11th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The 11th Panzer Division (English: 11th Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army during World War II, established in 1940.
The division saw action on the
History
Formation
The 11th Panzer Division was formed on 1 August 1940 from the 11th Schützen-Brigade and the Panzer Regiment 15 removed from the
The 11th Panzer Division saw action for the first time in the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Passing through Bulgaria, it arrived in Belgrade and assisted in the capture of that city.[1]
The division was then sent to the
Case Blue and the Chir River Battles
The 11th Panzer Division was part of Case Blue from June 1942 onward, participating in the capture of Voronezh and the drive towards Stalingrad. It avoided being entrapped with the 6th Army in the city but suffered substantial losses during the winter of 1942-43.[4]
11th Panzer, as part of
Detraining on December 7, 1942, 11th Panzer Division's 15th Panzer Regiment immediately had to drive north to push back the 8th Motorcycle Regiment, the leading element of 1st Tank Corps, which had broken through the German front line southwest of
On 19 December 1942 the 11th Panzer Division destroyed 42 Russian tanks without losing any of its own tanks just south of Oblivskaya. The division engaged a second Soviet attack destroying 65 more Soviet tanks without suffering any losses. By the end of the day the 11th Panzer Division had destroyed an entire Soviet Mechanized Corps.[7] On 21 December 1942 the 11th Panzer Division destroyed much of the Soviet 5th Tank Army during a counter attack along the Chir. The division suffered heavy losses in the process.[7]
It was engaged in the failed relief attempt on Stalingrad and then participated in the defense of Rostov, which allowed the German troops retreating from the Caucasus to escape.
On the defensive
In July 1943, it participated in the
After being stationed in the Toulouse area, the division was moved to a section of the Rhône in July 1944. When the Allies invaded southern France in August 1944 it retreated via the Rhône corridor, reaching Besançon. Later entering combat in Alsace, it helped in the defence of the Belfort Gap and was defeated in the Battle of Arracourt before going back to the Saar. In December 1944, the division fought as part of the Army Group G.[4]
At the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge, which it did not participate in, the division had 3,500 personnel, including 800 infantry. Following the failure of the German offensive, the 11th Panzer Division entered combat in Saarland and Moselle and fought at Remagen with 4,000 soldiers, 25 tanks and 18 guns that still remained, but was expelled from the region by the advancing US forces.[4]
It was then shifted to the southern sector of the front, with its forces stationed in and encircled in the Ruhr. The 11th Panzer Division retreated south east, eventually surrendering to US forces in the area around Passau on 2 May 1945.[4] Some of the remnants of the 11th Panzer Division, under command of General Wend von Wietersheim, surrendered to the US 90th Infantry Division at the Czech town of Všeruby on 4 May 1945.[9]
Commanders
The commanders of the division:[10]
- General der Panzertruppe Ludwig Crüwell (1 August 1940 – 15 August 1941)
- Generalleutnant Günther Angern (15 August 1941 – 24 August 1941)
- General der Panzertruppe Hans-Karl Freiherr von Esebeck (24 August 1941 – 20 October 1941)
- Generalleutnant Walter Scheller (20 October 1941 – 16 May 1942)
- General der Panzertruppe Hermann Balck (16 May 1942 – 4 March 1943)
- General der Infanterie Dietrich von Choltitz (4 March 1943 – 15 May 1943)
- Generalmajor Johann Mickl (15 May 1943 – 10 August 1943)
- Generalleutnant Wend von Wietersheim (10 August 1943 – 10 April 1945)
- Horst Freiherr Treusch und Buttlar-Brandenfels(10 April 1945)
Orders of Battle
The organisation of the division:[11]
June 1941
|
July 1943
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See also
- Organisation of a SS Panzer Division
- Panzer division
References
- ^ a b c Mitcham (2000), p. 104.
- ^ Palchikov, Nikolai (13 July 2015). "How Panfilov's Twenty-Eight became a symbol of Red Army soldier's heroism". Fort Russ. Translated from Russian by J. Hawk. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-4430-6.
- ^ a b c d e Mitcham (2000), p. 105.
- ISBN 978-0-7006-1955-9.
- ISBN 978-0-7006-1955-9.
- ^ a b c Zabecki, David T. & Biedekarken, Dieter J. (18 July 2017). "A Study in Command: General Balck's Chir River Battles, 1942". HistoryNet.
- ISBN 978-0-7006-1955-9.
- ^ "The U.S. Army in Czechoslovakia 1945: An Operational Overview". Military History Online. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
- ^ Mitcham (2000), pp. 106–108.
- ^ "Organizational History of the German Armored Formation 1939-1945" (PDF). United States Army Command and General Staff College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
Bibliography
- Mitcham, Samuel W. (2000). The Panzer Legions. ISBN 978-0-8117-3353-3.
- Stoves, Rolf (1986). Die Gepanzerten und Motorisierten Deutschen Grossverbände 1935–1945 [The Armoured and Motorised German Divisions and Brigades 1935–1945]. ISBN 3-7909-0279-9.