Ritterkreuzträger of 31. Infanterie-Division "Löwen-Division"

The 31. Infanterie-Division, nicknamed the Löwen-Division due to its emblem displaying the Brunswick lion, was established in October 1936 in Braunschweig within Wehrkreis XI. Mobilized in late August 1939 under Generalleutnant Rudolf Kaempfe, the formation originally consisted of Infanterie-Regiment 12, Infanterie-Regiment 17, Infanterie-Regiment 82, and Artillerie-Regiment 31. During the Polish campaign in September 1939, it breached frontier fortifications as part of XVI. Armeekorps under 10. Armee, before being transferred west in 1940 to participate in the invasion of Belgium and France through XI. Armeekorps. In June 1941, reassigned to Panzergruppe 2 under Heeresgruppe Mitte for Unternehmen Barbarossa, the division crossed the Soviet border under Generalmajor Kurt Kalmuekoff, engaging in encirclement actions around Bialystok, Minsk, and Smolensk before driving toward Moscow. Over the following winters, command shifted through several distinguished officers, including Generalmajor Gerhard Berthold, Oberst Friedrich Hoßbach, and later Generalleutnant Kurt Pflieger. The division endured brutal attritional fighting in the Rzhev salient, Orel, and Gomel, suffering heavy casualties while its subordinate infantry regiments were reorganized as Grenadier-Regimenter. In the summer of 1944, during the Soviet Operation Bagration, the unit found itself surrounded near Mogilev and was virtually annihilated alongside the remnants of 4. Armee; its commander, Generalmajor Willifrank Ochsner, went missing and fell into Soviet captivity. Officially disbanded in July 1944, its remnant personnel formed the nucleus of the newly created 31. Grenadier-Division, which fought in Courland and Prussia until final surrender.

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RITTERKREUZTRÄGER


General der Infanterie Friedrich Hossbach (1894-1980), born on 21 November 1894 in Unna, entered the Prussian army as Fähnrich in the 2. Kurhessische Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 82 on 29 October 1913 and was promoted to Leutnant in 1914. He served throughout the First World War, ending as Oberleutnant on the staff of the XVIII. Armee-Korps. Remaining in the Reichswehr after the war, he rose through the ranks and from 1934 to 1938 served as Adjutant der Wehrmacht bei Adolf Hitler, during which he authored the famous Hossbach-Niederschrift recording Hitler's expansionist plans of 5 November 1937. Dismissed in the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis for warning Werner von Fritsch of accusations against him, Hossbach returned to troop command as Kommandeur of Infanterie-Regiment 82. During the Westfeldzug, as Oberst, on 12 June 1940 near Dieppe he personally led a rapid intervention against Allied troops embarking by sea, bringing up a Pak-Zug that forced the transports to flee and enabled the capture of about 4200 British and French soldiers along with substantial materiel; later he secured a bridgehead over the Loire. For these and other successes in the French campaign he received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 7 October 1940. Promoted to Generalleutnant, he took acting command of the LVI. Panzerkorps in August 1943 and distinguished himself in defensive fighting near Spass-Demensk, along the Desna river and at Gomel, earning the Eichenlaub to the Ritterkreuz on 11 September 1943 as the 298th recipient. Advanced to General der Infanterie and Kommandierender General of the LVI. Panzerkorps, he later commanded the 4. Armee from July 1944 until dismissed by Hitler in January 1945 for ordering a breakout from East Prussia against explicit orders. Surviving an assassination attempt in April 1945, he was captured by American forces, released in 1947, and died in Göttingen on 10 September 1980.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/31st_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)