History of the 228th Panzerjager

11 March 1944
OKW Berlin

On direct orders of the Fuhrer all that remained of the 16th Infantry division (motorized), which were destroyed in February 1944 fighting north of the Dnieper River bend on the Eastern front, shall be transferred home to Grafenwohr for rearmament and reconstitution as the 116th Panzer Division.

Reserve Panzerjager Battalion 9 shall be renamed the 228th Panzerjager Battalion and shall join the 116th Division for training. Soldaten from various Heer units will form the bulk of the 228th. The 116th Panzer Division shall be ready for action on or about 1 May 1944.

This began the creation of the 228th Panzerjager Battalion which was to fight as the "Tank Destroyer" unit of the 116th until the war ended in 1945. This unit fought entirely on the western front, fighting in the weeks after Normandy, in the retreat across France, Market Garden, The Bulge and the Hurtgen Forest.

In 1944, a Panzerjager unit which was assigned to a Panzer Division would have 3 companies. Company 2 and 3 would be self propelled while the 1st company would be motorized with towed AT guns. As such, our unit would have been the 1st company. As of May 1944 our unit commander was Major Helmet Bochnig and our company commander was Oberleutnant Hubert Hartlieb.
       

History of our Windhund Badge (Seen above)

Adopted by the 16 Panzer-Grenadier Division as their heraldic animal in 1943, this badge (Wind Hund-Abzeichen) depicts a grey hound (Wind Hund) running on the steppes of Russia. As the story goes some Feldgendarmen (Field Police) brought back to divisional H.Q. a starving dog which they had found in the countryside. General Major Gerhard Graf Von Schwerin who had been commanding the division since Nov. 13th 1942 decided to adopt the animal, a grey hound which from then on followed him everywhere, christened "Sacha" by the ranks. This hunting dog from the steppes came to symbolize for the men the memorable combats fought in Russia. The 16th Panzer Grenadier Division was renamed the 116 Panzer Division in 1943, they went on to fight at St. Lo, Argentan, and Falaise. They were regrouped near Aachen and were again in action in the autumn of 1944, before joining in the Ardennes offensive and finally capitulating in the Ruhr in April 1945.