The 999th Light Africa Division (999. leichte Afrika-Division) was a German Army unit formed in Tunisia in early 1943. The basis of the division was the 999th Africa Brigade (999. Afrika-Brigade), formed several months earlier, as a penal military unit. While all members of Nazi punishment units were labeled "criminals", a significant proportion of the brigade's members had been transferred to it for holding, or being perceived to hold, anti-Nazi ideas.
The division was not fully-formed when Axis forces in North Africa began to collapse. Consequently, the elements of the division that fought in Tunisia generally did so as independent battalions or companies, which suffered high losses (in terms of casualties and captured) before being withdrawn. Fighting mostly against US Army forces, many members of the division reportedly surrendered their positions to the Americans without a fight.
Afterwards, the severely depleted division was sent to Axis-occupied Greece for garrison duties and to conduct "Bandenbekämpfung";[1] a term which, in Nazi usage, was usually a euphemism for anti-partisan campaigns.
During the deployment to Greece, some members of the division commenced (or recommenced) a range of subversive and/or anti-Nazi activities. The most prominent of these was Falk Harnack, who defected to the Greek resistance and, with other German defectors, formed the Anti-Fascist Committee for a Free Germany (AKFD).[2] Another notable member of the AKFD was August Landmesser, who reportedly refused to make the Nazi salute during his military service and had been depicted in such a protest, in a famous photograph.[3]
Oberst Heinz Karl von Rinkleff – October 1942 to 2 February 1943 (transferred to Russian front after the surrender at Stalingrad)
GeneralleutnantKurt Thomas [de] – 2 February 1943 to 1 April 1943) (KIA 1 April 1943 when his plane was shot down by Luftwaffe fighters en route to Tunis.)
Tessin, Georg (1976). "Die Landstreitkräfte 801—13400" [Ground forces 801-13400]. Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939—1945 (in German). Vol. 13. Osnabrück: Biblio. p. 200. ISBN978-3-7648-1029-0.
