714th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

Division badge of the 714th Infantry Division

The 714th Infantry Division was a German infantry division during World War II .

Division history

The division was set up on May 1, 1941 for the military district I ( Braunsberg ) by the military district commander in Prague as part of the 15th wave as a static association with two regiments. The division was then used as an occupation force in Yugoslavia under the 2nd Army . In July 1941 the division was deployed to the 12th Army in Serbia . In early 1943 the division was used in the Battle of the Neretva .

On April 1, 1943, the 714th Infantry Division in Croatia was reorganized. The older age groups of the teams were exchanged for younger age groups of the military districts I, II, III and X and the division was renamed the 114th Jäger Division . The 114th Jäger Division was then used in Croatia with the 2nd Panzer Army . After the Wehrmacht had moved into Yugoslavia, the division received the order to fix Momčilo Đujić and his Dinaric Chetnik division . Since the division had taken over the protection of traffic routes, the order was not carried out. From 1944 the division was transferred to Italy to the 14th Army , later to the 10th Army . Together with the 715th Infantry Division , the division fought on the Nettuno bridgehead . From April 1944, it was used on the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino and, from October 1944, it was moved to Rimini . The retreat to northern Italy followed via Ravenna in December 1944 . She still took part in the spring offensive in Italy , had to retreat from Montese and in March 1945 had just under 1,000 men. End of April 1945, reduced to the strength of two battalions, were the remnants of the Division in the area Brescia in US captivity . The division commander Strahammer was shot in May 1945 under unexplained circumstances while a prisoner of war.

War crimes

The occupying divisions 704th Infantry Division , 714th Infantry Division, 717th Infantry Division, and 718th Infantry Division were responsible for a variety of war crimes in the occupied territory.

In June 1944 parts of the division carried out the massacre on Gran Sasso near Filetto di Camerda . A squad from Intelligence Division 114 had been attacked by partisans and reportedly four deaths, which was later corrected to two deaths. In retaliation, 22 male civilians were “z. Partly shot during renewed armed resistance ”or while“ escaping ”.

The Gubbio massacre followed at the end of the same month . After an attack on two members of the III. In the 721th Battalion, 40 people between the ages of 17 and 60 were shot dead by members of the 2nd Battalion of the 721 Hunter Regiment. The brutal division commander Boelsen was found to be primarily responsible for the massacre.

At the end of November 1944, the 721 Jäger Regiment carried out the Madonna dell'Albero massacre near Ravenna with 56 dead.

After the end of the war, the division was listed in 1946 in the UK-66 report, a British document on German Reprisals for Partisan Activities in Italy , which was taken into account in the Nuremberg trials . It has been proven that a large part of the war crimes in Italy was carried out by the Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring . The 1st Paratrooper Division , the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division and the 114th Jäger Division are listed below.

commander

• Major General / Lieutenant General Friedrich Stahl : from the establishment to December 1942
• Major General Josef Reichert : from January 1943 to February 1943
• Lieutenant General Karl Eglseer : from February 1943 to December 1943
• Colonel / Major General Alexander Bourquin : from December 1943 to mid-May 1944
• Major General Hans Boelsen : from mid-May 1944 to mid-July 1944
• Colonel / Major General Hans-Joachim Ehlert : from mid-July 1944 to April 1945
• Colonel / Major General Martin Strahammer : April 1945

structure

1941

• 721 Infantry Regiment ( Prague )
• 741 Infantry Regiment ( Budweis )
• Artillery Division 661 with three batteries
• Division units 714 with only one engineer company 714 and one intelligence company 714 each

1943

• Grenadier Regiment 721 (from Infantry Regiment 721), later Jäger Regiment 721
• Grenadier Regiment 741 (from Infantry Regiment 741), later Jäger Regiment 741
• Artillery Division 661 (reinforced by one regiment)
• Engineer Battalion 114 (from Engineer Company 714)
• Jäger Division Intelligence Department 114 (from Intelligence Company 714)
• Cycling Department 114
• Panzerjäger detachment 114

Well-known members of the division

• Matthias Defregger : Commander of the Gran Sasso massacre, commander of the news department 114

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. ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 251 + 252.
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 12. The Land Forces 631-800. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1975, p. 177.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gerhard Schreiber: German war crimes in Italy: perpetrators, victims, prosecution . CH Beck, 1996, ISBN 978-3-406-39268-9 , pp. 165 ( google.de [accessed on August 22, 2020]).
2. ^ Gerhard Schreiber: German war crimes in Italy: perpetrators, victims, prosecution . CH Beck, 1996, ISBN 978-3-406-39268-9 , pp. 170 ( google.de [accessed on August 22, 2020]).
3. ^ Report of British War Crimes Section on Allied Force Headquarters on German Reprisals for Partisan Activity in Italy. Retrieved August 22, 2020 .