The 111. Infanterie-Division was a combat formation of the German Wehrmacht raised on 5 November 1940 at Truppenübungsplatz Fallingbostel in Wehrkreis XI as part of the 12. Welle. Under its first commander, Generalmajor Otto Stapf, the division integrated Infanterie-Regiment 50 from 3. Infanterie-Division, Infanterie-Regiment 70 from 36. Infanterie-Division, Infanterie-Regiment 117 from Festungs-Regiment D, and Artillerie-Regiment 117. Deployed to occupied Poland in May 1941, the division participated in Unternehmen Barbarossa under 6. Armee within Heeresgruppe Süd, crossing the Bug and fighting against Soviet armor at Dubno. In late August 1941, it established a vital bridgehead across the Dnieper north of Kiev alongside 113. and 298. Infanterie-Division, striking into the Soviet rear and assisting in the encirclement and destruction of the Soviet 37th Army. On 1 January 1942, Generalmajor Hermann Recknagel assumed command, leading the division in fierce winter defensive actions along the Mius-Front and halting the Soviet breakthrough near Barvenkovo. In summer 1942, attached to 17. Armee and later 1. Panzerarmee, the division advanced during Fall Blau into the Caucasus, reaching Mozdok, Nalchik, and Ordzhonikidze. Following the catastrophe at Stalingrad, it conducted a fighting withdrawal back to the Mius-Front, anchoring positions around Taganrog through mid-1943. After the Soviet Donbass strategic offensive, the division retreated toward Melitopol and defended the Nikopol bridgehead through early 1944 under Generalmajor Erich Gruner. Transferred to the Crimea under Generalleutnant Kurt Adam to bolster 17. Armee, the division became encircled during the Soviet Crimean offensive. Cut off around Sevastopol and Cape Chersonese, the remaining elements suffered catastrophic losses in May 1944, with surviving personnel evacuated across the Black Sea, leading to the formal dissolution of 111. Infanterie-Division.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
General der Infanterie Hermann Recknagel (1892-1945) was born on 18 July 1892 in Strauchmühle near Hofgeismar. He joined the Imperial German Army and served in the First World War, receiving the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 1 October 1914 and 1. Klasse on 30 September 1916. In the interwar period he rose through the ranks and by 1939 commanded Infanterie-Regiment 54 of the 18. Infanterie-Division. During the Polish campaign he earned the Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz 2. Klasse on 22 September 1939 and 1. Klasse on 2 October 1939. Promoted to Oberst on 1 February 1940, he led the regiment in the Western campaign. For his command of the lead elements of Infanterie-Regiment 54 during the fighting for Dunkirk on 3 June 1940, by which enemy resistance was subdued and the city captured the following day, he was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 5 August 1940. He then took the regiment to the Eastern Front in June 1941. On 1 January 1942 he assumed command of the 111. Infanterie-Division, being promoted to Generalmajor on 1 March 1942 and Generalleutnant in 1943; he also received the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 11 February 1943. In August 1943, as commander of Korpsgruppe Recknagel on the southern sector of the Eastern Front, his forces destroyed 273 Soviet tanks around Kamyschewacha, Many and Uspenskaja before breaking out of encirclement toward Mariupol-Melitopol on 31 August, earning the Eichenlaub on 6 November 1943 as the 319th recipient. In June 1944 he became Kommandierender General of the XXXXII. Armeekorps and was promoted to General der Infanterie on 1 July 1944. For outstanding leadership during the Soviet summer offensive, enabling the corps to avoid encirclement after the collapse of Heeresgruppe Mitte and to consolidate the front in the great bend of the Vistula and the Baranów bridgehead, he received the Schwerter on 23 October 1944 as the 104th recipient. He was killed by Polish partisans on 23 January 1945 near Piotrków Trybunalski.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)
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