411 REFERENCE · Wikipedia
114th Jäger Division
Reference material by Wikipedia contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
714th Infantry Division114th Jäger Division de 714. Infanterie-Divisionde 114. Jäger-Division none 114. Jaeger Div.png 200 114. Jäger Division Vehicle Insignia 1941–April 1945 Nazi Germany 16px Heer (Wehrmacht) Infantry (1941-1943)Jäger (1943-1945) Light Infantry Division World War II
Battle of Kozara
Operation Ziethen
Operation Delphin
Battle of Anzio
Operation Encore
114th Jäger Division (de 114. Jäger-Division) was a light infantry division of the German Army in World War II. It was formed in April 1943, following the reorganization and redesignation of the 714th Infantry Division (de 714. Infanterie-Division no). The 714th Division had been formed in May 1941, and transferred to Yugoslavia to conduct anti-partisan and Internal security operations. It was involved in Operation Delphin which was an anti-partisan operation in Croatia that took place between 15 November and 1 December 1943. The objective of the mission was to destroy the Partisan elements on the Dalmatian islands off central Dalmatia.
The division was transferred to Italy in January 1944, to reinforce the Anzio front.Hoyt, p. 141 It was deployed against the US 10th Mountain Division during Operation Encore, where by April 1945 it was destroyed.
Background
The main purpose of the German jäger divisions was to fight in adverse terrain where smaller, coordinated formations were more facilely combat capable than the brute force offered by the standard infantry divisions. The jäger divisions were more heavily equipped than mountain divisions, but not as well armed as a larger infantry formation. In the early stages of the war, they were the interface divisions fighting in rough terrain and foothills as well as urban areas, between the mountains and the plains. The jägers (it means hunters in German), relied on a high degree of training and slightly superior communications, as well as their not inconsiderable artillery support. In the middle stages of the war, as the standard infantry divisions were downsized, the Jäger structure of divisions with two infantry regiments, became the standard table of organization.Mcoy, Breaker German Army 101st Light Division, 101st Jager Division 1941 – 42 2009 http://www.quikmaneuvers.com/german_army_101st_light_division.html 3 April 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090629041521/http://www.quikmaneuvers.com/german_army_101st_light_division.html 29 June 2009 dead dmy-all
Alleged war crimes
The 114th Jäger Division was implicated in a war crime in the village of Filetto di Camarda, when seventeen men were shot in retaliation for the killing of four German soldiers on 7 June 1944 and parts of the village were burned down. The officer in command at the time was Matthias Defregger, who became a bishop in Munich after the war and was forced to resign when investigations of the killing were reopened in 1969.
The division has been implicated in the Madonna dell'Albero massacre, Emilia-Romagna, on 27 November 1944, when 56 civilians were executed.http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=38&id_strage=4576&lang=en Madonna dell'Albero, Ravenna, 27.11.1944 Atlas of Nazi and Fascist Massacres in Italy 20 September 2018 it http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=297&ricerca=52&lang=en 114. Jäger-Division Atlas of Nazi and Fascist Massacres in Italy 20 September 2018 it
The division also took part in the shooting of forty civilians in Gubbio on 22 June 1944, in reprisal for a partisan attack on two officers, one of whom was killed, the other wounded.1944 - 2019: 40 Martiri di Gubbio https://www.eugubininelmondo.com/Latest/40Martiri.html Associazione “Eugubini nel Mondo” 22 June 2019
This formation was one of those singled out in exhibit UK-66, the British report on German reprisals for Partisan activities in Italy at the International Military Tribunal war crimes trial in Nuremberg:
Evidence has been found to show that a large number of the atrocities in Italy were committed by the Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring, 1st Parachute Division, 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division and the 114th Jäger Division.
Commanders
Generalleutnant Friedrich Stahl (2 May 1941 – 31 December 1942)
Generalleutnant Josef Reichert (1 January 1943 – 20 February 1943)
General der Gebirgstruppe Karl Eglseer (20 February 1943 – 1 December 1943)
Generalleutnant Alexander Bourquin (1 December 1943 – 19 May 1944)
Generalleutnant Dr. Hans Boelsen (19 May 1944 – 19 July 1944)
Generalmajor Hans-Joachim Ehlert (19 July 1944 – 15 April 1945)
Generalmajor Martin Strahammer (15 April 1945 – 23 April 1945)
Area of operations
Germany (May 1941 – May 1941)
Serbia and Independent State of Croatia (May 1941 – April 1943)
Yugoslavia (April 1943 – January 1944)
Italy (January 1944 – April 1945)
Order of battle
Jäger Regiment 721
Jäger Regiment 741
Reconnaissance Battalion 114
Artillery Regiment 661
Pionier Battalion 114
Panzerjäger Battalion 114
Signals Battalion 114
Reserve Battalion 114
Supply detachment 114
References
Sources
Backwater War: the Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943–1945 Hoyt Edwin Palmer Greenwood Publishing Group 2002 978-0-275-97478-7
Günther, Matthias. "Die 114. Jäger-Division (714. ID). Partisanenbekämpfung und Geiselerschießungen der Wehrmacht auf dem Balkan und in Italien." Quellen und Forschungen in italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 85, 2005, pp. 395–424 (PDF)
Shepherd Ben Terror in the Balkans: German Armies and Partisan Warfare 2012 Harvard University Press 978-0-674-04891-1 Shepherd_2012
June 2017
Category:Military units and formations established in 1941
Category:Jäger Divisions
Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945
Category:Military units and formations of Germany in Yugoslavia in World War II
Category:War crimes of the Wehrmacht