The 78th Infantry Division (German: ''78. Infanterie-Division''), later the 78th ''Sturm'' (Assault) Division, was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

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 i ...

formation which fought during

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 opposin ...

.The title ''Volks-Sturm'' indicates a " Volksgrenadier Sturm Division", not a part of the ''

Volkssturm The (; "people's storm") was a levée en masse national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was not set up by the German Army, the ground component of the combined German ''Wehrmacht'' armed forces, ...

'' militia.

Unit history

The 78th Infantry Division was raised in August 1939 in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, incorporating reservists from

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

(its divisional symbol was a representation of

Ulm Minster Ulm Minster (german: Ulmer Münster) is a Lutheran church located in Ulm, State of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is currently the tallest church in the world. The church is the fifth-tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a ...

). It was stationed in France for occupation duties from the summer of 1940 through the spring of 1941, and then transferred east to participate 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 ...

with

Army Group Centre 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 fo ...

. The division advanced from the Polish border to the gates of Moscow, being halted on 3 December 1941 by the Soviet defences. By January 7, 1942, the division had been pushed back from Ruza to Gzhatsk where the Soviet winter offensive was halted. The division then formed the South East flank of the Rzhev-Vyazma Salient. Late in 1942 it suffered heavy losses in the

Rzhev battles The Battles of Rzhev (russian: Ржевская битва, Rzhevskaya bitva) were a series of Red Army offensives against the Wehrmacht between January 8, 1942, and March 31, 1943, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The battles took place ...

. At the beginning of 1943 it was reorganised as the 78th ''Sturm'' Division (a new divisional symbol, an armoured fist, being adopted, derived from the artificial hand of Götz von Berlichingen) with additional adjustments to its strength and organisation over the next several months. Each of its three infantry regiments was redesignated as a ''Sturm-Regiment''. The designation ''Sturm'' (assault) reflected the division's increased strength, which eventually included subordinate '' Sturmgeschutz'' (assault gun) '' Heavy Mortar'' and '' Nebelwerfer'' (rocket launcher) battalions and a

tank destroyer A tank destroyer, tank hunter, tank killer, or self-propelled anti-tank gun is a type of armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a direct fire artillery gun or missile launcher, designed specifically to engage and destroy enemy tanks, often wi ...

unit equipped with ''

Marder II The ''Marder'' II ("marten" in English) was a German tank destroyer of World War II based on the Panzer II chassis. There were two versions, the first mounted a modified Soviet 7.62 cm gun firing German ammunition, while the other mounted th ...

''s, as well as extra regimental artillery support. With its new organisation, the division took part in Operation Citadel as part of the XXIII Corps of the Ninth Army, being involved in the fighting at

Ponyri Ponyri (russian: Поныри) is the name of several inhabited localities in Kursk Oblast, Russia. ;Urban localities *Ponyri, Ponyrovsky District, Kursk Oblast, a work settlement in Ponyrovsky District ;Rural localities *Ponyri, Fatezhsky Dist ...

. During the following Soviet Counteroffensive the division was first transferred from the Ninth Army to the

Second Panzer Army The 2nd Panzer Army (german: 2. Panzerarmee) was a German armoured formation during World War II, formed from the 2nd Panzer Group on October 5, 1941. Organisation Panzer Group Guderian (german: Panzergruppe Guderian) was formed on 5 June 1940 ...

in July, then again to the Fourth Army in September where the division was forced back to the Panther-Wotan line East of

Orsha Orsha ( be, О́рша, Во́рша, Orša, Vorša; russian: О́рша ; lt, Orša, pl, Orsza) is a city in Belarus in the Vitebsk Region, on the fork of the Dnieper and Arshytsa rivers. History Orsha was first mentioned in 1067 as Rsha ...

. During the June - July 1944 Soviet offensive against Army Group Centre,

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

, the division was assigned to defend the main

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

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 ...

road and the town of

. During the fighting the division was destroyed, having failed to break out of an encirclement east of Minsk on the night of 5/6 July. Surviving elements were taken over by the 565th Volksgrenadier Division.

78th (Volks) Grenadier Division

Later that month, the division was reconstituted as the 78th ''Grenadier'' Division, by renaming the 543rd Volksgrenadier Division then in the process of forming. In October 1944 it was renamed as 78th ''Volksgrenadier'' Division, and in early 1945 renamed again to 78th ''Volks-Sturm'' Division, being assigned to

. It was among the forces of the First Panzer Army pushed from Upper Silesia into

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, where its troops surrendered to the Soviets near Olomouc at the end of the war in May.

Commanding officers

Notes

References

# # {{DEFAULTSORT:78th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) 0*078 Military units and formations established in 1939 1939 establishments in Germany Military units and formations disestablished in 1945