The 25th Infantry Division was a military unit of the German Wehrmacht. It was later reclassified to 25th Infantry Division (mot.), and in June 1943 to the 25th Panzer Grenadier Division. The 25th Panzergrenadier Division fought in the central sector of the Eastern front from June 1943 to July 1944. It was destroyed in the encirclement east of

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

and reformed in October 1944. It then fought in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

between October 1944 and January 1945 and in eastern Germany January to May 1945. Most of the survivors of the division surrendered to the western

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

History

Battle of France and Eastern Front

The 25th Panzergrenadier Division was originally formed as an infantry unit, designated 25th Infantry Division and made up of Swabian and Bavarian personnel. It participated in the

Polish Campaign The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

and the Battle of France. In late 1940, it was reorganized as the 25th motorized infantry division and took part in

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 ...

, the invasion of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, in June 1941. It was attached to

Army Group Center Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army for ...

and fought in the Soviet Union for two years before being reorganized as the 25th Panzergrenadier Division in June 1943. After another year of heavy fighting, the division was almost destroyed near

during the Soviet

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп ...

in the summer of 1944; the survivors were reorganized at the training area at Mielau (in modern-day Poland) as the 107th Panzer Brigade.

Western Front (1944–1945)

In September 1944, 107th Panzer Brigade participated in Operation Market Garden as part of LXXXVI Corps of the

1st Parachute Army The German 1st Parachute Army (1. ''Fallschirm-Armee'') was formed in September, 1944, comprising 30,000 men. History Its first commander was Colonel General Kurt Student, the ''Wehrmacht''s airborne pioneer. During the Allied Operation Mark ...

. The Brigade had been re-routed from Aachen to Holland and went almost immediately into combat at

Nuenen Nuenen () is a town in the municipality of Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten in the Netherlands. From 1883 to 1885, Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen. In 1944, the town was a battle scene during Operation Market Garden. The local dialect i ...

against the American

506th PIR The 506th Infantry Regiment, originally designated the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (506th PIR) during World War II, is an Airborne forces, airborne light infantry regiment of the United States Army. Currently a parent regiment under the U ...

of the 101st Airborne Division and the British 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars of the 11th Armoured Division. In November 1944, the brigade was upgraded back to divisional status at the

Baumholder Baumholder () is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, in the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France. The town of Baumholder is the administrative seat of the like-named ''Verba ...

training area and re-numbered back as the 25th Panzergrenadier Division. The new division moved to France in the area of the German /

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

/ French border at

Sierck-les-Bains Sierck-les-Bains (, Lorraine Franconian: ''Siirk''/''Siirck'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Localities of the commune: Rudling, Kœnigsberg (German: Rudlingen, Königsberg) Language Revitalizatio ...

, where it fought a delaying action against the

US Third Army The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf Wa ...

, until December. It was then moved to

Bitche Bitche ( , ; German and Lorraine Franconian: ) is a commune in the Moselle department, administrative region of Grand Est, northeastern France. It is the Pays de Bitche's capital city and the seat of the Canton of Bitche and the communauté ...

. There it fought on the Maginot line fortifications at Forts

Ouvrage Simserhof Ouvrage Simserhof is a ''gros ouvrage'' of the Maginot Line, located in the French commune of Siersthal in the Moselle department. It faces the German border and is adjoined by the ''petit ouvrage'' Rohrbach and the ''gros ouvrage'' Schiesseck ...

and Ouvrage Schiesseck, under the command of the

XIII SS Corps XIII SS Army Corps was formed August 1944 at Breslau. It was moved to France and the Western Front. By the end of April 1945, some XIII Corps operated in Czechoslovakia where they encountered the 97th Infantry Division. Others fought north of th ...

and ''

Obergruppenführer ' (, "senior group leader") was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissio ...

Max Simon Max Simon (6 January 1899 – 1 February 1961) was a German SS commander and war criminal during World War II. Simon was one of the first members of the SS in the early 1930s. He rose through the ranks of the SS, and became a corps commander dur ...

. After the US Seventh Army's offensive operations were halted in December as a result of the German Ardennes Offensive, the 25th was pulled out of the line and re-organized near

Zweibrücken Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...

