79th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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79th Infantry Division |
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|---|---|
 Troop Association Badge: The Lorraine Cross |
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| active | August 26, 1939 to October 9, 1944 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
|
| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Branch of service | infantry |
| Type | Infantry Division |
| structure | structure |
| Insinuation | 6th Army |
| Installation site | Hammelburg and Idar-Oberstein |
| motto | "Brave and loyal" |
| Second World War | German-Soviet War |
The 79th Infantry Division (79th ID) was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .
1939
From May 4 to 27, 1939, the 79th Infantry Division was assembled for the first time in the second wave of deployment on a mobilization exercise at the Hammelburg and Porz-Wahn military training areas .
On August 26, 1939, the 79th Infantry Division received its final formation in Idar-Oberstein as part of the mobilization for the Second World War and was placed under Infantry Commander 34. The 79th Infantry Division was formed from duties of the 33rd , 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions, each of which delivered a regiment, as well as called up reservists.
The division then moved into a defensive line on the Siegfried Line . Above all, training and raiding troops were carried out here.
1940 and 1941
The 79th Infantry Division took part in the offensive in France from May 10, 1940 , and from June 12, 1940 when it breached the Maginot Line to the Châtel-sur-Moselle area . After the crossing over the Moselle at Chatel, the fighting ended with the surrender of France .
As an occupying force in France, a third of the division was given up to the 342nd Infantry Division from October 20, 1940 and replenished with replacement troops.
Before the German attack on Yugoslavia began, the 79th Infantry Division was relocated to Carinthia on April 6, 1941 , but was not used due to the rapid course of the war.
With the beginning of Operation Barbarossa , the raid on the Soviet Union, the division was transferred by rail to the 6th Army in the Zamość area from June 22, 1941 , and took part in the advance into Ukraine from June 26, 1941 with the first parts . By July 28, 1941, the Stalin Line was broken. After the capture of Korosten and pursuit battles up to the Pripjet , the division took part in the Kessel Battle near Kiev on September 9, 1941 . Further pursuit battles were hampered by bad weather and the mud period. When the advance came to a standstill after the capture of Bjelgorod on October 24, 1941, the infantrymen had covered 1500 km fighting.
The division spent the winter of 1941/42 in a defensive position on the upper Donets .
1942 to 1943
In May 1942 the weakened division was able to maintain its defensive positions in heavy defensive battles during the Soviet spring offensive and thus contributed to the success of the Wehrmacht in the battle of Kharkov .
As part of the summer offensive of 1942, the division reached Volchansk in June and advanced to the central Don in July . The division had to fight heavy defensive battles to secure the Don Line in August and September together with Romanian and Italian units.
From October 17, 1942, the relocation to northern Stalingrad took place . The combat mission was to capture the “Red October” metallurgical plant. Together with subordinate units, it was possible to occupy and maintain the majority of the plant in tough, varied battles. However, the banks of the Volga could not be secured, so that the combat strength fell rapidly due to the constant counter-attacks by the Red Army. The Soviet losses were much higher in the house-to-house fighting, but could be compensated by constantly new reinforcements, which were moved across the Volga at night. On November 20, 1942, on orders from the corps, all further attacks were suddenly stopped and most of the subordinate units were ordered to the Gumrak area . The Red Army had broken through on both sides of Stalingrad and included the 6th Army.
The house-to-house fighting on the factory premises, which resulted in losses, continued and became even more cruel due to the poor supply situation and the onset of winter. The division had to merge decimated units and, despite the incorporation of foreign troops and "combing out" of the hawser, constantly lost combat strength. On December 23, 1942, the metallurgical plant was cleared as scheduled. At the beginning of January the remnants of the division were combined into a combat group IR 212 and placed under the 305th Infantry Division. The last fighting took place at the “white and red houses” and at the Stalingrad tractor factory . Only a few survivors (IR 212 still consisted of 2 companies) were captured by the Soviets on January 31, 1943 when Stalingrad surrendered .
Reorganization in 1943
The divisional headquarters of 79th Infantry Division with the commander were flown out of Stalingrad on January 7, 1943. The divisional headquarters then led mixed subordinate units in the Novocherkassk area . From March 25, 1943, the division at Stalino was reorganized from replacement troops, vacationers and those recovered from the hospital. In May 1943 she was involved in the heavy defensive fighting in the Kuban region. From September 15, 1943, the peninsula was evacuated. The division was then relocated to the Melitopol area, partly by air . In October the division was overrun and pulled out while retreating in the Nogai steppe . According to the order of the associations, further loss-making missions in the Nikopol bridgehead took place from November 1, 1943 . The plans for dissolution were dropped and the division was reorganized and refilled from December 15, 1943.
1944
After further defensive battles, the divisional units moved from January 8, 1944 from Nikopol to Kherson . In a quiet position on the Dnepr , replacements were brought in and training took place.
The division took part in the loss-making retreat to Romania from March 1944. After the front had been consolidated, local counter-attacks were carried out at Stanca Castle in May . In August 1944, the 79th Infantry Division was broken up again in the Jassy pocket during the Soviet Jassy-Kishinev operation . After the Romanian troops defected to the Red Army, the Army Group South Ukraine with an estimated 300,000 soldiers was enclosed and destroyed from August 20, 1944. The 79th Infantry Division was at the time near the village of Chitcani. Smaller troops, around 1,000 soldiers, managed to break out and fight back over the Carpathian Mountains to reach Hungary , the majority of which were captured. In the Debrecen area (Hungary), the surviving members of the division were distributed to other units.
Reorganization in 1944
On October 27, 1944, a new 79th Volksgrenadier Division was set up. This division was used in the Rundstedt offensive , suffered heavy losses in February 1945 in the upper Moselle valley and went back over the Rhine near Speyer . A divisional combat group was in constant retreat in the Württemberg - Franconian area , where the old town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber was to be defended. However, that did not happen. The bulk of the combat group was lost in a final battle south of the city, so that only small remnants moved as far as the Alps , where the surrender took place.
structure
1939-1943
- IR 208
- IR 212
- IR 226
- AR 179 (4 departments)
- Division Troops 179
Commanders
- March 1, 1939 to January 14, 1942 Lieutenant General Karl Strecker
- January 14, 1942 to June 3, 1943 Lieutenant General Richard Graf von Schwerin
- June 3 to October 19, 1943 Major General Heinrich Kreipe
- October 19-22, 1943 (entrusted with the leadership) Colonel Andreas von Aulock
- October 22, 1943 to October 1944 Major General Friedrich-August Weinknecht
- November 1, 1944 to February 25, 1945 Major General Weber
- February 25 to May 8, 1945 Colonel Hummel, Lieutenant Colonel v. Hobe , Colonel Reymann, Colonel Seer
Association badge
The Lorraine Cross was chosen as the association badge, because on the one hand it shows that it belongs to the city of Merzig , which also uses this symbol in the city's coat of arms, and on the other hand, because the 79th ID was mainly used in Lorraine for a while. Since the spring of 1941, the 79th ID had the Lorraine Cross as a division symbol.
literature
- David M. Glantz: Armageddon in Stalingrad: September – November 1942 (The Stalingrad Trilogy, Volume 2) . University of Kansas Press, Lawrence 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1664-0 .
- 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).
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Foundation order of March 21, 1941.
