8th Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)
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8th Mountain Division |
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|---|---|
 Troop identification: mountaineer in blue escutcheon |
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| active | September 1944 (as 157th Mountain Division ) to May 8, 1945 (surrender) |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces | Wehrmacht |
| Armed forces | army |
| Type | Mountain Division |
| structure | structure |
| Second World War |
Defense against the invasion of southern France
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| Commanders | |
| list | Commanders |
| insignia | |
| Troop registration of the 157th Mountain Division, monk with beer mug |
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The 8th Mountain Division was a major unit of the mountain troops of the Wehrmacht during World War II .
history
The 157th Reserve Division ( military district VII ) was reclassified to the 157th Mountain Division on October 1, 1944 and renamed the 8th Mountain Division on February 27, 1945. In 1942, still as a reserve division, the troops were relocated to France and used there in the southeast as an occupation force.
In April 1944 the division took part in the "Spring" operation to combat partisans . After the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, they were used against large partisan groups, sabotage groups and Allied paratroopers in the areas around Besançon , Lyon , Grenoble and Avignon .
After withdrawing from the operational areas in southern France, the division withdrew to the French-Italian border with the task of defending the high mountain passes in the western Alps. In January 1945 the division was replaced by the 5th Mountain Division and relocated to the area south of Bologna (Italy), first as a reserve , then used to relieve the 4th Parachute Division .
The troops were involved in heavy defensive battles in the Apennines and finally pushed back to the Po . After the last missions on Lake Garda and in the Adige Valley , the remnants of the division capitulated on Monte Pasubio ( Dolomites ).
Basically all members of the 157th Reserve Division, such as B. also those of the Brehmer division and that of the 2nd paratrooper division , were declared war criminals in March 1944 by the French army ministry in spring 1946 for “gang fighting measures” .
Commanders
- Lieutenant General Paul Schricker - formation of the 157th Mountain Division until surrender
structure
- Mountain Infantry Regiment 296 (I.-III.)
- Mountain Infantry Regiment 297 (I.-III.)
- Mountain Artillery Regiment 1057 (I.–IV.)
- Panzerjäger detachment 1057
- Mountain Engineer Battalion 1057
- Mountain News Division 1057
- Field Replacement Battalion 1057
- Mountain Division Supply Leader 1057
- Substitute provision
- Staff: Gebirgsjäger Replacement Battalion I./98 in Mittenwald
literature
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . 2nd Edition. tape 7 . The Land Forces 131–200 . Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1173-0 .
Web links
- Organizational History of the German Mountain and Ski Division 1939-1945 Nafziger Collection, Combined Armed Research Library.
- Stock overview of the Federal Archives
Individual evidence
- ^ Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3. The Land Forces 6-14. 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 ; P. 97
- ^ Claudia Moisel: France and the German war criminals: Politics and practice of criminal prosecution after the Second World War . Wallstein Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-2059-8 , pp. 93 ( google.de [accessed on January 27, 2019]).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Organizational History of the German Mountain and Ski Division 1939–1945. (PDF, 90kb) 157th Mountain Division. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 8, 2011 ; accessed on September 16, 2011 .
