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131st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 131st Infantry Division (German: ''131. Infanteriedivision'') was a German Army infantry division in World War II. Operational history The 131st Infantry Division was activated in October 1940, primarily out of other divisions - it included soldiers from the 31st and 269th Infantry Divisions, and cavalry from the 19th. The division participated in Operation Barbarossa and fought during the entire war on the Eastern Front. In January 1945, the division was driven into the so-called Heiligenbeil Pocket, were it was destroyed in March 1945. Order of battle *431st Infantry Regiment *432nd Infantry Regiment *434th Infantry Regiment *131st Reconnaissance Battalion *131st Tank-destroyer Battalion *131st Engineer Battalion *131st Signal Battalion *131st Divisional-Resupply Troops Commanders *''Lieutenant General'' Heinrich Meyer-Buerdorf __NOTOC__ Heinrich Meyer-Buerdorf (13 December 1888 – 1 May 1971) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who comma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Army (Wehrmacht)
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the German Air Force, ''Luftwaffe'' (German Air Force). , the German Army had a strength of 62,766 soldiers. History Overview A German army equipped, organized, and trained following a single doctrine and permanently unified under one command in 1871 during the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. From 1871 to 1919, the title ''German Army (German Empire), Deutsches Heer'' (German Army) was the official name of the German land forces. Following the German defeat in World War I and the end of the German Empire, the main army was dissolved. From 1921 to 1935 the name of the German land forces was the ''Reichswehr, Reichsheer'' (Army of the Empire) and from 1935 to 1945 the name ''German Army (We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine infantry. Although disused in modern times, heavy infantry also commonly made up the bulk of many historic armies. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery have traditionally made up the core of the combat arms professions of various armies, with the infantry almost always comprising the largest portion of these forces. Etymology and terminology In English, use of the term ''infantry'' began about the 1570s, describing soldiers who march and fight on foot. The word derives from Middle French ''infanterie'', from older Italian (also Spanish) ''infanteria'' (foot soldiers too inexperienced for cavalry), from Latin '' īnfāns'' (without speech, newborn, foolish), from which English also gets '' infant''. The individual-soldier term ''infantry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany after Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. Hanover's urban area comprises the towns of Garbsen, Langenhagen and Laatzen and has a population of about 791,000 (2018). The Hanover Region has approximately 1.16 million inhabitants (2019). The city lies at the confluence of the River Leine and its tributary the Ihme, in the south of the North German Plain, and is the largest city in the Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region. It is the fifth-largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg, Dortmund, Essen and Bremen. Before it became the capital of Lower Saxony in 1946, Hannover was the capital of the Principality of Calenberg (1636–1692), the Electorate of Hanover (1692–1814), the Kingdom of Hannover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or Formation (military), formation, usually consisting of between 6,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. Historically, the division has been the default combined arms unit capable of independent Military tactics, operations. Smaller combined arms units, such as the American regimental combat team (RCT) during World War II, were used when conditions favored them. In recent times, modern Western militaries have begun adopting the smaller brigade combat team (similar to the RCT) as the default combined arms unit, with the division they belong to being less important. While the focus of this article is on army divisions, in naval usage "division (naval), division" has a completely different meaning, referring to either an administrative/functional sub-unit of a department (e.g., fire control division of the weapons department) aboar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
31st Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 31st Infantry Division (german: 31. Infanterie-Division) was a German infantry division of the Army during World War II. It participated in the invasion of Poland in 1939 then the invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940. As part of '' Panzergruppe 2''. of Army Group Centre, it was involved in the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. After hard fighting throughout 1941 and 1942 it joined the 9th Army and fought in the Battle of Kursk in July and August 1943. Along with the rest of the 9th Army, the division conducted a fighting withdrawal for the remainder of 1943, during which it sustained heavy casualties. In the early stages of the Soviet Operation Bagration of June to August 1944, the 31st Infantry Division was destroyed, a fate which subsequently befell most of Army Group Centre. The division was officially disbanded on 18 July 1944. The division was initially re-formed on 21 July 1944 as the 31st Grenadier Division, but was soon re-designated as the 31st Vo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
