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With the German takeover of Austria and it's armed forces, what was once the 4th Austrian Division was incorporated into the German Heer and redesignated as the 45.Infanterie-Division. In the 1939 Polish Campaign, the division was on the right wing of von Runstedt's Heeresgruppe Sud. An entry from the divisional war diary reports:

"Large-scale quick marches were demanded of the foot troops. In lasting oppressive heat, terrible dust and miserable thirst,the men showed in these days with bitter energy what marching performances they could give. In thirteen days 400 kilometers were covered from the border to the Lubaszov area, an average of over 30 kilometers a day." Total losses for the division in the Polish campaign were 158 dead, 360 wounded.

The now veteran 45.Infanterie-division was assigned to Heeresgruppe Mitte, 2.Panzergruppe, XII.Armeekorps for the June 22nd,1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. At the very start of the eastern campaign, the division was assigned the serious task of the taking of the fortress of Brest-Litovsk on the Bug River. The fighting to reduce the Soviet held fortress was brutal, and the division took many casualties in the process.

On December 12, 1941, OKH Generalstabschef Halder reported to FHQ that the hard-fought unit was unfit for further combat operations for lack of supplies. While attempting to pull back to reserve positions, its withdrawal route was cut-off by the Soviets and elements of the division were encircled and dispersed. Much of it's horse-drawn artillery and vehicles were abandoned to the blinding snow-drifts and the advancing Russians, with the horses either starving or freezing to death in the frozen wastes.

By July 1, 1943 the 45.Infanterie-division would be a component of Gen.der Infanterie Freiheer von Roman's XX.Armeekorps,itself the reserve korps of Generaloberst Model's 9.Armee, for the impending Operation Zitadelle against Soviet forces in the Kursk salient. Committed to some of the most brutal fighting of the offensive as 9.Armee's last reserve at Ponyri, the division suffered serious casualties,and would be severely diminished in strength by the end of July 1943. Fighting westward that autumn in the defense of Sozh, and in the subsequent retreats of Heeresgruppe Mitte, the division was near collapse, but still remained at the front as the weather turned and allowed it temporary respite from further offensive operations by the Soviet Armies.

The 45.Infanterie-division was largely destroyed in the Soviet summer 1944 offensive against Heeresgruppe Mitte. What few survivors of the division that made it west, beyond the great encirclement of the Red Army, would be used to form the cadre elements for a new division, redesignated the 45.Grenadier-division.


Courtesy of www.feldgrau.com
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