Silesia
March 1945	XXXIX.	17th Army
April 1945	LVII.

See also

• Structure of an infantry division of the Wehrmacht

literature

• John R. Angolia, Adolf Schlicht: Uniforms & traditions of the German Army 1933–1945. Vol 3.
• Jeffrey T. Fowler: Axis Cavalry in World War II.
• Horst Großmann : History of the Rhenish-Westphalian 6th Infantry Division 1939–1945. Podzun, Bad Nauheim 1958.
• Ernst Martin Rhein: The Rhenish-Westphalian Infantry / Grenadier Regiment 18 1921-1945.
• Georg Tessin: German associations and troops 1918–1939.
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christoph Rass: Human material: German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Interior views of an infantry division 1939-1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2003, ISBN 3-506-74486-0 , p. 168, 210 .