The 3rd Armoured Division (german: 3. Panzerdivision) was formed on 2 July 1956 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and was one of the first major formations of the new German Army or ''

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

'' after the

Second World War 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 opposin ...

. The 3rd Armoured Division was stationed on the

North German Plain The North German Plain or Northern Lowland (german: Norddeutsches Tiefland) is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain. The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Balti ...

between the rivers Elbe and Weser. Its last

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

location was

Buxtehude Buxtehude (), officially the Hanseatic City of Buxtehude (german: Hansestadt Buxtehude, nds, Hansestadt Buxthu ()), is a town on the Este River in Northern Germany, belonging to the district of Stade in Lower Saxony. It is part of the Hamburg ...

. It was part of the

I Corps I Corps, 1st Corps, or First Corps may refer to: France * 1st Army Corps (France) * I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * I Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French A ...

alongside the 1st Panzer, 7th Panzer, and 11th Panzergrenadier Divisions. The 3rd Armoured Division was disbanded on 30 September 1994. Its last commander was Generalmajor Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof. In the 1980s under Army Structures III and IV the division consisted of the 7th Panzergrenadier Brigade, 8th Panzer Brigade, and the

Panzerlehrbrigade 9 The 9th Panzerlehr Brigade is a formation of about 5,000 men strong within the German Armed Forces or Bundeswehr, which is subordinated to the 1st Panzer Division in Hanover. The bulk of the brigade is stationed in Munster. Two battalions are ...

(Armoured demonstration brigade). After the division's disbandment 9 PzL Bde eventually became part of

1st Armoured Division (Germany) The 1st Panzer Division (german: "1. Panzerdivision", short: "1. PzDiv") is an armoured division of the German Army. Its headquarter is based in Oldenburg. In the course of the last reorganisation of the Bundeswehr it became the backbone of ...

Operations

The Division provided support to numerous disasters, e. g. during serious floods in North Germany in

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

and 1976 as well as the flooding of the Elbe Lateral Canal. In January 1979 elements of the Division were deployed during the emergency caused by heavy snowfall in North Germany. In 1993 parts of the Division were deployed to

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

as part of

UNOSOM II United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia and took place from March 1993 until March 1995, following the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991. UNOSOM II carried on ...

Divisional Organization 1989

* 3rd Panzer Division,

** Staff Company, 3rd Panzer Division, Buxtehude ** 7th Panzergrenadier Brigade,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

*** Staff Company, 1st Panzergrenadier Brigade, Hamburg, (8x M577, 8x Luchs) *** 71st Panzergrenadier Battalion (Reserve), Hamburg, (13x

Leopard 1A5 The Leopard 1 (also styled Leopard I, before the Leopard 2 simply known as Leopard) is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought ...

, 24x

Marder Marder may refer to: German military vehicles * A series of World War II tank destroyers: ** Marder I ** Marder II ** Marder III * Marder (IFV), a modern infantry fighting vehicle * Marder (submarine), a World War II midget submarine People with ...

, 12x M113) *** 72nd Panzergrenadier Battalion, Hamburg, (24x Marder, 6x Panzermörser, 23x M113) *** 73rd Panzergrenadier Battalion,

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

, (24x Marder, 6x Panzermörser, 23x M113) *** 74th Panzer Battalion, Cuxhaven, (41x

Leopard 2 The Leopard 2 is a 3rd generation main battle tank originally developed by Krauss-Maffei in the 1970s for the West German army. The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the West Germ ...

, 12x M113) *** 75th Panzer Artillery Battalion, Hamburg, (18x M109A3G) *** 70th Anti-Tank Company, Cuxhaven, (12x

Jaguar 2 The Raketenjagdpanzer 4 Jaguar 2 was a West German tank destroyer equipped with anti-tank guided missiles. It was only operated by the Bundeswehr. History From 1983 to 1985, 162 Kanonenjagdpanzers were converted to ''Raketenjagdpanzer 4'' Jaguar ...

) *** 70th Armored Engineer Company, Stade *** 70th Supply Company, Stade *** 70th Maintenance Company, Stade ** 8th Panzer Brigade,

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...

