1.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
2.
Waffen-SS
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The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Nazi Partys SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers, the Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer, Ordnungspolizei and other security units. Prior to the war, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was only open to people of Germanic origin. The rules were relaxed in 1940, and later the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers. These SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe, despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles were barred specifically from the formations. At the post-war Nuremberg trials the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party, former Waffen-SS members were denied many of the rights afforded to the military veterans. An exception was made for Waffen-SS conscripts, who were exempted because they were not volunteers, about a third of the total membership were conscripts. The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men in March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The oaths pledged were Pledging loyalty to him alone and Obedience unto death, the formation was given the title Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, led by one of Hitlers oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm, the SA was seen as a threat by Hitler to his newly gained political power. Hitler also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr and conservatives of the country, when Hitler decided to act against the SA, the SS was put in charge of eliminating Röhm and the other high-ranking SA officers. The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934 and saw the killing of up to 200 people and this included almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power. This action was carried out by SS personnel, and the Gestapo. In September 1934, Hitler authorized the formation of the wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe. The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits, at the same time Himmler established the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz and SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig for military training of SS officers. Both schools used regular army training methods and mainly used former army officers as instructors, Himmler initially in 1934 set stringent requirements for recruits. They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, a four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH
3.
Panzergrenadier
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Panzergrenadier is a German term for motorised or mechanized infantry – that is, infantry transported in combat vehicles specialized for such tasks – as introduced during World War II. It is used in the armies of Austria, Germany and Switzerland, however, in the German Army, Panzergrenadier is also the lowest rank of enlisted men in the Panzergrenadiertruppe, comparable to NATO OR-1. The term Panzergrenadier was not adopted until 1942, Infantry in panzer divisions from 1937 onwards were known as Schützen Regiments, they wore the same rose pink piping on their uniforms as the tank crews. Soldiers in special Motorized Infantry units wore the white piping of the Infantry. Their Waffenfarbe was also changed from white or rose pink to a meadow-green shade previously worn by motorcycle troops. Some units did not change over their designations and/or waffenfarbe accoutrements until 1943, the term Panzergrenadier had been introduced in 1942, and was applied equally to the infantry component of Panzer divisions as well as the new divisions known as Panzergrenadier Divisions. Divisions evolved via upgrades from ordinary infantry divisions, first to Motorized Infantry divisions, Divisions, retaining their numerical designation within the series for infantry divisions throughout the process. This included the 3rd, 10th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 25th, others, such as the Großdeutschland Division, were built up over the course of the war by repeatedly augmenting the size of an elite regiment or battalion. The Waffen-SS also created several PzGren, Divisions by the same methods, or by creating new divisions from scratch later in the war. Divisions in both the Heer and Waffen-SS were upgraded to Panzer divisions as the war progressed, all these support elements would also be mechanized in a PzGren. Division, though most of the artillery, anti-tank, and anti-aircraft elements were equipped with weapons towed by trucks rather than the relatively rare armored and self-propelled models. Divisions were often equipped with assault guns rather than tanks. A few elite units, on the hand, might have the tanks plus a battalion of heavy assault guns for their anti-tank element. Of 226 panzergrenadier battalions in the whole of the German Army, Luftwaffe and Waffen SS in September 1943, only 26 were equipped with armoured half tracks, the rest were equipped with trucks. The vast majority of Schützen/Panzergrenadier soldiers were mounted in trucks, additionally, vehicles in the early war period suffered from poor off-road performance. In 1944 a couple of Panzer Divisions based in France had more than the one battalion mounted in SdKfz 251 troop carriers. Panzer Lehrs infantry and engineers were entirely mounted in SdKfz 251 troop carriers, Panzer Division were half-equipped with armoured halftracks. In the German army, Panzergrenadiere act as mechanized infantry and escort of armored vehicles, some essential training courses, especially for urban warfare and fighting in forested terrain, are held at the Infanterieschule at Hammelburg
4.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
5.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
6.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
7.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
8.
Volksdeutsche
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In terminology of Nazi Germany, Volksdeutsche were Germans in terms of people or race, regardless of citizenship. The term is the plural of volksdeutsch, with Volksdeutsche denoting a singular female, and Volksdeutsche. The words Volk and völkisch conveyed the meanings of folk and race while adding the sense of superior civilisation and this is in contrast to Imperial Germans, German citizens living within Germany. The term also contrasts with the usage of the term Auslandsdeutsche since 1936, Volksdeutsche were further divided into racial groups—a minority within a minority in a state—with a special cultural, social and historic development as described by Nazis. According to the historian Doris Bergen, Adolf Hitler is reputed to have coined the definition of Volksdeutsche which appeared in a 1938 memorandum of the German Reich Chancellery. In that document, the Volksdeutsche were defined as races whose language and culture had German origins, for Hitler and the other ethnic Germans of his time, the term Volksdeutsche also carried overtones of blood and race not captured in the common English translation ethnic Germans. According to German estimates in the 1930s, about 30 million Volksdeutsche and Auslandsdeutsche were living outside the Reich. A significant proportion of them were in Central Europe, Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia, where many were located in villages along the Danube, and Russia. The Nazi goal of expansion assigned the Volksdeutsche a special role in German plans, to bring back to German citizenship. The Nazis detailed such goals in Generalplan Ost and these settlers were generally confined to the German Quarter in Moscow. They were only allowed in other cities, so as to prevent the spread of alien ideas to the general population. In his youth, Peter the Great spent much time in the German quarter, when he became Tsar, he brought more German experts into Russia, and particularly into government service, in his attempts to westernise the empire. He also brought in German engineers to supervise the construction of the new city of Saint Petersburg, catherine the Great, herself ethnically German, invited Germanic farmers to immigrate and settle in Russian lands along the Volga River. She guaranteed them the right to retain their language, religion, Ethnic Germans were also sent by her in organised colonisation attempts aiming at Germanisation of conquered Polish areas. Also in other areas with an ethnic German minority people of other than German descent assimilated with the ethnic German culture, examples are people of Baltic and Scandinavian descent, who assimilated into the minority of the Baltic Germans. But anti-Semitic Nazis later rejected Jewish ethnic Germans and all Jewish German citizens as racially German, frederick the Great settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia, acquired in the First Partition of Poland of 1772, with the intention of replacing the Polish nobility. He treated the Poles with contempt and likened the slovenly Polish trash in newly occupied West Prussia to Iroquois, Prussia encouraged a second round of colonisation with the goal of Germanisation after 1832. Prussia passed laws to encourage Germanisation of the Prussian Partition including the provinces of Posen, the Prussian Settlement Commission relocated 154,000 colonists, including locals
9.
Kampfgruppe
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The Kampfgruppe was an Ad hoc combined arms formation, usually employing combination of tanks, infantry, and artillery elements, generally organised for a particular task or operation. A Kampfgruppe could range in size from a corps to a company, Kampfgruppen were generally referred to by either their commanding officers name or the parent division. The Stormtroopers were specialist military troops which were formed in the last years of World War I as the German army developed new methods of attacking enemy trenches, men trained in these methods were known in German as Sturmmann, formed into companies of Sturmtruppen. Other armies have used the term assault troops, shock troops or fire teams for specialist soldiers who perform the infiltration tasks of stormtroopers. However, given the equipment of the Finnish forces, the combined-arms aspect of the Kampfgruppen could not have been applied. Hundreds of Kampfgruppen are documented to have part in operations ranging from a few days to over a year during the war. They left a significant impact in the culture and the picture of the Second World War. Famous examples include, Kampfgruppe Peiper was a mechanised brigade-sized formation formed under the command of SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper which took part in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, KG Peiper was to be the striking arm of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Kampfgruppe 1001 Nacht was a German kampfgruppe formed on the Oder front during the final German offensive of the Second World War, the formation is most notable for its unusual title, referring to the medieval Persian book of 1001 Nights, a collection of tales and fables. During the Allied invasion of France Major Hans von Luck took command of the 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment of the 21st Panzer Division, stationed near Caen, France. While the original concept of Kampfgruppe is usually reserved to the warfare, some of the German tacticians. The most obvious change was the design and the type of units involved, the examples include German Kampfgruppe 5 employed during Operation Weserübung. This unit consisted of the heavy cruiser Blücher, the heavy cruiser Lützow, currently, the formation closest in use is US Army Task force or the battlegroup formation used by several NATO countries, notably the UK. Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse, or in English Combat Groups of the Working Class a paramilitary organisation in East Germany, founded in 1953 and it numbered about 400,000 for much of its existence
10.
