20th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

The 20th Infantry Division and later the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division was a major unit of the Army of the German Wehrmacht.

Division history

The 20th ID was set up on 1 October 1934 in Hamburg under the pseudonym Reichswehr office Hamburg. The IR formed from the 6th IR 2nd Reichswehr division. The motorization of the Division was the end of 1937. In October 1938 she participated in the Association of the XVI. Army Corps participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland.

Beginning of the war for the division was the invasion of Poland. In 1941 she was involved in the capture of Brest- Litovsk. From 22 June to 10 July 1941, she took part in operations in Bialystok and Minsk. In July 1941, she was appointed to the northern section of the Eastern Front, where they fought against Soviet troops on the Dvina towards Vitebsk. From 11 July to 18 August 1941, she fought in the Battle of Smolensk. Then it was transferred to Army Group North. During the advance on Leningrad, the 20th operated ID (mot ) south of Lake Ladoga and should eliminate the Soviet bridgeheads of Annenskoje and Lobanov and finally take Schlüsselburg. From September 1941 to July 1942 was the division in the room Tschudowo on the Volkhov position in use. In the winter of 1941/1942 they fought at Tikhvin.

In July 1943, it was renamed the 20th Panzer Grenadier Division. 1943 fought the 20 PGD in Kiev on the Dnieper River and against the advancing Red Army. In the spring of 1944, the Division of Kamenetz- Podolsk was included in the so-called Hube - boiler, but freed itself again and retreated toward Lemberg, Kamionka on the bow. 1945, the 20th PGD was involved in the battles around the Vistula and backed away towards the Lusatian Neisse, Stettin and the Oder. Later she was involved in the battles for Berlin and Potsdam. On May 5, 1945, she capitulated in Tangermünde front of the U.S. Army.

People

  • Karl Mauss ( born May 17, 1898 in Ploen, † February 9, 1959 in Hamburg)
  • Gerhard Graf von Schwerin ( born June 23, 1899 in Hannover, † October 29, 1980 in Rottach -Egern )
  • Helmuth Weidling ( born November 2, 1891 in Halberstadt, † November 17, 1955 in the prison camp Vladimirovka )

Awards

46 members of the 20th ID (mot ) was awarded the Knight's Cross and the German Cross in Gold 125.

Structure

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