91st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 91st ( Airborne ) Infantry Division was a major unit of the German army.
Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Falley
Division history
The division was established as a division of preparation 25 wave on the Baumholder military training area ( Military District XII) in January 1944. It was originally designed for airborne use, the rearming was controlled with command on March 6, 1944.
After completed installation, the Division moved to France, where she was stationed in the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy. The Division was part of the LXXXIV. Army Corps and was provided as corps reserve the inland of the peninsula. In this area, the Americans had planned their air landing of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division as well as the charge on Utah Beach on D-Day. In the early hours of June 6th division commander Lieutenant General Wilhelm Falley was killed by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division from ambush while he was on his way home from the canceled game War in Rennes at his headquarters in Pont- l'Abbé. Transitional took Colonel Bernhard Klosterkemper, commander of Grenadier Regiment 920 of the 243 Infantry Division, the command of the division. Four days later, Colonel King took over the command of the Division, which by then commander of the Grenadier Regiment was in 1057 the division.
The fact that the take-off zone 82 and the 101st Airborne Division were in the middle of the accommodation areas and available spaces of the 91st ( LL) Infantry Division, it was not possible to effectively counter the air landing. A closed counter-attack on Sainte- Mère- Église, therefore, did not take place. Losses were already on the fourth day of the invasion enormous - almost 3,000 men. Nearly one-third of the division had been wiped out in just four days. A lack of artillery ammunition had a negative impact on defense. The long front along the river Merderet from Carentan to Le Ham was for such an ailing division not to defend alone. Therefore, the division was reinforced by the Grenadier Regiment 920 under Colonel Klosterkemper on.
The division was was reinforced, but gave their strength from not to take up to a counter-offensive. The 91 ( LL) Inf. had to be limited to purely defensive action against the Americans. The weakened Division was not able to repel the attack of the 9th U.S. Infantry Division. The attack of the 9th U.S. Infantry Division, the German troops were separated from each other on the peninsula. The defenders therefore organized into two battle groups. In the south, the battle group " Hellmich ," where the main parts of the 91st ( LL) Inf. and were in the north to the battle group " Schlieben " where the cut pieces of the Division were.
While were six German infantry and one mechanized infantry division, four U.S. infantry and two U.S. airborne divisions over, but they were all German forces by the recent fighting and by constant air attacks and shelling of the heavy naval artillery in a state of disrepair; the combat value of all associations was extremely low. The supply of spare crews and ammunition was by the destruction of the railway network in the area of Normandy hardly possible. Despite all its shortcomings, the Germans contributed dogged resistance. Especially the site with its hedgerows and floodplains inhibited the Americans, because it has all the benefits it offered to the defender, despite personal and physical inferiority.
In the further course of the fighting was the 91st ( LL) Inf. only a battle group from residual parts of the Division. It was covered under various other infantry divisions for reinforcement. On 10 August 1944, the Division was disbanded after the heavy losses in the battles of Normandy and reorganized at the 7th Army in the Eifel from the Valkyrie unit battle group Kastdorf. A full lineup was not made. On 5 November 1944, the name was changed in 344th Infantry Division.
Commanders
Lieutenant General Bruno Ortner, January 15 bis April 25, 1944 Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Falley, April 25 bis June 6, 1944 Colonel Bernhard Klosterkemper, 6th - 10th June 1944 Colonel Eugene King, June 10 bis August 10, 1944
Structure
- Grenadier - Regiment 1057 I. -III. battalion
- I. -III. battalion
- I./191, 12x 10.5 cm Gebirgshaubitze 40
- II./191, 12x 10.5 cm Gebirgshaubitze 40
- III./191, 12x 15 cm Heavy field howitzer 18
Subordinate units
- Fallschirmjäger Regiment 6
- Panzer Replacement Training Battalion 100
- Artillery regiment z.b.V. 621
- Heavy artillery department 456 ( mot )
- Heavy artillery department 457 ( mot )
Total thickness
- 91st Airborne Infantry Division - 10,550 soldiers
- Parachute Regiment 6-3500 soldiers
- Panzer Replacement Training Battalion 100 ~ 400 soldiers