Battle of Anzio
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The operation was opposed by German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno. Any delay could result in the occupation of the mountains by the defenders, Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, commander of the U. S. Fifth Army, understood that risk, but Clark did not pass on his appreciation of the situation to his subordinate, Lucas, the initial landing achieved complete surprise with no opposition and a jeep patrol even made it as far as the outskirts of Rome. While Lucas consolidated, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the German commander in the Italian theatre and his artillery units had a clear view of every Allied position. The Germans also stopped the pumps and flooded the reclaimed marsh with salt water, planning to entrap the Allies. For weeks a rain of shells fell on the beach, the marsh, the harbour, after a month of heavy but inconclusive fighting, Lucas was relieved and sent home. His replacement was Major General Lucian K. Truscott, who had commanded the U. S. 3rd Infantry Division. The Allies broke out in May, at the end of 1943, following the Allied invasion of Italy, Allied forces were bogged down at the Gustav Line, a defensive line across Italy south of the strategic objective of Rome. The terrain of central Italy had proved ideally suited to defense, Operation Shingle was originally conceived by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in December 1943, as he lay recovering from pneumonia in Marrakesh. His concept was to two divisions at Anzio, bypassing German forces in central Italy, and take Rome, the strategic objective of the current Battle of Rome. By January he had recovered and was badgering his commanders for a plan of attack, accusing them of not wanting to fight but of being interested only in drawing pay and eating rations. General Harold Alexander, commander of the Allied Armies in Italy, had considered such a plan since October using five divisions. However, the 5th Army did not have the troops nor the means to transport them, Clark proposed landing a reinforced division to divert German troops from Monte Cassino. This second landing, however, instead of failing similarly, would hold the shingle for a week in expectation of a breakthrough at Cassino, the Anzio beachhead is at the northwestern end of a tract of reclaimed marshland, formerly the Pontine Marshes, now the Pontine Fields. Previously uninhabitable due to mosquitoes carrying malaria, in Roman times armies marched as quickly as possible across it on the military road, the Via Appia. The marsh was bounded on one side by the sea and on others by mountains, the Monti Albani, the Monti Lepini, overall these mountains are referenced by the name Monti Laziali, the mountains of Lazio, the ancient Latium. Invading armies from the south had the choice of crossing the marsh or taking the other road to Rome. The marshes were turned into land in the 1930s under Benito Mussolini
11.
133rd Infantry Regiment (United States)
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The 133rd Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment in the Army National Guard. The 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment was originally constituted and organized in May 1861 as an element of the 2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry and it was mustered out of federal service on 12 July 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky. The 2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry was mustered again into service on 2 June 1916 at Camp Dodge, Iowa for the Mexican Border and stationed at Brownsville. The unit was again and mustered out of service on 15 January 1917 at Fort Des Moines. Soon thereafter, the Regiment was again called into service on 25 March 1917 and was drafted into federal service on 5 August 1917. It was reorganized and redesignated as the 133rd Infantry and assigned to the 34th Infantry Division on 1 October 1917 and it was demobilized on 18 February 1919 at Camp Grant, Illinois. The Regiment was consolidated with the 4th Infantry, Iowa State Guard and it was redesignated as the 133rd Infantry and assigned to the 34th Infantry Division on 11 July 1921. The 133rd Infantry was inducted into service on 10 February 1941 at Sioux City. It inactivated on 3 November 1945 at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia and it was reorganized and federally recognized on 25 November 1946 with headquarters at Cedar Falls, Iowa. The unit was relieved from the 34th Infantry Division on 1 May 1959 and reorganized as the 133rd Infantry, the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry draws its lineage and honors from that of A Company, 133rd Infantry. Subsequent assignments for the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry included the 47th Infantry Division and it joined the latter on 10 February 1991, becoming part of the divisions 2nd Brigade. The outgoing unit, 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery, from Savannah, Georgia, validated the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, the mission tasked to the 133rd Infantry Battalion was convoy security in the western region of the Iraqi theater of operations. The official take over of this occurred on 1 May 2006. After nine months in theatre, the 1-133 Infantry was relieved in place, attached below and to the sides of the shield is a Silver scroll inscribed “AVAUNCEZ” in Black letters. Symbolism The shield is silver, or white, the old Infantry color, the motto translates to “Advance, or Forward. ”Background The distinctive unit insignia was approved on 16 August 1933. Blazon Shield- Argent, a Spanish castle debased Gules, to chief a fleur-de-lis of the like, crest- That for the regiments and separate battalions of the Iowa Army National Guard, On a wreath of the colors Argent and Gules, a hawk’s head erased Proper. Symbolism Shield- The shield is white, the old Infantry color, crest- The crest is that of the Iowa Army National Guard. Background- The coat of arms was approved on 15 August 1933, french Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II, Streamer embroidered BELVEDERE
12.
34th Infantry Division (United States)
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The 34th Infantry Division is an infantry division of the United States Army, part of the National Guard, that participated in World War I, World War II and multiple current conflicts. It was the first American division deployed to Europe in World War II, the division was deactivated in 1945, and the 47th Viking Infantry Division later created in the divisions former area. In 1991 the 47th Division was redesignated the 34th, since 2001 division soldiers have served on homeland security duties in the continental United States, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. The 34th has also deployed to support peacekeeping efforts in the former Yugoslavia. The division continues to today, with most of the division part of the Minnesota. In 2011, it was staffed by roughly 6,500 soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard,2,900 from the Iowa National Guard, about 300 from the Nebraska National Guard, and about 100 from other states. The division was established as the 34th of the National Guard in August 1917, consisting of units from North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota. The division initially included the 67th Infantry Brigade, formed in August 1917 in the Iowa and Nebraska National Guards, the 67th Brigade comprised the 133rd Infantry Regiment and the 134th Infantry Regiment. The 68th Brigade comprised the 135th Infantry Regiment and the 136th Infantry Regiment, the division takes its name from the shoulder sleeve insignia designed for a 1917 training camp contest by American regionalist artist Marvin Cone, who was then a soldier enlisted in the unit. Cones design evoked the desert training grounds of Camp Cody, New Mexico, in World War I, the unit was called the Sandstorm Division. German troops in World War II, however, called the U. S. divisions soldiers Red Devils and Red Bulls, brig. Gen. Frank G. Mauldin took command. The 34th Division arrived in France in October 1918 but it was too late for the division to be sent to the front, as the end of hostilities was near, an armistice being signed the following month. Brig. Gen. John A. Johnston took command 26 October 1918, the 34th returned to the U. S. and was inactivated in December 1918. The 67th Infantry Brigade was disbanded in February 1919, but formed again in 1921, on 17 January 1921, the 109th Observation Squadron was federally recognized as the first aviation unit in the Minnesota National Guard. The squadron was assigned as an observation unit for the 34th Division, at that time recruiting from Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota. The 34th was reorganized as the 1st Infantry Regiment, Minnesota National Guard on 31 January 1920, on 16 May 1934, the truck drivers union initiated a strike, which quickly degenerated into open violence in the streets of Minneapolis. Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson activated the National Guard, and 4,000 Guardsmen to suppress the chaos, utilizing roving patrols, curfews, and security details, the 34th quickly restored order, thus enabling negotiated settlement of the labor dispute. On 18 June 1939, a tornado hit Anoka, Minnesota,300 Guardsmen patrolled the streets and imposed a quasi-martial law while the community was stabilized
13.
Stielers Handatlas
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Published by Justus Perthes of Gotha it went through ten editions from 1816 to 1944. As with many 19th century publications, an edition was issued in parts, for example, the first edition, by Stieler and Christian Gottlieb Reichard was first published in 1817. The editions fifty maps were completed in 1823, after Stielers death Friedrich von Stülpnagel edited the second and third editions containing 83 maps, a fourth edition appeared 1862-64, a fifth 1866-68, both with 84 maps. A seventh edition was issued 1879-82, an eighth 1888-91 under the direction of Hermann Berghaus, Vogel,16 maps hereof were exclusively translated to English, transferred to Imperial units and became part the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Hermann Haack edited the tenth edition, with an index to 320,000 entries being the most comprehensive atlas of modern times. English versions of the ninth and tenth editions appeared as Stielers Atlas of Modern Geography, an international edition remained with 84 of the 114 maps planned incomplete due to wartime circumstances. The work was engraved on 432 copper plates which have been preserved, davidRumsey. com The 1875 6th Edition Handatlas, and many other maps and atlases, are viewable online maproom. org 1891 8th Edition Handatlas handatlas. de Web archive of the great German Hand-Atlases. Köhler, F, Gothaer Wege in Geographie und Kartographie Suchy, G, Gothaer Geographen und Kartographen
14.
Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre
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On 12 August 1944, the Waffen-SS murdered about 560 local villagers and refugees, including 130 children, and burned their bodies. These crimes have been defined as voluntary and organized acts of terrorism by the Military Tribunal of La Spezia, the soldiers immediately proceeded to round up villagers and refugees, locking up hundreds of them in several barns and stables before systematically executing them. The killings were mostly by shooting groups of people with machine guns or by herding them into basements and other enclosed spaces. At the 16th-century local church, the priest Fiore Menguzzo was shot at point-blank range, in all, the victims included at least 107 children, as well as eight pregnant women. After the people were killed through the village, their corpses were set on fire, the livestock were also exterminated and the whole village was burnt down. The SS men then sat down outside the burning SantAnna and ate lunch, after the war, the church was rebuilt. The Charnel House Monument and the Historical Museum of Resistance were both built nearby, stations of the Cross illustrate scenes from the massacre along the trail from the church to the main memorial site—the National Park of Peace, founded in 2000. The massacre inspired the novel Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride, however, extradition requests from Italy were rejected by Germany. In 2012, German prosecutors shelved their investigation of 17 unnamed former SS soldiers who were part of the involved in the massacre because of a lack of evidence. The statement said, Belonging to a Waffen-SS unit that was deployed to SantAnna di Stazzema cannot replace the need to prove individual guilt, rather, for every defendant it must be proven that he took part in the massacre, and in which form. The mayor of the village, Michele Silicani, called the verdict a scandal, National Archives and Records Administration, RG238, Office of the Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, Location, 190/10/34/25, Entry 2, Box 10, Case 16–62. La strage di Sant’Anna di Stazzema 1944–2005, Rome,2006, sS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division „Reichsführer-SS“ in Italien 1944, in, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken,81,2001, pp. 529–561. Carlo Gentile, Sant’Anna di Stazzema, in, Gerd R. Ueberschär, verbrechen im Zweiten Weltkrieg, Darmstadt,2003, pp. 231–236. Carlo Gentile, Le SS di Sant’Anna di Stazzema, azioni, motivazioni e profilo di una unità nazista, in, Marco Palla,12 agosto 1944, la strage di Sant’Anna di Stazzema, Rome,2003, pp. 86–117. The National Park of Peace of Sant’Anna di Stazzema A Day of Shame for Germany, Deutsche Welle,12.08.2004
15.
Walter Reder
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Walter Reder was a German commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany and war criminal during World War II. He served with the SS Division Totenkopf and the SS Division Reichsführer-SS and he and the unit under his command committed the Marzabotto massacre in Italy in 1944. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy, Reder was extradited to Italy in May 1948 for war crimes. The citizens of Marzabotto and survivors of the massacre voted 237-1 against freeing Reder, local officials had stated that as many as 1,830 civilians died in massacres in and around Marzabatto. Years later, a group of SS men whom Reder had commanded in 1944 were tried and convicted for their role in the SantAnna di Stazzema massacre and their convictions and sentences, however, were in absentia. Reder was paroled in January 1985, after which he returned to Austria, beschluss des Militärtribunals van Bari vom 14
16.
Gothic Line
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The Gothic Line was a German defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War II. Adolf Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line, in response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the Green Line in June 1944. Initially this line was breached during Operation Olive, but Kesselrings forces were able to retire in good order. Operation Olive has been described as the biggest battle of materials ever fought in Italy, over 1,200,000 men participated in the battle. The battle took the form of a manoeuvre, carried out by the British Eighth Army. Fifth Army against the German 10th Army and German 14th Army, Rimini, a city which had been hit by previous air raids, had 1,470,000 rounds fired against it by allied land forces. This would have required the U. S and this last redoubt proved the Germans determination to continue fighting. Nevertheless, it was fortunate for the Allies that at this stage of the war the Italian partisan forces had become effective in disrupting the German preparations in the high mountains. By September 1944, German generals were no longer able to move freely in the area behind their lines because of partisan activity. One of his colleagues who ignored this caution—Wilhelm Crisolli —was caught, Fifth Army to take part in the landings in southern France, Operation Dragoon. Whilst this would threaten Germany from the rear, Churchill was more concerned to forestall the Russians advancing into central Europe, Chiefs of Staff had strongly opposed this strategy as diluting the Allied focus in France. However, following the Allied successes in France during the summer, Chiefs relented, and there was complete agreement amongst the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Second Quebec Conference on 12 September. It was the shortest route to his objective, the plains of Lombardy and he mounted a deception operation to convince the Germans that the main blow would come on the Adriatic front. On 4 August, Alexander met Lieutenant-General Leese, the British Eighth Army commander and he suggested a surprise attack along the Adriatic coast. On the coast, Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese, the British Eighth Army commander, had Polish II Corps with 5th Kresowa Division in the front line and the 3rd Carpathian Division in reserve. To the left of the Poles was Canadian I Corps which had the Canadian 1st Infantry Division in the front line, for the opening phase the corps artillery was strengthened with the addition of the British 4th Infantry Divisions artillery. West of the Canadians was British V Corps with the British 46th Infantry Division manning the right of the front line. In reserve were the British 56th Infantry and 1st Armoured Divisions, further to the rear was the British 4th Division, waiting to be called forward to join the corps
17.
Marzabotto
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Marzabotto is a small town and comune in Italian region Emilia-Romagna, part of the Metropolitan City of Bologna. It is located 27 kilometres south-southwest of Bologna by rail, a massacre of inhabitants took place there in World War II. The acropolis was just below the villa, here remains of temples were found, the town lay below the modern high-road and was laid out on a rectangular plan divided by main streets into eight quarters, and these in turn into blocks or insulae. Necropoleis were found on the east and north of the site, the place was partially inhabited later by the Gauls, but was not occupied by the Romans. On September 29,1944, during the World War II German occupation of Italy, the town was awarded with the Gold Medal to Military Valour for this episode. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Media related to Marzabotto at Wikimedia Commons The Two Etruscan Necropolis of Marzabotto and their Sacred Ties with Montovolo by Graziano Baccolini
18.
Arnhem
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Arnhem /ˈɑːrnəm/ or /ˈɑːrnhɛm/ is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located on banks of the rivers Nederrijn and Sint-Jansbeek, which was the source of the citys development. Arnhem had a population of 151,356 in 2014 and is one of the cities of the Netherlands. The municipality is part of the city region Arnhem-Nijmegen, which has a combined 736,500 inhabitants, Arnhem is home to the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Netherlands Open Air Museum, Royal Burgers Zoo and National Sports Centre Papendal. The oldest archeological findings of human activity around Arnhem are two firestones of about 70,000 years ago and these come from the stone age, when the Neanderthals lived in this part of Europe. In Schuytgraaf, remnants of a camp from around 5000 BC have been discovered. In Schaarsbergen,12 grave mounds were found from 2400 BC, the earliest settlement in Arnhem dates from 1500 BC, of which traces have been found on the Hoogkamp, where the Van Goyenstraat is currently located. Arnhem arose on the location where the road between Nijmegen and Utrecht/Zutphen split, Seven streams provided the city with water, and only when the flow of the Rhine was changed in 1530, was the city located on the river. Arnhem was first mentioned as such in 893 as Arneym or Arentheym, in 1233 Count Otto II of Guelders from Zutphen, conferred city rights on the town, which had belonged to the abbey of Prüm, settled in, and fortified it. Arnhem entered the Hanseatic League in 1443, in 1473, it was captured by Charles the Bold of Burgundy. In 1514, Charles of Egmond, duke of Guelders, took it from the dukes of Burgundy, in 1543, as capital of the so-called Kwartier van Veluwe it joined the Union of Utrecht during the Eighty years war in 1579. After its capture from the Spanish forces by Dutch and English troops in 1585 the city part of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands. The French occupied the town 1672–74, from 1795 to 1813, it was reoccupied by the French, by both revolutionary and imperial forces. In the early 19th century, the fortifications were almost completely dismantled. The Sabelspoort is the remaining part of the medieval walls. In the 19th century, Arnhem was a resort town famous for its picturesque beauty. It was known as het Haagje van het oosten, mainly because a number of former sugar barons or planters from the Indies settled there. Even now the city is famous for its parks and greenery, the urbanization in the north on hilly terrain is also quite unusual for the Netherlands
19.
