91st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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91st Infantry Division (Airborne)

Troop registration number of the 91st Infantry Division

Troop registration
active January 15, 1944 to August 10, 1944
Country German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire
Armed forces Wehrmacht
Armed forces army
Branch of service infantry
Type Infantry Division
Strength ~ 10500
Insinuation LXXXIV. Army Corps, 7th Army
Location Normandy, France
Second World War Battle of Normandy :
Commanders
list of Commanders

The 91st (Airborne) Infantry Division was a major unit of the German Wehrmacht .

Division history

The division was set up in January 1944 as a division of the 25th wave of deployment on the Baumholder military training area ( military district XII). It was originally intended for airborne missions, the rearmament was regulated by order of March 6, 1944.

After the completion of the formation, the division was transferred to France, where it was stationed on the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy. The division was part of the LXXXIV. Army Corps and was kept ready as a corps reserve in the interior of the peninsula. In this area, the Americans had planned their air landing of the 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions as well as the landing on Utah Beach for D-Day . In the early hours of June 6th, Division Commander Lieutenant General Wilhelm Falley was ambushed by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division while he was returning from the canceled war game in Rennes to his command post in Pont-l'Abbé. Temporarily, Colonel Bernhard Klosterkemper, commander of the Grenadier Regiment 920 of the 243rd Infantry Division , took over command of the division. Four days later, Colonel König took command of the division, who had been in command of the division's 1057 Grenadier Regiment until then.

Because the jump zones of the 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions were located in the middle of the accommodation areas and disposal areas of the 91st (LL) Infantry Division, it was not at all possible to effectively counter the air landing. A closed counterattack on Sainte-Mère-Église therefore did not take place. The losses were enormous on the fourth day of the invasion - almost 3,000 men. Almost a third of the division had been wiped out in just four days. A shortage of artillery ammunition was detrimental to the defense. The long front along the Merderet river , from Carentan to Le Ham, could not be defended on its own for such a battered division. Therefore, the division was reinforced by the Grenadier Regiment 920 under Colonel Klosterkemper.

The division had been reinforced, but its strength was insufficient to start a counter-offensive. The 91st (LL) Inf. Div. had to limit himself to purely defensive actions against the Americans. The weakened division failed to repel the attack by the 9th US Infantry Division . The attack by the 9th US Infantry Division separated the German troops on the peninsula . The defenders therefore organized themselves into two combat groups. In the south to the combat group "Hellmich", where the main parts of the 91st (LL) Inf.Div. and in the north to the combat group "Schlieben", where the cut off parts of the division were.

Although there were six German infantry and one Panzergrenadier division, four US infantry and two US airborne divisions, all German formations were in a desolate state due to the previous fighting and constant air attacks and the bombardment of the heavy artillery; the combat value of all associations was extremely low. The supply of replacement teams and ammunition was hardly possible due to the destruction of the railway network in the Normandy area. Despite all the inadequacies, the Germans stubbornly resisted. The Americans were particularly restrained by the terrain with its hedges and flood plains, because it offered all the advantages for the defender, despite material and personal inferiority.

In the further course of the fighting, the 91st (LL) Inf. Div. only one combat group from the remaining parts of the division. It was placed under various other infantry divisions for reinforcement. On August 10, 1944, the division was disbanded after the heavy losses in the battles for Normandy and reorganized with the 7th Army in the Eifel from parts of the Valkyrie unit Kampfgruppe Castorf (formerly Division No. 172 ). A full list was not made. On November 5, 1944, it was renamed the 344th Infantry Division .

Commanders

  • Lieutenant General Bruno Ortner , January 15 to April 25, 1944
  • Lieutenant General Wilhelm Falley , April 25 to June 6, 1944
  • Colonel Bernhard Klosterkemper , 6. – 10. June 1944
  • Colonel Eugen König , June 10 to August 10, 1944 (dissolution)
  • Colonel Eugen König, September 15 (reorganization) to November 5, 1944

structure

  • Grenadier Regiment 1057
    • I.-III. battalion
  • Grenadier Regiment 1058
    • I.-III. battalion
  • Artillery Regiment 191
  • Fusilier Battalion 91
  • Panzerjäger Company 191
  • Anti-aircraft company 191
  • Engineer Battalion 191
  • Field Replacement Battalion 91st
  • News Department 191
  • Commander of Infantry Division Supply Forces 191
  • Administrative Services 191
  • Medical Services 191
    • Medical company 191
    • Troop decontamination train 191
  • Veterinary company 191

Subordinate units

  • Paratrooper Regiment 6
  • Tank replacement training department 100
  • Artillery Regiment z. b. V. 621
  • heavy artillery division 456 (motorized)
  • heavy artillery division 457 (motorized)

Overall strength

  • 91st Airborne Infantry Division - 10,550 soldiers
  • Paratrooper Regiment 6 - 3,500 soldiers
  • Tank replacement training division 100 ~ 400 soldiers

literature

  • Alex Buchner: The manual of the German infantry 1939–1945: structure, uniforms, armament, equipment, operations. Edition Dörfler im Nebel-Verlag, Utting 2001, ISBN 3-89555-041-8 .
  • Terry Gander et al. a .: Small arms. Encyclopedia of German Weapons 1939–1945 - Hand weapons, artillery, captured weapons, special weapons. ISBN 3-613-02481-0 .
  • Volker Griesser: The Lions of Carentan- Das Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6 1943–1945. VS-Books, Herne 2007, ISBN 978-3-932077-25-8 .
  • Tony Hall: Operation "Overlord": The landing of the Allies in Normandy in 1944. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-613-02407-1 .
  • Utah Beach to Cherbourg, June 6-27, 1944 / Book and Maps.
  • 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 .
  • Helge Sven Nauroth and Boris Steinberg: The history of the 91st Luftlande Division - reconstruction of a large association of the German Wehrmacht. Tredition Verlag 2017, ISBN 978-3-7439-4009-3 .