The 76. Infanterie-Division was formed on 26 August 1939 in Potsdam as a division of the 2. Aufstellungswelle under the Infanterie-Kommandeur 23, drawing personnel and cadres from the 23. Infanterie-Division and initially comprising Infanterie-Regiment 178, Infanterie-Regiment 203, Infanterie-Regiment 230, Artillerie-Regiment 176, Pionier-Bataillon 176, Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 176, Aufklärungs-Abteilung 176 and the Infanterie-Divisions-Nachrichten-Abteilung 176. Under its first Kommandeur, General der Artillerie Maximilian de Angelis, the division took part in the Westfeldzug of 1940, attacking in the Verdun sector alongside the 36. Infanterie-Division and 299. Infanterie-Division before moving to occupation duties. In 1941 it transferred to Romania and entered the campaign against the Soviet Union with Heeresgruppe Süd, advancing through the Ukraine via Poltawa, Charkow and Belgorod into the area of Artemowsk, where it remained in defensive fighting until the summer of 1942. During the German summer offensive the division crossed the Don near Akimowskij, reached the heights of Kotluban and took up positions in the northern corridor between the Don and the Volga as part of the VIII. Armee-Korps of the 6. Armee. Under Generalleutnant Carl Rodenburg, who assumed command on 26 January 1942, the division repeatedly repelled Soviet attacks south of Kotluban in September 1942 and held its sector until the Soviet counter-offensive of November closed the Stalingrad Kessel; the bulk of the division was destroyed in the ensuing fighting and ceased to exist by February 1943. On 17 February 1943 the Oberbefehlshaber West ordered the reformation of the 76. Infanterie-Division, incorporating the verstärkten Grenadier-Regimenter 876 and 877. The rebuilt division served briefly in Italy before returning to the Eastern Front, where it fought heavy defensive battles in the Ukraine and eastern Romania, particularly around Letcani and Iaşi during the Soviet Jassy-Kishinev offensive of 1944, suffering severe losses that required further refitting in September and October. Successive commanders after Rodenburg included General der Infanterie Erich Abraham and Generalleutnant Siegfried von Rekowski. The remnants of the 76. Infanterie-Division finally surrendered to the Red Army in May 1945 near Deutsch-Brod in Slovakia.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Generalleutnant Carl Rodenburg (1894-1992) was born on 17 May 1894 in Geestemünde and entered the army on 1 October 1913 as an Einjährig-Freiwilliger in the 5. Badische Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 113, serving in the First World War as a platoon and company commander and rising to Oberleutnant by 1918 while receiving both classes of the Iron Cross. After the war he continued in the Reichswehr as a company commander and later, already in the Wehrmacht as Oberstleutnant from 1937, commanded the Lehrstab of the Infanterieschule Döberitz. In the Second World War he led Infanterie-Regiment 203 through the western campaign and into the east, earning the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 7 March 1942 as Oberst. Appointed Kommandeur of the 76. Infanterie-Division on 26 January 1942 and promoted to Generalmajor on 1 April 1942, he directed the division in the fighting between the Don and the Volga from 24 August 1942, holding critical high ground south of Kotluban and repeatedly repelling Soviet assaults, particularly on 18 and 23 September, during which the division and its attached units destroyed 227 enemy tanks. For this leadership he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 8 October 1942 while still a Generalmajor and Kommandeur of the 76. Infanterie-Division under the VIII. Armee-Korps of the 6. Armee. Promoted to Generalleutnant on 1 December 1942, Rodenburg continued to command the division after it was encircled at Stalingrad; his forces’ steadfast defence northeast of Verkhnyaya Yelshanka from 22 to 28 November 1942 blocked a Soviet thrust toward the Don bridges and enabled counter-moves by neighbouring corps, while later actions included the use of his artillery regiment as infantry in an assault at the Bolshaya Rossoshka collective farm on 18 January 1943. These achievements earned him the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 31 January 1943 as the 189th recipient. On the same day he surrendered with the remnants of his division and went into Soviet captivity, from which he was released only in 1955. Rodenburg died on 5 November 1992 in Greven.
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RITTERKREUZTRÄGER
General der Artillerie Maximilian de Angelis (1889-1974) was born on 2 October 1889 in Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the son of a k.u.k. officer and began his military career after attending the Theresianische Militärakademie in Wiener Neustadt, being commissioned Leutnant in the k.u.k. Feldkanonenregiment 42 in 1908; he served with distinction in the First World War as an artillery officer and Generalstabsoffizier, rising to Hauptmann, and after the war continued in the Austrian Bundesheer, attaining the ranks of Major, Oberstleutnant and Oberst while teaching at military schools and holding staff positions. Following the Anschluss in March 1938 he was promoted to Generalmajor and integrated into the Wehrmacht, later becoming Artilleriekommandeur XV; at the outbreak of the Second World War he took command of the 76. Infanterie-Division, which he led in the Westfeldzug, earning the Eisernes Kreuz II. Klasse on 13 May 1940 and I. Klasse on 1 June 1940, and was promoted Generalleutnant on 1 August 1940. On the Eastern Front from 1941 his division advanced from Romania through Jassy, Tiraspol and Krementschug toward Artemowsk, and it was for his resolute defence that prevented a Soviet breakthrough toward Artemowsk on 18 January 1942 while serving as Generalleutnant and Kommandeur of the 76. Infanterie-Division that he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 9 February 1942. Shortly thereafter, on 26 January 1942, he assumed temporary command of the XXXXIV. Armeekorps and on 1 March 1942 was promoted to General der Artillerie and confirmed as its Kommandierender General; under his leadership the corps forced the crossing of the Donez river in the summer of 1942, conducted a relentless pursuit of retreating Soviet forces deep into the western Caucasus as far as the approaches to Tuapse, and later played a decisive role in holding the Kuban bridgehead against numerically superior enemy forces, achievements for which he was awarded the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz as the 323rd recipient on 12 November 1943 while still commanding the XXXXIV. Armeekorps. He subsequently held temporary and permanent command of the 6. Armee and from July 1944 served as Oberbefehlshaber of the 2. Panzerarmee in the Balkans until the end of the war; among his further decorations were the Militärorden Michael der Tapfere III. Klasse awarded on 19 September 1941 and the Medaille Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42. Captured by American forces in May 1945, he was later extradited to Yugoslavia and then the Soviet Union, sentenced for war crimes, and released only in 1955, thereafter living in Germany and Austria until his death in Graz on 6 December 1974.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/76th_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)
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