The 19. Infanterie-Division was formed on 1 October 1934 in Hannover under the cover name Artillerieführer VI within Wehrkreis VI and officially redesignated on 15 October 1935, mobilizing fully on 25 August 1939 with Infanterie-Regiment 59, Infanterie-Regiment 73, Infanterie-Regiment 74 and Artillerie-Regiment 19 before advancing as part of XI. Armeekorps of the 10. Armee during the Polish campaign, fighting on the Bzura and participating in the final assault on Warsaw, then transferring west to take part in the 1940 campaign in Belgium and France where it crossed the Somme, entered the outskirts of Paris and reached the Loire before performing occupation duties along the demarcation line until returning home in late September 1940. On 1 November 1940 the formation was converted into the 19. Panzer-Division by incorporating Panzer-Regiment 27 while transferring Infanterie-Regiment 59 and other elements to the newly raised 20. Panzer-Division, after which it trained in Germany under Generalleutnant Otto von Knobelsdorff until joining Panzergruppe 3 of Heeresgruppe Mitte for Unternehmen Barbarossa in June 1941, advancing through the battles of Białystok-Minsk and Smolensk and later fighting near Velikiye Luki and in the Battle of Moscow where heavy losses forced the disbandment of one tank battalion. Remaining on the central sector until late 1942, the division was then shifted south to support the Italian 8. Armee and the 1. Panzerarmee, taking part in defensive actions after the Stalingrad disaster, the Battle of Kursk under III. Panzerkorps near Belgorod where Generalleutnant Gustav Schmidt committed suicide to avoid capture in August 1943, and the subsequent retreats across Ukraine including the escape from the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket in April 1944. Nearly destroyed by these continuous engagements, the 19. Panzer-Division was withdrawn to the Netherlands in May 1944 for refitting under Generalleutnant Hans Källner before returning by rail to the Eastern Front after Operation Bagration, defending Warsaw, helping suppress the Polish uprising, and contesting the Baranow bridgehead until the Soviet Vistula-Oder offensive forced it westward through Silesia into the Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, where its remnants finally surrendered to Soviet forces in May 1945.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Generalleutnant Gustav Schmidt (1894-1943) was born on 24 April 1894 in Carsdorf, Kreis Querfurt, in the Province of Saxony, and entered the Königlich Preußische Heer on 1 March 1913 as a Fahnenjunker in the 3. Brandenburgisches Infanterie-Regiment „Graf Tauentzien von Wittenberg“ Nr. 20. Promoted to Leutnant in June 1914, he served throughout the First World War with this regiment as Kompanieoffizier, Kompanieführer and later Ordonnanzoffizier and Adjutant, receiving both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz, the Ritterkreuz des Königlichen Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern and the Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz. Retained in the Reichswehr after 1919, he advanced steadily through the ranks of the 5. (Preußisches) Infanterie-Regiment and related staff appointments, reaching Oberst by June 1939. At the outbreak of the Second World War he briefly commanded Infanterie-Ersatz-Regiment 216 before taking over Infanterie-Regiment 74 of the 19. Infanterie-Division on 10 October 1939. For the outstanding performance of his regiment during the Westfeldzug—especially the rapid seizure of eleven bunkers on the Maas near Roermond on 10 May 1940 after personal reconnaissance, an action that made the regiment the most successful and least costly of its division—he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 4 September 1940 as Oberst. Following the conversion of the 19. Infanterie-Division into the 19. Panzer-Division he assumed command of the newly formed 19. Schützen-Brigade and led it into the Ostfeldzug in 1941. On 6 January 1942 he was entrusted with the Führung of the 19. Panzer-Division, was promoted Generalmajor on 1 April 1942 and confirmed as its Kommandeur, receiving the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold the same month. Advanced to Generalleutnant on 1 January 1943, he earned the Eichenlaub (203rd award) on 6 March 1943 for the decisive employment of his division during the defensive battles of the winter of 1942/43; in early December, when Soviet forces sought to rupture the front southeast of Toropez, Schmidt prepared and personally directed a counter-thrust from the foremost line that surprised the enemy, drove far beyond the assigned objectives, closed the gap in the German front and cut off two Soviet corps that had already broken through. After the failure of the Kursk offensive the staff of the 19. Panzer-Division became isolated near Beresowka in the Belgorod area during the subsequent Soviet Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive; with ammunition nearly exhausted, Generalleutnant Schmidt and his Adjutant Oberleutnant Köhne took their own lives on 7 August 1943 to avoid capture.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Panzer_Division
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