16th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 16th Infantry Division and later the 16th Panzer Grenadier Division was a military major unit of the Wehrmacht.
Division history
The 16th Infantry Division was placed under the alias " Commander of Munster " on 1 October 1934 at the Military District VI. The code name retained the division until 15 October 1935. Their infantry regiments were formed from the Infantry Regiment 18 of Reichswehr 6th Division.
1940 fought the 16th Infantry Division in the Western campaign in Luxembourg, Belgium and France. Here she participated in the Battle of Sedan and Stonne. Took place on 6 August 1940, the military training area Sennelager the division of the 16th Infantry Division in the 16th Panzer Division (PD) and the 16th Infantry Division ( Motorized ). The new division headquarters was formed here from the staff of the disbanded 228th Infantry Division.
In the spring of 1941, the 16th Infantry Division ( mot ) was transferred to Hungary to participate from there in the Balkans campaign against Yugoslavia. In early summer 1941, she was waiting in the Association of Panzer Group 1 of the Southern Army Group for the invasion of the Soviet Union. After the Stalin Line in July 1941 was broken in Lubar, it came at Novo Arkhangelsk, Swerdlikowo and Dobrowodje heavy fighting. In August 1941, the division came about Nikolaev Krivoy Rog and in the Ukraine to the Dnieper. In September 1941, she was part of the German attack on Kiev. The Winter 1941/1942 she spent in the winter position near Kursk. The Panzer-Abteilung 116 was subordinated to her in May 1942. In the summer of 1942, the 16th Infantry Division ( mot ) took part in the offensive on Voronezh. Motorized infantry division exceeded in July 1942 to Don at Semiluki and collapsed with the Infantry Division ( mot ) " Greater Germany " after serious house fighting the Soviet resistance in the western part of the city, but the Voronezh River could overcome only after hard fighting.
In August 1942, the 16th Infantry Division ( mot ) was among the first German units who crossed the border into Asia on the march to the Caucasus. She arrived on August 6, 1942, the town Labinskaja near the oil fields of Maikop. As part of Army Group A and the 1st Panzer Army's 16th Infantry Division ( mot ) had to secure the contract, the left flank of the front with fixed bases in the Kalmyk steppe. The division commander, Lieutenant General Sigfrid Henrici, sent in late August / early September of 1942 Panzeraufklärer towards Astrakhan, to explore the upstream area. Panzerspähkompanien invaded on 16 September 1942 prior to the anti-tank ditches by Sadowska on the lower reaches of the Volga and could take the Soviet base in the coup. They explored the intact railway line from Kizlyar to Astrakhan, which could be used for oil transport, and where you could interrupt the transport chain of Baku and Astrakhan best to Arkhangelsk. On September 17, 1942, the company had to be canceled. This fast, wide foray gave rise to the nickname of the division: "Greyhound Division ".
In the winter of 1942/ 43, the Division during the general retreat of Army Group Don was withdrawn into the Donets Basin. She was then employed in the newly formed 6th Army on the Mius - Front. In June 1943 it was renamed here in the 16th Panzer Grenadier Division. The Division participated in the second half of 1943 with the 6th Army and 1st Panzer Army in the battles of the Donets and Mius, in the Donets Basin and the Battle of the Dnieper part. In March 1944 she was part destroyed during the Dnepr -Carpathian surgery in Uman. The remains were removed from the front and moved to reorganization to France. In the Paris -Le Havre here was reclassified to the 116th Panzer Division, including the then -resolved 179th Reserve Panzer Division was used.
In August 1944, there should be a reorganization of the 16th ID as part of the 30 line-up shaft, which remains the 158th Reserve Division and parts of the 16th Luftwaffe Field Division should be used. In fact, the Division was set up in October when 16 people Grenadier Division. This was mainly used until the war ended in the 19th Army of the Upper Rhine.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms shows supposedly the dog "Sasha " who was running up starving in the Kalmyk steppe in the spring of 1943, members of the 16th Infantry Division. The coat of arms of the Division ( the later the 116th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht took over ) was shown in the Armed Forces until 2004 in the arms of the Panzer Grenadier Battalion 212.
People
Awards
32 members of the 16th ID was awarded the Knight's Cross and the German Cross in Gold 113.
Structure
- Panzer-Abteilung 116
- Infantry Regiment 60
- Infantry Regiment 64
- Infantry Regiment 79
- Panzer Grenadier Regiment 60
- Panzer Grenadier Regiment 156
- Artillery Regiment 16 I. - III. Department, as well as the I. / AR 52
- Artillery Regiment 146
- Observation Division 16 [A 1]
- Reconnaissance Battalion 16
- Armored Reconnaissance Battalion 116
- Anti-tank division 16 1st - 3rd Company and the 4th Company of the MG Battalion 46
- Tank Destroyer Division 228
- Army Flak Battalion 281
- Engineer Battalion 46
- Engineer Battalion 675
- News department 16
- News department 16
- Field Replacement Battalion 16 [A 2]
- Infantry division supply officer 16
- Management services 16
- Medical Services 16
- Veterinary Company 16
- Infantry division supply officer (motorized) 66