The 45. Infanterie-Division was formed on 1 April 1938 in Linz within Wehrkreis XVII from the former Austrian 4th Division after the Anschluss and took part in the occupation of the Sudetenland before mobilizing fully in 1939 for the invasion of Poland as part of the XVII. Armeekorps under the 14. Armee of Heeresgruppe Süd, advancing through Bielitz, the Sola sector, Tarnow, Rzeszow and toward Lemberg. In 1940 it served in the Western Campaign under the XXVI. Armeekorps, crossing the Aisne and advancing past Reims along the Marne and Seine to the Loire near Nevers. Transferred east in May 1941, the division opened Operation Barbarossa on 22 June by assaulting the fortress of Brest-Litowsk, which fell after a week of intense fighting under Generalleutnant Fritz Schlieper, then pushed through the Pripet Marshes via Pinsk, crossed the Beresina toward Gomel and contributed to the Kiev encirclement before advancing toward Moscow via Rylsk and capturing Jelez. During the Soviet winter counteroffensive of 1941–1942 it suffered heavy losses while withdrawing across the Sosna and Trudy rivers, fighting in fragmented Kampfgruppen around Livny, Schtschigry and the Voronezh bridgehead under successive commanders including Generalleutnant Fritz Kühlwein. Reorganized with Infanterie-Regimenter 130, 133 and 135 (later redesignated Grenadier-Regimenter) plus Artillerie-Regiment 98, Panzerjäger-Abteilung 45 and Pionier-Bataillon 81, it endured the 1943 defensive battles near Voronezh, Rossosh, Orel and Gomel before being virtually destroyed in the Bobruisk pocket during Operation Bagration in June 1944 while serving under Heeresgruppe Mitte. Reconstituted on 18 July 1944 as the 45. Grenadier-Division from remnants and the 546. Grenadier-Division, it was redesignated 45. Volksgrenadier-Division that autumn, fought at Warsaw and Radom in 1945, retreated through Silesia to Königgrätz and finally surrendered in Czechoslovakia.
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RITTERKREUZTRÄGER
Generalleutnant Helmuth von Pannwitz (1898-1947) was born on 14 October 1898 into a family of Prussian nobility on his father's estate at Botzanowitz in Silesia, near the then German-Russian border. At the age of twelve he entered the Prussian cadet school at Wahlstatt and later the main cadet school at Lichterfelde, joining the Imperial German Army as a volunteer with the 1. Ulanen-Regiment upon the outbreak of the First World War and being promoted to Leutnant at sixteen while earning both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz for bravery. After the war he fought in Freikorps units in Silesia, lived for a time in Poland as a farm administrator, returned to Germany under amnesty in 1931, served briefly in the SA, and rejoined the army in 1935 as Rittmeister in Reiter-Regiment 2 before transfer as Major to Kavallerie-Regiment 11. At the start of the Second World War he commanded Aufklärungs-Abteilung 45 of the 45. Infanterie-Division in the Polish and French campaigns. On 4 September 1941, as Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur of that Abteilung, he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes for actions in the Pripet Marshes during the opening month of Operation Barbarossa, when his Vorausabteilung secured Pinsk on 4 July, thrust into the Dawidgrodek-Turow area near Olszany on 8 July against strong Soviet forces, and launched a lightning attack around Olszany that rescued hard-pressed German troops east of the canal while preparing the division's subsequent advance to seize the territory between the Mostwa/Stwiga and the Pripet. Promoted to Oberst, he later formed and led the improvised Reiter-Verband von Pannwitz (also called Kampfgruppe Pannwitz) under 4. Panzer-Armee of Heeresgruppe Don, consisting of Panzer-Abteilung Sauvant, a Romanian cavalry brigade, Romanian heavy artillery, German alarm units, Cossacks and Flak. In November 1942 northeast of Kotelnikowo near Scharnutowskij this force annihilated the Soviet 61st Cavalry Division, then destroyed the 81st Cavalry Division near Kotelnikowo itself and a Soviet rifle division near Pimen Tscherni/Nebykow, thereby stabilizing the front in that sector and earning him the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 23 December 1942 as the 167th recipient. Thereafter he organized the Cossack volunteer formations that became the 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division and eventually the XV. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps, which he commanded as Generalleutnant and later SS-Gruppenführer while being elected Feldataman by the Cossacks. He surrendered with his corps to British forces in Austria in May 1945, voluntarily accompanied his men into Soviet custody despite being exempt as a German national, and was tried in Moscow, sentenced to death and hanged in Lefortovo Prison on 16 January 1947.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)
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