German units going to Russia from North Africa

Discussion in 'Axis Units' started by Owen, Jul 23, 2020.

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Driving along the motorway earlier I started to think about the 90s German film 'Stalingrad'.
    At the start they are resting in Italy after fighting the Tommies in North Africa.
    Not knowing much about German unit deployments it got me wondering about real German units & were many sent to the Ostfront from sunny Afrika ?
     
  2. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    In the 1973 movie Death Race, it told of several individuals in the Afrika Korps being together in Russia. The characters of Lloyd Bridges and the German tank commander that is.

    Death Race (TV Movie 1973) - IMDb
     
  3. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Given the situation in N Africa and Hitler's orders to yield not a centimetre it's difficult to imagine how units would have been transferred to the Eastern Front in time to be trapped in Stalingrad. However later - post the end in NW Africa - one can imagine some who escaped ending up in the East - which if they went in the summer could still be quite sunny.
     
    Chris C likes this.
  4. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    Some individuals may have fought in Africa then Russia. Most went from Russia to North Africa like Hans von Luck recce bn 7 Panzer Division -> recce Bn 21 Pz Div or Ritter von Thoma 17 & 20 pz div then Afrika Corps. or the 10th Panzer Division. No German Army formations or units were transferred directly to the Eastern Front. Some Luftwaffe units may have done so. e.g. JG77

    Some individuals may have done. Officers and technicians might have been posted away, e.g. Rommel and aircraft engineers.

    The Germans reconstructed several of the formations lost in Tunisia, notably the 15th & 90th Panzer Grenadier and 21st Panzer Division. Most of these formations were manned by fresh troops, but with a cadre from the old formation from soldiers who managed to miss the end in Tunisia through absence on duty, illness or recovering from wounds. By and large the turn over in infantry and armour was very high so the most likely long term survivors would be service elements of one breed or another. 15th and 90th Panzer grenadiers were reformed in the Mediterranean theatre and fought against the western allies while the 21st Panzer division was reformed in Normandy, but served on the eastern Front in 1945.

    So the answer is nope. It was a movie.
     
    Owen likes this.
  5. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The manpower losses as POWs in the fall of Tunisia were greater than the POW losses at Stalingrad and the continuous critical German position gave little flexibility to transfer units form North Africa to the Eastern Front.To contribute to solutions for manpower losses on the Eastern Front, there was a continuous recruiting drive from 1942 to form Waffen SS divisions from ethnic Germans from overrun territories and those who saw an advantage to take up arms with the Germans from the same overrun territories....over 30 Waffen SS divisions were formed up to 1945 from 1942 and only two Waffen SS divisions established at the start of the war.

    The Germans tended to transfer Russian front mauled units back to France for refitting where there was ample training facilities such as those in the South West and the area around the large depot at Mailly le Camp in the Aube.
     
  6. ltdan

    ltdan Nietenzähler

    The transfers to Tunisia were practically a one-way street. And in 1943 significantly more units were transferred from the Eastern Front to Italy than the other way round.
    In the winter of 41/42, however, there were numerous urgent transfers from cosy France to the frozen eastern Front. However, the OKW was not able to provide them with winter equipment in time - with sometimes devastating consequences: some units were nearly completely wiped out by the weather conditions already on the march from the stations to the operations area...
     

Share This Page