10.Panzergrenadier Division

[kamehouse]

Dear all,
a friend of mine sent me this email:
I was wondering if you have any information on this:

9./Panzergrenadierregiment 20 der 10.Panzergrenadierdivision

My uncle Josef Hildebrandt was killed in action serving in this division, he last reported on 20.08.1944 in a town named Jassy. I would appreciate any information you could share.
What I replied to him so far is some links to this forum factbook and a few pages of the Lexikon der Wehrmacht.
I also quoted the German order of battle volume 3 book from Mitcham.I gave some info on Jassy as well.
I didn't tell him yet about August Schmidt Book as it's in german only.
Any info(books/links etc...) would be appreciated and if there is any way to trace Josef Hildebrandt or what was the 9.Kompanie(rifle?heavy weapon?) in Panzergrenadierregiment 20.

I also tried to make a search here but for some reason the search engine refuse to acknowledge the number 10 and only give matches for panzergrenadier!

Thanks in advance for your replies,
k

[kamehouse]

53 views and no one is having any information on the 10. Panzergrenadier division?
Help?
Please?


Pretty please?

[bigmacglenn1966]

Hello there. My great-uncle Hans Haas was in the 10th as well, and killed in Bralino, Poland. The 10th was positioned on the Vistula River(Weichsel), and was annihilated in Litzmannstadt (Lodz,Poland), on the 19th of January, 1945. Apparently this unit began as the 10th Infantry Division, then became the 10th Panzergrenadierdivision, and finally was named the 10th Volksgrenadierdivision.

[Jan-Hendrik]

finally was named the 10th Volksgrenadierdivision.

Definitly no, sir

Jan-Hendrik

[Larso]

Chris Bishop's ' PanzerGrenadier Divisions 1939-45' has the following -

Formed in Oct 1934 with troops from northern Bavaria and incorporating units from the 7th Div of the Reichswehr. It became the 10th Inf Div in 1935 and started with the 20th Inf Regt and later received the 41st and the 10th Art. Rgt.

In 1939 it was part of the 8th Army in the invasion of Poland - nothing noted about its performance. It was then assigned to Army Group A for the invasion of France, seeing action on the Aisne, the advance through Champagne, and in Burgundy and the Cote d Or. It was sent to Bavaria for conversion to a motorized division in Nov 1940.

Motorisation was completed in Apr 41. It was held in reserve for the Balkans but saw no action. It was then transferred to Guderians 2 Panzergruppe for Barbarossa (I now seem to remember plenty of mentiond in Guderian's book and probablt Von Mellethins too), though it started in reserve. In August it went into action East of Smolensk. Bishop writes only in general terms of the offensive and gives no specific account of the 10ths actions here.

In 1942 it was transferred to the 4th Army and retreated from Moscow and Tula, halting at Moshaisk and Juchnow. In Apr 43 the 10th was placed in reserve, returning to the front at Demyansk in June. It held the line till Apr 43, when it was sent to refit in the Orel sector. In June it was upgraded to 10th Pz Gr Div.

In autumn 43 it was assigned to Army group South. It suffered heavily in Kiev and the Dnieper crossing. It was with 8th Army during the Soviet offensive in Aug, Bishop records it as destroyed.

Late in 44 it was reformed as a Kampfgruppe but without Pz Bn 110 or 41st PzGr Regt, though it gained the 7th Px Bn in Oct, rejoining the front with 17th Army in Poland with XXXXVIII Corps. It fought at Kielce and covered the withdrawal at Skarzysko Kamienna before moving to Ruski Brod.

It was destroyed again in January, loosing its commander Obst Alexander Vial. The survivors were sent to Silesia to be reconstituted. It seems to have consisted now of 7th Pz Bn and just two Pz Gr battalions. It was posted finally to 1st Pz Army in Apr in Bohemia and surrendered in Czechoslovakia in May.


Bishops books are interesting enough but they are only outlines in terms of divisional histories. Anyway I hope there's a few things here that were of interest.

[tigre]

Hello guys ; in short, be patients with me as translator please..........

On Aug 20 1944, the 10 Pz Gren Div, within the IV AK's framework, got the mission of covering the westflank from Jassy against the russian which west of Jassy on Bahluiu were advancing southwards. According that orders and with the fire support furnished by the AR 10 and the Pz abt 7, the Division assembled southwest of Jassy and at 16:00 hours jumped off towards northwest seizing the Height located south of the Bahluiu river where the tank ditch was built so the gap between the 79 ID and the 76 ID was closed.

At 18:00 hours the Division took up defensive positions as follows:

Right GR 20 with its III. Battalion (Hauptmann Kramer) west Galata; I. Battalion (Maj Häring) around Miraslowa; II. Battalion (Hauptmann Seeburg) northeast Uricani.

Left GR 41

AR 10 and Pz Jäg Abt 10 deployed along the whole division's front.

Pz AA 11o covering the west flank against the enemy going southwards.

Pz Abt 7 and Pi Btl 10 at Division's disposal.

Division's CP Cornesti.

Source: August Schmidt's Book (via my friend Jan-Hendrik, thanks pal).

Cheers. Raúl M .

[tigre]

Hello guys ; it's me again. Look K. your guy (Hildebrandt) was probably serving within the III./ GR 20 as part of the 9. Company.

1-4 Companies within the I. Battalion.
5-8 Companies within the II. Battalion
9-12 Companies within the III. Battalion.
4, 8 and 12 were weapons (MG) companies.

Cheers. Raúl M .

[kamehouse]

Thank you very much to all for these info.
I'll give the link to my friend for him to have a look.
And I thought this thread was dead.

[tigre]

Hello K ; Why? let it go!. May be someone else has something more to say on it. I wonder: Does your friend has any info dealing with Mr Hildebrandt previous military life/career? Cheers. Raúl M .

[Larso]

I hadn't noticed the thread was an old one - and felt a bit silly after typing all that stuff in - particularly as it was of minimal value. Oh well, it filled in the time. I'd be interested in hearing any further details from your friend too.

[tigre]

Hey Larso, thanks for joining pal and nothing is of minimal value here as all piece of info count at least for me. Do not worry about . Cheers. Raúl M

[kamehouse]

I hadn't noticed the thread was an old one - and felt a bit silly after typing all that stuff in - particularly as it was of minimal value. Oh well, it filled in the time. I'd be interested in hearing any further details from your friend too.

Au contraire ,you succeeded where I failed: you managed by bumping this thread to obtain some useful info.
So thank you very much.
I've sent the link but I had no response from him so I am not sure if he checked this thread yet.