286th Security Division (Wehrmacht)

286th Security Division
286. Sicherungs-Division

286. Sicherungs Division Vehicle Insignia
Active March 1941 - April 1945
Country Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
Allegiance Wehrmacht
Branch Heer
Type Infantry
Role Security
Size Division
Part of Army Group Centre
Engagements

World War II

Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Johann-Georg Richert

The 286th Security Division (German: 286. Sicherungs-Division) was a German military formation which fought in World War II.

History and Organisation

The 286th Security Division was formed on 15 March 1941 around elements of the 213th Infantry Division. By the end of 1941 its organisation was as follows:

By 1942 another two Security Regiments, 61 (upgraded from the Landesschützen-Regiment staff 61) and 122, were attached. A variety of units were subordinated to the division during its existence, including battalions of Russian troops and from February 1944 Grenadier Regiment 638, consisting of French volunteers, the LVF.

During this period the division was assigned to Fourth Army, where it carried out occupation, security and anti-partisan duties in rear areas. It is known to have been involved in punitive operations against the local populace: these actions were carried out with extreme brutality (in total, Belarus lost up to a quarter of its population during the German occupation). A defendant at one of the post-war Soviet war crimes trials, Paul Eick, stated that he had set out to create and then liquidate a ghetto in the town of Orsha under the division's command.[1]

In June 1944 Fourth Army was encircled by Soviet forces during the liberation of the Belorussian SSR, Operation Bagration. The 286th Security Division was overrun and destroyed in the vicinity of Orsha. Its remnants were reorganised late that year at Memel as the 286th Infantry Division, assigned to the Third Panzer Army; it was again destroyed at Neukuhren during the battles in Samland towards the end of the war.

Commanders

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Prusin, p14

References

Further reading


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