269th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 269th Infantry Division was a major fighting formation of the German Army (Wehrmacht). It was created in August 1939, and first saw combat in the Battle of France, and was then posted to occupation duties in Denmark. In the summer of 1941 the division advanced towards Leningrad in operation Barbarossa as part of Army Group North. Following the final drive on the city and the subsequent siege, the division spent the winter and the next summer in defensive action along the Volkov river front, combating repeated Soviet attempts to restore land communications to Leningrad. In December 1942 the division was transferred to Norway, where it remained for the next two years. The division returned to action in November 1944, firstly in the west against the US forces and finally as a Battlegroup (''Kampfgruppe'') back in the east where the remains of the division finally surrendered to the Soviet forces in May 1945 at the end of the war. Commanding officers *General der Artillerie E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
19th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 19th Infantry Division was a formation of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. History Originally formed 1 October 1934 as Artillerieführer VI in Hannover, the division was renamed ''19. Infanterie-Division'' on 15 October 1935. Mobilized on 25 August 1939 the division participated in the Invasion of Poland and the Battle of France. After the French campaign, the division was reorganized as a tank division and on 1 November 1940 was renamed 19th Panzer Division. Commanders The commanders of the division:Mitcham, p. 150–152 *General der Kavallerie Konrad von Goßler 1 October 1934 – 1 March 1938 *Generalleutnant Günther Schwantes 1 March 1938 – 1 February 1940 *Generalmajor Otto von Knobelsdorff Otto von Knobelsdorff (31 March 1886 – 21 October 1966) was a German general during World War II who led the 19th Panzer Division and then held a series of higher commands. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Le ... 1 February 1940 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), a 12th-century Holy Roman emperor and German king, put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with Germans. The German aimed to use some of the conquered people as forced labour for the Axis war effort while acquiring the oil reserves of the Caucasus as well as the agricultural resources of various Soviet territories. Their ultimate goal was to create more (living space) for Germany, and the eventual extermination of the indigenous Slavic peoples by mass deportation to Siberia, Germanisation, enslavement, and genocide. In the two years leading up to the invasion, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed political and economic pacts for st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heiligenbeil Pocket
The Heiligenbeil Pocket or Heiligenbeil Cauldron (german: Kessel von Heiligenbeil) was the site of a major encirclement battle on the Eastern Front during the closing weeks of World War II, in which the Wehrmacht's 4th Army was almost entirely destroyed during the Soviet Braunsberg Offensive Operation (13–22 March 1945). The pocket was located near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia in eastern Germany (now Mamonovo, Kaliningrad Oblast), and the battle, part of a broader Soviet offensive into the region of East Prussia, lasted from 26 January until 29 March 1945. Attack on East Prussia The Red Army's East Prussian Operation commenced on 13 January 1945 with the objective of rolling up the substantial German defences in East Prussia and cutting off the provincial capital of Königsberg. The Soviet forces were opposed by the German Army Group Centre, including the Fourth Army, under the command of General Friedrich Hossbach. While the 3rd Belorussian Front initially met strong res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Meyer-Buerdorf
__NOTOC__ Heinrich Meyer-Buerdorf (13 December 1888 – 1 May 1971) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 131st Infantry Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Awards * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 15 November 1941 as ''Generalleutnant is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of ...'' and commander of 131. Infanterie-DivisionFellgiebel 2000, p. 254. References Citations Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer-Buerdorf, Heinrich 1888 births 1971 deaths Military personnel from Kassel Generals of Artillery (Wehrmacht) German Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class Recipients of the Gold German Cross Recipients of the Knight's Cross of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Weber (general)
__NOTOC__ Friedrich Weber (March 31, 1892 – September 2, 1974) was a German general in World War II. He fought in Africa and in the Eastern Front. He was the commander of the fortress division defending Warsaw in January 1945. Early years Weber was born on 31 March 1892 in Château-Salins, in Lorraine, then the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The Imperial German administration strongly discouraged the French language and culture in favor of High German, which became the administrative language (''Geschäftssprache''). It required the use of German in schools in areas which it considered or designated as German-speaking. French was allowed to remain in use only in primary and secondary schools in municipalities definitely considered Francophone, such as Château-Salins and the surrounding arrondissement, as well and in their local administration. The French name Château-Salins was changed to Salzburg shortly after 1871, which caused problems beyond the language c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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