6th Luftwaffe Field Division (Germany)

The 6th Luftwaffe Field Division was a German infantry formation which fought during World War II.

History and organisation
The division was formed in 1942 in the area of Third Air Command (Berlin), with the following organisation:


 * I.-IV. Bataillon
 * Panzerjäger-Abteilung
 * Artillerie-Abteilung
 * Flak-Abteilung
 * Radfahr-Kompanie
 * Pionier-Kompanie
 * Luftnachrichten-Kompanie
 * Versorgungseinheiten

The division had barely completed training when it was assigned to Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front, where it participated in the Battle of Velikiye Luki. In common with other Luftwaffe Field Divisions, it was handed over to the Heer in the autumn of 1943 and reorganised on the following lines:


 * Jäger-Regiment 52 (L)
 * Jäger-Regiment 53 (L)
 * Jäger-Regiment 54 (L)
 * Füsilier-Bataillon 6 (L)
 * Artillerie-Regiment 6 (L)
 * Divisionseinheiten 6 (L)

In the summer of 1944, the 6th Luftwaffe Field Division was holding a salient east of Vitebsk as part of Third Panzer Army's LIII Corps. The commencement of the Soviet Operation Bagration on 22 June 1944 saw the entire corps surrounded within days, after Soviet forces managed to break through defensive lines to the north and south. By 26 June the corps commander, General Gollwitzer, ordered the division, along with the 246th Infantry Division which was attempting to keep open an escape route across the Dvina, to break out to the second defensive line, but it was too late; the encircled divisions were only able to proceed some 12 miles before they were surrounded and destroyed by the Soviet 39th Army. The few troops who reached German lines were incorporated in Korps-Abteilung H.

Commanders

 * Major-General Ernst Weber (September 1942)
 * Lieutenant-General Rüdiger von Heyking (25 November 1942)
 * Major-General Rudolf Peschel (5 November 1943)