In the fifth Countdown to D-Day officer bio, Peter Margaritis presents the wartime career of Richter, an officer who suffered a tremendous loss during the inital invasions of Normandy.
Wilhelm Richter, born in Hirschberg in 1892, was a son of the Lord Mayor of Hirschberg. A World War I veteran, he stayed in the Reichswehr after the war. He participated in the Polish campaign of 1939, the invasion of France, and then on the Eastern Front. On April 1, 1943, he took command of the 716th Grenadier Division in Normandy. Richter’s section lay west of Bayeux, where the 352nd Infantry Division was stationed from May 1944, and east of Caen.
Richter was supposed to leave for the wargames in Rennes the night of June 5th, but he lost track of time doing paperwork. Around 12:40 a.m., his chief of staff called to tell him that “Christmas tree” flares had been seen dropping east of the Orne River, and there were reports of paratroop landings. Richter stepped out of his villa, saw the flares, and immediately ordered Alarm Level 3. Then he called General Marcks to tell him what he had seen.
His division was severely battered on D-Day, and in the afternoon, he left his headquarters in retreat. Around 4 p.m., his command car approached Oberst Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski’s command tank.
Oppeln, getting ready to counterattack against the British, greeted him. Richter was anguished, tears making dirty trails on his face.
“General, are you all right?” asked Oppeln.
Richter took a deep breath, wiping his eyes with a shaky hand. His voice trembling, he dismally replied, “My troops are lost. My—my whole division is finished.”
Oppeln was surprised. Surely some elements were left. Someone had to still be fighting, or else the enemy would have advanced much further by now. Finally, he said, “Well, what can I do, sir?”
Richter said nothing. After a short pause, he just dejectedly shrugged his shoulders. Oppeln, compelled to say something encouraging, replied, “We’ll help as best we can.”
He pulls out his map and showed it to the grief-stricken general. “Where are their positions, sir?” he asked.
Richter glanced over at the map and stayed silent, his hands at his sides.
Oppeln asked, “Sir, will you point them out?”
Richter seemed not just miserable; but also disoriented. He finally looked up and gazes into the distance. Slowly, he shook his head. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “I don’t know…”
In just nine days of fighting, his division had lost 60% of its strength. After three weeks of fighting, Richter was down to 1,200 men and one howitzer. The division was finally pulled out of the front to reorganize. In September 1944, Richter was transferred to the Führerreserve and in November 1944 deputy leader of an infantry division. As of February 1, 1945, he commanded the 14th Luftwaffe Field Division in Norway where he survived the war without seeing further combat. Taken prisoner in 1945, he was released in late July 1948. He died in 1971 at the age of 79.
Richter’s headquarters and bunkers have served as a museum since 1991.
Wilhelm Richter and his role in the defence of the Atlantic Wall is explored in the new book, Countdown to D-Day, due to be released June 2019.
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