The 45th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the army of Nazi Germany during World War II. Towards the end of the war, the division was reassembled into a second iteration, the 45th Volksgrenadier Division

History

45th Infantry Division

With the annexation of Austria in 1938 by Nazi Germany, what was once the 4th Austrian Division was incorporated into the Wehrmacht (German Army) and re-designated the 45th Infantry Division. In the 1939 Invasion of Poland, the division was on the right wing of Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group South. On 22 June 1941, the 45th Infantry Division began Operation Barbarossa by starting the 9-day long siege of the Brest Fortress. In March 1942 the Red Army defeated the division at Livny, Russia and captured the archive of the division. That was the first time the Red Army learned about the defense of the Brest Fortress It suffered heavy casualties during the Battle of Kursk. It was rebuilt but virtually destroyed at Bobruysk in June 1944 during Operation Bagration.

45th Volksgrenadier Division

The destroyed 45th Division was again rebuilt as the "45th Volksgrenadier Division" in the autumn of 1944 in Poland, by renaming the short-lived 546th Grenadier Division, which was then still in formation. On 1 January, the division (then under 9th Army of Army Group A) had a strength of 10,118 men. The division fought at Warsaw and Radom in 1945, retreating through Silesia to Koniggratz, and finally to Czechoslovakia, where it surrendered.

Commanding officers

Order of battle

1939

1942

1943–1944