The 11th Flak Division () was a flak division of the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II. It was active twice, once from February 1941 until April 1944 and another time from September 1944 until 1945.

History

On 1 February 1941, a command staff named 11th Air Defense Command () to oversee the air defense of '' Luftgau Westfrankreich'' in

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was created from a previous command staff named Fortress Flak Commander III (). Initially, the formation was created without subordinate regiments. It was renamed "11th Flak Division" on 1 September 1941. The initial division HQ was stationed at Bordeaux, with Helmuth Richter as divisional commander. In January 1943, it was moved to the southern France and deployed its HQ to

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...

, from where it oversaw the 45th, 69th, 85th and 653rd Flak Regiments. This division command was upgraded on 22 February 1944 to become the

III Flak Corps A flak corps (german: Flakkorps) was a massed anti-aircraft (AA) artillery formation employed by the '' Luftwaffe'' for anti-aircraft, antitank, and fire support operations in World War II. A ''Flakkorps'' was a flexible organization that was made ...

, which temporarily left the 11th Flak Division inexistent. On 1 November 1943,

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took command of the division. As of November/December 1943, the 11th Flak Division, then commanded from Pont du Gard (Nîmes), was deployed as part of ''Luftgau Westfrankreich'' under Luftflotte 3, along with 12th Flak Brigade,

13th Flak Division In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave ...

and 5th Flak Brigade. A new 11th Flak Division was formed in September 1944 in Upper Silesia from the staff of the

15th Flak Brigade This is a list of German brigades in World War II. The list aims to include all brigade-level military formations of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS during World War II. Brigades, in German army parlance prior to 1944, generally designated ...

. It was deployed under air district '' Luftgau VIII'' and eventually placed under the supervision of

I Flak Corps A flak corps (german: Flakkorps) was a massed anti-aircraft (AA) artillery formation employed by the '' Luftwaffe'' for anti-aircraft, antitank, and fire support operations in World War II. A ''Flakkorps'' was a flexible organization that was made ...

in April 1945. Towards the end of the war, it subsequently was in Cosel, Troppau and

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, in Czechoslovakia. Here, it surrendered to the Red Army in early May 1945. Throughout its existence, the second 11th Flak Division was commanded by

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References

{{Flak divisions of the Wehrmacht Flak divisions Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944 Military units and formations established in 1944 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945