. It then took part in

Operation Nordwind Operation Northwind (german: Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last major Nazi Germany, German offensive of World War II on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front. Northwind was launched to support the German Ardennes offensive campaign in ...

, along with the

21st Panzer Division The 21st Panzer Division was a German armoured division best known for its role in the battles of the North African Campaign from 1941–1943 during World War II when it was one of the two armoured divisions making up the Deutsches Afrikakorp ...

. Together, these divisions were to exploit the penetrations made by either the

in the west, or the

LXXXIX 89 may refer to: * 89 (number) * Atomic number 89: actinium Years * 89 BC * AD 89 * 1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists bel ...

and XC Corps in the east, with the intention of cutting the US Seventh Army off from the

1st French Army The First Army (french: 1re Armée) was a field army of France that fought during World War I and World War II. It was also active during the Cold War. First World War On mobilization in August 1914, General Auguste Dubail was put in the ch ...

. It was then sent back to the eastern front to defend against the Soviet attack on the Oder north of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, most of the survivors managed to escape to the west and surrendered to the British or Americans.

Commanders

* ''Generalleutnant'' Christian Hansen (6 October 1936 – 15 October 1939) * ''Generalleutnant'' Erich-Heinrich Clößner (15 October 1939 – 15 January 1942) * ''Generalmajor'' Sigfrid Henrici (15 January - 4 February 1942) *''

General der Infanterie General of the Infantry is a military rank of a General officer in the infantry and refers to: * General of the Infantry (Austria) * General of the Infantry (Bulgaria) * General of the Infantry (Germany) ('), a rank of a general in the German Imp ...

'', Anton Graßer (4 February 1942 – 5 November 1943) *''

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 ...

'' Dr. Fritz Benicke (5 November 1943 – 4 March 1944) *''Generalleutnant'' Paul Schürmann (4 March 1944 – July 1944) *''Generalleutnant'' Paul Schürmann (October 1944 – 10 February 1945) *''Generalleutnant''

Arnold Burmeister __NOTOC__ Arnold Hans Albert Burmeister (28 February 1899 – 2 July 1988) was a German general during World War II who commanded the 25th Panzergrenadier Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Aw ...

(10 February 1945 – 8 May 1945)

Order of battle

*Division Staff **25. Mapping Detachment (mot) *35. Panzergrenadier Regiment *Staff Company **''

Panzerjäger ''Panzerjäger'' ( German "armour-hunters" or "tank-hunters", abbreviated to ''Pz.Jg.'' in German) was a branch of service of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was an anti-tank arm-of-service that operated self-propelled ...

'' Platoon **Motorcycle Platoon **Signals Platoon **Pioneer Platoon *3 x Battalions **Battalion Staff **3 x Companies (mot) **Machine Gun Company (mot) **Infantry Gun Company *119. Panzergrenadier Regiment *Staff Company **''Panzerjäger'' Platoon **Motorcycle Platoon **Signals Platoon **Pioneer Platoon *3 x Battalions **Battalion Staff **3 x Companies (mot) **Machine Gun Company (mot) **Infantry Gun Company *25. Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion **Battalion Staff **Light Armored Car Company **3 x Motorcycle Companies **Heavy Company (mot) **Pioneer Platoon **2 x ''Panzerjäger'' Platoons **Light Infantry Gun Section *125. Panzerjäger Battalion **3 x ''Panzerjäger'' Companies (self-propelled) **''Flak'' Company (self-propelled) *8. Panzer Battalion **Staff Company **''Flak'' Platoon **3 x '' Sturmgeschütz'' Batteries **''Panzer'' Maintenance Platoon *25. Artillery Regiment **Staff Battery **3 x Battalions **Staff Battery (mot) **3 x Batteries (mot) *25. Pioneer Battalion **Battalion Staff **3 x Companies (mot) **Light Pioneer Column (mot) *25. Signals Battalion **Battalion Staff **Telephone Company (mot) **Radio Company (mot) **Signals Column (mot) *Supply and Support Units

In popular culture

The action at

by the 107th Panzer Brigade during Operation Market Garden is dramatized in episode 4 "Replacements" of the television series ''Band of Brothers''.

References

* * * {{Authority control 25 Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945