*** Staff Company, 8th Panzer Brigade, Lüneburg, (8x M577, 8x Luchs) *** 81st Panzer Battalion (Reserve), Lüneburg, (28x Leopard 2, 11x Marder, 12x M113) *** 82nd Panzergrenadier Battalion, Lüneburg, (35x Marder, 6x Panzermörser, 12x M113) *** 83rd Panzer Battalion, Lüneburg, (41x Leopard 2, 12x M113) *** 84th Panzer Battalion, Lüneburg, (41x Leopard 2, 12x M113) *** 85th Panzer Artillery Battalion, Lüneburg, (18x M109A3G) *** 80th Anti-Tank Company, Lüneburg, (12x

Jaguar 1 The Raketenjagdpanzer (RakJPz 3) Jaguar 1 was a West German tank destroyer equipped with anti-tank guided missiles. From 1978 to 1982, 316 obsolete Raketenjagdpanzer 2 units were converted into Jaguar 1s by replacing the SS.11 missile system ...

) *** 80th Armored Engineer Company, Lüneburg *** 80th Supply Company, Lüneburg *** 80th Maintenance Company, Lüneburg ** 9th Panzer (Lehr) Brigade,

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

*** Staff Company, 9th Panzerlehrbrigade, Munster, (8x M577, 8x Luchs) *** 91st Panzer (Lehr) Battalion (Reserve), Munster, (28x Leopard 2, 11x Marder, 12x M113) *** 92nd Panzergrenadier (Lehr) Battalion, Munster, (35x Marder, 6x Panzermörser, 12x M113) *** 93rd Panzer (Lehr) Battalion, Munster, (41x Leopard 2, 12x M113) *** 94th Panzer (Lehr) Battalion, Munster, (41x Leopard 2, 12x M113) *** 95th Panzer (Lehr) Artillery Battalion, Munster, (18x M109A3G) *** 90th Anti-Tank (Lehr) Company, Munster, (12x Jaguar 1) *** 90th Armored Engineer (Lehr) Company, Munster *** 90th Supply (Lehr) Company, Munster *** 90th Maintenance (Lehr) Company, Munster ** 3rd Artillery Regiment, Stade *** Staff Battery, 3rd Artillery Regiment, Stade *** 31st Field Artillery Battalion, Lüneburg, (18x M110A2, 18x

FH-70 The FH70 (field howitzer for the 1970s) is a towed howitzer in use with several nations. History In 1963, NATO agreed a NATO Basic Military Requirement 39 for close support artillery, either towed or tracked. Subsequently, Germany and UK sta ...

) *** 32nd Rocket Artillery Battalion, Dörverden, (16x

LARS Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was bo ...

) *** 33rd Surveillance Battalion, Stade, (12x CL89) *** 3rd Infantry Battery, Dörverden ** 3rd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Lüneburg, (34x

Leopard 1 The Leopard 1 (also styled Leopard I, before the Leopard 2 simply known as Leopard) is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought ...

, 10x Luchs, 18x Fuchs - 9 of which carry a

RASIT RASIT (''RAdar de Surveillance des InTervalles'') is a ground-surveillance pulse Doppler radar developed by Thomson-CSF (now Thales), and fielded by several militaries. The original version of RASIT had a range of 20 kilometers and allowed a skille ...

radar) ** 3rd Air Defense Regiment, Hamburg, (36x Gepard) ** 3rd Engineer Battalion, Stade, (8x Biber AVLB, 8x Pionierpanzer 1, 4x Skorpion Mine Layers, 12x Floating Bridge Modules) ** 3rd Army Aviation Squadron,

Rotenburg Rotenburg may refer to: *Rotenburg (district), Lower Saxony, Germany *Rotenburg an der Wümme, capital of the district *Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse *Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in the Franconia region of Bavaria *Hersfeld-Rotenburg, ...

, (10x Alouette II) ** 3rd Signal Battalion, Buxtehude ** 3rd Medical Battalion (Reserve), Hamburg ** 3rd Supply Battalion (Reserve), Stade ** 3rd Maintenance Battalion (Reserve), Rotenburg ** 5x Field Replacement Battalions: 31st and 32nd in

Zeven Zeven [] is a town in the Rotenburg (district), district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of around 14,000. The nearest large towns are Bremerhaven, Bremen (city), Bremen and Hamburg. It is situated approximately 22 ...

, 33rd and 35th in Verden, 34th in Neustadt am

Achim Achim (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Achem''), commonly Achim bei Bremen, is a municipality and the largest town (population 30,059 in December 2006) in the district of Verden, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Weser, a ...

** 36th Jäger Battalion (Reserve), Zeven ** 37th Jäger Battalion (Reserve), Munster ** 38th Security Battalion (Reserve), Zeven

Commanders

External links

The 3rd Armoured Division of the Bundeswehr at www.relikte.com

{{Authority control 3 20th century in Hamburg Military units and formations disestablished in 1994 Military units and formations established in 1956 1950s in Hamburg