9.Infanterie-Division

Unit Emblems

Lineage

• Wehrgauleitung Kassel
• Infanterieführer V
• 9.Infanterie-Division

Mobilized

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

Campaigns

• West Wall 1939
• Western Campaign 1940
• Eastern Front 1941-1944

Notable Points

• During the Campaign against France on June 14th, 1940 the 9.Infanterie-Division was the first German unit to enter Paris after it fell.

History

This unit was formed in October 1934 in Gießen. It was originally known as Wehrgauleitung Kassel*.

Shortly after the unit was established it was given the cover name Infanterieführer V**.

The organic regimental units of this division were formed by the expansion of the 15.Infanterie-Regiment of the 5.Division of the Reichswehr.

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 Infanterieführer V was dropped and this unit became offically known as the 9.Infanterie-Division.

Mobilized for the Polish campaign, the 9.Infanterie-Division was sent to the Saar tobolster the western flank of Germany’s borders while the Wehrmacht overranPoland.

The 9.Infanterie-Division fought in the battle for France in 1940 as a component of12.Armee, Armeegruppe A in its advance through Luxumburg and Belgium. It fought at Amiensand on the Somme River, later crossing the Oise and Ourcq Rivers before advancing on Paris. Early in the morning of June 14th, 1940, the 9.Infanterie-Division was the first German unit to enter Paris after its fall.

After the occupation of Paris the 9.Infanterie-Division went into reserve and remained in northern France on occupation dutyuntil April of 1941 when it was posted to Poland and the Easten Front to prepare for the Invasion of the Soviet Union.

There, beneath the aegis of XXXXIV.Armee-korps, 6.Armee, ittook part in crossing of the frontiner, the battles through the Stalin Line andthe drive on and capture of Kiev by Heeresgruppe Sud. Shifted further to the south, the9.Infanterie-Division notably took part in the advance into the Caucasus, the Kuban, and inthe lower Dneiper campaigns during the 1942-43 period. The division suffered heavy losses in the Summer of1944, in the general retreat of Axis forces across the Romanian border.

Encircled and nearly anihillated in Romania, what was left of the division was pulledfrom the line and sent to the Ossboel-Esbjerg area of Denmark to berebuilt. During re-fitting it absorbed the partially formed584.Volksgrenadier-Div., and was reformed as the 9.Volksgrenadier-Division.

* 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

Knights Cross Holders

• Rudolf Baecker    9/18/1943

• Richard Bausch    6/9/1944

• Hans Becker    11/28/1940

• Otto Diem    9/23/1943

• Walter Eggers    8/29/1943

• Erich Frank    6/24/1944

• Herbert Heim    7/3/1944

• Fritz Herrmann    12/26/1941

• Werner Kolb    6/27/1942

• Erich Loeffler    10/7/1942

• Karl Pitschmann    6/9/1944

• Walter Rittershausen    2/25/1942

• Paul Scheuerpflug    9/6/1942

• Siegmund Schleinitz    8/14/1943

• Andreas Thorey    9/14/1942

• Kurt Volk    5/10/1943

• Paul Wickel    6/4/1944

• Rainer Winckler    10/21/1943

War Service