716th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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716th Infantry Division
XX

Troop registration number of the 716th Infantry Division

Troop registration
active May 1941 to May 1945
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service Infantry division
Type Fuse division
structure 726
Infantry Regiment 736 Infantry Regiment
Second World War D-Day
management
list of Commanders

The 716th Infantry Division was a German infantry division of the Army during World War II .

Division history

The division was set up in May 1941 in the course of the 15th wave of deployment under Commander Otto Matterstock from troops from Military District VI and consisted mainly of volunteers, including Italian volunteers, also known as the " sacrificial division ". The division was sent to Rouen and later that year to Caen .

The division, from October 1942, redeclared as a ground-based division without rolling stock, and was used in France (among other things, subordinated to the 15th Army for the coastal defense near Caen). In 1942 the 6,000 men were transferred to Normandy and took part in D-Day .

This was followed by additions / refreshments through troops, including the defeated eastern troops (almost 1,000 men) and ethnic Germans . In 1944 the division consisted of 40% ethnic Germans, which made communication between the German officers and the troops even more difficult.

In 1944 she was involved in fighting against Western Allied troops (British troops at Sword Beach , American troops at Orne and Canadian troops at Juno Beach ). The division lost over 3,000 men, other sources report 11,000 sorties, and the remaining 1,500 men were withdrawn from the front line. A refresh to over 7,000 men followed. During the defense of Lyon and Alsace that followed, the division was almost completely wiped out in early 1945. It was re-established as the 716th Volksgrenadier Division in April 1945 as part of the 33rd wave of formation . In May 1945 the division was taken prisoner by the US at Kempten in Bavaria .

structure

1941

  • 726 Infantry Regiment, from the 166th Replacement Division
  • 736 Infantry Regiment, from the 156th Replacement Division
  • Artillery Division 656
  • Panzerjäger Company 716
  • Engineer Company 716
  • 716 News Company

1945

  • 706th Grenadier Regiment
  • Grenadier Regiment 726 with only two battalions
  • Grenadier Regiment 736 with only two battalions
  • Division Fusilier Company 1716
  • Artillery Regiment 716 now with four battalions
  • Engineer Battalion 716
  • Division units 716

Commanders

  • Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General Otto Matterstock: Listed until April 1943, promoted to Major General in September 1941 and to Lieutenant General in November 1942
  • Major General / Lieutenant General Wilhelm Richter : April 1943 to May 1944, promoted to Lieutenant General in April 1944
  • Colonel, later Major General Ludwig Krug (1894–1972): May 1944
  • Lieutenant General Wilhelm Richter: June 1944 to August 1944
  • Colonel, later Major General Otto Schiel (1895–1990): August 1944 to September 1944
  • Lieutenant General Wilhelm Richter: September 1944
  • Colonel / Major General Ernst von Bauer (1896–1945): September 1944 to December 1944, promoted to Major General in October 1944
  • Colonel, later Major General Wolf Ewert (1905–1994): December 1944 to April 1945
  • Colonel Karl Hafner (former commander of the Grenadier Regiment 736): April 1945 until dissolution

Well-known members of the division

Web links

literature

  • Heym, Stefan (2016). Speeches to the Enemy - The History of the 716th Infantry Division; S. Fischer Verlag .
  • Ford, Ken (2011). D-Day 1944 (3): Sword Beach & the British Airborne Landings; Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (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. Pp. 197 + 198 ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 .

credentials

  1. ↑ a b c d Steven Zaloga: The Devil's Garden: Rommel's Desperate Defense of Omaha Beach on D-Day . Stackpole Books, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8117-5277-0 ( google.de [accessed October 11, 2018]).
  2. ^ Peter Lieb: Operation Overlord: The Invasion of Normandy and the Liberation of Western Europe . CH Beck, 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66072-6 , pp. 79 ( google.de [accessed on October 11, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Guido Knopp: The Liberation: End of the War in the West . Edel: Books, 2013, ISBN 978-3-95530-268-9 ( google.de [accessed October 11, 2018]).