| 85th Infantry Division 85. Infanteriedivision |
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|---|---|
| Active | February 1944 - March 1945[1] |
| Country | Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Infantry |
| Size | Division |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Commanders | |
| 1 Feb - 22 Nov 1944 | Lieutenant General Kurt Chill |
| 22 Nov 1944 - 15 Mar 1945 | Major General Helmut Bechler |
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The 85th Infantry Division (German: 85. Infantriedivision) was a Wehrmacht division used in the Second World War.
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The 85th Infantry Division was raised in February 1944 and placed under the command of Lieutenant General Kurt Chill,[1] previously the commanding officer of the 122nd Infantry.[2] It was quickly sent to German-occupied France with the rest of the 15th Army as an occupational force ready to counter any allied invasion of Europe via France, which was suspected for a long time beforehand.[3]
Regardless of the inevitability of an Allied invasion of France, Operation Overlord was taken as a surprise by the Germans, who had little time to prepare for the oncoming invasion force. In August 1944, the 85th Infantry Division served as one of only three Wehrmacht divisions preventing the Allied forces from capturing Falaise. On August 7, Operation Totalize was commenced. The following day, the 85th Infantry Division was flanked by the 1st Polish Armoured Division. The two divisions continued to exchange fire for another three days, when the division finally moved out from the village of Saint-Sylvain.[4]
One of the grenadier regiments, was attacked by the Poles in mid-August as they crossed the Dives and Vendeuvre rivers, while another unit of the division was attacked in a woodland area south of Courcy.[5]
On August 15, the Canadian 4th Armoured Division broke through the 85th's defences around the Falaise pocket.[6]
Damaged, the division was ordered back to Germany to replenish its numbers. However, Lieutenant General Kurt ordered his men to form a number of reception stations at the bridgeheads of the Albert Canal in northern Belgium; his idea was to pick up stragglers as a means of gaining numbers, instead.[7]
The month of its relocation to the Netherlands also coincided with Operation Market Garden, the allied invasion of the Netherlands.
Under attack by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division in early October, "Kampfgruppe Chill", a detachment of the 85th, was assigned to the Scheldt to replace the retreating 346th Infantry Division. This was however, part of a deception by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich von der Heydte to fool the Canadians into attacking a much more powerful force. In reality, the detachment consisted of the 185th Artillery Regiment and remnants of the 1053rd and 1054th Grenadier Regiments. The rest of the force consisted of three battalions of the 2nd Parachute Division. The Calgary Highlanders, unaware of the true size and skill of the division group, suffered bitterly at Hoogerheide due to this deception, which was worsened by the arrival of the 244th and 667th Army Assault Gun Brigades.[8]
Kurt was replaced as division commander by the highly-decorated Major General Helmut Bechler in mid-November.[1] Also in mid-November, the division had been separated between armies, with parts going to the 15th Army's 98th Army Corps and the 1st Parachute Army.[3][9]
The division, along with the 74th Army Corps, participated in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest in December 1944 as the Wehrmacht attempted to force the Allies out of the Ardennes.[10] The division under Bechler continued to hold out against Allied advances until its final capitulation in March 1945. The rest of the corps would be destroyed at the Ruhr pocket the following April in the Battle of Aachen.[1][11]
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