Austrian/Wehrmacht unit, 1936-45

I am writing a novel about an Austrian-born doctor who joined the Austrian army. I would like to know of any unit in 1936 that was large enough to have a Truppenverbandplatz , that was absorbed into the Wehrmacht in 1938 and served in some of these battles:



Poland in 1939
France in 1940

Battle of Britain

London blitz



Russia in 1941

Stalingrad
Warsaw in 1944
France again in June 1944

Battle of the Bulge


Retreat to Germany then back to the Mauthausen concentration camp (near Linz) area in Austria before Patton's Army liberated it on May 5, 1945.


The most important to my book are:
Poland in 1939
France in 1940

Russia in 1941

Stalingrad


France again in 1944




Retreat to Germany then back to the Mauthausen concentration camp (near Linz) area in Austria before Patton's Army liberated it on May 5, 1945.


Thanks in advance





,

 

the Austrian army became, in German service the 44th and 45th infantry divisions, 4th light division and 2nd and 3rd mountain divisions.

the 44th basically was destroyed at Stalingrad, reformed in Italy and finished the war fighting in Hungary;

German 44th Infantry Division

the 45th was in Poland and then essentially destroyed early in Russia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45th_Infantry_Division_(Germany)

The 4th Light Div(also known as 9th Panzer Div) was based in Vienna to start, then western front 1940, Russia, France again after Kursk, stayed fighting in west and was finally destroyed for the last time in the Ruhr area;

4th Light Division | Facebook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_Panzer_Division_(Germany)

2nd mountain Div fought Poland, Norway, Russia, Norway, Denmark, west front, finally ended up Wurtemmberg area;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Mountain_Division_(Germany)

3rd mountain Div fought Poland, Norway, Russia (including Stalingrad relief attempt) then stayed east front until final surrender in Silesia(west Poland/Czech border);

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Mountain_Division_(Germany)


So the best to fit your plan would seem to be a unit in the 4th light division, although they didn't fight in Poland as such, units from them could have done, and you might have to stretch their retreat a little right at the end, although a few men did escape to carry on fighting from the Hartz mountains.

Hope this helps, if you see something you want more detail on, please ask

 

Thank you so much for the help.

 

Your referrals were great. Just one more question. As part of their 1944-5 retreat did they come near any concentration camp?

 

The area of the Ruhr was not where most of the camps were, although the small numbers of men escaping south east could conceivably have been near Buchenwald or Theresienstadt or Dora Mittelbau, although historically not connected. There are other camps slightly less well known or slightly further away - a possibility which frees you from geography and history a little is that there were trains full of camp survivors being moved around away from the soviets especially and these trainloads of victims could easily be stumbled upon almost anywhere.

More detail on the camps can be found here;

Concentration, Death Camps and Crimes Against Humanity - World War II Forums