The 296. Infanterie-Division was established on 6 February 1940 in Wehrkreis XIII as a formation of the 8. Welle, organizing Infanterie-Regiment 519, Infanterie-Regiment 520, Infanterie-Regiment 521, and Artillerie-Regiment 296 alongside supporting divisional troops. Assigned to coastal security duties in northern France after the Western campaign, it was redeployed eastward in the spring of 1941 to participate in Operation Barbarossa. Subordinated to IV. Armeekorps under 17. Armee within Heeresgruppe Süd, the division spearheaded advances across Ukraine, engaging Red Army forces at the frontier, breaking through the Stalin Line, and actively participating in the encirclement during the Battle of Kiev. Commanded during this phase by Generalmajor Wilhelm Stemmermann, its soldiers saw brutal combat around Poltava before the division transferred to Heeresgruppe Mitte in early 1942. There, under the leadership of Generalleutnant Friedrich Krischer, Generalleutnant Karl Faulenbach, and later Generalleutnant Arthur Kullmer, the 296. Infanterie-Division defended the heavily fortified Oryol and Bryansk sectors, repelling successive Soviet counteroffensives. Its infantry regiments were subsequently reorganized into Grenadier-Regiment 519 and Grenadier-Regiment 520, while seasoned personnel distinguished themselves, earning numerous awards of the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold and the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes. By late 1943, following prolonged defensive struggles during the Battle of Kursk, the division conducted fighting withdrawals across Gomel toward Belarus. In June 1944, attached to XXXV. Armeekorps of 9. Armee, the division was completely engulfed in the Babruysk pocket during the devastating Soviet Operation Bagration. Encircled along the Berezina River, the exhausted formation collapsed under overwhelming assaults, resulting in heavy casualties and the mass capture of its remaining troops. The 296. Infanterie-Division was officially declared destroyed and formally dissolved on 3 August 1944.
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EICHENLAUBTRÄGER
Oberst Alfred Druffner (1904-1943) was born on 28 May 1904 in Denkendorf and entered the Infanterie-Regiment 13 in 1922, receiving promotion to Leutnant in 1927, to Oberleutnant five years later, and to Hauptmann on 11 November 1935 as Führer of the 14. (Panzerabwehr-)Kompanie in the Infanterie-Regiment 109; after the Westfeldzug he became Kommandeur of the II. Bataillon of the Infanterie-Regiment 519, earning the Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse on 20 December 1940 and the Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse on 6 August 1941 early in the Ostfeldzug, followed by the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold on 27 October 1941 as Major in the II./Infanterie-Regiment 519, the Infanterie-Sturmabzeichen, and the Medaille “Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/42” on 21 July 1942, before assuming command of the Grenadier-Regiment 519 of the 296. Infanterie-Division in 1942 and advancing to Oberstleutnant; in early 1943, while his regiment was locked in heavy defensive combat north of Orel, Druffner launched a successful counterattack against a bitterly defending Soviet force that outnumbered him three to one, recapturing a commanding hill and then continuing the assault beyond the ordered objective to eliminate a potential threat to the flank, an action for which he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 6 April 1943 as Oberstleutnant and Kommandeur of Grenadier-Regiment 519; promoted to Oberst, he again distinguished himself in the Orel sector during the summer of 1943 when, after enemy forces penetrated the lines to the right of his regiment and threatened the flank and rear of a neighbouring Bataillon, he took his reserve Kompanie and eliminated the threat, and later personally led a handful of Grenadiers into an enemy-occupied village, threw the surprised Soviets out, and pursued them onto the hills on either side, thereby creating a breach in the Soviet defensive network through which a friendly counterthrust achieved complete success, deeds that earned him the posthumous award of the 343rd Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 30 November 1943 as Oberst and Kommandeur of Grenadier-Regiment 519 after he was heavily wounded two days later in a Russian attack and died of his injuries on 29 September 1943 in a Lazarett near Orel, his final rank being Oberst.
Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/296th_Infantry_Division
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