Infantry Division Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

The infantry division "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" was a German infantry division of the army in World War II . The unit consisted mainly of members of the Reich Labor Service (RAD) .

Division history

The later RAD Division No. 2 "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" was formed as an infantry division e.g. V. 2 in the course of the 35th wave of deployment on March 31, 1945 from parts of the 251st Infantry Division withdrawn from West Prussia and approx. 7,500 men from the RAD set up on the Jüterbog military training area. The structure was based on that of an infantry division 45 . The division was named after Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in early April 1945 .

It was deployed in April 1945 in the Spree Army Group south of Berlin against the Red Army . The division managed to break out of the Potsdam pocket. After this outbreak, the division now sat with the 12th Army in the XX. Army corps fighting west. The division surrendered to the US Army near Ferchland on the Elbe in May 1945 and was transferred to Soviet captivity .

structure

• Grenadier Regiments Friedrich Ludwig Jahn 1st
• Grenadier Regiments Friedrich Ludwig Jahn 2nd
• Grenadier regiments Friedrich Ludwig Jahn 3rd
• Division Fusilier Battalion Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
• Artillery Regiment Friedrich Ludwig Jahn
• Pioneer Battalion Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

Commanders

• Lieutenant General Friedrich-Wilhelm von Loeper : March 1945
• Colonel Ludwig Zöller: April 1945
• Colonel Gerhard Klein: April 1945
• Colonel Franz Weller: from April 1945 until dissolution

Web links

• Infantry Division "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" / RAD Division zbV 2 on the EHRI portal from the Federal Archives

literature

• Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007a). German Order of Battle. Volume One: 1st - 290th Infantry Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. P. 296, ISBN 978-0-8117-3416-5 .
• Mitcham, Samuel W., Jr. (2007b). German Order of Battle. Volume Two: 291st - 999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in WWII . PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. P. 210, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 .
• Josef Pechmann: The RAD infantry division "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" . Army history Museum - employee history. Inst., 1994.
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . 14th volume, Osnabrück, 1967, p. 78