73rd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
73rd Infantry Division |
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Association badge |
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active | August 26, 1939 to April 17, 1945 |
Country | German Empire |
Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
Armed forces | army |
Type | Infantry Division |
structure | structure |
Installation site | Nuremberg |
Nickname | "Kleist Division" |
Second World War |
attack on Poland |
Commanders | |
list of | Commanders |
The 73rd Infantry Division (73rd ID) was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II .
Division history
The division was set up on August 26, 1939 as part of the 2nd wave of deployment from parts of the 17th Infantry Division in Military District XIII in Nuremberg and used as a reserve of the 4th Army during the attack on Poland . In the western campaign in 1940 she initially participated as a reserve of the 16th Army , in the second phase in the association of the 12th Army . It was then used as an occupation force in Alsace .
At the beginning of 1941 the company was moved to Romania . The division then advanced to Bulgaria, from where in April they took up the attack on Yugoslavia as part of the 12th Army . She then stayed in Macedonia for a short time and then prepared in the Jassy area for the imminent attack on the Soviet Union . Here she was used in the association of the 11th Army and penetrated through Kishinev , Nikolayev and Kherson to the Isthmus of Perekop . After breaking through to the Crimea , she took part in the fighting there until she was handed over to the 1st Panzer Army in December and then used on the Mius front.
In the summer of 1942 she advanced over the lower Don into the Kuban region (see: Case Blau ) and, now subordinate to the 17th Army , took part in the battles for Novorossiysk . After the German withdrawal from the Caucasus, she was involved in the defense of the Kuban bridgehead . After the bridgehead was cleared in autumn 1943, it was temporarily used by the 6th Army in the Melitopol area. In the spring of 1944 it was withdrawn to the Crimea and was defeated during the battle for the Crimea that followed . Only remnants of the division could be evacuated to Romania across the Black Sea .
On June 16, 1944 the division was reorganized in Hungary and in August it was transferred to the IV. SS Panzer Corps on the Vistula , where it was destroyed during the fighting in the Warsaw area in September 1944. The Army Group Center had the 73rd Infantry Division requested to the bridgehead Praga keep east of the Vistula, which was eventually discarded. In January 1945 the division was supposed to strengthen the defense of the Thorn Fortress and therefore united with the remaining parts of the Warsaw Fortress Division . After being reorganized as a combat group , it fought until it was destroyed again near Danzig in April 1945. The division headquarters was evacuated from Danzig, but arrived when the steamer Goya was sunk by a Soviet submarine on the night of April 16-17, 1945 about life.
date | Army Corps | army | Army Group | Location |
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September 1939 | reserve | - | North | Poland |
October 1939 | XII | 1st Army | C. | Saar Palatinate |
December 1939 - January 1940 | reserve | OKH | Eiweiler , Saar Palatinate | |
May 1940 | 16th Army | A. | Luxembourg | |
June 1940 | XXIII | 12th Army | France | |
July 1940 | XXXIII | C. | Belfort , France | |
August 1940 | XXV | France | ||
September - October 1940 | XXV | 1st Army | ||
November 1940 | LX | D. | ||
December 1940 - February 1941 | XI | |||
March 1941 | XXX | 12th Army | - | Romania |
April to May 1941 | XXXX | Greece | ||
June 1941 | reserve | Yugoslavia | ||
July 41 | OKH | south | Iassy | |
August - October 1941 | LIV | 11th Army | Nikolayev , Perekop | |
November - December 1941 | XXXXII | Crimea | ||
January 1942 | reserve | 1st Panzer Army | Mius , Taganrog | |
