Document Grouping to a Jaeger w Nahkampfspangen, EK etc

[pjm]

Here's an interesting Document of Award Set to a Jaeger. It came with newspaper clippings from his actions. He was attached to Jager Btl 1 as part of Infantry Rgt 206 and later Grenadier Rgt 461, part of Inf Div 252.

Inf Rgt 206 has an interesting history:

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/206th_I...ision_(Germany) :

The 206th Infantry Division was raised on 17 August 1939 in Insterburg, East Prussia. It served during the Invasion of Poland in 1939 as a reserve division for Army Group North.

The 206th Infantry Division participated in Operation Typhoon as part of the XXIII Corps under the Ninth Army. At this time, the division was under the command of Lieutenant General Hugo Höfl.

At the time of the soviet Rzhev-Vyazma strategic offensive operation (08.01-20.04.42), Operation Mars, the division now lead by Lieutenant General Alfons Hitter (signed the EK document in the grouping) was again serving in XXIII Corps under the Ninth Army in the Molodoi Tud sector of the Rzhev salient. Here it came under attack by the Soviet 39th army of the Kalinin Front.

The division is known to have used Marder Is from January 1943 to December 1943.

In mid-1944, the division, still under the command of Lieutenant General Hitter, was one of those defending the Vitebsk salient as part of 3rd Panzer Army's LIII Corps. The Soviet offensive, Operation Bagration, which commenced on 22 June, saw the entire corps encircled within a matter of days, after Soviet breakthroughs around the city.

While the Oberkommando des Heeres, after realising the situation was hopeless, reluctantly authorised a breakout operation by the other three divisions involved, the 206th was ordered to stay in Vitebsk and fight to the last man.

By 26 June Soviet forces had fought their way into the city. LIII corps commander General Gollwitzer ordered the 206th to withdraw in defiance of the OKH orders. It was too late, however, and the division was almost entirely killed or taken prisoner. The division's commander Hitter and Gollwitzer surrendered to Soviet forces.

Lt-Gen Hitter, went on to join the Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland, or National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD) in Soviet captivity

[pjm]

Not part of the grouping but an interesting photo of the capitulation of Gollwitzer and Hitter to Soviet forces.

[Stewy S]

Nice grouping.congrats. Always nice to have a bit of personal history with it. Stewy

[pjm]

Here's a link to some info on Hitter militaria-lexikon.de - Alfons Hitter, Generalleutnant

He received the Eichenlaub to his Ritterkreuz on 4 June 1944 just a few weeks before he surrendered.