90th Africa Light Division

Africa Division z. b. V. 90th light Africa division 90th light infantry division Sardinia division 90th Panzergrenadier division
Troop registration
active	August 15, 1941 to May 13, 1943 (surrender) / 30. June 1943 (formal dissolution) July 6, 1943 to May 2, 1945 (surrender)
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army
Branch of service	Panzergrenadiers
Type	Panzer Grenadier Division
Second World War	Africa campaign First battle of El Alamein Second battle of El Alamein Battle for Tunisia Italian campaign Battle for Monte Cassino
insignia
Another troop identification

The 90th Light Africa Division / 90th Panzer Grenadier Division was a division of the army of the German Wehrmacht in World War II .

history

The division was founded in North Africa in August 1941 under the name Afrika-Division z. b. V. from units of the German Africa Corps already located there . On April 1, 1942, it was renamed the 90th Light Infantry Division and on July 26th of the same year it was renamed the 90th Africa Light Division. After participating in several important battles in the African campaign , the division surrendered to the Western Allies in Tunisia in May 1943 .

Panzer IV of the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division in Palau on their withdrawal from Sardinia

In July 1943 Sardinia was reorganized as the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division . There the division donated the Sardinia shield as a traditional badge. After the Italian armistice of Cassibile was signed with the Allies, the German troops in Sardinia were in the minority compared to the Italian units, so that the withdrawal of the German contingent was decided. An agreement between the division commander Lieutenant General Lungershausen and the Italian General Antonio Basso enabled the almost non-fighting withdrawal between September 8 and 16, 1943. The 90th Panzer Grenadier Division was sailed from Palau in northeastern Sardinia to Bonifacio in Corsica .

After the uprising against the Italian and German occupiers had been declared in Corsica on September 9, 1943, the division was withdrawn along the eastern coastal road from Bonifacio to Bastia . The division was evacuated to mainland Italy via the contested Bastia bridgehead with losses until the beginning of October .

The division was then stationed first in Tuscany near Pisa and then on the Adriatic coast near Gatteo a Mare . In mid-November 1943 it was relocated to the Abruzzo region behind the Gustav Line . In early December she was involved in fierce defensive battles south of Ortona against the 1st Canadian Infantry Division of the 8th British Army . After the fighting at Ortona, she found herself relaxing south of Rome . In January 1944, the association was again on the Gustav Line between Cassino and the Tyrrhenian coast . From the beginning of February she fought in the First and Second Battles for Monte Cassino on Monte Maiola and Monte Castellone. After the end of the battle it was relocated to the Rome- Ostia area as an army group reserve in early March . In mid-May she stood south of the Cassino in the Liri Valley near Pignataro - Pontecorvo and took part in the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino . After the breakthrough of the Allies, the division withdrew to Umbria before being relocated to the Grosseto area in Tuscany . In Tuscany, units of the division were used to fight gangs and were involved in defensive battles against the advancing troops of the 5th US Army on Monte Amiata and near Volterra, among others , before the division withdrew to the Arno valley between Pisa and Florence .

At the end of July 1944, the division was relocated first to the Po Valley between Modena and Parma and then to Liguria north of Genoa to refresh . In mid-August, after the Allies landed in southern France , it was relocated to Piedmont to secure the border of the Alpine crossings . From the end of September 1944 she was again in Emilia-Romagna . In mid-December 1944, the division initially held back as an army reserve defended Faenza from the attacking 5th British and 2nd Polish Corps with heavy losses , but eventually had to evacuate the city. During the Allied Spring Offensive in April 1945, the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division was again used as a reserve unit. Units of the division were used to defend US formations from the Tyrrhenian coast near Massa to the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. After the collapse of the German front, the remnants of the division surrendered to the Allies south of Lake Garda at the end of April 1945 .

War crimes

Members of the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division are charged with some war crimes as part of their deployment in Italy. According to the Atlante degli Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia project, which was financed by the German Federal Government and led by a commission of historians, over 40 people were killed by members of the division between August 1944 and April 1945. In the spring of 1944 the division was used in anti-gang operations in central Italy . The majority of the victims go back to actions against partisans in August 1944, when the division was relocated to Piedmont to secure the border passes in the Cottian Alps after the Allies landed in southern France . There, the division left a trail of destruction and violence, especially in the Susa Valley and Valle Maira, in actions against the Resistance . A second wave of violent crimes occurred during the Allied spring offensive at the end of April 1945, when the remnants of the division withdrew towards the Alps.

