72nd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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72nd Infantry Division |
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|---|---|
| active | September 1939 to May 9, 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Branch of service | infantry |
| Type | Infantry Division |
| structure | structure |
| Installation site | trier |
| Nickname | Yellow cross |
| Commanders | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 72nd Infantry Division was a major unit of the Army of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .
Division history
Lineup, France, Balkans
The 72nd Infantry Division (ID) (called Grenzdivision Trier until September 19, 1939 ) was mobilized at the beginning of the war against Poland and secured the Siegfried Line . In the spring of 1940 it was moved to the Ohrdruf military training area. During the western campaign , the division followed the front troops in forced marches through Luxembourg, Belgium and northern France from May 15, 1940. From June 3, the Aisne and later the Marne at Sainte-Aulde were crossed by fighting. The enemy, now retreating, was pursued south in marching order. By the time France surrendered on June 25th, the Cher was reached on the later demarcation line. The division then secured the Atlantic coast and was relocated to Paris at the end of September . After larger parts of the division had to be surrendered in order to set up the 342nd ID , the association was moved from the Vosges to Romania in January 1941 to act as a teaching force. On March 1, however, the division marched through mountainous Bulgaria towards Greece . Here the fighting began on April 6th with the breakthrough through the fortified Metaxas line . The Northern Greek Army surrendered on April 9th when Salonika fell. An advance division of the division defeated parts of the British expeditionary force on Olympus and the Thermophyls . On April 26th, Athens was reached before the German tank units . After the end of the fighting, the country marched to the Romanian oil fields near Ploesti .
War against the Soviet Union
On June 22, 1941, the attack on the Soviet Union began . The division belonged to Army Group South . Kishinev was captured in a tough house-to-house battle . With the crossing over the Dniester near Beryslav in assault boats and rubber dinghies, the Stalin line was overrun. After fighting in the Nogai steppe , Melitopol was taken in September . Then the division was transferred to the Crimean peninsula , where it captured the cities of Simferopol , Yalta , Alupka and Baidary by November 16 . A first assault on the Sevastopol fortress failed on December 30th. When the Red Army landed in eastern Crimea in January 1942, the 105 regiment was posted there. The rest of the division was in positions in front of Sevastopol until June 1942. With the conquest of Sevastopol by July 4th, the 72nd Infantry Division also had to carry out heavy, costly attacks.
After these battles, the division was to take part in the planned conquest of Leningrad . During the railway march in autumn 1942, however, she was ordered to clear up local crises after Rshew and later at Kursk . From the summer of 1943 she took part in the “Sommerreise” withdrawal movements. In late autumn after fighting in the Dnepr loop near Chodorow / Medvedovka , the city of Cherkassy was to serve as a resting place.
However, when another Soviet offensive began, the city was trapped. In tough house-to-house fights, the parts of the division were able to hold their positions in the city until relief came on November 30th. When the city was evacuated as planned on December 13th, a larger cauldron was already emerging into which the division now withdrew. For weeks in the open air in holes in mud and snow, hungry and without sufficient ammunition, the division was able to conquer some villages in the north-western part of the boiler in February 1944, which later served as the basis for the eruption to the west. As the first division of the middle marching group, the survivors fought to break through to the relief forces in Lissyanka on February 17th .
Reorganization in 1944
In March 1944 the remnants of the 72nd Infantry Division near Vladimir Volynsk were merged with the "Shadow General Government Division" . After suffering heavy losses at the Baranow bridgehead on the Vistula , at the Sandomierz Kessel, near Opatów and the settling movements in the Vistula bend, a newly built front on the Oder near Glogau was reached on January 27 in retreat . During the major attack by the Red Army on April 16, the division was forced into the area of the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , where it capitulated on May 9, 1945. Only a few soldiers managed to reach the US Army lines near Karlovy Vary - the masses were captured by the Soviets.
Locations of the divisional units
The 1st battalion of the 105th Infantry Regiment was located in the Neue Goeben barracks , the 2nd battalion in the Neue Horn barracks in the immediate vicinity, the III. Battalion in Wittlich. Parts of the 124th Infantry Regiment were in the "Jägerkaserne" (1st battalion) and in the Feyener barracks (2nd battalion), the III. Battalion in Saarburg. The division's artillery regiment was in the Kemmel barracks, and parts of it were in the Jäger barracks before the new building was completed .
structure
| 1941 | 1942 | 1944-1945 |
|---|---|---|
| 105th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 105 | |
| 124th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 124 | |
| 266th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 266 | |
| Artillery Regiment 172 | ||
| Reconnaissance Department 172 | Cycling Department 172 | Fusilier Battalion 72 |
| Engineer Battalion 72 | ||
| Panzerjäger detachment 72 | ||
| Field Replacement Battalion 172 | ||
| News Department 72 | ||
| Supply units 172 | ||
Commanders
| period of service | Rank | Surname |
|---|---|---|
| September 1, 1939 to July 25, 1940 | Major General / Lieutenant General | Franz Mattenklott |
| July 25 to September 4, 1940 | Major general | Helge Auleb |
| September 4, 1940 to November 6, 1941 | Lieutenant General | Franz Mattenklott |
| November 6, 1941 to July 10, 1942 | Major General / Lieutenant General | Philipp Müller-Gebhard |
| July 10 to November 24, 1942 | Colonel / Major General | Curt Souchay |
| November 24, 1942 to February 17, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Philipp Müller-Gebhard |
| February 17 to May 3, 1943 | Colonel | Ralph Count of Oriola |
| May 3 to November 1, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Philipp Müller-Gebhard |
| November 1st to 20th, 1943 | Lieutenant General | Erwin Menny |
| November 20, 1943 to March 25, 1944 | Colonel / Major General / Lieutenant General | Hermann Hohn |
| March 25 to June 10, 1944 | Lieutenant General | Gustav Harteneck |
| June 10 to July 1, 1944 | Colonel | Karl Arning |
| July 1, 1944 to April 20, 1945 | Lieutenant General | Hermann Hohn |
| April 20 to May 1, 1945 | Major general | Werner fight handle |
| May 1, 1945 until dissolution | Lieutenant General | Hugo bitchers |
Awards
A total of 49 members of the 72nd ID were awarded the Knight's Cross and 144 with the German Cross in Gold.
literature
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 6. The Land Forces 71-130 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1172-2 .
- Franz Pesch, Hans May, Matthias Roth and Jupp Steffen: The 72nd Infantry Division 1939–1945 in words and pictures , Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, 1962.
- Werner Schulze: Traditional community of the 72nd Inf.Div: 72nd Infantry Division - 342nd Infantry Division: Documentation , Hanover 1978.
- Karl-Heinz Golla: The case of Greece 1941 , Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8132-0882-5 .
- Nigel Askey: Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organizational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation, Volume IIA, Lulu Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-304-45329-7
- Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books, pp. 122-123. ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Olaf Kaul: The 291st Infantry Division in the Baranowbrückenkopf in January 1945 ( Memento from February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
