81st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

81st Infantry Division
Troop identification: Laguz rune
active	December 1, 1939 to May 8, 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	Infantry Division
structure	See: Outline
garrison	Wroclaw
Second World War	French campaign German-Soviet war Battle of Demyansk Third Ladoga battle Defense battle near Newel Kurland boiler
Awards	mentioned five times in the armed forces report ; According to the last assessment of the Army Group in 1945, this was a division with high combat value
Commanders
Please refer:	List of commanders
insignia
Identification symbol	Laucas rune

The 81st Infantry Division was a major military unit of the Wehrmacht in the German Reich .

history

1939-1941

The division was set up on December 1, 1939 as a division of the 6th wave of deployment on the Neuhammer military training area by military district  VIII. Some departments were contributed from the military districts III and IV. The division was on leave from August 1940.

In February 1941 he was called up again.

Before the deployment in Russia, the three infantry regiments each received a 13th light gun company, which was given up by the 225th Infantry Division .

1942

In 1942 the 81st Infantry Division took part in the defense of the Demyansk pocket and held the section between Michalkino and Yassvy.

The trench warfare lasted into October; then there was an attempt to gain ground by counterattacks. The division suffered considerable losses, so that the operation had to be canceled in mid-November. One battalion was wiped out and was reorganized.

1943

In January 1943, the division began to clear the boiler; she moved to the Staraya Russa area and from there to the area northwest of Novgorod.

The division was deployed on the Volkhov and partly took part in the Third Ladoga Battle .

In November 1943, the 81st Infantry Division was thrown to Pustoschka in the Newel area in order to successfully seal off the breakthrough of Russian attack formations at the interface between Army Group North and Army Group Center by counter-attacks.

1944-1945

After trench warfare, the division got into fierce defensive battles again on February 27, 1944 and suffered heavy losses, but was able to maintain its sector until June 1944.

After the start of the Soviet summer offensive with the code name Operation Bagration , the division was hastily transported by train to the front section on the Daugava River (today's Dvina) at the end of June in order to be deployed in the north of Army Group Center against the Russian units that had broken through. However, after losses, the division had to withdraw behind the Daugava because it was no longer possible to set up a new HVAC .

While the Russian summer offensive that began on June 22nd led to the collapse of Army Group Center, the front on Daugava was pushed back in the northern section as well. At the end of July the division fought in the southeastern area of ​​Dünaburg until it reached Skrudaliena. When a Russian breakthrough on Riga threatened, the division was relocated to the Birsen area. From there it was supposed to counterattack in early August, but the Soviet attack preceded it. During the defensive battles, the division suffered such heavy losses that it had to disband Grenadier Regiment 161 on August 18, 1944 and merge it with Grenadier Regiment 189. The Fusilier Battalion was also disbanded, but was reorganized on October 4, 1944.

The division was cut off with Army Group North in the Kurland basin and capitulated at Tukkum on May 8, 1945 .

Storage and operational areas

date	corps	army	Army Group	Operational area
January 1940			z. Vfg. OKH	Neuhammer
June 1940	XVIII	9th Army	B.	Soissons
July 1940	reserve	1st Army	C.	Eastern France
August 1940			z. Vfg. ​​OKH	on leave
March 1941	LIX	7th Army	D.	Northern France
January 1942	XXXIX	16th Army	North	Staraya Russa
February 1942	X
November 1942	II			Demyansk
February 1943	XXVIII	18th Army		Leningrad
November 1943	L.
December 1943	VIII	16th Army		Newel
April 1944	X
May 1944	II
August 1944	Kleffel			Dünaburg
October 1944	XXXXVII	Grasser		Birsen
November 1944	XVI	16th Army		Courland
February 1945			Courland

structure

1939	1944
Infantry Regiment 161 174th Infantry Regiment 189th Infantry Regiment	Grenadier Regiment 161 Grenadier Regiment 174 Grenadier Regiment 189
	Fusilier Battalion 61
Artillery Regiment 181
Engineer Battalion 181
Anti-tank department 181	Panzerjäger detachment 181
News Department 181
Division Supply Leader 181

