Ritterkreuzträger of 22. Luftlande-Infanterie-Division / 22. Volksgrenadier-Division

The 22. Infanterie-Division was formed on 15 October 1935 in Bremen as part of the Wehrmacht’s rapid expansion and initially served in a conventional infantry role, with Infanterie-Regiment 16 taking part in the 1939 Invasion of Poland while the remainder of the division garrisoned positions on the Siegfried Line between Monschau and Prüm to counter any French threat; in 1940 it was redesignated the 22. Luftlande-Division after receiving specialized training for glider and air-landing operations and was committed during the invasion of the Netherlands where its regiments landed at Waalhaven, Katwijk-Valkenburg and Ypenburg suffering heavy casualties in the failed Battle for The Hague before continuing the campaign into France as ordinary ground infantry. In 1941 the division joined Army Group South for Operation Barbarossa advancing from Romania across the Pruth and Dniester rivers into the Ukraine and Crimea where it participated in the breakthrough at Perekop the advance to the Sea of Azov and the storming of Sevastopol in 1942 after earlier positional fighting and the recapture of the Kerch Peninsula; transferred to Crete in late 1942 for garrison duties as part of Festung Kreta it conducted anti-partisan operations including the Battle of Leros and was involved in several massacres of civilians such as those at Viannos and Kedros while its commander Generalmajor Heinrich Kreipe was abducted on 26 April 1944 by a British SOE team in the famous operation later depicted in “Ill Met by Moonlight.” Withdrawn from the island in autumn 1944 the division fought anti-partisan actions in Macedonia Serbia and Bosnia before being redesignated the 22. Volksgrenadier-Division in March 1945 and conducting heavy defensive withdrawals and breakout battles across the Balkans including efforts to relieve encircled units near Zvornik until it surrendered to Yugoslav forces in Slovenia in May 1945.

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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER


Oberst Oskar von Boddien (1900-1942) was served in the Heer during both world wars, born in Neuruppin in Brandenburg as the son of Major Alfons von Boddien and educated at the Kadettenanstalt Oranienstein and the Hauptkadettenanstalt Groß-Lichterfelde before entering service as an Offiziersanwärter with the hessischen Leibgarde-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 115 and later the Reiter-Regiment 14; he progressed through the ranks of the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, serving in staff positions including with the Kavallerie-Regiment 13 in Lüneburg, and from 18 August 1939 commanded the Aufklärungs-Abteilung 22 of the 22. Infanterie-Division, earning promotions to Rittmeister on 21 December 1930, Major on 1 April 1937, and Oberstleutnant on 1 September 1940, with posthumous promotion to Oberst on 8 January 1942. On 6 September 1941 during the advance in the Crimea as part of Operation Barbarossa, von Boddien led his Aufklärungs-Abteilung 22 in breaking through a gap in the Soviet frontline, after which he and his troops held the key road crossroads at Baltasarowskij, some 20 kilometers ahead of the friendly Korps frontline, for four days under intense pressure, directly enabling the Korps to resume its swift advance toward Perekop on 11 and 12 September 1941; for this decisive leadership and initiative he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 2 October 1941 as Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur of the Aufklärungs-Abteilung 22. On 6 January 1942, during the fierce fighting to repel a Soviet amphibious landing operation at Yevpatoria (Jewpatoria) in the Crimea, Oberst Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller directed the Aufklärungs-Abteilung 22 under von Boddien’s command to assault and seize the harbor area and city; leading the attack together with the 1st Squadron under Oberleutnant von Frankenberg, von Boddien was mortally wounded by machine-gun fire, yet his determined and resolute actions were singled out in the Wehrmachtbericht of 7 January 1942 as pivotal to the German victory, which cost the enemy 600 dead soldiers and 1,300 partisans while yielding 203 prisoners in brutal house-to-house combat; for this final display of bravery he was posthumously awarded the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 8 January 1942 as the 58th recipient, an honor formally announced in the Wehrmachtbericht of 12 January 1942, and he was subsequently buried as an unknown soldier at the German War Cemetery Sevastopol-Gontscharnoje.

Source :
https://www.historic.de/Home/home.html
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Infanteriedivisionen/22ID-R.htm