Let's Build: 1. Infanterie Division

[Miha Grcar]

Tigre you took the words right out of my mouth.

I would go even further and ask if Mr. Tom Nutter has anything more about the combat history of the 1. ID in the whole French campaign.

best regards,
Miha / Nibelung

[Tom Nutter]

Gentlemen: This will take some time, so I may not get far this evening.

First, leading up to the engagement of 15/16 May, wherein so many casualties were incurred: 1I.D. was part of IA.K., assigned to Army Group B reserve. Generalmajor Phillip Kleffel was in command; his IA was Oberstleutnant i.G. Johannes Steffler. On 2 April I.A.K. issued an order for its units (1I.D., 11I.D, 223I.D. and 225I.D.) to move across the Rhine. 1I.D. was to use the bridge at Duesseldorf, following the crossing of 20I.D., part of XVIA.K. The corps moved into its staging area between the Rhine and the Dutch/Belgian/German border. On 3 May Obstl. i.G. Steffler issued a "Geheime Kommandosache" indicating that the code word "Zitronenfalter" (in my dictionary, "brimstone butterfly") would signal the beginning of the "Bewegung".

At 0550 on 10 May Lt. Graf Dohna (whose life ended abruptfly some
time between 23 and 27 May) received an "Alarm!" order from the I.A.K. operations officer, Obstl. i.G. Bucher. The order said that 6.Armee had just now crossed the border. I.A.K was ordered to prepare to march. By 13 May the division was in the area between Heinsberg and Geilenkirchen near the Belgian border.

At 1955 on 13 May Obstl. i.G. Bucher issued an order directing the division to step off from its assembly area at 0100 on 14 May. The division was to move eastwards and advance over the Maas, just across the border with Belgium. The division was to take up a position near Genk in Belgium. Its main objective was to link up with the bridgehead (or bridge position) Berg. It was in this position, near Genk, that the division had its costly encounter, probably with Belgian units, although that is not clear.

Other than the engagement of 15/16 May, and the one that took place over several days between 23 and 27 May, 1I.D. does not seem to have been in action much in France. It did cross the Seine and the Loire, but the campaign ended shortly thereafter. On 29 May Obstl. i.G. Bucher ordered the division to move to the area Jzel les Equerehin--Vitry en Artois--Lecluse--Estrees--Ferin--Douai--Pointe de la Deule--Lauwin--Esquerchin and stop. This is apparently what it did, since I have not found any evidence to the contrary. In fact, the most interesting thing that I have found subsequent to the action that took place between 23-27 May is a racist diatribe written by Gen. Kleffel on 8 August 1940, apparently brought on by the sight of his soldiers fraternizing with the defeated French. In it he says that "Die Franzosen waren, sind und bleibe fuer uns ein Erbfeindvolk..." His ire seems to have been provoked by the stationing of African colonial troops in the Rheinland and Ruhr after WWI, and by the use of such troops in battle against his men.

I can't contribute more at the moment.

Kind regards.

Tom

[Miha Grcar]

Thank you Tom, this did shed some light on the 1940 French campaign. If you have anything more I would be most grateful!

best regards,
Miha / Nibelung

[tigre]

Thank you Tom. Regards. Tigre.

[Miha Grcar]

from: Infantry Aces

Insterburg - garrison city of the 1.Infanterie Division

They took part in the assault on Leningrad 8-18 September 1941, 1.ID was on the extreme right flank of 18.Armee, left neighbour was the 36.ID (mot.) of Panzer Gruppe 4. After the Leningrad was encircled the units stationed around the ring were:
Between Schlüsselburg and Kolpino - 1.,96.,121.ID
east of the corridor 227.,223. ID (XXVIII A.K.)
between Kolpino and Iritzk 121.,122.269.,58. 4.SS-Polizei (L A.K.)

In January 1942 the division held positions until withdrawn to Mga. Lost nearly 60% of authorised strenght. While in Mga they were helping the civil population with food and medical care. March 1942 - 1.ID is sent in several marchgroups towards the Volkhov to participate in the encirclement of the 2nd Shock Army.

