8th Flak Division

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The 8th Flak Division was a major combat unit of the German Air Force in World War II .

history

Initially set up as the Denmark Air Defense Command in May 1940 under the command of Major General Alexander Kolb , the later division took over the previous area of ​​operation of Air Defense Command 6 in the Hanover area , where it was subordinate to Luftgau Command XI . The Flak Regiment 13 for the Hanover area and the Flak Regiment 25 in the Harz area were subordinate to him .

In March 1941, Lieutenant General Kurt Wagner took over the division. In June 1941, the command staff of Air Defense Command 8 was removed from its previous area of ​​responsibility and relocated to Bremen to take over the leadership of the flak forces there. On September 1, 1941, the command was renamed the 8th Flak Division. As of December 31, 1941, she was subject to the following forces:

  • Flak Regiment 13 (Flak Group Bremen-Süd)
  • Flak Regiment 26 (Flak Group Bremen-Nord)
  • Flak Regiment 89 (Flak Group Bremen-Mitte)
  • Flak searchlight regiment 160 (Flak searchlight group Bremen)

The next major change in structure took place in July and September 1944. After that, the 8th Flak Division consisted of the following units:

  • Flak Regiment 13 (Flak Group Bremen-Süd)
  • Flak Regiment 26 (Flak Group Bremen-Nord)
  • Flak Regiment 9 (Flak Group Osnabrück , from March 1945 as Flak Group Moorland)
  • Flak Regiment 63 (Flak Group Stralsund , until October 1944)
  • Flak searchlight regiment 160 (Flak searchlight group Bremen)

On December 4, 1944, Major General Max Schaller became the new division commander, which he remained until the end of the war. On April 8, 1945 the division was the VI. Anti-aircraft corps and the Reich Air Fleet . On April 20, 1945, the units of the division withdrew from Bremen with their mobile batteries from the British armed forces. The permanently stationed flak positions either had to be abandoned or were blown up. A few days before the end of the war, the division received the order to take over the anti-aircraft protection of the northernmost Elbe and Weser ferries, which, however, could hardly be accomplished with only 10 heavy and 5 medium and light anti-aircraft batteries.

When the German troops continued to withdraw, the division received the order to retreat to the Brake - Bremervörde line . The regiments of the 8th Flak Division reached the new line they wanted and then surrendered there on May 5, 1945.

Well-known members of the division

literature

  • Herbert Schwarzwälder : Bremen and Northwest Germany at the end of the war in 1945: The British advance on the Weser. Schünemann, 1975.
  • Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 14. Biblio, 1980, p. 470 and p. 471.
  • Reinhold Thiel : Bremen's air defense in World War II. Hauschild, 1995.
  • Samuel W. Mitcham : German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II. Stackpole Books, 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German Reich on the Defensive: Strategic Air War in Europe, War in the West and East Asia 1943-1944 / 45 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2001, ISBN 978-3-421-05507-1 ( google.de [accessed December 25, 2017]).