The 125th Infantry Division was raised on October 5, 1940 as part of the 11th deployment wave, in October 1940, where it remained in Münsingen until April 1941, when it was moved to the Balkans as part of the
2nd Army's 52nd Corps in preparation for
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the
Soviet Union. The following June, the Army attacked through the
Ukrainian SSR.
Barbarossa Moving to the front from Austria, where the division was registered with Höheres Kommando XXXIV, it was now organized into the
17th Army, part of
Army Group South. For the remainder of the year the 125th Division stayed with Army Group South in Ukraine, assisting in both the battles at
Uman and
Kiev.
Case Blue In July 1942 the division returned to the 17th Army from the
1st Panzer Army, now as
Army Group A's 5th Corps, as it began an assault on the Black Sea city of
Novorossiysk. Moving into the Caucasus, the division, along with the
3rd Romanian Army, served under
Colonel-General Richard Ruoff in "Army Group Ruoff". Outside
Rostov, Ruoff's forces were joined by the
5th SS-Panzer Regiment. Quickly
eliminating the Soviets in Rostov, the division made its way into the outskirts of
Krasnodar, some 300 kilometers away, in just over two weeks. Pushed back in the winter again, the division retreated to Ukraine.
Capitulation Throughout the majority of 1943, the 125th remained along the Caucasian city Novorossiysk with the 17th Army before being transferred to
Kuban in May. Despite some successes in Kuban with the Romanian units, the 125th was pulled back into the Lower Dnieper Sector. By October, 1943, the division was under heavy fire from Soviet forces in the Crimea, evident by five Tiger tanks being sent to their assistance on 2 October, and a group of the
653rd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion's
Elefants a week later. Pulled back to
Nikopol in Ukraine with the
6th Army, the division came under further fire, eventually losing its distinction as a division, referred to instead as " 125".
Aftermath The remnants of the 125th were incorporated into the
302nd Infantry Division, becoming part of the 420th Grenadier Regiment, which only lasted until August, when the division met its own end in
Romania. Lieutenant General Friebe, on the other hand, was moved over to the
22nd Air Landing Division, where it was crushed by Titoist partisans in Yugoslavia. == References ==