4th Luftwaffe Field Division (Germany)
The 4th "Luftwaffe" Field Division () was an infantry division of the "Luftwaffe" branch of the "Wehrmacht" that fought in World War II. It was formed using surplus ground crew of the "Luftwaffe" and served on the Eastern Front from late 1942 to June 1944 when it was destroyed during Operation Bagration. Operational history. The 4th "Luftwaffe" Field Division, one of several Luftwaffe Field Divisions of the "Luftwaffe" (German Air Force), was formed in mid-1942 in Gross-Born Troop Maneuver Area, under the command of "Oberst" Rainer Stahel. Intended to serve as infantry, its personnel were  largely drawn from surplus "Luftwaffe" ground crew. In November 1942, it was assigned to Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front. Posted to a sector near Vitebsk, it defended this against Soviet operations. In November 1943, responsibility for the division was transferred to the Army and it was renamed 4th Field Division (L). Its Field "Jager" battalions became the 49th, 50th and 51st "Jager" regiments. Early the following year, it received some of the surviving personnel of the 3rd Field Division (L), which had just been disbanded. In the summer of 1944, the 4th Field Division (L) was still defending  Vitebsk as part of the LIII Corps in the 3rd Panzer Army. When the Red Army began the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive of Operation Bagration on 22 June 1944, the corps was surrounded within days. The division was encircled at Vitebsk and subsequently destroyed with its commander, "Generalleutnant" Robert Pistorious, killed in action. Notes. Footnotes Citations