Who we represent:

Our group seeks to represent the 4.Kompanie, 914.Grenadier Regiment, 352.Infanterie Division which was the heavy weapons company within the first battalion (I./914). The Company (Kompanie) was divided into four Platoons (Züge), each Zug was further divided into four Squads (Gruppen).

The troops who served in the ranks of the Division were a mixed bunch. On its forming in 1943, a veteran recalled that 50% of one Company were 17 or 18 year old Hanoverian conscripts, 20% were Poles who were classified by the authorities as being of German stock and therefore eligible for combat service, 20% came from the recently dissolved Vlassov Division, and the final 10% were “Eastern Front veterans.”

The regiment was later part of 352. Volksgrenadier Division, where its order of battle remained essentially the same while troop numbers decreased.

Sept 1943 – Dec 1943: The 914.Grenadier Regiment, alongside the 915. and 916.Grenadier Regiments, were formed as part of the 352.Infanterie Division, a new “Type 1944” infantry division. The Division came into being following Adolf Hitler’s directive No. 51 in November 1943. The cadre for the new division came mainly from the 321. and 268.Infanterie Divisions which had been smashed on the Eastern Front. A smaller number of recruits came from Infanterie Ersatz und Ausbildungs Batallion 480 based in Schlann.  The rest of the Division was filled out when it was assigned to Wehrkreis XI in Hannover.

Dec 1943 – Mar 1944: The Division arrived in St. Lo, 20 miles Southwest of what were to be the Normandy landing beaches, on 5, December 1943 to start training its new recruits in anti-invasion tactics. Some of the NCO’s were Russian Front veterans while most of the officers were combat experienced ex-NCO’s who had been promoted. Their knowledge and experiences were passed down to the new men during the training.

At this point the Division had a strength of nearly 13,000 men and its full complement of weapons. In January 1944 the Division moved closer to the coast where anti-invasion training was at the heart of the divisional operations. During this time considerable effort was made to have men working on the physical construction of anti-invasion defenses on the coast itself.

Mar 1944 – June 1944: The Division continued to train and build its strength and by April 1944 it had reached its full complement, totaling 13,228 men. During May 1944 the Division left St. Lo and moved to the coast where it was given responsibility for “Coast Defense Sector Bayeaux” which ran from Carentan, in the West, to Asnelles-sur Mer, 7 miles Northeast of Bayeaux, in the east. Essentially the Division was given responsibility for a corridor stretching from the Utah to Gold landing beaches, nearly 35 miles of coastline!

6th June 1944 (D-Day) – Sept 1944: The first soldiers from the Division to spot the invasion fleet, at 05:02am, were stationed in the Wiederstandneste (resistance nests) between Omaha and Gold beaches at Port-en-Bessin. The 4.Kompanie, 914.Grenadier Regiment was manning the defenses in front of the beach areas of Point du Hoc and took a very heavy toll of the American 2nd Ranger Division, which started its assault at 06:30am.

Ultimately the Division elements would be forced back and the Allied troops would exact their own toll on the defending German troops. By the end of the D-day the rough casualty figures for the Division were: 200 killed, 500 wounded, and 500 missing.

The soldiers carried on fighting around St. Lo and by the end of July the Division had effectively ceased to exist.

In August 1944, the few survivors of the Regiment were sent to Flensburg, in the Schleswig-Holstein area of Northern Germany, to form a cadre for a rebuilt regiment. To accomplish the rebuilding, the 352.Infanterie Division absorbed the 581.Volksgrenadier Division and was itself renamed as a Volksgrenadier Division. To create the additional mass of the Regiment, replacements were also drafted primarily from the Kriegsmarine, along with some redundant Luftwaffe ground crews. The troops were described as averaging 22 to 30 years old, with limited training and no combat experience.

914.Grenadier Regiment was again up to full strength and had been allotted 98% of its equipment by the time it launched its attack on December 16th.

The 352.Infaterie Division C.O. during this period was Generalleutnant Kraiß to 2nd August, Generalmajor von Schuckman held command until February of 1945.

Sept 1944 – Dec 1944:  The 352.Volksgrenadier Division held a sector of the West Wall before it was sent into action once more as part of the 7.Armee during the Ardennes offensive, launched on 16, December. The manpower of the 352nd had come mainly from the Kriegsmarine and disbanded Luftwaffe units, most of whom had little, if any, experience of combat. At the time, the average age of a Volksgrenadier infantryman was 17 and most had only a few weeks of infantry training behind them.

Dec 1944 – Mar 1945: As part of the southern flank, 352.Volksgrenadier Division pushed the U.S. 28th Infantry Division back through Diekirch, Ettelbruck, and Merzig. During this time the 352.Volksgrenadier Division was commanded by Generalmajor Erich Otto Schmidt, 914.Grenadier Regiment by Major Theodor von Lucken, and the 4.Kompanie by Oberleutnant Gunter Obst.

After the Ardennes offensive, what was left of the Regiment made a slow withdrawal into Germany. The Division was once again reinforced with the last reserves of manpower available at the time- meaning Volkssturm, border guard, and alarm units. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that the Regiment had again virtually ceased to exist as an effective fighting force; old men and boys incapable of waging a war filled its ranks.

Mar 1945 – April 1945: In March 1945 the Division, and its constituent Regiments, was placed with an assortment of other units and re-designated a Kampfgruppe where it was to fight in the Rhineland battles South of Remagen. The 914.Grenadier Regiment surrendered to French Moroccan troops in South West Germany in April, 1945. The Kampfgruppe itself was effectively destroyed on 27, April 1945 while fighting in the area of Aasen-Heidenhofen, due east of Freiburg. The 352.Volksgrenadier Divison C.O. during this period was Generalmajor Rudolf von Oppen.

The 914.Grenadier Regiment had a life of approximately 15 months, and is a classic example of the infantry line regiments of World War Two.