Gordon Williamson • Illustrated by Stephen Andrew
Series editor Martin Windrow
INTRODUCTION
THE DIVISIONS: 24. WAFFEN GEBIRGS (KARSTJÄGER) DIVISION DER SS
25. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS HUNYADI (ungarische Nr.1)
26. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (ungarische Nr.2)
27. SS-FREIWILLIGEN GRENADIER DIVISION LANGEMARCK (flamische Nr.1)
28. SS-FREIWILLIGEN GRENADIER DIVISION WALLONIEN
29. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (russische Nr.1)
29. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (italienische Nr.1)
30. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (russische Nr.2)
31. SS-FREIWILLIGEN GRENADIER DIVISION
32. SS-FREIWILLIGEN GRENADIER DIVISION 30 JANUAR
33. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS CHARLEMAGNE (franzözische Nr.1)
34. SS-FREIWILLIGEN DIVISION LANDSTORM NEDERLAND
35. SS-und POLIZEI GRENADIER DIVISION
36. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS
37. SS-FREIWILLIGEN KAVALLERIE DIVISION LÜTZOW
38. SS-GRENADIER DIVISION NIBELUNGEN
MISCELLANEOUS FOREIGN CONTINGENTS
THE PLATES
By 1944, when the units and formations covered in this text began to appear in the Waffen-SS order of battle, the relaxation of the original standards demanded of recruits to this most elitist of the German armed services was complete.
The determination of the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler, to expand the military arm of his empire had led, in 1939–41, to the transfer of German SS-Totenkopfstandarte security guard units into SS-Divisions for front line service (with mixed results), and into the SS-Brigades of his personal anti-partisan command operating behind the lines in Russia – the Kommandostab RF-SS. This was paralleled by the recruitment in 1940–42 of non-Germans of acceptably ‘Germanic’ racial origin: at first Western European, Scandinavian and Baltic volunteers, and later ethnic Germans or ‘Volksdeutsche’ from occupied or allied Eastern states (principally the Balkans and Hungary). Their ethnic difference from the original ‘Reichsdeutsche’ divisions was signalled by their assembly into SS-Freiwilligen or ‘Volunteer’ divisions – a title that was less than accurate in many cases.
In the face of huge losses on the Eastern Front, and the need to police the vast territories occupied in the East and Balkans, in 1943 Himmler and his recruitment chief, SS-Ogruf Gottlob Berger, finally abandoned Nazi racial obsessions and accepted Slavs and even Balkan Muslims as cannon-fodder, in what were eventually titled Waffen Divisionen der SS (‘Armed Divisions of the SS’).
The crises of 1944–45 would see actual or nominal ‘divisions’ formed from an increasingly motley range of manpower sources. The best of these were the survivors of the Western European volunteer regiments or ‘legions’, now used as the nuclei for expanded brigades and finally divisions, bulked out with men from various other sources including Volksdeutsche conscripts. The drive to gather up ethnic Germans and collaborationist foreigners, to form several new divisions, would become ever less discriminating. Drafts of bewildered German airmen and sailors for whom there were no longer aircraft, ships or fuel might find themselves transferred at the stroke of a pen into the Waffen-SS, and thrust into gaps in the Russian Front after the sketchiest preparation. Training school and depot personnel would be assembled around worn-down battlegroups into ‘paper’ SS divisions with minimal armament and transport. The retreating front line caught up with sinister ‘anti-partisan’ gangs of German criminals and foreign renegades redesignated as combat divisions, who sometimes met a richly deserved fate at the hands of the avenging Red Army.
Units quoted from fragmentary official documents as components of late-war formations may never actually have been formed, or may have served dispersed without ever being assembled under effective divisional command. The battlefield value of these units was wildly uneven; but, remarkably, a few of them fought on stubbornly amid the ruins until the very last hours of the Third Reich.
