German 243rd Infantry Division

▣ Unit · 1944 – 1944

The 243rd Infantry Division was a static formation of the Atlantic Wall holding the western side of the Cotentin peninsula, the coast facing the Channel west of Cherbourg. It was one of the divisions caught by the American descent on the peninsula in June 1944, its sector threatened as soon as the Allies cut across to the west coast. In the fighting of mid- and late June it was pushed north and west, losing much of its equipment, and it was heavily engaged in the defence of the approaches to Cherbourg. When the port fell at the end of June the division was largely destroyed, its surviving units being absorbed into ad hoc battle groups. The positions shown here are schematic and follow the division's sector on the western Cotentin coast. Its collapse helped the Americans secure the whole of the Cotentin peninsula within a month of the landings. Few of its units survived the fall of the port.

Sources

• Wikimedia Commons — Charnwood (SVG, by EyeSerene)
• Wikimedia Commons — Operations Greenwood and Pomegranate, Normandy, July 1944 (EN.svg)
• Wikimedia Commons — Operation Tractable (SVG, by EyeSerene)
• Wikipedia — 352nd Infantry Division (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Wikipedia — Falaise pocket (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Wikipedia — Normandy landings (CC BY-SA 3.0)
• Wikipedia — Operation Overlord (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Related

• Normandy landings

Reuse this data: open dataset (GeoJSON / CSV, CC BY 4.0)