106. Infanterie-Division: huge losses

[Piet Duits]

Hi all,

While scrolling through the DRK Vermisstenbildlisten, I took a particular interest in the 106. Infanterie-Division, destroyed in Rumania in 1944.
This division had a huge number of soldiers missing in action! With the help of the casualty lists very kindly provided by the H.Gr. Südukraine (in this case taken from the incomplete NARA T311 R265), I was already aware that they listed a lot of officers as MIA, but never realised there were so many.
To name one example, the Divisionsstab had an authorized strength of 23 Offiziere and 10 Beamten. I have 29 names and of those I have 9 who never made it back to their Heimat.

The number of NCO's and soldiers are a lot higher, and in some cases it seems complete rifle companies were wiped out and listed in the DRK.

Is anyone here researching this division?

[GregSingh]

See here:
viewtopic.php?p=2135718
Interesting info provided by DirkAH about Abwicklungsstab files.

That unit was one of those encircled and destroyed in Jassy-Kishinev operation.

[Piet Duits]

I have those files from the Abwicklungsstab. Very interesting!

Thanks,

Piet

[Slava2012]

I live in Moldova and have been recording the testimony of veterans of the Yasso-Kishinev operation for a long time. According to Russian eyewitnesses, the Germans had deep trenches and a lot of machine guns my friend, having received an order to attack and sailing along the steep bank of the Dniester River, constantly stepped on the bodies of his colleagues who died from fire of German machine guns minutes earlier. Naturally, when he burst into the German trenches, the Soviet bayonets did not take anyone prisoner.Today I have friends in Moldova who are studying history with metal detectors in those parts, I can check with them and tell them according to the finds what kind of battle choir was in those positions, well, how many artillery splinters, how many cartridges from machine guns and what the local Moldovans told about the bodies of the killed Russians and Germans in those parts and who buried them.According to the locals whom I interrogated, the bodies of the soldiers were removed by the local residents, that is, the bodies of Russian soldiers were buried the next day either in the village cemetery or near the village council there and today there are obelisks and every May 9 children bring flowers to them. They were taken to the nearest ravine or to an anti-tank ditch and buried there. As a rule, no one removed the bodies that were in the forest and the buttons and buckles of the belts come across under the metal detector just under the foliage, despite the fact that these are Russian buckles and even medals. Here is the terrible truth about that massacre ...
Moreover, the 106th Infantry Division fought in my city on March 29-30, 1944, and its history is also very interesting to me in my city there was an old hospital and all the wounded Germans were taken there for those who died of wounds and were buried right there under the windows of the hospital. exhumation of bodies, but today, unfortunately, no one needs it.She also got into huge trouble in early April in the village of Maloeshty (Krasno Oknyansky District), Russian tanks from the 38th OTP entered the rear of the division south of the Yagorlyk River, which was facing north and all the soldiers were moved to the heights north of the village, but the headquarters remained in the village itself, during this battle, the Russians captured the entire headquarters of the division and the Russians reported in their reports that they completely defeated 106 on April 3, 1944, on the territory of Ukraine.
I forgot to say that 106 fought on March 25-29 in the neighborhood on the right flank with the famous Totenkopf division and in these battles Totenkopf lost her last 4 Tigers.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Guys,

From memory, the German infantry divisions in Romania had received large drafts of reinforcements of infantry in the summer of 1944, to help compensate for the witrhdrawal of most German armoured divisions. They were thus unusually well manned in August 1944.

Cheers,

Sid

[AETIUS 1980]

Good evening,
If I do not say nonsense, the remains of the division will be formed within a Kampfgruppe which will finally be transferred to the Black Forest at the end of February 1945 in order to serve as a structure for a new 106. Inf.Div within the 19.Armee. I therefore conclude that a small number of survivors were able to escape the Kessel in Romania.
Regards
AETIUS

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Aetius,

Normally up to 10% of any formation were away on leave, in hospital, on courses, recuperating from light wounds, in march units en route to the front, etc... Thus, even if the entire division in the field was literally "wiped out" to the last man, there was almost always a small cadre of men outside the encirclement available to serve as the basis for rebuilding divisions in their depots, which themselves contained further men already under training. As a result, the divisions "wiped out" in the encirclement at Stalingrad at the start of February 1943 were already beginning to reappear on operations in Italy just 6-7 months later.

Cheers,

Sid.

[AETIUS 1980]

Hello Sid and thank you for this information.
I knew for a fact that a fraction of units or even individuals were preserved for various reasons of total annihilation, although some divisions had to start from almost nothing. Like the 389.Inf.Div, which was put back on its feet in Calvados from KG z.b.V PAULI, then KG Normandie, i became interested in it since a minority of the 716.Inf.Div was absorbed alongside other reinforcements provided by the AOK.7 units. I come back to 106.Inf.Div, I remain amazed that a KG 106.ID (Alarm.Btl.106, Stab + I./Art.Rgt.107) was transferred from Hungary at the beginning of February 1945 in southern Germany (LXIV.AK-AOK.19) for an effective recovery on March 24. The question comes to me why so far and with so little ?
Merci encore