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352.Infanterie
Division History
11 September 2009
The 352.Infanterie Division was an infantry division in the Wehrmacht during World War II serving on the Western Front. The unit is known for its defense of Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion on 6 June 1944.The
Division was formed on 5 November 1943 at St. Lô under the
command of
Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiß, as part of the Wehrkreis XI
(Military
District XI), headquartered in Hannover. The 352nd was placed in
Armeegruppe B
under the command of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Rommel
was in charge of protecting the
Atlantic coast from and Allied Invasion.
Despite the fact that much of the German leadership believed
that the
main Allied invasion would take place at the Pas-de-Calais, Rommel was
convinced that Normandy would be the location of the invasion. Rommel placed the strong 352nd at Normandy to
push the invading force back into the sea.
DIVISION MAKEUP
The makeup of the 352nd was as follows:
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914.
Grenadier Regiment -
2
x 15 cm sIG 33 |
915.
Grenadier Regiment -
2
x 15 cm sIG 33 |
916.
Grenadier Regiment -
2
x 15 cm sIG 33 |
ARTILLERY
|
|
352. Artillerie Regiment -
1-9.Batterie
- 36 x 10,5 cm leFH 16 |
Batteries
1-9 of the artillery regiment had four 10,5 cm howitzers each. Batteries 10-12 had four 15 cm howitzers
each. None of these batteries were
motorized. The artillery all had one
basic load of ammunition. The 10,5 cm
guns had 225 rounds per gun, and the 15 cm guns had 150 rounds each.
ANTI-TANK/TANK
HUNTER
|
|
352. Panzerjäger Abteilung -
14
x Marder II and Marder III variant Panzerjäger |
The
Panzerjäger Abteilung
had 14 Marder 38, 10 StuG III and 9 motorized 3,7 cm FlaK guns.
PIONIERE
|
|
352. Pioniere Battalion -
20
x Flammenwerfer |
The
Pioniere Battalion had three companies, with 37 machine guns, 20 flame
throwers
and six mortars.
FUSLILIER
|
|
352. Fusilier Battalion -
1.
Kompanie was bicycle mounted |
The
Fusilier Battalion was light infantry or recon. The
1.Kompanie was bicycle mounted. This
battalion was located in the rear, away
from the beaches.
FIELD REPLACEMENT
|
Feld-Ersatz Battalion -
6
x 8 cm Granatwerfer 34 |
DIVISION COMPOSITION
The
Division cadre were formed from the remnants of the following units:
268.Infanterie
Division
Wehrkreis
VII (Munich)
468th,
488th and 499th Grenadier Regiments
History:
¨ 1939: Reserve
Unit, activated
¨ 1939-1940:
Saar Front
¨ 1941-1943:
Ost Front
- Battle
of Yelna Bend, Moscow, Rzhev and Kursk
- Elements
fought at Cholm and Demyansk
321.Infanterie
Division
Wehrkreis
XI (Hannover)
588th,
589th and 590th Grenadier Regiments
History:
¨ 1940:
Activated at Abberville
¨ December
1942: Ost Front – Army Group Center
- Suffered
heavy losses at Kursk
546.Grenadier
Regiment
Part
of 389.Infanterie Division
Wehrkreis
XII (Hesse)
History:
¨ 1941-1942:
Ost Front
- Winter
Drive across Don River, Volga River, Stalingrad
The
survivors from the 546.Grenadier Regiment formed the cadre for the 1st
and 2nd
battalions of the 916.Grenadier Regiment of the 352.Infanterie.
Because
most of the members of the 352nd were Ost Front veterans, they were
hardened
soldiers - from the officers down to the Obergrenadiers.
A
large number of Volksdeutsch recruits were also a part of the Division. These Volksdeutsch recruits included Polish
and Czech Germans, Alsatians (French Germans), and Russians
(White-Russians, or
POA).
THE ATLANTIK WALL
The
352nd began its coastal duty improving the defenses of the Atlantic
Wall. They placed beach obstacles, to
include mined
stakes and anti-landing craft timbers.
They cut the timber from the woods, transported it to the beach,
and
drove it deeply into the sand.
The
second row of obstacles was a band of mined stakes and log ramps, meant
to tip
or tear out the bottom of landing craft.
Finally,
the third row of defenses were Czech Hedgehogs– static anti-tank
obstacle
defenses constructed of angled iron.
Further
up the beachhead, the 352nd occupied slit trenches, eight large
concrete
bunkers, 35 pillboxes, six mortar pits, 35 Nebelwerfer launch sites and
85
machine gun nests. The main defenses
were clustered into strong points.
Parts
of the 916th Regiment was located near Omaha Beach.
One battalion from the 716th Infantry
Division was subordinated to the 916th.
The 915th Regiment was in reserve southeast of Bayeux, and the
914th was
deployed around Isigny.
Because
a most of the Wehrmacht’s supplies were being sent to the fight
on the Ost
Front, by March 1944, the unit only got to execute three live fire
events and
each Grenadier was only able to throw two grenades.
Many of the vehicles the Division used were
foreign, so when they broke down, there were little, if any, spare
parts. There was little driver training
because of a
shortage of fuel.