Operation Market Garden
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Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. Field Marshal Montgomerys strategic goal was to encircle the heart of German industry, the northern end of the pincer would circumvent the northern end of the Siegfried Line giving easier access into Germany. The aim of Operation Market Garden was to establish the end of a pincer ready to project deeper into Germany. Allied forces would project north from Belgium,60 miles through the Netherlands, across the Rhine, the operation made massed use of airborne forces, whose tactical objectives were to secure the bridges and allow a rapid advance by armored ground units to consolidate north of Arnhem. The operation required the seizure of the bridges across the Maas, several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen were captured at the beginning of the operation. Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks XXX Corps ground force advance was delayed by the failure of the airborne units to secure bridges at Son. German forces demolished the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son before being secured by the 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Divisions failure to capture the main road bridge over the river Waal at Nijmegen before 20 September also delayed the advance of XXX Corps. At the furthest point of the operation at Arnhem, the British 1st Airborne Division encountered initial strong resistance. The delays in capturing the bridges at Son and Nijmegen gave time for German forces, including the 9th and 10th SS panzer divisions who were present at time, to organize. In the ensuing battle, only a small force managed to capture the end of the Arnhem road bridge and after the ground forces failed to relieve them. The remainder of the 1st Airborne Division were trapped in a small pocket west of the bridge, the Allies had failed to cross the Rhine and the river remained a barrier to their advance into Germany until offensives at Remagen, Oppenheim, Rees and Wesel in March 1945. The failure of Market Garden to form a foothold over the Rhine ended Allied expectations of finishing the war by Christmas 1944. After major defeats in Normandy in the summer of 1944, remnants of German forces withdrew across the Low Countries and eastern France towards the German border by the end of August. To the south, the U. S. 12th Army Group under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley was nearing the German border and had ordered to orient on the Aachen gap with Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges U. S. First Army, in support of Montgomerys advance on the Ruhr, Third Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, moved eastward towards the Saar. At the same time, the U. S. 6th Army Group under General Jacob L. Devers was advancing towards Germany after their landings in southern France. The Overlord plan had foreseen this, calling for the exploitation of ports in Brittany to move the supply points forward as the armies moved, Eisenhower persisted with his plans to capture these ports, but some argued that the capture of Le Havre and Antwerp made this unnecessary. Although over-the-beach supply operations outperformed expectations, September saw deteriorating weather and rising seas, deep-water ports were therefore required, Cherbourg was useful, but far from the front
20.
Klagenfurt
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Klagenfurt am Wörthersee is the capital of the federal state of Carinthia in Austria. With a population of 99,100, it is the sixth-largest city in the country, the city is the bishops seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt and home to the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. The city of Klagenfurt is in southern Austria, midway across the nation and it is in the middle, almost as far from Innsbruck, to the west, as from Vienna, to the northeast. Klagenfurt is elevated 446 metres above sea level and covers an area of 120.03 square kilometres and it is on the lake Wörthersee and on the Glan River. The city is surrounded by several forest-covered hills and mountains with heights of up to 1,000 m, for example, to the south is the Karawanken mountain range, which separates Carinthia from Slovenia and Italy. Klagenfurt is divided into 16 districts, It is further divided into 25 Katastralgemeinden, Klagenfurt has a typical continental climate, with a fair amount of fog throughout the autumn and winter. The rather cold winters are, however, broken by occasional warmer periods due to wind from the Karawanken mountains to the south. The average temperature from 1961 and 1990 is 7.1 °C, in Old Slovene, cviljovec is a place haunted by such a wailing female ghost or cvilya. Thus they assumed that Klagenfurts name was a made by the German settlers of the original Slovene name of the neighbouring wetland. However, the earliest Slovene mention of Klagenfurt in the form of v Zelouzi dating from 1615 is 400 years more recent and this story was reported by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, who later became Pope Pius II. In 2007, the city changed its name to Klagenfurt am Wörthersee. However, since there are no settlements by the name of Klagenfurt anywhere. The feat is commemorated by a grandiose 9-ton Renaissance monument in the city centre, historically, the place was founded by the Spanheim Duke Herman as a stronghold sited across the commercial routes in the area. Its first mention dates from the late 12th century in a document in which Duke Ulric II, exempted St. Pauls Abbey from the toll charge in foro Chlagenvurth. In the following centuries, Klagenfurt suffered fires, earthquakes, invasions of locusts, and attacks from Turks, never before had such a thing happened. The new owners, however, brought about an economic renaissance, in 1863, the railway connection to St. During the 19th century, the city developed into an important centre of Carinthian Slovene culture, the Slovene national poet France Prešeren also spent a short part of his professional career there. Several Slovene language newspapers were published in the city, among them the Slovenski glasnik
21.
Karl Gesele
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The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military of the Third Reich during World War II. A total of 7,321 awards were made between its first presentation on 30 September 1939 and its last bestowal on 17 June 1945 and this number is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the Association of Knights Cross Recipients. Presentations were made to members of the three branches of the Wehrmacht—the Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe —as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst. There were also 43 recipients in the forces of allies of the Third Reich. Fellgiebel was the chairman and head of the order commission of the AKCR. In 1996 a second edition of book was published with an addendum delisting 11 of these original recipients. Author and historian Veit Scherzer has cast doubt on a further 193 of these listings, Scherzer wrote his book in cooperation with the German Federal Archives. The book was chosen by Prof. Dr. Franz W. Seidler for the library of the Bundeswehr University Munich, for many years Fellgiebels book was considered a reference work on this topic, and it has now been succeeded by Scherzers work. The recipients are ordered alphabetically by last name, the rank listed is the recipients rank at the time the Knights Cross was awarded. The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grades were based on four separate enactments, the first enactment, Reichsgesetzblatt I S.1573 of 1 September 1939 instituted the Iron Cross, the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross and the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. Article 2 of the enactment mandated that the award of a higher class be preceded by the award of all preceding classes. As the war progressed, some of the recipients of the Knights Cross distinguished themselves further and a higher grade, the Oak Leaves, as they were commonly referred to, were based on the enactment Reichsgesetzblatt I S.849 of 3 June 1940. In 1941, two grades of the Knights Cross were instituted. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht kept separate Knights Cross lists, one for each of the three branches, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and for the Waffen-SS. Within each of these lists a unique number was assigned to each recipient. The same numbering paradigm was applied to the grades of the Knights Cross. Heer members received 238 of the medals,12 went to the Kriegsmarine,98 to the Luftwaffe and this along with the + indicates that a higher grade of Knights Cross was awarded as well. This along with the * indicates that the Knights Cross was awarded posthumously, indicates that author Walther-Peer Fellgiebel has expressed doubt regarding the veracity and formal correctness of the listing
22.
Max Simon
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Max Simon was a German SS-Gruppenführer in the Waffen-SS and war criminal during World War II. Simon was one of the first members of the SS in the early 1930s and he rose through the ranks of the SS, and became a corps commander during World War II. At the end of the war he was captured by the Allies, put on trial for war crimes, in 1917 he joined the Royal Prussian Armys Leib-Kürassier-Regiment Großer Kurfürst, which was part of the 11th Division. He served in Macedonia and on the Western Front, being awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class, at the end of the war he joined the Freikorps in Silesia and fought against the Polish forces. His unit was incorporated into the Reichswehr as the 16th Cavalry Regiment. In 1934 he was appointed as the commander of the Sachsenburg concentration camp, in 1938 he took part in the Anschluss of Austria, the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia and the occupation of the Sudetenland. At the start of World War II, the SS Regiment was renamed in October 1939, the 1st SS Totenkopfstandarte Oberbayern, as the 1st Panzer Grenadier Regiment SS Totenkopf Division and was later renamed the 5th Panzer Grenadier regiment in 1943. During the Battle of France Simon, led his regiment in the capture of Pixie, Lyon, Orléans, Tours and Bordeaux and then advanced to the border with Spain. In July 1941 Simon took part in the invasion of Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, as part of Army Group North, taking Kraslava and breaking through the Stalin line, where Simon was wounded. For the fighting in the Battles of the Demyansk Pocket, Simon was awarded the Knights Cross, in December 1942 Simon was promoted again to Brigadeführer, prior to being given command of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS. The SS Division Reichsführer-SS was to be formed in Hungary from Simons old regiment, in November 1944, Simon was promoted to was given command of the XII SS Corps. The XIII SS Corps deployed to the Lorraine region against the United States Army, the XIII SS Army Corps was forced to withdraw into the Saarland and the Palatinate where it started to destroy the Rhine bridges. In April 1945 between Main and Jagst it came up against the 4th US Armored Division and took part in fighting around the Tauber – Colombia line. The Corps then fought a withdrawal to the Danube and around Munich, on the orders of Simon the bridges over the Isar approaching Austria were not blown up, as he believed there was no need as the end of the war was near. Simon ordered the execution of Friedrich Hanselmann, Leonhard Gackstatter and Leonhard Wolfmeyer for Wehrkraftzersetzung on 10 April 1945, the farmer Hanselmann had taken away the weapons of 15-year-old boys from the Hitler Youth and had thrown them into the local pond. The boys reported this to their commanding officer SS-Sturmbannführer Gottschalk, who had Hanselmann arrested, Gottschalk sentenced Hanselmann to death and asked the mayor of Brettheim, Gackstetter and the teacher Wolfmeyer to confirm the sentence. The two men refused and were also arrested and sentenced to death. The men were executed by hanging and strung up on a tree at the entrance of the local cemetery, Simon had ordered that the bodies be left hanging for four days
23.
