22nd Panzer Division

Renaud · October 20, 2005

This was one of the panzer divisions formed shortly after barbarossa out of 2nd hand equipment, refitted Czech tanks, and cadres contributed by existing units (undoubtedly the people they wanted to get rid of).

Going into action for the first time, with no combat zone training, at 0600 hours on March 20, 1942 in the Karch Peninsula of the Crimea, 1/204th Panzer Battalion of 204 Regiment suffered 40% tank losses (23% overall for the regiment) when it got lost in fog, made a wrong turn, and encountered a Russian Independent Tank Brigade counterattacking from the northwest. Essentially they were mangled by T34s and KV-1's.

After this debacle, the 22nd Panzer division was pulled back for a rest and refit. It next saw action on May 7 in the same terrain against the same opponents during the successful conquest of the Karch Peninsula, assisted by 5 seriously understrength infantry divisions and a few hungarian divisions.

I found the equipment for March 20 from the regimental commander, Oberst Koppenburg, referenced in "Panzertruppen":

1/204th Battalion HQ: 1x Pz IIf, 1x Pz 38(t), 1x SdKfz 251

1st (Lt) Company: 5x Pz IIf, 15x Pz 38(t)

2nd (Lt) Company: 5x Pz IIf, 15x Pz 38(t)

3rd (Med) Company 5x Pz IIf, 8x Pz IVf1

Now, my question is, what kind of tank replacements might the regiment get during the 6-week rest/refit period? They lost 20-22 of the above tanks on March 20.

Shmavis · October 21, 2005

Hmmm. This must be the famous "Eau de Cologne" division mentioned by Gottlob Bidermann in his book "In Deadly Combat", as it "came from the West and evaporated quickly." I had wondered which division it was. Thanks.

JasonC · October 21, 2005

Anywere from "none" to "up to full TOE". 6 weeks is sufficient for the latter, it is a question of what trains arrived with what aboard. Not a question one can answer with general practices. You'd need the actual shipments from a detailed unit history, or the daily tank strength reports.

Renaud · October 21, 2005

Shmavis: Probably correct! This unit began forming up near Paris starting September 41.

If I had to guess, which I do, I'd say they were brought up to full TOE for the decisive May 7 offensive. It is highly unlikely that any AFV's were recovered during the March 20 battle, as the losses occured 4-5km inside soviet lines.

The main question for me is what models of tank did they get based on production and delivery schedules for that period. This was the only armor in the Crimea and clearly had second hand equipment even for early 42, but on the other hand Stalin and Hitler had made a big propoganda war out of the Crimea. So perhaps the replacement units were more advanced like MkIVF2 'specials', or MkIIIJ's. But then, adding yet another distinct AFV model to the battalion would only exacerbate maintenance and supply issues. On the other hand, maybe they just got a trainload of 38t's.

As a historical note, the 22nd was sent to the stalingrad front immediately after Kerch and subsequently destroyed in the battles along the Chir.

JasonC · October 21, 2005

Ah, that makes it easy. The 22nd was indeed the weak German PD supporting the Rumanians north of Stalingrad. It is well known that they faced T-34s with nothing better than Pz 38s, even then. That's a large part of why they lost so rapidly. So no, they did not get IV specials or even III longs months earlier.

Glider · October 21, 2005

Here is what I managed to find searching the net:

Panzers on the Eastern Front Summer 1942

From Panzer Truppen Volume 1 by Thomas Jentz pages 236-239

By Steve "The Mad Russian" Overton

http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/research_results.html?sku=117

22nd Panzer Division (1 July 1942)

28 Pz II

114 Pz 38(t)

12 Pz III Long (50L60)

11 Pz IV Short (75L24)

Renaud · October 21, 2005

I've been doing a lot of research on the web (I don't own many of the prime reference books!) and discovered a lot of interesting information.

Seems that there is some disagreement about when the division was formed. One secondary source even states the 22nd was involved in the April 1940 occupation of Yugoslavia (attacking the villages of Nis and Natalinci, they encountered heavy 75mm field gun fire). I think this is probably a mistake and the 22nd really was formed in the Paris region post-barbarossa.

It gets even weirder...

Turns out the core of the division escaped annihilation in Nov 1942, making it across the Chir river thanks to the 1st Romanian AD, according to some sources. Others say the 22nd saved the 1st...clashing opinions here. In any case they were sent to the Belgorod area where they received some very unique armor, including captured KV-1 tanks modified in their field shops with Pz-IV cupolas and KwK 75L43 guns! They also received seven Sturminfanteriegeschütz 33 (150ig mounted on StugIII chassis). Only 24 were ever manufactured and these were the last surviving 7. The next month the unit was disbanded and all personnel/equipment combined with - get this - the survivors from the 15th Panzer which had escaped from North Africa. This new unit was the 15th PZG division, which fought in the defense of Cassino, causing massive casualties to the US 36th division trying to cross the Rapido river 4 miles south of Cassino.

