14th Landwehr Division The 14th Landwehr Division was formed on 26 August 1939, the day of Germany's general mobilization, as the sole division of the
Landwehr national militia service that had not yet been converted into an infantry division of
3rd Aufstellungswelle type. The
Landwehr divisions had initially been planned in 1936 to assemble the older cadres (mostly of the age to have served in World War I) into 21 divisions, with various
army service stations readied for this task. Assembled in
Wehrkreis V by Army Service Station 7 (in
Freiburg/Breisgau), the 14th Landwehr Division initially consisted of the Landwehr Infantry Regiments 40, 59, and 182, each with three battalions, from
Offenburg, Freiburg/Breisgau and
Müllheim, respectively. It was joined on 25 September by Landwehr Infantry Regiment 33 from
Karlsruhe, which had up until that point been assigned to
35th Infantry Division. Whereas much of the initial personnel of the 14th Landwehr Division consisted of older men, there was an attempt to gradually replace the older cadres by younger men later in the war. The 14th Landwehr Division served on defensive duty on the
Upper Rhine, being a subordinate of
7th Army under
Army Group C, until the 14th Landwehr Division received orders on 26 December 1939 to be reorganized on 1 January 1940 to become the 205th Infantry Division. In the 205th Infantry Division, the former Landwehr Infantry Regiments 40, 59 and 182 became the Infantry Regiments 335, 353 and 358. Landwehr Infantry Regiment 33 left the division until it was attached on the 17 January 1940 (under the name "Infantry Regiment 326") to the
198th Infantry Division. On 20 February 1940, the battalion II./335 was transferred (as II./664) to the
557th Infantry Division. The division's fighting personnel was suspended from duty as part of the partial demobilization of the German armed forces in mid-1940 and was sent home (besides the core staffs) on 17 July 1940. The division was subsequently recalled to duty in February 1941. On 28 April 1943, the division received significant cuts following its heavy casualties; The battalions I./358, I./335 and III./353 were dissolved, reducing the strength of the division from nine to six battalions. Regiment 358 was subsequently split, donating one each of its two remaining battalions to the other regiments, leaving the division with two regiments of three battalions each. The division remained in the Velikiye Luki sector until September 1943, at which point it was part of
XXXXIII Army Corps. In October 1943, the XXXXIII Corps was placed subordinate to
Army Group North, where the corps was placed under the supervision of
16th Army. After the massive Soviet summer offensives of 1944, Army Group North was pushed into the
Livonia region and eventually onto the
Courland Peninsula, where it became trapped in the so-called
Courland Pocket. From December 1944 to February 1945, the 205th Infantry Division was part of the
XXXVIII Army Corps of the 16th Army in the Courland Pocket.'''''' The 205th Infantry Division remained part of Army Group Courland until the end of the war, first as part of
L Army Corps in March 1945 and finally under
XVI Army Corps in April. == Organizational history ==