Otto Baum
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Otto Baum, was a high-ranking commander of the Waffen-SS during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Baum was born on 15 November 1911 in Hechingen-Stetten, a son of a merchant. From 1930 to 1932, he studied two semesters of agriculture at the University of Hohenheim and he served as a battalion commander in 3rd SS Totenkopf Infantry Regiment during the Operation Barbarossa, invasion of the Soviet Union. After recovering from wounds in 1943, he was promoted to regimental commander. He took command of the SS Division Das Reich in July 1944, 95th Swords on 2 September 1944 as SS-Standartenführer and commander 2
24.
Marzabotto massacre
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It was the worst massacre of civilians committed by the Waffen SS in Western Europe during the war. They also killed numerous residents of the adjacent Grizzana Morandi and Monzuno, historians have struggled to document the number of victims, some sources report up to 1,830 victims, others estimate 955 people killed. Today, the Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole reports 770 victims and this number is close to the official report by Sturmbannführer Reder, who reported the execution of 728 bandits. Among the victims,155 were less than 10 years old,95 were aged 10 to 16,142 were over 60 years old,454 were male,316 were female and five were Catholic priests. Giovanni Fornasini, a parish priest and member of the Resistance, by his actions, Fornasini saved the lives of many of his parishioners, and managed to escape immediate death. As he was burying the bodies of killed in the massacre. The officer accused Fornasini of crimes committed in the Marzabotto area, when Fornasini confessed to having helped the villagers avoid execution, the officer shot and killed him. On 18 October 1998, Cardinal Biffi opened in Bologna the process for the beatification of Fornasini, today Fornasini is remembered as the angel of Marzabotto. A memorial commemorates him and four priests in the cemetery of San Martino di Caprara. The British tried SS General Max Simon for his part in the massacre and he was sentenced to death, later changed to life in prison. Simon was pardoned in 1954 and died in 1961, the Americans arrested SS Major Walter Reder, an Austrian national, in Salzburg, and passed him to the Italians via the British. In 1951 he was tried in an Italian military court in Bologna and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the military prison at Gaeta. He was released in 1985 and died six years later in 1991, in January 2007,10 of 17 suspected former SS members were found guilty in absentia by an Italian military tribunal in the north Italian town of La Spezia. They were sentenced to imprisonment for the massacre. The Italian media reported that the 10 were also ordered to pay roughly €100 million to the survivors, luomo Che Verrà tells the story of the local Italian people, partisans and the Marzabotto Massacre. It features Raffaele Zabban playing Giovanni Fornasini
25.
Freiburg im Breisgau
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Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany with a population of about 220,000. In the south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain. The city is known for its medieval minster and Renaissance university, as well as for its standard of living. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region, according to meteorological statistics, the city is the sunniest and warmest in Germany and held the all-time German temperature record of 40.2 °C from 2003 to 2015. Freiburg was founded by Konrad and Duke Berthold III of Zähringen in 1120 as a market town, hence its name. Frei means free, and Burg, like the modern English word borough, was used in those days for a city or town. The German word Burg also means a town, as in Hamburg. Thus, it is likely that the name of place means a fortified town of free citizens. This town was located at a junction of trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea regions, and the Rhine and Danube rivers. In 1200, Freiburgs population numbered approximately 6,000 people, at about that time, under the rule of Bertold V, the last duke of Zähringen, the city began construction of its Freiburg Münster cathedral on the site of an older parish church. Begun in the Romanesque style, it was continued and completed 1513 for the most part as a Gothic edifice, in 1218, when Bertold V died, then Egino V von Urach, the count of Urach assumed the title of Freiburgs count as Egino I von Freiburg. The city council did not trust the new nobles and wrote down its established rights in a document, at the end of the thirteenth century there was a feud between the citizens of Freiburg and their lord, Count Egino II of Freiburg. Egino II raised taxes and sought to limit the freedom, after which the Freiburgers used catapults to destroy the counts castle atop the Schloßberg. The furious count called on his brother-in-law the Bishop of Strasbourg, Konradius von Lichtenberg, the bishop responded by marching with his army to Freiburg. According to an old Freiburg legend, a butcher named Hauri stabbed the Bishop of Strasbourg to death on 29 July 1299. It was a Pyrrhic victory, since henceforth the citizens of Freiburg had to pay an annual expiation of 300 marks in silver to the count of Freiburg until 1368, in 1366 the counts of Freiburg made another failed attempt to occupy the city during a night raid. Eventually the citizens were fed up with their lords, and in 1368 Freiburg purchased its independence from them, the city turned itself over to the protection of the Habsburgs, who allowed the city to retain a large measure of freedom. Most of the nobles of the city died in the battle of Sempach, the patrician family Schnewlin took control of the city until the guildsmen revolted
26.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
27.
2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich
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The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was a division of the Nazi Waffen-SS during World War II. It was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS and it was then transferred to the West and took part in the fighting in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, ending the war in Hungary and Austria. Das Reich committed the Oradour-sur-Glane and Tulle massacres, in August 1939 Adolf Hitler placed the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the SS-Verfügungstruppe under the operational command of the OKH. Events during the Invasion of Poland raised doubts over the effectiveness of the SS-VT. Himmler insisted that the SS-VT should be allowed to fight in its own formations under its own commanders, Hitler was unwilling to upset either the army or Himmler, and chose a third path. He ordered that the SS-VT form its own divisions but that the divisions would be under army command, in October 1939 the SS-Verfügungstruppe regiments, Deutschland, Germania and Der Führer, were organized into the SS-Verfügungs-Division with Paul Hausser as commander. Thereafter, the SS-VT and the LSSAH took part in training while under army commands in preparation for Operation Fall Gelb against the Low Countries. Der Führer Regiment and LSSAH participated in the invasion of the Netherlands which began on 10 May. On the following day the rest of the SS-VT Division crossed into the Netherlands, participating in the drive for the Dutch central front and Rotterdam, after the fighting in the Netherlands ended, the SS-VT Division was ordered to make for France. A patrol from the SS-VT Division crossed the canal at Saint-Venant, a larger force from the SS-VT Division then crossed the canal and formed a bridgehead at Saint-Venant,30 miles from Dunkirk. On the following day, British forces attacked Saint-Venant, forcing the SS-VT Division to retreat, on 26 May the German advance resumed. On 27 May the Deutschland regiment of the SS-VT Division reached the defensive line on the Leie River at Merville. They forced a bridgehead across the river and waited for the SS Division Totenkopf to arrive to cover their flank, what arrived first was a unit of British tanks, which penetrated their position. The SS-VT managed to hold on against the British tank force, only the arrival of the Totenkopf Panzerjäger platoon saved the Deutschland from being destroyed and their bridgehead lost. By 30 May, most of the remaining Allied forces had pushed back into Dunkirk where they were evacuated by sea to England. The SS-VT Division next took part in the drive towards Paris, after the close of the Battle of France, the SS-VT was officially renamed the Waffen-SS in July 1940. In December 1940 the Germania Regiment was removed from the Verfügungs-Division and used to form the cadre of a new division and it was made up of mostly Danes, Norwegians, Dutch and Flemish volunteers from the occupied territories. By the start of 1941 the division was renamed Reich, in April 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece
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3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf
