20th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

20th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

The German 20th Infantry Division was a infantry division of Nazi Germany. It was established in 1934 under the cover name Reichswehrdienststelle Hamburg, and did not assume its bona-fide designation until the creation of the Wehrmacht was announced in October 1935. In the autumn of 1937 it was upgraded to a fully motorized division.

As the 20th Motorized Infantry Division the unit took part in the invasion of Poland as part of Heinz Guderian's XIX Corps. During that campaign the motorized divisions were found to be somewhat unwieldy, so afterward the 20th and other motorized divisions were reorganized to reduce their size by about a third, leaving them with six motorized infantry battalions organized into two regiments, plus ordinary divisional support units.

In May 1940 the division took part in the invasion of France, and remained there on occupation duty until April 1941, except for one brief period on reserve in Germany. In June 1941 it joined Operation Barbarossa under Army Group Centre. In September it was transferred to Army Group North, and it spent most of 1942 on the Volkhov Front. In December it was transferred back to Army Group South for the relief attempt at the Battle of Velikiye Luki.

In July 1943 it was redesignated as 20th Panzergrenadier Division; by that time it had been given an assault gun battalion to support its infantry. It remained on the Eastern Front for the remainder of the war, switched frequently between army groups in the role of a mechanised "fire brigade", and ended the war fighting along the Oder River in Silesia.