GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA. No. 69. Records of German Field Commands: Divisions (189th-218th), Part DC The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration Washington: 1974 www.maparchive.ru This finding aid has been prepared by the National Archives as part of its program of facilitating the use of records in its custody. The microfilm described in this guide may be consulted at the National Archives, where it is identified as Microfilm Publication T315. Those desiring to purchase microfilm should write to the Publications Sales Branch (NEPS), National Archives (GSA), Washington, DC 20408. Some of the papers reproduced on the microfilm referred to in this and other guides of the same series may have been of private origin. The fact of their seizure is not believed to divest their original owners of any literary property rights in them. Anyone, therefore, who publishes them in whole or in part without permission of their authors may be held liable for infringement of such literary property rights. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-9982 www.maparchive.ru GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA. No. 69. Records of German Field Commands: Divisions (189th-218th), Part IX The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration Washington: 1974 www.maparchive.ru www.maparchive.ru INTRODUCTION The Guides tp_ German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va. The INDEX to Guide No. 69 can be found immediately following constitute a series of finding aids to National Archives micro- the instructions for its use on page 170, The master copy film of seized records of German central, regional, and local for this index was computer formated and printed from terms government agencies and of military commands and units, as input simultaneously with the descriptive material in the text well as of the Nazi Party, its formations, affiliated associa- of the guide, and was supplemented with references, cross- tions, and supervised organizations. The records described references, and explanatory subheadings. The full edition was in the guides were created generally during the period 1920-45. then reproduced from the master copies by photographic offset printing.. The guide series was initiated by the microfilming project of the Committee for the Study of War Documents of the American The provenance to which each record item is attributed is the Historical Association (AHA) in cooperation with the National unit headquarters that created or filed it, although a large Archives and the Department of the Army, With the termination proportion of the items had in fact already been retired to de- of AHA participation in July 1963, the National Archives positories of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam, where accession numbers assumed sole responsibility for the reproduction of records and were assigned and stamped or written on the covers in the order the preparation of guides. received, and where the records were then cataloged by unit. The records reached the United States still roughly arranged by This guide is one of many in the series describing the records unit, since Allied intelligence officers retained this system, of the German Army field commands that have been arranged by taking advantage of the circumstance that the original Potsdam unit and filmed in discrete microfilm publications according catalogs were acquired along with the seized field command records. to their military echelon as follows: Army Groups (Microfilm The AHA and the National Archives also followed this arrangement Publication T311), Armies (T312), Panzer Armies (T313), Corps in their joint and separate microfilm projects, although some (T314), Divisions (T315), and Rear Areas, Occupied Territories, record items appear out of sequence because they were still classi- and Others (T501). fied or temporarily unavailable at the time the unit records were filmed. This also accounts for the occasional break in continuity Guide No, 69 (designated Part IX of the Guides to German Army of roll numbers in the guides where those unit records filmed later Divisions—Parts I-VIII being Guides 41, 45, and 63-68) describes on higher roll numbers appear out of item number sequence at the the records of divisions numbered 189 through 218 reproduced on end of the division entries. Record items not yet retired to the 112 rolls of Microfilm Publication T315. The records include Heeresarchiv depositories at the time of capture were assigned material on the campaign in Poland, 1939; occupation duty and accession numbers above 75,000 by American custodians in extension training in Poland, 1939-41; the occupation of Denmark and cam- of the original Potsdam numbering scheme. paign in Norway, 1940; occupation duty and air and coastal de- fense in Denmark and Norway, 1940-43; the campaign in France, Considerable information on the fate of German military archives Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg, 1940; occupation of during World War II, including documentation of efforts to recon- the Channel Islands, 1940; occupation and coastal defense in struct records destroyed in several wartime fires, may be found France, Belgium, and The Netherlands, 1940-43; assembly in in the files of the Chef des Heeresarchivs, OKH, filmed as Micro- Rumania and Bulgaria for the invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941; film Publication T78, rolls 1-38, and described in Guide No. 12 and the campaign against the Soviet Union, 1941-44e of this series. iii www.maparchive.ru Although the records of these divisions have been filmed selec- of film were again filmed as a finding aid at the beginning of tively, the war journals (Kriegstagebuecher) and activity reports that roll. The information contained on these cards was used (Taetigkeitsberichte) and their annexes (Anlagen) of the opera- as a reference in compiling descriptive entries for the guide, tions (la) and intelligence (Ic) staff sections, wherever avail- but considerable revision was undertaken because so many of able, were filmed in their entirety. A few records of the supply, these card descriptions were prepared hastily to keep pace with administrative, medical, personnel, and judge advocate staff the filming and restitution schedules. sections assigned to division headquarters were filmed for those units whose operations and intelligence files were incomplete The CONTENTS column on the pages containing records descriptions or missing. Map annexes (Kartenanlagen), consisting exclusively provides (a) the abbreviation of the staff section that originated of large maps difficult to put on microfilm, were generally the document, (b) the title appearing on the folder cover, and omitted; maps interspersed among and integrated with the tex- (c) additional information providing a general description of the tual records were filmed in several overlapping sections, which, contents. The inclusive dates of the file item are given under a along with the loss of color markings, detracts considerably DATE column; the ITEM NO. is the identification symbol given on from their value and ease of use. the original folder; the ROLL refers to the sequence of the film in Microfilm Publication T315; and 1ST FRAME gives the frame A unit history in tabular form precedes the file item listing for number of the first page of the file item. each division. The DATE column gives the opening date or first date on a pertinent document for the LOCATION and ACTIVITY given The original records, filmed and unfilmed, have been returned to in the next two columns, and the timespan extends to the next the Federal Republic of Germany for deposit in the Bundesarchiv- date given. The CHAIN OF COMMAND Column gives the names of the Militaerarchiv in Freiburg. The master negatives of Microfilm commanding officers and superior units, with timespans for each, Publication T315 have been deposited with the Publications Sales where available. Branch (NEPS), National Archives' (GSA), Washington, DC 20408, from which copies of specific rolls may be purchased. Reference copies These unit histories are based on information found in the records, may be consulted in the microfilm reading room of the National in the Potsdam catalog, on contemporary German daily situation Archives. For suggestions for citing microfilm, see page xiv. maps, and in manuscripts of the Foreign Military Studies series. They supplement or correct the brief histories, based on the The descriptions in this Guide were prepared by Anton F. Grass1, Order ojf Battle of the German Army (War Department, Washington, Johanna M. Wagner, and Donald E. Spencer. Mrs. Wagner also D.C., March 1945j~which were filmed at the beginning of every prepared the input data for the computer* Edward D. Thomas of roll reproducing the records of each unit. A data card describing the General Services Administration assisted by Laura J. Shelley each record item was also microfilmed immediately preceding the was the programmer-analyst. The computer-input scheme, a modifi- folder it describes, and the cards for all folders on one roll cation of the SPINDEX program, was devised by the undersigned. ROBERT WOLFE Chief, Modern Military Branch Military Archives Division IV www.maparchive.ru TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction •••••••••••••••••••••• 111 German Military Symbols and Abbreviations . vii Organization of German Army Staffs x Published Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va .... xii Suggestion for citing microfilm xiv Records: 189. Reserve-Division