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History of the 272nd at Caen, July 1944
By
Doug Nash
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The
272nd Infantry Division was formed in Belgium
beginning on 12 December 1943 from the remnants of the
Hanoverian 216th Infantry Division, which had
been decimated on the Eastern Front and disbanded the
month before. The entire staff of the 216th,
its signal battalion, divisional support units, and
most of its artillery regiment were simply
re-designated with the new divisional number.
Grenadier Regiments 396 and 398 were
disbanded, except the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier
Regiment 396, which was re-designated as
Füsilier Battalion 272. Its commander,
Generalleutnant Friedrich August Schack, was
carried over from his previous command of the 216th.
Only
Grenadier Regiment 348, under the command of
Oberstleutnant Burian, was withdrawn from Russia
in its entirety, to be re-designated as Grenadier
Regiment 980. Both Grenadier Regiments 981
and 982 were created from reserve and training
battalions of the 182nd Reserve Division,
consisting almost entirely of native German personnel
or Reichsdeutsche. The combat engineer and
antitank battalions were formed from scratch using
elements forwarded from the Replacement Army.
The
new 272nd Infantry Division trained in the
Bevern area in Belgium while under the command and
control of the Fifteenth Army. In April 1944
it was sent to the French Mediterranean Coast to
continue its training plan and to conduct security
duties near the Franco-Spanish border while under the
control of the Nineteenth Army. By 19 June, it
reported that its present for duty strength was 11,211
men and 1,514 Russian auxiliaries or Hiwis, for
a total of 12,725 men, close to its authorized
strength.
Due
to the deteriorating situation on the Normandy Front,
the division was shipped via rail beginning 2 July
1944, experiencing numerous Allied air attacks and
Maquis ambushes along the way that slowed its movement
to a crawl and caused it to arrive at the front
piecemeal. Force to unload its trains at the Loire
River, the division had to make the remaining
180-kilometer trip to Normandy on foot, marching
mostly by night to avoid Allied fighter-bombers. By
midnight on 13 July, enough of the division had
arrived to begin movement into the front lines, where
its first three battalions found themselves placed
under the control of the I SS-Panzer Corps and
tasked to begin the relief in place of the battered
1st SS-Panzer Division “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler”
(LSSAH). Division headquarters was established in
Fresnay.
These three battalions and the
supporting artillery battalion, as well as Füsilier
Battalion 272, found themselves immediately
involved in battle. By the end of 16 July, the
division had already suffered 933 casualties. By the
17th of July, most of the 272nd Infantry Division
had arrived at the front and was immediately
placed into line. Grenadier Regiments 980 and
982 were holding the front line, which stretch
from the right flank at the Caen railway station to
the left flank at Maltot. The following day, 18 July
1944, the British began their long-awaited offensive,
Operation GOODWOOD,
designed to allow their Second Army to break out of
the beachhead and seize Caen once and for all. Using
seven armored and two infantry divisions, the British
intended to smash the German defenses and punch a way
through to Falaise and open the road to Paris.
On
the first day, the British were able to advance seven
kilometers with the support of over 2,100 heavy and
medium bombers blasting the way clear for the tanks
and ground troops. German losses were heavy, but the
1st and 12th SS-Panzer Divisions,
21st Panzer Division, and the 272nd Infantry
Division fought back desperately. At one point,
the 272nd lost contact with its left and right
neighbors, and found itself two kilometers ahead of
the German front line, forcing it to conduct a
fighting withdrawal back to the new German main line
of resistance. The artillery regiment frequently
found its batteries placed in the direct fire role in
order to keep the onrushing British tanks at bay, its
guns frequently firing up to 600 rounds a day. By 20
July, Caen had fallen, but the British advance was
held up by the German defenses along the Verrières
Ridge, held in part by the stalwart Grenadiers of the
272nd Infantry Division. Most of the
division’s infantry battalions by that point had
suffered losses between 40 and 50 percent.
The
Division’s outstanding performance in the fighting
near Caen was recognized in the Wehrmachtsbericht
of 24 July 1944, which announced to the German people
“In the Caen area, the 272nd Infantry Division,
under the inspirational leadership of
Generalleutnant Schack, has especially
distinguished itself through its tough defense and
magnificent counterattacks.”
At
0200 hours on 25 July after a six-hour long
preparatory barrage, the British continued their
attack and were able to punch a seven-kilometer wide
breach in the German line between the Orne River and
the Bougebus Ridge. British Shermans were reported
approaching the Verrières Ridge at 0700 hours, though
the batteries of the 272nd Infantry Division
and the 12th SS-Panzer Division, as well as
88mm Flak of the 16th Luftwaffe Feld-Division,
slowed the onrushing attack and in some instances
forced the British to turn back after inflicting heavy
losses.
Counterattacks were carried out throughout the 25th
and 26th of July by Heer and Waffen-SS
troops and tanks, so that by the evening of 26th July,
the tip of the British spearhead had been broken off
and the front line pushed back between two and three
kilometers. The next evening, the exhausted survivors
of the 272nd were pulled out of line and sent
to a quiet area on the front line near the town of
Troarn to rest, reconstitute and take in
replacements. It continued to reorganize until 3
August, absorbing the bulk of the disbanded 16th
Luftwaffe Field-Division. This brought the
272nd back up to 50 – 60% of its authorized
strength. By being transferred to the Troarn area, it
also managed to avoid being trapped in the Falaise
Pocket. Though it had managed to emerge victorious
after contributing more than its fair share towards
the effort to stop Operation Goodwood, much more lay
ahead – fighting at Troan, retreat across the Dives,
the tank battle at Lisieux, and the retreat across the
Seine and the low countries.
Though not as glamorous as their Kameraden from
the highly-vaunted Waffen-SS, the ordinary
Grenadiers of the 272nd had acquitted
themselves very well indeed, helping to stop numerous
tank-heavy British assaults even though it lacked
armor of its own. Using Panzerfausts, hand grenade
bundles, antitank guns, and sheer guts, the 272nd
Infantry Division had racked up almost 100 tank
kills in ten days of combat, while undergoing some of
the fiercest bombardments of the Normandy Campaign, a
feat rarely equaled by any other German infantry
division at the time.
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