1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)
| 1st Mountain Division | |
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| 1. Gebirgs-Division | |
Edelweiss |
The 1st Mountain Division (German: 1. Gebirgs-Division) was an elite formation of the German Wehrmacht during World War II, and is remembered for its involvement in multiple large-scale war crimes. It was created on 9 April 1938 in
Poland and France
The 1st Mountain Division fought in the
It subsequently took part in the Battle of France as a part of XVIII Army Corps in May–June 1940 and was selected to take part in the planned operations against the United Kingdom (Operation Sea Lion) and Gibraltar (Operation Felix) but both operations were cancelled. With Felix cancelled, the division took part in the Invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 as part of the 2nd Army.
Eastern Front and Balkans
The 1st Mountain Division participated in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union that began on 22 June 1941. On 30 June, the division captured Lviv. There, the Germans discovered several thousand bodies of prisoners the Soviet NKVD had executed because they could not be evacuated.
The 1st Mountain Division continued its advance into the Soviet Union, participating in the breakthrough of the
In a symbolic
In April 1943, the division was posted to Yugoslavia, where it participated in the anti-
The division was renamed the 1. Volks-Gebirgs-Division ("1st People's Mountain Division") in March 1945. Its final major operations were during Operation Spring Awakening near Lake Balaton in Hungary against the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front. Two months later the division surrendered to the Americans in Austria in May 1945.[citation needed]
War crimes
During the onvasion of Poland in September 1939, soldiers from the division assisted in the round-up of Jewish civilians from Przemyśl for forced labour, and photos of this were printed in newspapers.[3]
During the Case Black operation in Yugoslavia in May–June 1943, the division and other units committed crimes against prisoners of war and civilians. In its after-action report on 10 July, the division reported that it took 498 prisoners, 411 of whom were shot.[4]
On 6 July 1943 a unit from the division attacked the village of
On 25 July 1943, soldiers from the division attacked the village of Mousiotitsa in Greece after a cache of weapons was found nearby, killing 153 civilians. On 16 August 1943, the village of Kommeno was attacked on the orders of Oberstleutnant Josef Salminger, the commander of GebirgsJäger Regiment 98. A total of 317 civilians were killed.
The 1st Mountain Division
After the killing of Oberstleutnant Josef Salminger by Greek partisans, the commander of
The division's war crimes are described in H. F. Meyer's book Bloodstained Edelweiss: The 1st Mountain Division in the Second World War.[7]
Commanders
- General der Gebirgstruppe Ludwig Kübler (1 September 1939 – 25 October 1940)
- General der Gebirgstruppe Hubert Lanz (25 October 1940 – 17 December 1942)
- Generalleutnant Walter Stettner Ritter von Grabenhofen (17 December 1942 – 18 October 1944)
- Generalmajor August Wittmann (19. October 1944 – December 1944)
- Generalleutnant Josef Kübler (27 December 1944 – 10 March 1945)
- Generalleutnant August Wittmann (17 March 1945 – 8 May 1945)
Order of battle
1939
- 98. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 99. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 100. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 4. Panzerabwehr (anti-tank) Battalion
- 79. Mountain Artillery Regiment
- 4 Battalions
- 54. Signals Battalion
- 54. Pioneer Battalion
- 54. Supply Troops
- Service Troops
1941
- 98. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 99. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 54. Field Medical Battalion
- 44. Panzerabwehr Battalion
- 79. Mountain Artillery Regiment
- 4 Battalions
- 54. Signals Battalion
- 54. Pioneer Battalion
- 54. Supply Troops
- Service Troops
1943
- 98. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 99. Mountain Infantry Regiment
- 3 Battalions
- 44. Panzerjäger Battalion
- 79. Mountain Artillery Regiment
- 4 Battalions
- 54. Mountain Jäger Battalion
- 54. Reconnaissance Battalion
- 54. Mountain Signals Battalion
- 79. Mountain Field Medical Battalion
- 54. Mountain Pioneer Battalion
- 54. Mountain Pack Mule Battalion
- 54. Supply Troops
- Service Troops
Notable members
- war criminal and the last living German field marshal, holder of the Knight's Crosswith Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
- Wego Chiang, son of the Chinese leader General Chiang Kai-shek, who served in I./Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 98 from 1937 to 1939, reaching the rank of leutnant before returning to Chinaat the outbreak of World War II.
Footnotes
- ^ Heer et al. (2000), p. 163
- ISBN 978-1-8421-2735-3.
- ^ Photos 7 and 8
- ^ Schmider 2002, p. 282.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- OCLC 55963087.
- ^ Meyer, H. F. "Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in the Second World War". Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 13 September 2009.
References
- Bauer, Josef M. (1992), Unternehmen "Elbrus": Das kaukasische Abenteuer: Tatsachenbericht (in German), Frankfurt am Main/Berlin: Ullstein, ISBN 3-548-33162-9
- Baxter, Ian (2011), Hitler's Mountain Troops 1939–1945: The Gebirgsjager: Images of War (in German), Pen & Sword Books, ISBN 978-1-84884-354-7
- Klein, Ralph; Mentner, Regina; Stracke, Stephan (2004). Mörder unterm Edelweiss: Dokumentation des Hearings zu den Kriegsverbrechen der Gebirgsjäger. ISBN 3894382953.
- Lanz, Hubert; Pemsel, Max (1954). Gebirgsjäger: Die 1. Gebirgs-Division 1935–1945 (in German). Bad Nauheim: Podzun.
- Meyer, Hermann Frank (1999). Kommeno. Erzählende Rekonstruktion eines Wehrmachtsverbrechens in Griechenland (in German). Cologne: Romiosini. ISBN 392988934X.
- Meyer, Hermann Frank (2008). Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-Division im Zweiten Weltkrieg (in German). Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag. ISBN 3861534479.
- Schmider, Klaus (2002). Partisanenkrieg in Jugoslawien 1941–1944 [Partisan War in Yugoslavia 1941–1944] (in German). Hamburg: Mittler. ISBN 9783813207941.
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