197e division d'infanterie (Allemagne)

The 197th Infantry Division (German: 197. Infanterie-Division) was a Wehrmacht division in World War II. It was activated on 1 December 1939. In 1941, soldiers of the division were involved in the torture and murder of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisan, in Petrishchevo. The division was destroyed near Vitebsk during the Soviet Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive of Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944. The division was activated on 1 December 1939 in the Posen region in Wehrkreis XXI as a division of the seventh Aufstellungswelle, using personnel from the replacement personnel of Wehrkreis XII (Wiesbaden) stationed in the Posen area at the time. The division maintained a Hessian, Palatine and Middle Rhenish regional identity. The division initially consisted of the Infantry Regiments 321 and 332 (formed from Infantry Replacement Regiment 33 and Infantry Replacement Regiment 246, respectively) as well as the Light Artillery Detachment 229. The initial divisional commander was Hermann Meyer-Rabingen. With its two infantry regiments, the 197th Infantry Division was initially understrength, but bolstered into full divisional strength by the addition of Infantry Regiment 347, formed from Landwehr Infantry Regiment 183 (Wehrkreis VIII) and initially consisting of two battalions, on 8 January 1940. Additionally, the Light Artillery Detachment 229 became the Artillery Regiment 229 through the addition of staff elements from Artillery Regiment 708 and the third detachment of Artillery Regiment 223. In March 1940, the division was visited, along with other newly raised divisions of its type, by Erich von Manstein during an inspection tour. During the Battle of France, the 197th Infantry Division was part of the mostly static Army Group C along the prewar Franco-German border, opposite the French fortifications at the Maginot Line. One of the more notable members of the division at this point in time was Friedrich von Mellenthin, who later went on to command the 9th Panzer Division during the final months of the war, but who was in 1940 the chief of staff ("Ia") of the 197th Infantry Division.