Grenadierregiment 186?

[Researcher3000]

Hi experts,

I would like to have information on the 7./Grenadierregiment 186 please.

My grandfather was in this company for a short while in summer of 1944 when he got captured someplace between Warsaw and Lublin.

Any information is appreciated.

[fox3-6]

Hello,

This guide covers the division from 1941-1943 if you are looking for some prior information. Page 42 at the link below shows what is available from the NARA:

http://downloads.sturmpanzer.com/Guides ... ide_65.pdf


This website also provides some information on the unit that may be more relevant to the timeframe you are looking for and atleast provide more information and some additional sources at the bottom:

https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gl ... n/73ID.htm


Best of Luck in your search

[2KILFA]

Hi experts,

I would like to have information on the 7./Grenadierregiment 186 please.

My grandfather was in this company for a short while in summer of 1944 when he got captured someplace between Warsaw and Lublin.

Any information is appreciated.

Ah, the GR 186 of the 73. Infanterie-Division.
In the spring of 1944, the 73. ID was part of the 17. Armee of Heeresgruppe A in Crimea. During the Soviet April-May 1944 Crimean Offensive, this division was destroyed, with only remnants being evacuated. It was then rebuilt in the Balkans area (OB Südost) throughout late spring-early summer of 1944.
In mid-July 1944, the 73. ID was sent to the central sector of the Ostfront in the vicinity of Warsaw, in response to the Soviet Lublin-Brest Offensive. There, it suffered a fiasco, as the elements of the Soviet 2nd Tank Army overran the positions of the division's grenadier regiments, which suffered heavy losses. Among the casualties was the divsional commander, Generalleutnant Fritz von Franek, who was taken prisoner by the Soviets while visiting the command post of the GR 70.
In September 1944, during the Soviet offensive against the German Praga bridgehead on the east bank of the Vistula, the division was shattered. During this Soviet offensive, large portions of the division broke up and notoriously ran away in panic, exposing other units in the area. Thus, the division repeated what the 2. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division did near Nevel in October 1943. The German command was infuriated by the shameful collapse of the 73. ID near Praga and ordered it to be disbanded. Hitler however cancelled this order, so the remnants, now categorized as kampfgruppe, stayed on. It was then gradually rebuilt again.
Since the division fought in the vicinity of Warsaw in the summer of 1944, plenty of coverage is given to it in the book From the Realm of a Dying Sun: Volume I - IV. SS-Panzerkorps and the Battles for Warsaw, July–November 1944. While putting together the manuscript for that book, the author wrote a brief history of the 73. ID near Warsaw in July-September 1944. Here it is.