February - May 1942 | XIV | Mius | ||
June 1942 | - | |||
July 1942 | LVII | |||
August 1942 | XXXXIX | 17th Army | A. | Caucasus |
September 1942 - September 1943 | V | Novorossiysk | ||
October 1943 | XXIX | 6th Army | Melitopol | |
November - December 1943 | XXXXIV | |||
January - February 1944 | 3rd Romanian Army | |||
March 1944 | V | 17th Army | Kerch , Crimea | |
April 1944 | Southern ukraine | Sevastopol | ||
May 1944 | - | reserve | Romania | |
June - July 1944 | Reorganization | - | - | Debrecen , Hungary |
August 1944 | IV. SS | 9th Army | center | “Praga”, Warsaw |
September 1944 | ||||
October - November 1944 | XXXXVI | Modlin , Warsaw | ||
December 1944 - January 1945 | A. | |||
February 1945 - March 1945 | XXVII | 2nd Army | Vistula | West Prussia |
April 1945 | reserve | OKH | - | West Prussia, Danzig |
structure
1939 | 1942 | 1943-1945 |
170th Infantry Regiment | 170th Grenadier Regiment | |
186th Infantry Regiment | Grenadier Regiment 186 | |
Infantry Regiment 213 | Grenadier Regiment 213 | |
Artillery Regiment 173 | ||
Anti-tank department 173 | Panzerjäger detachment 173 | |
Reconnaissance Department 173 | Cycling Squadron 173 | Fusilier Battalion 73 |
Engineer Battalion 173 | ||
News Department 173 | ||
Field Replacement Battalion 173 | ||
Supply units 173 |
people
period of service | Rank | Surname |
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September 1 to 29, 1939 | General of the artillery | Friedrich von Rabenau |
September 29, 1939 to October 29, 1941 | General of the Infantry | Bruno Bieler |
November 1, 1941 to February 1, 1943 | General of the Infantry | Rudolf von Bünau |
February 1 to September 7, 1943 | Major general | Johannes Nedtwig |
September 7, 1943 to May 13, 1944, then imprisonment of war |
Lieutenant General | Hermann Boehme |
June 26 to July 29, 1944, then imprisonment |
Lieutenant General | Friedrich von Franek |
July 30th to September 7th, 1944 | Colonel | Kurt Hähling (in charge of the tour) |
September 7, 1944 to April 10, 1945 | Major general | Franz Schlieper |
period of service | Rank | Surname |
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August 26, 1939 to March 10, 1940 | major | Robert Macher |
March 10, 1940 to June 10, 1942 | major | Georg Buntrock |
June 10 to August 1942 | major | Dr. Ornamental bird |
August to September 1942 | major | Fritjof Heyse |
September 1942 to March 1, 1943 | Captain | Roland Wagner |
March to December 1943 | major | Rudolf Japs |
December 1, 1943 to September 25, 1944 | Lieutenant colonel | Otto Becker |
September 25, 1944 to April 5, 1945 | major | Franz Lang |
Well-known members of the division
- Kurt Hähling (1897–1983) was a member of the Dresden District Assembly for the NDPD from 1953 to 1963 and deputy chairman of his party
- Lieutenant Colonel Otto Hitzfeld , Regiment Commander IR 213 (* May 7, 1898 Schluchsee ; † December 6, 1990 Dossenheim )
- Hitzfeld was regimental commander of IR 213 in 1941 and distinguished himself in 1943 through the fighting of the 73rd Infantry Division in the Kuban bridgehead. Hitzfeld later received the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords and later became known for his contribution to the resistance movement against Hitler.
literature
- Federal Archives-Military Archives Freiburg: RH 26–73.
- 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 , p. 14th ff . ( ff. # v = onepage restricted preview in the Google book search).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e cf. 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 , p. 14th ff . ( ff. # v = onepage restricted preview in the Google book search).
- ^ Hans Jürgen Pantenius: Last battle on the Eastern Front: from Döberitz to Danzig 1944/1945: Memory and experience of a young regimental commander . Mittler ES + Sohn GmbH, 2002, ISBN 978-3-8132-0741-5 , p. 118 ( google.de [accessed October 20, 2018]).
- ↑ Was not reorganized after the destruction in the Crimea and was completely replaced by Grenadier Regiment 70 on June 16, 1944.