76th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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76th Infantry Division

Troop registration number of the 76th Infantry Division

Troop identification: a grenadier cap
active August 26, 1939 to 1945
Country Flag of the German Reich (1933 to 1945) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry Division
structure structure
Strength 15,000 debit
Insinuation 6th Army
Installation site Potsdam
Second World War Western campaign in 1940

German-Soviet War

Battle for Kiev
Battle of Stalingrad
Attack on Stalingrad
Operation Jassy-Kishinev

Fall Axis 1943

The 76th Infantry Division (76th ID) was a major unit of the Wehrmacht and was used, among other things, during the German-Soviet War in the Battle of Stalingrad .

Division history

The 76th Infantry Division was set up on August 26, 1939 as a division of the 2nd wave of deployment in Potsdam.

On May 14, 1940, the division, together with 36th ID and 299th ID , attacked the Verdun sector.

It was destroyed in the course of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. It was re-established on February 17, 1943. As a result of heavy losses in the Iași area , it was withdrawn from the main battle line of the front and refreshed in September and October 1944. The last units of the 76th Infantry Division surrendered to the Red Army near Deutsch-Brod in May 1945 and were taken prisoner by the Soviets.

Battle of Stalingrad

As early as September 1942, the 76th Infantry Division was used in the Battle of Stalingrad in the north of Stalingrad. Contrary to older representations, the 76th Infantry Division was not used in the battles for the city center. The 76th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Carl Rodenburg, like the 305th Infantry Division, was subordinate to the VIII Army Corps . The division established itself next to the 384th Infantry Division on the left border and the 60th Motorized Infantry Division on the right flank near Borodin to defend the northern corridor between the Don and the Volga. The offensives of the Red Army from September 3 to 12, 1942 in the Kotluban region against hills 143.3 and 144.1 collapsed in the defensive fire of 76 ID. The 76th Infantry Division was mainly in the area around Samofalowka and the station 564 km and faced the 24th Army.

At the beginning of the battle on September 14, 1942, five of the nine infantry battalions of the 76th Infantry Division were medium strength (500–700 men) and four were manned only on average (400–500 men) due to the attrition fighting in the suburbs of Stalingrad . At the end of September, the 76th Infantry Division was deployed as a defense against the second Soviet Kotluban offensive outside Stalingrad near the Arch of the Don. Yeremenko identified the border between VIII. Army Corps and XIV. Panzer Corps as the weakest point in the German defense and sought the break-in in the sector of 76th Infantry Division, where IR 230 and Reconnaissance Division 176 had their positions. It was possible to repel the Soviet offensive from the well-developed positions in a coordinated defensive fire. A large number of enemy tanks were destroyed in the process, and the original front line was restored. The losses in the Kotluban Offensive put the 76th Infantry Division in the " hors de combat " state due to the loss of several infantry battalions .

On September 25th, the 76th Infantry Division was mentioned with praise in the Wehrmacht report; on September 30th, 1942 the badly battered nine infantry battalions of the 76th Infantry Division were grouped into six battalions, withdrawn from the Battle of Stalingrad for the time being on the orders of Friedrich Paulus and turned on transported their disposal space near Kalatsch on Don.

In the winter of 1942/43 the 76th Infantry Division was destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad.

Re-establishment

Structure of the 76th ID 1939 and 1944
August 26, 1939 May 13, 1944
178th Infantry Regiment 178th Grenadier Regiment
203rd Infantry Regiment Grenadier Regiment 203
230 Infantry Regiment Fusilier Regiment 230
Artillery Regiment 176
Division Units 176

On February 17, 1943, the West High Command decided to re-establish the 76th Infantry Division. For this purpose, the reinforced grenadier regiments 876 and 877 were incorporated into the division. On May 13, 1944, the 5th Field Division (L) was incorporated into the 76th ID and served as a refresher.

1944 and 1945

On August 20, 1944, the 76th Infantry Division was involved in heavy fighting with Soviet troops in the Ukraine and Eastern Romania . A large formation of the 6th and 8th Armies was surrounded by Red Army troops.

In the defensive battles around Letcani and Iași (German: Jassy), the 76th Infantry Division suffered heavy losses and had to retreat across the Bahlui River. In the Southern Carpathians , the 76th Infantry Division disbanded as a combat unit. While a large part of the division in the Carpathians was destroyed by Romanian partisans , some units managed to reach the Hungarian border and join other armed forces there.

In September and October 1944 the 76th Infantry Division was refreshed again with troops before surrendering in 1945.

Commanders

period of service Rank Surname
September 1, 1939 to January 26, 1942 General of the artillery Maximilian de Angelis
January 26, 1942 to April 1, 1943 Lieutenant General Carl Rodenburg
April 1, 1943 to July 1944 General of the Infantry Erich Abraham
July 1944 Lieutenant General Otto-Hermann Briicker
September 14, 1944 to October 17, 1944 General of the Infantry Erich Abraham
October 17, 1944 to February 8, 1945 Lieutenant General Siegfried von Rekowski
February 8 to February 17, 1945 Colonel Wilhelm Moritz Freiherr von Bissing
February 17 to May 8, 1945 Major general Erhard-Heinrich Berner

Well-known members of the division

literature

  • David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 .
  • Jochen Löser: A bitter duty. Battle and fall of the 76th Berlin-Brandenburg Infantry Division . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1986, ISBN 3-7648-1489-6 .
  • P. Schmitz, KJ Thies: The troop numbers of the associations and units of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II. Volume 1: The Army . Biblio-Verlag, 1987, ISBN 3-7648-2477-8 .
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Sixth volume. The Land Forces 71–130 . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1972, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , pp. 29-35.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Sixth volume. The Land Forces 71–130 . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1972, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 29.
  2. ↑ Dominique Lormier "Comme des Lions (may juin 1940, le sacrifice héroïque de l'armée française)" Paris Editeur: Calmann-Lévy 2005 ISBN 2-7021-3445-9 section 257
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in the Second World War 1939–1945. Sixth volume. The Land Forces 71–130 . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1972, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 30.
  4. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 741 .
  5. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 31 f .
  6. ^ David M. Glantz: Armageddon in Stalingrad: September – November 1942 . Lawrence 2009, pp. 40f., 43, 48, 69.
  7. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 102 .
  8. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 137 .
  9. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 179-182 .
  10. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 169 .
  11. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 172 .
  12. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 176 .
  13. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 230 .
  14. ↑ David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House: Armageddon in Stalingrad. September – November 1942 (=  The Stalingrad Trilogy . Band 2 ). University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 , pp. 354 .
  15. ^ Georg Tessin: Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Sixth volume. The Land Forces 71–130 . Biblio-Verlag, Osnabrück 1972, ISBN 3-7648-0872-1 , p. 29 f.