Commanders

date	Rank	Surname
0December 1, 1939	Lieutenant General	Friedrich-Wilhelm von Loeper
0October 5, 1940	Major general	Hugo Ribstein
0December 8, 1941	Lieutenant General	Erich Schopper
0March 1, 1943	Lieutenant General	Gottfried Weber
March 13, 1943	Lieutenant General	Erich Schopper
0June 1, 1943	Lieutenant General	Gottfried Weber
June 30, 1943	Lieutenant General	Erich Schopper
0April 5, 1944	Lieutenant General	Vollrath Lübbe
0July 1, 1944	Major General of the Reserve	Ernst Meiners
July 10, 1944	Lieutenant General	Franz Eccard of Bentivegni

Knight's Cross bearer

Award	Surname	date	Rank	Service position
Knight's cross	Petersdorff, Horst von	June 29, 1940	Captain	zV Kdr III./Inf.Rgt 189 (SA brigade leader)
Knight's cross	Mix, Walter	Dec 18, 1942	First Lieutenant dR	Chief 9./Gren.Rgt 174
Knight's cross	Behnken, Hans	Dec. 19, 1942	Captain zV	Kdr I./Gren.Rgt 161
Knight's cross	Scheibig, Erich	Jan 15, 1943	Sergeant Major	Platoon leader id 14. (Pz.Jäg) /Gren.Rgt 174
Knight's cross	Schopper, Erich	Apr 30, 1943	Lieutenant General	Kdr 81st Inf. Div
Knight's cross	Meiners, Ernst Dr.	Dec 17, 1943	Colonel DR	Kdr Gren.Rgt 161
Knight's cross	Sulzer, Rudolf	Jan. 11, 1944	Captain dR	Kdr II./Gren.Rgt 161
Oak leaves	Mix, Walter	Feb 22, 1944	Captain dR	Kdr II./Gren.Rgt 174
Knight's cross	Kirsch, Walter	0March 6, 1944	First Lieutenant dR	Chief 7./Gren.Rgt 161
Knight's cross	Twillemeier, Alois	March 15, 1944	Private	Bike detector in the staff / Füs.Btl 81
Knight's cross	Borchardt, Herbert	March 20, 1944	Lieutenant dR	Shock troop leader id 7./Gren.Rgt 189
Knight's cross	Kessler, Wolfgang	April 16, 1944	First Lieutenant dR	Deputy Leader I./Art.Rgt 181
Knight's cross	Herfurth, Heinz	April 16, 1944	major	Kdr II./Gren.Rgt 189
Knight's cross	Pabst, Kurt	Apr 13, 1944	Captain dR	Kdr Div.Füs.Btl 81
Knight's cross	Eichler, Kurt	Aug 12, 1944	Captain	Leader II./Gren.Rgt 189
Knight's cross	Paschke, Werner	Aug 19, 1944	First Lieutenant dR	Chief 3./Gren.Rgt 161
Knight's cross	Morys, Georg	0Sep 2 1944	Sergeant Major	Platoon leader id 1./Pz.Jäg.Abt 181
Knight's cross	Lehrig, Herbert	Sep 10 1944	lieutenant	Platoon leader in II./Gren.Rgt 161
Knight's cross	Allersmeier, Heinz	0Dec 9, 1944	Major dR	Leader FEB 181
Knight's cross	Mielke, Albert	March 23, 1945	sergeant	Platoon leader id 6./Gren.Rgt 189
Knight's cross	Moeller, Hans	Apr. 14, 1945	First lieutenant	Chief Jagd.Pz.Kp 1181

literature

• Werner Haupt: Demyansk 1942: a bulwark in the east . Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1984, ISBN 3-7909-0222-5 .
• Werner Haupt: Army Group North 1941–1945 . Dörfler, Eggolsheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-89555-590-9 .
• Werner Haupt: Kurland 1944/45 - The forgotten Army Group . Dörfler, Eggolsheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-89555-527-5 .
• Werner Haupt: Leningrad, Wolchow, Kurland: Photo report of Army Group North 1941–1945 . Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg (Dorheim) 1976, ISBN 3-7909-0056-7 .
• Werner Haupt : The 81st Infantry Division . Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1985, ISBN 3-7909-0254-3 .
• Franz Kurowski: Demjansk - The cauldron in the ice. 14 days defensive battle in the northern section of the eastern front. Podzun-Pallas, 2001, ISBN 3-7909-0718-9 .
• 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 .
• The Federal Archives contain further sources on the history of the division; see. Federal Archives - Research . Retrieved October 6, 2010.

Remarks

1. ↑ The military writer Werner Haupt was an officer of the 81st Infantry Division and chronicler of Army Group North.