8.Infanterie-Division

Unit Emblems

Lineage

• Wehrgauleitung Oppeln
• Artillerieführer III
• 8.Infanterie-Division

Mobilized

• Part of standing Army in 1939, 1st mobilization wave

Campaigns

• Poland 1939
• Western Campaign 1940
• Eastern Front 1941

Notable Points

• The 8.Infanterie-Division was one of six Heer divisions that were directly linked to specific German officers by giving them an honorary regimental title known as “Chef”. This honorary title was unrelated to actual unit command. In this case the honor was especially unique as it was given to Eduard Frhr. v. Böhm-Ermolli, an Austro-Hungarian Field Marshall given the honorary German rank of Generalfeldmarschall and then linked to Infanterie-Regiment 28 on October 31st, 1940. This was the only time a foreign officer was granted the rank of GFM in WWII
• During the Campaign against France on June 14th, 1940 the 8.Infanterie-Division along with the 28.Infanterie-Division made the ceremonial first entrance into Paris once it fell.

Fate

Reformed as the 8.leichte-Infanterie-Division in December, 1941.

History

The 8.Infanterie-Division was formed in October 1934 in Oppeln. It was originally known as Wehrgauleitung Oppeln*. Shortly after the unit was established it was given the cover name Artillerieführer III**.

The organic regimental units of this division were formed by the expansion of the 7.(Preußisches) Infanterie-Regiment of the 3.Division of the Reichswehr. It was formed mainly of Silesian personnel.

With the formal announcement of the creation of the Wehrmacht (which had covertly been in place for over a year) on October 15th, 1935, the cover name Artillerieführer III was dropped and this unit became offically known as the 8.Infanterie-Division.

When WWII began in September of 1939 with the German invasion ofPoland, the 8.Infanterie-Division took part under 14.Armee, Armeegruppe Süd. It saw action fightingthrough tough frontier fortifications in eastern upper Silesia against stiff Polish resistance.It later fought in the advanced on Kracow, crossed the San River in pursuit of reeling Polish forces, andended the campaign fighting the mass of Army Kracow wedged between Lvov in the south, Lublin in the northand the Bug and San Rivers to the east and west.

After Poland the 8.Infanterie-Division fought in Belgium under 4.Armee, Armeegruppe A, advancing over the Salm, the Ourthe and the Maas Rivers. It later fought at Denee, on the Sambre River and in the Schelde region taking up position against the Allied forces trapped in the Dunkirk Pocket. After Dunkirk, the 8.Infanterie-Division went into reserve before taking up the attack into France proper advancing over the Somme and Oise Rivers during the advance on Paris.

On June 14th, 1940 the 8.Infanterie-Division along with the 28.Infanterie-Division made the ceremonial first entrance into Paris, although the 9.Infanterie-Division was the first German unit to enter earlier that morning. The formal German victory parade in Paris was conducted two days later on June 16th by the 30.Infanterie-Division.

After Paris fell the 8.Infanterie-Division crossed the Loire River at Tours and ended the campaign in the region of Rouen where it would spendthe next many months on occupation duty before being posted to the Eastern Front in April of 1941.

For the Invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941, the 8.Infanterie-Division fought as a part of 9.Armee, Armeegruppe Mitteseeing fighting in the regions of Bryansk, Vyasma and later Moscow before being pulled from the front and sent to France in November1941 where it was reformed as the 8.leichte-Infanterie-Division in December.

* In 1934 the German armed forces were still known as the Reichswehr and the restrictions of the treaty of Versallies were technically still in place. These restrictions limited the number of German divisions to 7 but almost from the start in 1921 there were plans to expand that number. Shortly after the NSDAP came to power in 1933 the number of divisions was indeed expanded from 7 to 21. The Reichswehr divisions didn’t transition over during the reforming and expansion period, they were used instead to help provide a basis for the newly forming units. The commanders of the 7 divisions of the Reichswehr also served as the head of a regional Wehrkreiskommando of the same number as the division, thus serving a duel role. During the transition period the Reichswehr Wehrkreiskommandos were upgraded into Korp formations and the commanders were transfered to serve as their new commanding officers. Through this move the staff of each of the Reichswehr divisional units was lost making it unwieldy to transfer entire divisions into the newly forming Wehrmacht. From here the first step in the expansion from 7 to 21 divisions was the formation of 3 Wehrgauleitung in each region previously controlled by the Reichswehr divisions,creating 21 Wehrgauleitungen (7×3=21). Each Wehrgauleitung was named according to the city it was housed in. The 21 Wehrgauleitungen were the true foundation for the first divisions of the Wehrmacht. The regimental units of the former 7 divisions were shifted about and used to form the organic units of the new divisions.

** The german armed forces expanded from 7 divisions to 21 in 1934.In an effort to hide the expansion for as long as possible, all new divisions were given cover names. The cover names given to each of the 21 new divisions corresponded to the title of the commander placed in charge of the unit in most cases. As there was an Infantry and Artillery commander in each of the 7 divisions of the Reichswehr (known as Infanteriefüher I-VII and Artilleriefüher I-VII, depending on the number of the division in question) they took command of 14 of the newly formed divisions (2×7=14). When the various Infantry and Artillery commanders took command, their new divisions existance was hidden by the use his previous title as the cover name for the unit. The remaining 7 new divisions not commanded by one of the previous Infantry or Artillery commanders were taken over by newly appointed commanders and given cover names such as Kommandant von Ulm, or Kommandant von Regensburg.

Organization

Infanterie-Regiment 84 was removed from the 8.Infanterie when it wasreformed as the 8.liecht-Infanterie-Division, and it was sent to the 102.Infanterie-Division.

Knights Cross Holders

• Lothar Berger    8/5/1940

• Herbert Boehme    7/19/1940

• Horst Grossmann    8/23/1941

• Gustav Hoehne    6/30/1941

• Rudolf Koch-Erpach    6/24/1940

• Alois Prochazka    6/24/1940

• Erich Ring    9/21/1941

War Service