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The 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf was one of 38 divisions of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke, most of the divisions initial personnel belonged to the SS-Totenkopfverbände, and others were members of German militias that had committed war crimes in Poland. Due to its insignia and name, it was referred to as the Deaths Head Division. The SS Division Totenkopf was formed in October 1939, the Totenkopf Division had close ties to the camp service and its members. When first formed a total of 6,500 men from the SS-TV were transferred into the Totenkopf Division, the Totenkopf was initially formed from concentration camp guards of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Standarten of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, and men from the SS Heimwehr Danzig. Members of other SS militias were also transferred into the division in early 1940, the division had officers from the SS-Verfügungstruppe, of whom many had already seen action in Poland. The division was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke, at the time of the Battle of France, the division was equipped with ex-Czech weapons. Totenkopf was initially held in reserve during the Battle of France, the division was committed on 16 May to the front in Belgium, where it suffered heavy casualties. Later, to the northeast of Cambrai the division took 16,000 French prisoners, whilst subsequently trying to drive through to the coast, Totenkopf was involved in the only Allied tank attack in France. On 21 May units of the 1st Army Tank Brigade, supported by the 50th Infantry Division, the SS Totenkopf was overrun, finding their standard anti-tank gun, the 3.7 cm PaK36, was no match for the British Matilda tank. It took place at a time when the British Expeditionary Force was attempting to retreat through the Pas-de-Calais region during the Battle of Dunkirk, the division stayed in France for refitting until April 1941. Totenkopf had suffered losses during the campaign, including over 300 officers. Replacement personnel came from Waffen-SS recruits, as opposed to from the camps, in April 1941, the division was ordered East to join Field Marshall Wilhelm von Leebs Army Group North. Leebs force was tasked with advancing on Leningrad and formed the wing of Operation Barbarossa. Totenkopf took part in the advance through Lithuania and Latvia, the division then advanced past Demyansk to Leningrad where it was involved in heavy fighting in August. During Soviet winter counter-offensive, the division was encircled for several months near Demyansk in what known as the Demyansk Pocket. During the fighting in the pocket, it was re-designated Kampfgruppe Eicke due to its reduced size, in April 1942, the division broke out of the pocket. At Demyansk, about 80% of its men were killed, wounded or missing in action, the division was sent to France to be refitted in late October 1942
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5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
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The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was a Panzer division among the thirty eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. It was recruited from volunteers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia. During the course of World War II, the served on the Eastern Front during World War II. It surrendered in May 1945 to the American forces in Austria, after the invasion of Poland in 1939, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler sought to expand the Waffen-SS with foreign military volunteers for the crusade against Bolshevism. The enrolment began in April 1940 with the creation of two regiments, the Waffen-SS Regiment Nordland, and the Waffen-SS Regiment Westland, the Nordic formation, originally organised as the Nordische Division, was to be made up of Nordic volunteers mixed with ethnic German Waffen-SS personnel. The SS Infantry Regiment Germania of the SS-Verfügungs-Division, which was formed mostly from ethnic Germans, was transferred to form the nucleus of a new division in late 1940. In December 1940, the new SS motorised formation was to be designated SS-Division Germania, but after its formative period, the Wiking division was formed around three motorised infantry regiments, Germania, Westland, and Nordland, with the addition of the SS Artillery Regiment 5. Command of the newly formed division was given to Brigadeführer Felix Steiner, after formation the division was sent to Heuberg in Germany for training and by April 1941, SS Division Wiking was ready for combat. It was ordered east in mid-May, to part with Army Group Souths advance into the Ukraine during Operation Barbarossa. In June 1941 the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS was formed from volunteers from that country, after training, this unit was attached to the SS Regiment Nordland of the division. About 430 Finns who fought in the Winter War served within the SS Division Wiking division since the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, in spring 1943 the Finns 2-year contract ended, and the Finnish battalion was withdrawn. During that same timeframe, the Wikings SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Nordland was removed to form the core of the new 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland. They were replaced by the Estonian infantry battalion Narwa, the division took part in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, advancing through Galicia, Ukraine. In August the division fought for the bridgehead across the Dniepr River, later, the division took part in the heavy fighting for Rostov-on-Don before retreating to the Mius River line in November. In the summer of 1942, Wiking took part Army Group Souths offensive Case Blue, aimed at capturing Stalingrad, in late September 1942, Wiking participated in the operation aimed to capture the city of Grozny, alongside the 13th Panzer Division. The division captured Malgobek on 6 October, but the objective of seizing Grozny, the division took part in the attempt to seize Ordzhonikidze. The Soviet Operation Uranus, the encirclement of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, after Operation Winter Storm, the failed attempt to relieve the 6th Army, Erich von Manstein, the commander of Army Group South, proposed another attempt towards Stalingrad. To that end, Wiking entrained on 24 December, however, by the time it arrived on 31 December, the division escaped through the Rostov gap on 4 February
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9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen
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The division was activated on the 31 December 1942. Many of the men of the division were young German conscripts, with a cadre of experienced NCOs and their first action was in March 1944 in Poland, they were then moved to Normandy in June that year. After the retreat from France, they were moved to Arnhem in September 1944, to rest and refit and their next action was the German advance in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944–1945. After defeat in the Ardennes, the division was moved to Hungary, falling back into Austria, the division surrendered to the advancing United States Army on 5 May 1945, at Steyr. The 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen was formed, along with its sister formation 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg, the division was mainly formed from Reichsarbeitdienst conscripts. Originally, Hohenstaufen was designated as a Panzergrenadier division, but in October 1943 it was promoted to full Panzer Division status, at its formation, Hohenstaufen was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich. The title Hohenstaufen came from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, a Germanic noble family who produced a number of kings and it is believed that the division was named specifically after Friedrich II, who lived from 1194–1250. Arriving in the east in late March 1944, the divisions were formed into the II SS-Panzer Corps and were sent into the attack near the town of Tarnopol. After heavy fighting in the conditions caused by the rasputitsa. During these battles, Hohenstaufen had suffered casualties, and in late April was pulled out of the line to refit. The II SS Panzer Corps was to act as reserve for Army Group North Ukraine, after the Allied invasion of northern France on 6 June 1944, the II SS Panzer Corps, including the Hohenstaufen, was sent west on 12 June, to defend Caen in Normandy. Hohenstaufen suffered losses from Allied fighter bombers during its move to Normandy, the original plan for Hohenstaufen to attack towards the Allied beachhead was made impossible by a British offensive to take Caen. The II SS Panzer Corps was instead put into the line to support the forces defending Caen. Hohenstaufen was involved in fighting until early July, suffering 1,200 casualties. On 10 July, the division was pulled back into reserve, after more heavy fighting, Hohenstaufen was again pulled out of the line on 15 July. The divisions depleted Panzergrenadier regiments were merged to form Panzergrenadier Regiment Hohenstaufen, the division saw much action defending against British armour during Operation Goodwood, suffered many losses but succeeded in holding the line. By 21 August, the Battle of Normandy was over, obersturmbannführer Walter Harzer was now placed in command of the division. By this time Hohenstaufen was down to approximately 7,000 men, upon arriving in the Arnhem area, the division began the task of refitting
31.
