22nd (Air Borne) Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) - History

History

Created as 22. Infanterie-Division in 1935, one regiment participated in the invasion of Poland; the rest of the division stayed in garrison on the Siegfried Line in case of a French attack in defense of Poland. The division retrained as 22. Luftlande-Division (Air Landing Division) for rapid tactical deployment to captured enemy airbases and performed in that role during the invasion of the Netherlands suffering heavy losses, and afterward advanced into France operating as ordinary ground infantry. Though planned for use in its air-landing role for the Battle of Crete, it was replaced by another division at the last minute. It joined Army Group South in Operation Barbarossa (1941), attacking from Romania and, operating exclusively as ordinary ground infantry, helped storm Sevastopol in the Crimea (1942).

The unit was thereafter transferred to Crete for garrison duty and mop-up operations in the Aegean, playing a major role in the Battle of Leros. During September 1943, forces of the unit committed numerous atrocities in Viannos. On 26 April 1944 the divisional commander, Generalmajor Heinrich Kreipe, was abducted by a British Special Operations Executive team led by Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Capt Bill Stanley Moss. Kreipe's car was ambushed at night on the way from the divisional headquarters at Ano Archanes to the Villa Ariadne at Knossos and he was taken cross-country over the mountains to the south coast where he and his captors were picked up by a British vessel near Rodakino on 14 May. This operation was later portrayed in the book Ill Met by Moonlight (1950) written by Moss based on his wartime diaries, later adapted as a film of the same name.

Withdrawn to the mainland in autumn 1944, the 22. Infanterie-Division spent the rest of the war in anti-partisan operations in southeastern Europe, was renamed 22. Volksgrenadier-Division in March 1945, and surrendered to Yugoslav forces at the end of the war in May.