I finally discovered this:

22nd Panzer Division (1 July)

28 Pz II

114 Pz 38(t)

12 Pz III Long (50L60)

11 Pz IV Short (75L24)

Panzers on the Eastern Front Summer 1942

From Panzer Truppen Volume 1 by Thomas Jentz pages 236-239

This information leads me to believe the 204th regiment received large numbers of Pz38t's (almost double their previous allotment of 60) as well as 12 PzIII 50L60's, all probably during that 6 week refit between March 20 and May 7 1942. The original establishment 16 PzIVF1's indicates that they lost at least 5 on March 20, yet they were not replaced, probably because they were no longer in production and the newer PzIV models went to higher priority units.

The 12 new PzIII's would help explain their much better performance against T34/KV1 armor during the later May 7 operation. That and 6 weeks of in-the-line combat training. They fought off the counterattack on May 8 and bagged an entire russian corp in Kerch.

Renaud · October 21, 2005

Ha, Glider. You posted just before me!

Renaud · October 22, 2005

Seems that only 41 tanks were operational by the time the 22nd was involved in the Nov 1942 Chir river battles. Another very weird thing - according to this, the division suffered from mouse-attack. Those secret soviet super-mice! I found this event referenced in many places, turns out the soviets even found out about it later and used it for propoganda purposes. Too weird.

Almost forgot the weirdest thing:

http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?_adv_prop=web&ei=UTF-8&vp=22nd+Panzer+Division&vp_vt=any&vd=all&vst=0&vf=all&vm=i&fl=0&n=10&u=www.zwire.com/news/newsstory.cfm%3Fnewsid%3D144865 38%26title%3D%253Cp%253ELocal+man+shares+memories+on+60th+anniversary+of+V-E+Day%26BRD%3D1197%26PAG%3D461%26CATNAME%3DTop+Stories%26CATEGORYID%3D410&w=%2222nd+panzer+division%22&d= eV1KO2FULhwD&icp=1&.intl=us

Ray Zager, a veteran of the 71st US division, claims that his battalion accepted the surrender of the 22nd panzer division a few miles west of Vienna on May 8, 1945 (VE Day!).

I figure this has to be some sort of mistake, but it's weird.

[ October 21, 2005, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: Renaud ]

Zalgiris 1410 · October 22, 2005

Renaud the 22 Panzer Division only ever fought along side German and Rumanian troops, never near any Honved Divisions.

I second JasonC, the 22 PzD still only had Pz IIFs, Pz-38(t)s and PzIVFs (short barrelled referred to as Stummels) in terms of tanks while it constituted part of the XLVIII Panzer Korps supporting the Rumanian 3rd Army to the North-west of Stalingrad.

However I have an autobiographical book called 'Through Hell for Hitler', by Henry Metelmann a driver of a Marder III, packing a Russian 76.2mm gun, who's unit was in the Crimea around this time. He is not particularly clear as to wheither this is a battalion or a company, although it certainly seems to have orrigionally been something independent.

He is no expert and I believe he confuses either a knocked out 47mm gun armed PzJ I or possibly the hull of a decapitated Pz-38(t) from amoung the debris of an early 1941 battle as he passes by it in the Ukraine. Even after inspecting it he explains that it was not very comforting to see this husk that probably cost the lives of all its crew that was the same Panzer that he was a crew member of. These are fair sentiments to have except that I'm pretty sure that his Marder III is amoung the first batch ever sent East, but anyway.

At some point his PanzerJaegar unit became a formal part of the 22nd Panzer Division in the Crimea, although I'm not precisely sure when this was. That said, it mostly seems to have performed anti-partisan duties and definately wasn't involved in the earlier March encounter by the 22nd PzD, although it appears to have become an asset of it by then as far as I can work out. Then again I could be mistaken and this addition to the 22nd PzD could have occurred with regards to include this Marder III equipt PanzerJaegar unit in lieu of actual Panzer replacements.

It took part with the 22nd PzD during the Battle for the Kerch Peninsular in early May 1941 and stayed with the 22nd PzD when it arrived in front of the Don bend and joined the 6th Army in driving towards Stalingrad. It always stayed to the West of the Don River and ended up behind the 3rd Rumanian Army before the 19th of November. It became a part of Armee-Abteilung 'Hollidt', along with the remains of the 27th PzD and other Divisions and scratch units to cover the large gap and to replace the disintegreted Rumanian 3rd Army and then also the Italian 8th Army.

Both of these Panzer Divisions were disintegreted themselves during the Winter of 1942-43. One thing to understand about them is that one of the Infantry Regiments of the 22nd PzD had been transferred to the 27th PzD in order to make up its Infantry component, which means that they both only had one each going into that Winter of their demise. Neither of these two Panzer Divisions were ever reconstituted in the manner of those that were destroyed in the Stalingrad Kessel during the same period and in the same area essentially.

Metelmann provides an example of what seems to have happenned to those members of such Divisions in this area at the time and afterwards. He became a straggler behind Russian lines after the destruction of the anti-tank gun that he and his Panzerless crew had manned which was detatched in support of Rumanian frontline troops on the 19th of November 1941. The rest of his crew were killed when the ATG was taken out by what he describes as a 'mass' of Russian tanks.

He evaded the Russians and meet another German staggler on the way to join up with an ad hoc German group before the end of November and served with it through out 1943-44 amid changes in its size and commanders. He is not great on much of the details, but at least this indecates just what happenned to the remnants of such defunct Divisions and units.

Zalgiris 1410 · October 22, 2005