Panzer Division Kempf

Panzer Division Kempf - XX -
active	Summer 1939 to October 7, 1939
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Wehrmacht
Armed forces	army SS disposable troops
Branch of service	Armored force
Type	Panzer Division
structure	structure

The Panzerverband Ostpreußen / Panzer-Division Kempf was an improvised mixed association of the army of the Wehrmacht and the SS disposable troops in World War II , which was specially set up for the attack on Poland . It consisted of units of all branches of service, but had only half the troop strength of a tank division common at the time .

history

Since there was no tank unit in the military district I , which included the exclave of East Prussia , the planning for the "White case" provided for the formation of an improvised tank unit. For this purpose, the staff and a tank regiment of the 4th Tank Brigade , which was stationed peacefully in Stuttgart, under Major General Werner Kempf . In addition, there were other army units and units of the SS available troops. The division thus also served as an experiment to test the interaction between the Wehrmacht and SS available troops. The staff arrived at the Stablack military training area in the summer of 1939 ; the subordinate units were transported partly by sea and partly by rail in July and August. The arrival of the units was declared with their participation in the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg . Instead, the association was brought into position at the end of August in the Neidenburg area , opposite the Polish Mława position.

The task of the association was to support the left wing of the 3rd Army operating from East Prussia in overcoming the border fortifications and gaining crossings over the Narew and Bug in order to be able to attack the capital Warsaw from the northeast . The division took part in the Battle of Mława . The division took part in the attack on the Polish positions on September 1st, but it failed. Also on the following day no breakthrough could be achieved, whereupon the division was moved to the Ciechanów area, where it also took part in the capture of the city. The division was also involved in the Battle of Warsaw and the Battle of Modlin . After a final victory parade in Neidenburg on October 7th, it was disbanded.

The inspector of the SS available troops, SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser , accompanied the division during the entire campaign. Immediately afterwards he set up the 2nd Division of the later Waffen SS , the SS disposal division .

War crimes

During the attack on Poland, the Panzer Division Kempf distinguished itself through very rigorous warfare and acts of violence against the civilian population. So members are the Division on September 4, 1939 synagogue of the city of Przasnysz burned down. On September 5, soldiers of the SS Artillery Regiment forced 50 Jewish men to carry out repairs and clean-up work in Krasnosielc after the SS soldiers had previously looted shops in the village together with members of the Wehrmacht. On the evening of the same day, all 50 men were shot dead in the village synagogue by members of the SS artillery regiment and a sergeant from the secret field police . The bodies were buried; the perpetrators were later convicted by a military tribunal, but the sentences were later downgraded significantly. On September 28th, hundreds of soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Polish Army surrendered to the division near Zakroczym . Soldiers from the Kempf Panzer Division shot dead or mistreated many of the prisoners; Looting and shooting of civilians took place in the village of Zakroczym. The German soldiers also used hand grenades to blow up cellars into which some Poles had fled. Others set houses on fire. A Defense Ministry report later named 500 dead Polish soldiers and 100 dead civilians as victims.

structure

• Staff (of 4th Tank Brigade)
  • 7th Panzer Regiment
  • SS Regiment "Germany" (motorized)
  • SS Artillery Regiment
  • II./Artillery Regiment 47
  • SS reconnaissance department
  • Anti-tank department 511
  • Pioneer Battalion 505 (motorized)
  • News department (mixed)
  • 2./SS-Fla-MG- Battalion

Web links

• Reinbold, Dan. Panzer Division Kempf and the Buildup ( Memento from December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).

Remarks

1. ↑ The brigade's other tank regiment was used to set up the 10th Panzer Division .
2. ↑ Chris Helmecke: "Shooting on Fire" . In: Clausewitz Special: The Waffen-SS . August 2017, campaign, p. 68 .
3. ↑ Jochen Böhler: "Greatest hardship ..." Crimes of the Wehrmacht in Poland September – October 1939. Exhibition catalog, Fiber, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-938400-07-2 , p. 116.
4. ↑ Szymon Datner: Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych w II wojnie światowej 1961