About the Feld Divisions

The Luftwaffe Field Divisions were authorized in October 1942. They consisted of 200,000 to 250,000 "surplus" Luftwaffe personnel. They were organized as 12,500 strong M1942 Rifle(Jäger) Divisions with most serving on the Eastern Front.These were ordinary infantry divisions organized from Luftwaffe personnel made available after mid-war due to the manpower shortage. They were originally Luftwaffe units but were later handed over to the Heer and were organized as M1944 Infantry Divions with "Rifle (L)' Regiment, retaining their numbering but with Luftwaffe attached to distinguish them from similarly numbered divisions already existing in the Heer. They were subordinate to four Luftwaffe Field Corps numbered I, II, III, and IV.

The Luftwaffe was still in the development stage when the war began and was experimenting with various forms of aerial warfare. During the course of its operations it was often faced with missions that could only be solved by improvisations. This study describes only those major improvisations in which the Luftwaffe was closely connected with ground operations.

One of the best known Luftwaffe improvisations was the creation of Luftwaffe field divisions. In 1941 the Luftwaffe was at full personnel strength as it was to be greatly expanded after the anticipated rapid conclusion of the Russian campaign. Not only did these plans fail to materialize but, during the winter of 1941-42, the Army was faced with the first major manpower shortage when it ran out of combat troops. On various sectors of the Eastern Front local commanders took the initiative of quickly organizing and committing provisional units composed of Luftwaffe ground personnel, construction battalions, and signal communication units in ground combat. Shoulder to shoulder with Army units, most of them gave a good account of themselves.

As a further step in this direction, Adolf Hitler ordered the transfer of seven divisions from the Luftwaffe to the Army. Goering, the commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, always jealously concerned with his prestige and possibly hoping for a more favorable turn in events, suggested that these divisions remain under the jurisdiction of the Luftwaffe and be subordinated to the Army only in tactical matters. This suggestion was adopted and the Luftwaffe organized ground combat divisions under its own jurisdiction. The personnel of these divisions met with the highest physical standards but the training of the commissioned and noncommissioned officers was totally inadequate for the purposes of ground fighting. The care of weapons and horses left much to be desired. Since the Army was taxed to the utmost, it could provide few instructors and little equipment. Consequently these divisions were sent into combat after receiving only superficial training. They fought as bravely as most other units but their casualty rate was above normal. To the very end of the war, these divisions continued to present a never-ending series of problems to both the Army and the Luftwaffe with the latter obliged to provide a continuous flow of replacements. Time and again the Army had to transfer commissioned and noncommissioned officers to these divisions and provide additional instruction and training so they could serve their purpose.

The consensus is that this improvisation was ineffectual. Despite great devotion and heroism displayed by individual divisions, it would have been preferable to ignore prestige matters and place this valuable personnel at the disposal of the Army without attaching any strings. The policy was not reversed until the last stage of the war when transfers of personnel from the Luftwaffe to the Army finally became unconditional.

• 1st Luftwaffe Field Division
• 2nd Luftwaffe Field Division
• 3rd Luftwaffe Field Division
• 4th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 5th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 6th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 7th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 8th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 9th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 10th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 11th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 12th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 13th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 14th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 15th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 16th Luftwaffe Field Division
  • Eventually transferred to the Heer as 16th Luftwaffe Infantry Division (later 16th Volksgrenadier Division)
• 17th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 18th Luftwaffe Field Division
• 19th Luftwaffe Field Division (later 19th Luftwaffe Sturm Division)
  • Eventually transferred to the Heer as 19th Grenadier Division (later 19th Volksgrenadier Division)
• 20th Luftwaffe Field Division (later 20th Luftwaffe Sturm Division)
• 21st Luftwaffe Field Division (previously the Meindl Division, an ad hoc collection of Luftwaffe resources)
• 22nd Luftwaffe Field Division - never formed, its sub-units were assigned to other divisions.