THE 352nd IN BATTLE
Once the D-Day invasion began on 6 June 1944, the 352nd immediately absorbed all troops within is sector, to include Luftwaffe Flak troops and Labor Service (RAD) personnel. When it became clear that this was the main Allied invasion force, all available units were rushed to the front. Hardened bunkers (Winderstandsnest) on or near the beach opened fire and continued to fire until they depleted their ammunition or all the men inside were dead. Artillery Regiment 352 and 1275 had pre-sighted every inch of the landing areas on the beach and rained hell down upon the landing Allied forces. They, too, continued to fire until they had run out of ammo or were in danger from being encircled.The following excerpts are from U.S. soldiers fighting the 352nd on the beaches on D-Day:
"...We had a bad break tactically because the German 352nd Infantry Division was on a counter-attack training exercise at Omaha [Beach]. So instead of a fortress battalion -- you know, with kind of second-rate troops -- we had a whole damned infantry division in front of us. We hit the sand...behind the bodies of the amphibious engineers...and tried to advance a bit, but there was a large German bunker in front of us, and its machine gun fire hit us every time we tried to move. We didn’t have any comm with the American destroyer behind us because...the naval officer had been killed, his driver too, and the radio set destroyed...so we planned an assault. But before we could get organized, there were huge demolitions around the bunker. Thank God we hadn’t moved out yet: an American destroyer had moved in and was firing direct with 4-inch guns into the bunker." -Capt Edward McGregor, US 1st Infantry Div
"Assault units disintegrating. Very heavy losses. Enemy fire prevents crossing of the beach line. Landing units bunching up in a very confined area. Engineers unable to clear paths through minefields and cannot destroy beach obstacles. Elements of the...352nd Infantry Division identified." -Battle Report, US 5th Corps, 08:30a.m. June 6, 1944
The Division took heavy losses, both in causalities and being captured, from the oncoming ground attack as well as from enemy Jabos (Fighter-Bombers). The Jabos would attack any daytime ground movement, even individual men unfortunate enough to be out in the open.
The
916.Grenadier Regiment saw action on D-Day opposing the 1st and 29th
U.S.
Divisions at Omaha Beach. The 352nd
fought for several hours, inflicting many casualties, before being
overwhelmed
and overrun. The 916th retreated on the
morning of 7 June after Regiment Commander Oberst Ernst Goth
couldn’t hold the
positions regained on the previous night.
The rest of the Division saw heavy fighting in the bocage
(hedgerow)
country while defending St. Lo.
According to wartime documents, the losses suffered by the Division on 6 June were as follows: 200 killed, 500 wounded, 500 missing. The Division retreated to and remained in the area southeast of Isigny.
On
16 June, the Division suffered 3000 casualties.
From 6 – 24 June, casualties were 5407 officers and men. Despite these heavy losses, the Division kept
fighting, and continued to lose men. By
11 July, the 352nd incurred 2479 more casualties, and from 1 – 25
July, the
Division had 123 officers and men killed, 464 wounded, and 110 missing.
By
30 July, the Division was in very poor shape.
The Wehrmacht declared all
¨ Three
battalions from 266.Inf.Div.
¨ Two
battalions from 353.Inf.Div.
¨ One
battalion from 30.Brigade
¨ One
battalion from 275.Inf.Div.
¨ One
battalion from 343.Inf.Div.
¨
One artillery battery from 343.Inf.Div.
¨ One
artillery battery from
"Autun" artillery battalion
After
the first of August, the Division was withdrawn to refit in the area
southeast
of Alençon.
The Division was only there for a little over a week before
American
forces closed in. Elements of the
Division engaged in rear guard action along the axis of Le Mans and
Dreux.
Despite
their condition, the 352nd fought
well, and were later sent to Denmark for refitting.
The
352nd participated in Operation Market
Garden. They prevented the Allied XXX
Corps from linking up with the British 1st Airborne Division, who
landed at
Arnhem, Holland. Elements of the 352nd engaged the U.S. 101st Airborne
at
Nijmegen.
The
remnants of the 352nd were merged with
the 581st Volkgrenadier Division to form the 352.Volksgrenadier
Division. They were refitted again and in
December 1944
were sent to fight in the southern flank of the unsuccessful Ardennes
Offensive
(the Battle of the Bulge).
The
unit was then placed to defend the
area around Trier and the Moselle where it was effectively destroyed
again by
mid-March 1945. Only a small remnant of
the Division escaped across the Rhine at Worms.
The 352nd was partially reconstructed one last time as a battle
group in
mid-April.
By 1945, the Division was assigned to Darmstadt, south of Remagen, to participate in the Rhineland Campaign. They ended the War by defending Trier. They surrendered to American forces near Nuremburg.
The following link provides an account of the 352nd from its Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Fritz Ziegalmann. Lt. Col. Ziegalmann, wrote a history of the 352nd in Normandy for the United States War Department’s Foreign Military Studies after the conflict as a Prisoner of War. Special thanks to Stewart Bryant for his work translating Lt. Col. Ziegalmann's writing's and providing them on the internet.