structure

90th Africa Light Division 1941	90th Africa Division 1942	90th Panzer Grenadier Division 1943
	Panzer Division 190	Panzer Division 190
155th Rifle Regiment 361th Infantry Regiment	155th Panzer Grenadier Regiment Panzer Grenadier Regiment 200 361th Panzer Grenadier Regiment	155th Panzer Grenadier Regiment Panzer Grenadier Regiment 200 361th Panzer Grenadier Regiment
Artillery Department 361	Artillery Regiment 190	Artillery Regiment 190
	Panzerjäger detachment 190	Panzerjäger-Company 1./190
		Assault Gun Division 242
mixed reconnaissance company 580	Armored Reconnaissance Division 90
Engineer Battalion 900	Engineer Battalion 900
News Company 190	Panzer News Department 190
	Division Supply Leader 190	Division units 190

Commanders

(The last rank in the respective period is given.)

Africa

Rank at that time	Surname	Period
Major general	Max Sümmermann	September 1 to December 10, 1941 (fallen)
Colonel	Johann Mickl	10-27 December 1941 ( md F. b. )
Major general	Richard Veith	December 27, 1941 to April 10, 1942
Major general	Ulrich Kleemann	April 10 to July 13, 1942
Colonel	Carl-Hans Lungershausen	July 13 to August 10, 1942
Major general	Ulrich Kleemann	August 10 to September 8, 1942 (wounded)
Major general	Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke	September 8 to September 17, 1942 ( md F. b. )
Colonel	Hermann Schulte-Heuthaus	August 10 to November 1, 1942 ( md F. b. )
Lieutenant General	Theodor von Sponeck	September 22, 1942 to May 12, 1943 (in captivity)

90th Panzer Grenadier Division

Rank at that time	Surname	Period
Lieutenant General	Carl-Hans Lungershausen	July 6 to December 10, 1943
Lieutenant General	Ernst-Günther Baade	December 10, 1943 to December 9, 1944
Lieutenant General	Gerhard Graf von Schwerin	9-27 December 1944
Major general	Heinrich von Behr	December 27, 1944 until the surrender

Well-known members of the division

• Claus von Amsberg (1926–2002), husband of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
• Karl Schnell (1916–2008) was Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces Central Europe (CINCENT) from October 1, 1975 and State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense from January 11, 1977

literature

• Carlo Gentile : Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . (Cologne, Univ., Diss., 2008.)
• E. Schilling: Traditional maintenance of the former 90th light Africa division in Munster / History of the Munster division 1983.
• Alois Schirmer (Ed.): Division zbV Africa - Alpenrose calls Enzian: News soldiers of the 90th light Africa division report . Flechsig-Verlag, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8035-0010-6 .
• Alois Schirmer (Ed.): With the 90th light Africa division in Rommel's army. Chronicle and reports from members of the news company / department 190 . Flechsig-Verlag, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8035-0009-0 .
• Karl Schweyher: 1941 - 1943. Libya - Egypt - Tunisia. Africa Artillery Department in Africa Regiment 361 and Artillery Regiment 190 of the 90th Light Division. From the French Foreign Legion to the German Wehrmacht. Self published in 1994.
• 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 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Francesco Ledda: I tedeschi in Sardegna: movimentazione dei reparti dopo l'8 September e il fatto di sangue di Oniferi. In: Daniele Sanna (ed.): La Sardegna e la guerra di Liberazione. Studi di storia militare. Franco Angeli, Milan 2018 ISBN 978-88-917-6958-9 pp. 67-70
2. ↑ Bastia. In: volksbund.de. Retrieved December 19, 2019 . 
3. ^ ^{A b} Carlo Gentile: Itinerari di guerra: La presenza delle troupe tedesche nel Lazio occupato 1943-1944. Online publications of the German Historical Institute in Rome , Rome or JS 29 PDF
4. ^ Gilbert Alan Shepperd: La campagna d'Italia 1943–1945. Garzanti, Milan 1970. pp. 411-412
5. ↑ Marco Belogi, Daniele Guglielmi: Spring 1945 on the Italian front: a 25 Day Atlas from the Apennines to the Po River. Primavera 1945 sul fronte italiano: Atlante dei 25 giorni dall'Appennino al fiume Po. Mattioli 1885, Fidenza 2011 ISBN 978-88-6261-198-5 . Pp. 61, 209
6. ↑ 90th Panzer Grenadier Division. In: straginazifasciste.it. Retrieved December 17, 2019 (Italian). 
7. ↑ Carlo Gentile: I crimini di guerra tedeschi in Italia 1943-1945. Einaudi, Turin 2015 ISBN 978-88-06-21721-1 p. 400