The history of Luftwaffe field divisions is not well documented. Their role in the German Order of Battle was fairly limited. The first Luftwaffe field divisions were organized in the autumn of 1942 as a result of the depletion of German ground forces on the Eastern Front. Because of these shortages in the East, Reichsmarshall Herman Göring was faced with the dilemma of transferring Luftwaffe flight personnel to the Army (Heer). Instead he chose to establish his own army under air force commanders.

Twenty two divisions were planned ultimately by the OKW and the Luftwaffe Air Ministry. The first ten of these divisions were organized in September of 1942 and completed training by the end of that year. Having received only minimal training in combat, these divisions were dispatched to the Eastern Front. By order of Reichsmarshall Göring, these divisions were only to be involved in defensive actions along quiet sectors of the Front. There were not to be split up and were to be committed to combat only as a single fighting force. This was never implemented. Further, although, they were to be under the tactical command of the Heer, the divisions were to remain under Luftwaffe control for all other purposes.

The remaining twelve Luftwaffe field divisions were formed in 1943 and later. They were dispatched to the various theatres of operation as replacement troops and to fill gaps in the defensive lines. These divisions suffered from the same lack of proper training and leadership as their predecessors.

Luftwaffe field divisions were approximately half the size of their Heer infantry counterparts. Even these numbers were never reached in most instances as the Luftwaffe field divisions suffered chronic shortages of men, competent field commanders, fighting equipment and supplies.

For all of these reasons, the Luftwaffe field divisions proved to be ineffective fighting forces and were labeled as "Luftwaffen-Fehlkonstruktions-Divisionen" or "mistakenly constructed air force divisions" by members of the Heer. After much debate regarding the future of these divisions, beginning in the Fall of 1943, the complete command of the Luftwaffe field divisions was assumed by the Heer.

Only 14.Feld Division (Lw) survived the war. Remnants of three other divisions (11., 12. and 21.) filled the ranks of the remaining Wehrmacht divisions in the East. Despite their poor performance, no less than 18 among their ranks were awarded the Knight's Cross.

War's Beginings

As the German army moved into Russia, it was accompanied by a number of aircraft support units, including Flugzeugabwehrkanone (or Flak) units to provide anti-aircraft support. However, a lack of Russian aircraft to shoot at, and a surplus of T-34's wreaking havoc amongst the suddenly-outmatched German armor led to the Flak units being pressed into an anti-tank role -- the powerful 88mm AA gun being the best defense against the T-34. These were the first Luftwaffe units involved in ground combat in Russia.

As the Germans pressed on, Russian Army units became isolated behind the front lines; these formed into partisan groups, which attacked German installations (including airfields). To counter these attacks, Luftwaffe ground crews were formed into ad-hoc Alarmeinheiten or emergency units to defend the airfields, and to conduct anti-partisan operations. These units were employed throughout the war.

However, by 1942, manpower shortages in the Wehrmacht were becoming acute; over a million men had been lost in the invasion of Russia alone. In mid-1942, it was decided to cull both the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine for volunteers to serve in the infantry. A total of seven Luftwaffe Field Regiments (Feldregmenter der Luftwaffe) would be under the tactical control of the Wehrmacht, but effectively remain part of the Luftwaffe.

In early 1942, it was decided to raise ten new divisions from Luftwaffe personnel. However, Göring's megalomania would not allow him to lose so many men to the Army. Thus, he refused to allow the transfer of Luftwaffe personnel to the Army -- he would from his own divisions, which would, like the initial seven regiments, be under the tactical control of the Wehrmacht but remain part of the Luftwaffe.

This was not a happy situation for the air and ground crews who volunteered to be infantry. They received only the most rudimentary infantry training, were supplied with obsolete equipment, and then, rather than being used to relieve Wehrmacht units in quiet sectors (as Göring had envisioned), were thrown into the thick of the fighting. As a result, casualties were heavy and morale plummeted. (Those units formed in occupied Europe fared somewhat better, having more time to be formed and trained before their first taste of combat, which did not come until mid-1944.)

Fate: XXXXXX

History credits: Michael Holm, , ,