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
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The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10. SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS panzer division. The division was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France, however, their first campaign was in Ukraine in April 1944. Afterwards, the unit was transferred to the west, where it fought the Allies in France. The division was moved to Pomerania, then south east of Berlin in the Lausitz area until the end of the war. The division received the honor title Frundsberg, which referred to the 16th Century German commander Georg von Frundsberg, the division was mainly formed from conscripts. It first saw action at Tarnopol in April 1944 and later took part in the relief of the German troops cut off in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket. It was then sent to Normandy to counter the Allied landings, after rebuilding, it fought in the Alsace in January 1945. It was then sent to the Eastern Front, where it fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, German writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass was an assistant tank gunner with the SS division at the age of 17 in November 1944. He was wounded in action on 25 April 1945 and captured in a hospital
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12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
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12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs. The division committed war crimes while en route to and during the early battles in Normandy, including the Ascq. It first saw action on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defensive operations at Caen, in December 1944, the division was committed against the US Army in the Ardennes offensive. After the operations failure, which known as the Battle of the Bulge. The division eventually retreated into Austria and surrendered to the 7th US Army on 8 May 1945, after the wars end, several members of the division, including Kurt Meyer, were convicted of war crimes. The idea for the Waffen-SS division was first proposed by Artur Axmann, the plan for a combat division made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926 was passed on to Adolf Hitler for his approval. Hitler approved the plan in February and SS-Gruppenführer Gottlob Berger was tasked with recruiting, sS-Oberführer Fritz Witt of SS Division Leibstandarte was appointed divisional commander. Personnel from the LSSAH provided the regimental, battalion and most of the commanders for the division. About 2000 personnel were transferred from the LSSAH and had an influence on the character of the division. The following statement, taken from the recording of POWs conversations by the Allies, illustrates the type of officers that were commanding the new recruits. Then they were shot immediately with the MG42 and petrol was poured on them, in September 1943, the division had over 16,000 recruits on its roster, undergoing training in Beverloo Camp, Belgium. While in Allied captivity, an SS-man from the division recalled, the purpose of the training is to make you just as they are, its pure sadism. In March 1944 the 12th SS was attached to the I SS Panzer Corps, at the beginning of June, the divisions tank strength was over 150. The division committed its first massacre while en route to Normandy, the division executed 86 French men on 1 April 1944 in Ascq, France, in a reprisal against the civilian population after the railway they were traveling on was sabotaged. The commander of the convoy, SS-Obersturmführer Walter Hauck, ordered troops to search, altogether 70 men were shot beside the railway line and another 16 killed in the village itself. In 1949, Hauck was put on trial in Lille, France and was sentenced to death and his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was freed in 1957 after a sentence reduction
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German heavy tank battalion
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German heavy tank battalions, were elite battalion-sized World War II tank units, equipped with Tiger I, and later Tiger II, heavy tanks. Early formation units experimented to find the combination of heavy Tiger tanks supported by either medium Panzer III tanks or reconnaissance elements. In 1942 this consisted of 20 Tigers and 16 Panzer IIIs, each company commander would have an additional Tiger, and battalion command would have another two. Later formations had an organization of 45 Tiger Tanks, composed of three companies of 14 Tigers each, plus three command vehicles. Maintenance troubles and the unreliability of the Tigers posed a continuous problem. By the end of the war, the heavy panzer detachments had been created. Early units were several times by the end of the war. Also, many tanks were abandoned by their crews due to a lack of fuel, ammunition or breakdown, list of Knights Cross recipients of the SS Heavy Panzer Battalions
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4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division
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The 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded as part of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The division was formed in 1939 as part of the Ordnungspolizei or Orpo and this status was reflected in the quality of the equipment they were issued and their retention of police insignia and rank structure. The division was transferred to the Waffen-SS in 1942 and was upgraded to a Panzergrenadier division and it fought in France, the Soviet Union, Greece and Pomerania and surrendered to the Americans in May 1945. The division was formed in October 1939, when 15,000 members of the Ordnungspolizei were drafted and placed together with artillery and these men were not enrolled in the SS and remained policemen, retaining their Orpo rank structure and insignia. The division was equipped largely with captured Czech materiel and underwent military training in the Black Forest combined with periods on internal security duties in Poland, in late June 1940, the division was pulled out of combat and transferred to the reserve of Army Group North in East Prussia. During the invasion of the Soviet Union, the division was part of the reserve with Army Group North. In August 1941, the division saw action near Luga, during heavy fighting for the Luga bridgehead the division lost over 2,000 soldiers including the commander, Arthur Mülverstadt. After a series of failed attacks in swampy and wooded terrain, in January 1942, the division was moved to the Volkhov River sector, and on 24 February it was transferred to the Waffen-SS, its personnel changing their police insignia to that of the SS. The formation was involved in fighting between January and March which resulted in the destruction of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army. The remainder of the year was spent on the Leningrad front, the Kampfgruppe was disbanded in May 1943, when the SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier Division was ready for action. The division was sent to Greece where it undertook anti-partisan operations in the part of the country. The division remained in Greece until August 1944 before being recalled to face the advancing Red Army at Belgrade and it was again involved in heavy fighting and suffered heavy losses. During its service in Greece, the division was involved in war crimes and atrocities against the civilian population, in particular they were responsible for the Kleisoura massacre and the Distomo massacre, the later being one of the worst atrocities committed by Waffen-SS during World War II. A total of 214 men, women and children were killed in Distomo, according to survivors, SS forces bayoneted babies in their cribs, stabbed pregnant women, and beheaded the village priest. The much reduced SS-Polizei Division was moved to a front line north in Pomerania, hitler assigned it to Army Detachment Steiner for the relief of Berlin. They were supposed to be part of the northern pincer that would meet the IV Panzer Army coming from the south, moved to Danzig, the SS-Polizei Division was encircled by the Red Army and was shipped across the Hela Peninsula to Swinemünde. After a brief rest, what remained of the division fought its way across the Elbe river, the Waffen-SS, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-589-9
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6th SS Mountain Division Nord
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The 6th SS Mountain Division Nord was a German unit of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, formed in February 1941 as SS Kampfgruppe Nord. The division was the only Waffen-SS unit to fight in the Arctic Circle when it was stationed in Finland and it fought in Karelia until the Moscow Armistice in September 1944, at which point it left Finland. It fought in the Operation Nordwind in January 1945, where it suffered heavy losses, in early April 1945, the division was destroyed by the U. S. forces near Budingen, Germany. The division was formed from the units of the SS-Totenkopfverbände to guard the border with the Soviet Union following the 1940 German occupation of Norway. In the spring of 1941, the newly formed division was moved into positions at Salla in northern Finland with General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst in command, during the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, the unit took part in Operation Arctic Fox. The Brigade got a new unit attached, SS Gebirgsjäger Artillery Regiment 6, and was now designated as a Division, in September 1941 the division was attached to the Finnish III Corps under General Hjalmar Siilasvuo, and took up new positions at Louhi, Kiestinki. By the end of 1941, it had suffered heavy casualties, over the winter of 1941–42 it received replacements from the general pool of Waffen-SS recruits. Throughout the rest of 1942 and through 1943 it remained on the Kestenga front, in September 1942, the unit was renamed as the SS Mountain Division Nord. In September 1944 it was ordered to withdraw from Finland, upon the conclusion of an armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union. The Norwegian Ski-Battalion unit was left behind, in accordance with their contracts. They were merged into SS-und-Schi-Jäger-Polizei-Battalion 506 with app. 50% men from different German Police units in South Norway, the rest of the division was transferred to Germany. The division briefly refitted in Denmark where its losses were replaced by young Volksdeutsche who had been conscripted into the Waffen-SS, the division took part in Operation Nordwind in the Low Vosges mountains of southeastern France. By 2 January, part of the division went into action against the U. S. 45th Infantry Division, attached to 361st Volksgrenadier Division. For six days the SS men fought in and around the town of Wingen, on 16 January, the SS Regiment 11 surrounded six companies of the American 157th Infantry Regiment. The American troops were forced to surrender three days later, losing 482 men, Nord advanced for four more days before being stopped by American counterattacks. The division remained on the front after the Nordwind offensive, fighting American forces around Trier. By Easter 1945 it numbered about 2,000 soldiers, including stragglers from other units and it still had six howitzers and an assault gun. The division refused to give up, and moved east to re-establish contact with other German units, however, as it moved, it drew the attention of the US Army by cutting American lines of communication
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7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
