The 94. Infanterie-Division was raised in September 1939 as part of the 5. Welle from Wehrkreis IV, drawing recruits primarily from Saxony and Thuringia under the initial leadership of General der Infanterie Hellmuth Volkmann. Subordinated components initially included Infanterie-Regiment 267, Infanterie-Regiment 274, Infanterie-Regiment 276, and Artillerie-Regiment 194. After serving along the western borders and participating in the 1940 Western Campaign, command was assumed by General der Artillerie Georg Pfeiffer in August 1940. In June 1941, the formation embarked on Operation Barbarossa, advancing across southern Ukraine and engaging in bitter combat under 6. Armee during the march toward the Don and Volga rivers. Committed to the brutal urban fighting in Stalingrad within LI. Armeekorps, elements such as Infanterie-Regiment 274 fought intensely around the grain elevator and defensive stronghold Hill 93.2, earning several decorations recorded on tracesofwar.com. Cut off by Operation Uranus in late 1942, Pfeiffer and key cadre personnel were flown out by air, while the surrounded remnants were entirely annihilated inside the Stalingrad pocket by late January 1943. Reconstituted in France during the spring of 1943, the division was reorganized with Grenadier-Regiment 267, Grenadier-Regiment 274, and Grenadier-Regiment 276, before deploying to northern Italy to disarm Italian forces following the Armistice of Cassibile. Under the subsequent command of Generalleutnant Bernhard Steinmetz, it held vital defensive sectors along the Gustav Line, notably confronting Allied assaults near the Garigliano River and Minturno. Retiring northward through central Italy, the formation absorbed surviving troops from depleted units while fighting delaying actions across the Apennine Mountains and the Gothic Line. The division ultimately collapsed during the Allied spring offensive across the Po Valley, bringing its operational history to an end when the remaining personnel surrendered on 22 April 1945.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Major Andreas Thorey (1912-1944) was born on 3 November 1912 in Hitzacker and entered the Reichswehr on 1 April 1932 with Kavallerie-Regiment 3; at the outbreak of war he served as Hauptwachtmeister with Aufklärungs-Abteilung 9 during the Westfeldzug, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 21 June 1940, and was promoted to Leutnant on 1 December 1940 before transferring to the Eastern Front in June 1941 where he received the Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse on 18 July 1941 along with the Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz and the Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen. In the summer of 1942, as Oberleutnant and Schwadronsführer in Aufklärungs-Abteilung 94 of the 4. Gebirgs-Division, he played a major role in the capture of Krasnodar on 10 August 1942, an action for which he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 6 April 1943 and simultaneously promoted to Rittmeister; in June 1943 he assumed command of Gebirgs-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 94 and led it in the Kuban bridgehead before distinguishing himself in the defensive fighting west of Melitopol and in the Cherson bridgehead. In October 1943, while tasked with securing the flank of his division against Soviet attacks west of Melitopol, Rittmeister Thorey detected a strong enemy force assembling for an assault, promptly launched a spontaneous flanking counterattack with elements of two of his companies, and personally led from the front to smash the Soviet formation, an achievement that earned him the 349th Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz on 7 December 1943 as Kommandeur of Aufklärungs-Abteilung 94. He continued to command the Abteilung until he was killed in action on 18 April 1944 during the fighting along the Dniester River in the southern sector of the Eastern Front and was posthumously promoted to Major.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/94th_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)