The road between Podbyeresye and Spaskaya Polist proved essential for the Russian flow of supplies to the encircled army. Because of that the 4.SS-Polizei attacked south on the 15 Mar 1942 while the 58., 126.,250. ID attacked north to link up in the "Erika" forrest lane. The 1.ID was sent to block the communications and supply lines into the pocket (from Tregubovo 20km south to Mostki).

During the Fighting the 2km wide ring of german units held despite the constant Russian breakthrough attempts (which were up to 8 regiments strong). After the succesfull conclusion of the encircling battles with the 2nd Shock Army the 1.ID was to participate in the 1. Battle of Lake Ladoga until 2 October 1942. They fought at Grusino with 61.ID (I A.K.) until the end of September when the 1.ID was withdrawn to Chudovo for rest and refit.

In late December 1942 they were positioned south of Lake Ladoga in the bottleneck south of Schlüsselburg along with 223.ID, 227.ID, 170.ID.

Not much, the search continues...

best,
Miha / Nibelung

[Christoph Awender]

A post by panzerkaput adding nothing to the topic has been removed. Panzerkaput this is not a post to place questions. It is a post where information about the unit in question is collected.

\Christoph

[Miha Grcar]

Sorry to do this, check out the minor update above Christoph's post.

best,
Miha / Nibelung

[Breezy]

New member. In doing research for a wargame I was helping to design for Matrix Games, I did a lot of reading about the battles around Konigsberg and the Samland and Pillau. Most of the sources(Haupt, Seaton, Thorwald and Duffy) place 1st Infanterie in Konigsberg in February-March 1945 but no mention of the division as part of the Samland Group. Haupt puts the division near Serappen on April 7, but has an OOB for Army of East Prussia on April 7 that does not list the 1st but 1 page later states the the division's commander, Von Thadden, was mortallly wounded and the division found its end in this bloody hell(Army Group Center, pg 288). I have always thought the division was destroyed between Pillau and Fischausen with its remnants most likely being absorbed by the 5th Panzer Division or perhaps 24th Panzer Division.

[Miha Grcar]

Thanks for the input.

best,
Miha

[donwhite]

From a copy of a Pz & StuG Lage dated 30th December 1944 through to 15th January 1945, StuG Abt.1001 (2nd Kp of 1st ID's Pz.Jag.ABt) had 10x StuG III L/48 of which 9 were operationable.

Cheers

[Bob_Mackenzie]

Gents

Scan of Kreigsgliderung dated 27/6/44. This was taken from the docucuments held by the Imparial War Museum in London. It was copied over 10 years ago and unfortunately i do'nt have the doc ref any more

Cheers

Bob

[Bob_Mackenzie]

Copied off another forum sorry forget which:

According to RH10/105 "Der Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen, Panzer-Jaeger Abteilungen, HQu. OKH, den 19. Dez. 1944" the 1. ID had an abteilung with a
Stab and 1.-3. Kompanie.

1. Kp. 9 7.5cm Pak (mot.z.)
2. Kp. 9 Panzerjeager IV operational, 1 in repair
3. Kp. 5 3.7cm Flak (Sf.)

Date given is 1.1 (1 January, which seems odd given that most of the others listed are for fall of 1944, it appears that the date may in fact be 1.11 with the last 1
nearly faded out).

[Miha Grcar]

Hi Bob,

Thank you soo much for that Kreigsgliderung, most interesting! Your Pz.Jg. input is also appreciated!

best,
Miha

[tigre]

Thank you Bob great stuff what you posted here. I wonder if anyone has some map or skecht with regards to the division's engagements in France 1940, specially that one narrated by Tom some time ago. Of course, something about Barbarossa is useful too. Cheers. Tigre.

[Samuel Mitcham]

Who was the last commander of this division? According to Keilig, he was wounded on April 26, 1945, and subsequently evacuated back to Denmark, where he died in a field hospital the following month. So it could not have been him.