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It was initially named the SS-Freiwilligen-Division Prinz Eugen. A key figure in the organisation of the division was the Higher SS and Police Leader in Serbia, after the initial rush of Volksdeutsche to join, voluntary enlistments tapered off, and the new formation did not reach division size. One of the reasons for the conscription of ethnic Germans was the disappointingly low amount of volunteers for the division after the initial recruitments. While the division remained volunteer in name, few of the conscripted ethnic Germans actively sought entry into the unit, ethnic Germans in the Balkans were therefore powerless and could not oppose conscription into the SS. The unwillingness of ethnic Germans to serve in the unit is illustrated by a mutiny of 173 Croatian Germans of the division in 1943 in Bosnia, apparently the men of mixed ancestry did not speak German and were mistreated by their superiors as a result. Himmler intervened personally in the problem and even ordered any NCO that insulted the mother of the Croatian German troops to be shot on the spot, many of these men preferred service in the Croatian Home Guard for a variety of reasons. In 1942, the Pančevo-based unit was declared a Mountain Division and they were issued with a significant amount of non-standard German weapons and used captured equipment such as Czech machine guns like the ZB-53 and French light tanks. They were provided with excellent German-made mountain artillery such as the 10.5 cm Gebirgshaubitze 40 howitzer and 7.5 cm Gebirgsgeschütz 36 mountain gun, when the division was formed, it was assigned to the Balkans as an anti-Partisan mountain division. In October 1942, the led an German-Bulgarian anti-guerrilla offensive against the Chetniks in the Kopaonik, Goč. Germans and Bulgarians cleared the Chetnik free territory and in the process committed war crimes against the Serbian civilian population, the Chetniks successfully withdrew from the German-Bulgarian ring to territory that was beyond the reach of the occupation forces. Keserović and his troops had been participating in operations against the Bulgarians and Germans for the previous year. Losses were inflicted on Keserovićevs detachments and the population by the constantly pursuing enemy forces. In early October 1942 the division was deployed in southwestern Serbia, in Kraljevo, Užice, Ivanjica, Čačak, Raška, Kosovska Mitrovica, elements of the 9th Bulgarian Infantry Division were also assigned to the attack. The Rasina Corps at that time had about 1,500 fighters under arms, on 5 October 1942 Phleps ordered the German and Bulgarian forces to destroy the Chetnik forces. A comprehensive attack was planned,20,000 well-armed and fully trained German troops would encircle the Serbians from four directions using a defined plan of fire. Himmler was in Kraljevo from 15 to 18 October 1942 and toured the division, German and Bulgarian forces began their attack on the Chetnik territory at dawn on 12 October 1942. As planned, the attack proceeded from four directions, German combat group North marched to the top of Željin, and a secondary group to the top of Kavalj. Combat group South conducted a comprehensive movement in the area around Gobelja, combat group West concentrated its forces in the valley 5 km from Banje
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21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg
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Skanderbeg never reached divisional strength, being at most a brigade-sized formation of between 6,000 and 6,500 troops. In May 1944, members of the division arrested 281 Jews in Pristina and handed them over to the Germans, who transported them to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where many were killed. The division itself was known for this action and for murdering, raping. Its only significant military actions took place during a German anti-Partisan offensive in the German occupied territory of Montenegro in June and July 1944. Following those operations, the unit was deployed as a force at the chromium mines in Kosovo. Reinforced by German Kriegsmarine personnel and with fewer than 500 Albanians remaining in its ranks, the remaining members were incorporated into the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen. After the war, divisional commander SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS August Schmidhuber was found guilty of war crimes by a court in Belgrade, on 7 April 1939, five months prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Kingdom of Italy invaded Albania. The country was overrun in five days, and Italian King Victor Emmanuel III accepted the crown offered by the Parliament of Albania, the Royal Albanian Army was incorporated into the Royal Italian Army and a viceroy was appointed to administer the country as a protectorate. Kosovo was annexed to Albania, and in the beginning, Albanians living there enthusiastically welcomed the Italian occupation, some Kosovo Albanians even suggested that Albanians were Aryans of Illyrian heritage. Although officially under Italian rule, the Albanians in Kosovo were given control of the region and encouraged to open Albanian-language schools, the Italians also gave the inhabitants Albanian citizenship and allowed them to fly the flag of Albania. The Royal Italian Army expelled most of the Serbs and Montenegrins that had settled Kosovo during the interwar period, the Kosovo Albanians despised the Serbs for the oppression they had experienced at their hands during the Balkan Wars, World War I, and under Yugoslav rule. They took advantage of their circumstances, attacked their Serb neighbours. Albania remained occupied by Italy until its surrender to the Allies in September 1943, in August of that year, faced with the imminent collapse of the Italian war effort, Nazi Germany deployed the 2nd Panzer Army to the Balkans to take over areas previously occupied by Italy. One of the Italian areas seized by the Germans was Albania, the Germans took control of all Albanian forces that had been collaborating with the Italians prior to their capitulation, including the Balli Kombëtar, an anti-communist and nationalist militia. The Germans strengthened the Albanian army and gendarmerie, but quickly decided those troops were unreliable, the division later recruited a further 500 men from the Sandžak. But the Albanian government supported the idea, in the face of increasing difficulties Himmler soon changed his mind, and in February 1944 the idea received Adolf Hitlers approval. In February 1944, Hitler approved the creation of an Albanian Waffen-SS division that was to serve only inside Kosovo and these corps would then be combined with the Volksdeutsche 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen and together would form a Balkan Waffen-SS mountain army of five divisions. By this point, the Germans and some members of the Albanian puppet government believed that about 50,000 men could be recruited from Albanian-held territory to join the SS, the SS had initially envisioned a force of 10, 000–12,000 men for an Albanian SS division
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8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
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The 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer was a Waffen-SS cavalry Division during World War II. It continued with the pacification operations in the occupied Soviet Union. About 40% of the division were Danube Swabian from Siebenbürgen and Banat, the Training and Replacement Battalion of the 8th SS Cavalry Division was involved in suppressing the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In March 1944, it was named after Florian Geyer, the Franconian nobleman who led the Black Company during the German Peasants War, veterans from the division formed the core of the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia, following the latters creation on 29 April 1944. The division was destroyed during the fighting in the Siege of Budapest in early 1945, the newly created division was soon sent back to the Eastern Front and was stationed in the Rzhev and Orel sectors in central Russia until the spring of 1943. An estimated 3,000 Russians were killed, the majority of whom were unarmed. The division was moved to the area around Bobruisk, on internal security. In September the division was moved to the Southern front and took part in the German retreat to the Dnieper river, the division was then sent to Hungary in October 1943, where the Panzerjager and Sturmgeschütz Battalions were combined and the Reconnaissance Battalion became a Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. Following this reorganization the division was posted to Croatia but many new recruits were Shwoveh Danube Swabians drawn from Hungary in March 1944, in April 1944, they returned to Hungary and took part in the fighting in Transylvania after the Romanian front collapsed. The division was trapped in the Siege of Budapest with the IX SS Mountain Corps when the Soviet and Romanian forces surrounded the city in December 1944. The division was destroyed in the fighting for Budapest, and by the end of the siege, of the 30,000 men of the SS Corps, Hitlers Commander, Field Marshal Walter Model – Hitlers Favorite General
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22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia
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The 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division was a German Waffen SS cavalry division which was active on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The division was composed primarily of Hungarian Army Volksdeutsche conscripts who were transferred to the Waffen-SS following an agreement between Germany and Hungary, the division is commonly known under the Maria Theresia name in publications, although no documents have been found to confirm this name. In December 1943, the 17th SS-Cavalry Regiment from the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer was ordered to become the cadre for a new SS cavalry division, on 29 April 1944, the SS-Führungshauptamt authorised the division to be raised on basis of the 17th SS-Cavalry Regiment. The unit was sent to Kisbér in Hungary to begin forming the new division, the division was designated the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia. The title referred to Maria Theresa, who had ruled Austria, Hungary, the symbol of the division, a cornflower, was emblazoned on the divisional shield. Over the next months, the division continued its organization and training in Kisber, Győr and Budapest, equipped with mostly Hungarian weapons, vehicles, by June 1944, the divisional strength reached 4,900. In early August Ober Kommando der Heer ordered all divisions forming up in Hungary to send units to the combat zone. The 52nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Regiment entrained for the front in Romania, kampfgruppe Wiedemann consisted of SS Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 52 with attached artillery, Flak and reconnaissance elements. Elements of the division went into the line on 30 September, on 2 October, the Soviet spearheads of Marshal Rodion Malinovskys 2nd Ukrainian Front began probing towards Arad. On 6 October, Malinovsky launched an offensive, thus beginning the Battle of Debrecen. Units of the division were quickly outflanked and encircled, the second echelon of Soviet forces sought to destroy the pocket, on 8 October it was split in two. One unit broke out however, with troops swimming across the Harmas river to German lines on the other side, on 30 October the remaining 48 survivors, after a 200-mile trek across enemy territory, linked up with German forces at the town of Dunaföldvár, south of Budapest. In mid-October 1944, pro-German Honvédség officers had revealed that the Hungarian Regent, hitler sent SS-Obersturmbannfüher Otto Skorzeny to deal with the problem. Skorzeny commandeered all available elements of the Maria Theresia to take part in Operation Panzerfaust, in little over half an hour, a German column led by four Tiger IIs, including a number of Maria Theresia men, stormed Buda Castle and forced Horthy to abdicate. Simultaneously, Operation Panzerfaust resulted in the detainment of Horthys youngest son. Pro-German Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi replaced Horthy, negotiations were broken off, the battle-ready units of the division were assigned to the IX SS Mountain Corps, which was deployed in Budapest. The division arrived in early November 1944 and took up defensive positions, there it was encircled along with the rest of the Axis troops in the Hungarian capital and destroyed. Only some 170 men got out of the encirclement
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