208th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 208th Infantry Division was a military major unit of the Wehrmacht.
Division history
- Poland: September 1939 to May 1940
- France and Belgium: May 1940 to December 1941
- Eastern front, central section: from December 1941 to October 1943
- Eastern front, southern sector: October 1943 to October 1944
- Poland and Czechoslovakia: October 1944 to May 1945
The 208th Infantry Division was set up as a division of the third wave formation in August 1939 in Lubben in the Spreewald. After its formation, it was the III. Subordinated to Army Corps and moved in Flatow on Hohensalza to in order to participate in September 1939 during an attack on Poland. It came to Kutno and remained for a time as an occupation force in Poland.
In 1940, the 208th Infantry Division for the Fall Gelb was mobilized on the Western Front. There she was placed under the 18th Army and marched from Holland to Antwerp in Belgium. She was also one of the German units at the Battle of Dunkirk in May / June 1940. Thereafter she served until December for coastal protection along the Belgian coast and near Calais in Normandy, France. Their losses during the Western campaign totaled: Fallen: 12 officers, 46 NCOs and 273 men; Wounded: 38 officers, 169 NCOs and 825 teams, as well as four non-commissioned officers and 55 men were missing.
The 208th Infantry Division in late 1941 was transferred to the Eastern Front and placed under the Army Group Centre and the 2nd Panzer Army in Wjasma and Schisdra. 1942 came the infantry regiments 309 and 337 at the Battle of Rzhev in Sytschowka used.
The division was in the grave fighting northwest of Oryol in Sukhinichi, Sloboda and Dubrowka in use until 1943. In July 1943, she fell in Bolkhov into heavy and wasteful defensive battles against the advancing Red Army and partisans. After that, she could only act as a reserve unit of the 2nd Panzer Army. In August 1943, the division was transferred to the southern sector and the Army Group South assumption for Sjewsk in the Kursk area. At the height of Kiev began to the Dnieper a series of rearguard actions, which initially ended in Zhitomir. The winter of 1943/44, brought a reclassification to a " new kind of Division 44"; also the 4th Panzer Army during Winnitza the 208th Infantry Division was now assumed. This was followed by re- integration into the 1st Panzer Army. Along with this armored unit was part of Army Group North Ukraine with the 208th Infantry Division in March 1944 at Kamenetz - Podolsk on the border with Romania encircled (boiler Battle of Kamenetz -Podolsk ) The 208th Infantry Division was located between the towns of Smerinka and bar in the east of the boiler. She managed to break in to Buczacz Strypa, Horodenka and Beremjany. In the further course they then had to struggle through the Beskids to the west and was made in December 1944 in Gorlice. In the spring of 1945, the 208th Infantry Division was on the run or in rearguard actions by Slovakia to Silesia. The last position battles were carried out at Striegau and Waldenburg, whereupon she at Hohenelbe - capitulated Turnau in Czechoslovakia before the Red Army.