25th Panzergrenadier Division | |
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25th Panzergrenadier Division insignia
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Active | 1943 - 1945 |
Country | Nazi Germany |
Branch | Army |
Type | Panzergrenadier |
Role | Armoured warfare |
Size | Division |
Nickname(s) | Stuttgarter Haus Division |
Engagements | World War II |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders |
Anton Graßer |
The 25th Panzergrenadier Division fought in the central sector of the Eastern front from June 1943 to July 1944. It was destroyed in the encirclement east of Minsk and reformed in October 1944. It then fought in Western Europe between October 1944 and January 1945 and in eastern Germany January to May 1945. Most of the survivors of the division surrendered to the western Allies.
The 25th started as an infantry division formed from Swabians and Bavarians. It participated in the Polish Campaign and the Battle of France. In late 1940, it was reorganized as a motorized infantry division and took part in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, in June 1941. It was attached to Army Group Center and fought in the Soviet Union for two years before being reorganized as the 25th Panzergrenadier Division in June, 1943. After another year of heavy fighting, the division was almost destroyed near Minsk during the Soviet Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944; the survivors were reorganized at the training area at Mielau (in modern-day Poland) as the 107th Panzer Brigade.
In September 1944, 107th Panzer Brigade participated in Operation Market Garden as part of LXXXVI Corps of the 1st Parachute Army. The Brigade had been re-routed from Aachen to Holland and went almost immediately into combat at Nuenen against the American 506th PIR of the 101st Airborne Division and the British 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars of the 11th Armoured Division. (This action is dramatised in the television series Band of Brothers )