78th Infantry Division (Germany)

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The 78th Infantry Division (German: 78. Infanterie-Division), later the 78th Sturm Division, was a German infantry formation which fought during World War II.

[edit] Unit history

The 78th Infantry Division was raised in August 1939 in Stuttgart, incorporating reservists from Baden-Württemberg (its divisional symbol was a representation of Ulm Cathedral).

It was stationed in France for occupation duties from the summer of 1940 through the spring of 1941, and then transferred east to participate in Operation Barbarossa with Army Group Centre. Late in 1942 it suffered heavy losses in the Rzhev battles.

At the beginning of 1943 it was reorganised as the 78th Sturm Division (a new divisional symbol, an armoured fist, being adopted) with additional adjustments to its strength and organisation over the next several months. Each of its three infantry regiments was redesignated as a Sturm-Regiment; in this context Sturm should be translated as "assault", the title reflecting the division's increased strength, which eventually included subordinate Sturmgeschutz and Nebelwerfer battalions and a heavy tank destroyer unit equipped with Nashorns, as well as extra regimental artillery support. With its new organisation, the division took part in Operation Citadel, being involved in the fighting at Ponyri; later that year it was transferred to Fourth Army.

During the June - July 1944 Soviet offensive against Army Group Centre, Operation Bagration, the division was assigned to defend the main Moscow - Minsk road and the town of Orsha. During the fighting the division was destroyed, having failed to break out of an encirclement east of Minsk on the night of 5/6 July. Surviving elements were taken over by the 565th Volksgrenadier Division.

Later that month, the division was reconstituted as the 78th Grenadier Division, by renaming the 543rd Volksgrenadier Division then in the process of forming. In October 1944 it was renamed as 78th Volksgrenadier Division, and in early 1945 renamed again to 78th Volks-Sturm Division, being assigned to Army Group Centre. It was among the forces of the First Panzer Army pushed from Upper Silesia into Czechoslovakia, where its troops surrendered to the Soviets near Olomouc at the end of the war in May.

Note: The title Volks-Sturm indicates a "Volksgrenadier Sturm Division", not a part of the Volkssturm militia.

[edit] See also

[edit] Online sources

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