1942 | SS-Karstwehr Bataillon |
September 1944 | 24. Waffen-Gebirgs (Karstjäger) Division der SS |
December 1944 | Waffen Gebirgs (Karstjäger) Brigade der SS |
Dec 1944 SS-Obersturmbannführer Karl Marx; Dec 1944–Feb 1945 SS-Sturmbannführer Werner Hahn; Feb–May 1945 SS-Oberführer Adolf Wagner
Waffen-Gebirgsjäger Regiment der SS 59; Waffen-Gebirgsjäger Regiment der SS 60; SS-Panzer Kompanie; Waffen-Gebirgs Artillerie Regiment der SS 24; SS-Gebirgs Pionier Kompanie 24
In June–August 1942 an SS-Karstwehr Kompanie was formed for anti-partisan duties in the high alpine terrain of the Karst – the mountainous border areas between Italy, Austria and Slovenia. In November it was ordered expanded to battalion strength, with just under 500 men. Spending the first half of 1943 training in Austria, it was committed to action after the Italian surrender that September, disarming Italian troops at Taravisio and protecting ethnic German communities around Camporosso and Boscaverde. Between October 1943 and June 1944, headquartered at Gradisca, it carried out anti-partisan actions in northern Italy around Trieste, Udine and the Istrian peninsula, and unit strength increased to just under 1,000 men. In July 1944, Himmler ordered it upgraded to a ‘division’ with an establishment of 6,600, under the supervision of the notorious SS-Gruf Odilo Globocnik, Higher SS & Police Leader for the Adriatic coastal region.1
In August–November Karstjäger continued its anti-partisan operations in the same areas; but by December 1944 its strength had still only reached around 3,000 men, and the division was downgraded to brigade status. Early in 1945 it clashed with partisans supported by British troops in the Julian Alps. In the closing weeks of the war the brigade was attached to a Kampfgruppe under SS-Brigaf Heinz Harmel, former commander of the Frundsberg Division (see MAA 404, page 46), which successfully held open the Karawanken passes for German units retreating from the Balkans into Austria, so that they could make their surrender to British troops. On 9 May 1945, Karstjäger surrendered to the British 6th Armoured Division – it was one of the very last German units to lay down its arms.
A right hand collar patch was manufactured showing a stylised flower, but it is believed that no examples were ever issued or worn, and that personnel wore the SS-runes.
April 1944 | 25. SS-Freiwilligen Grenadier Division |
November 1944 | 25. Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS Hunyadi2 (ungarische Nr.1) |
Nov 1944 SS-Oberführer Thomas Müller; Nov 1944–May 1945 Waffen-Gruppenführer Jozef Grassy
Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 61; Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 62; Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 63; Waffen Schi Bataillon der SS 25; Waffen Artillerie Regiment der SS 25
In October 1944 the Germans overthrew the Hungarian government of Adml Horthy, who had been planning a separate armistice with the USSR, and installed a compliant fascist regime under Ferenc Szalasi, leader of the Arrow Cross movement. Almost immediately the Hungarians were instructed to provide the manpower for two Waffen-SS divisions. The first began to form in November, from almost 17,000 Hungarian soldiers of the Honved 13th Div and including a ski battalion. By January 1945 over 20,000 men had been assembled at the Neuhammer training grounds in Germany, but were desperately short of weapons, vehicles and other supplies.
In February the Red Army was approaching Neuhammer; the division was rapidly evacuated, apart from a Kampfgruppe – this rearguard was annihilated. By April 1945 Hunyadi had withdrawn into Austria where, on 3 May, it was finally involved in serious (if brief) combat, against US Third Army forces. The Hungarians knocked out five Shermans but suffered heavy casualties, surrendering on 4–5 May near the Attersee.
A right hand collar patch featuring a large block letter ‘H’ was manufactured, and worn by members of this division. An armshield with the Hungarian colours was proposed, but it is uncertain if any were ever manufactured or issued.
1 Himmler created the position of Höhere-SS und Polizeiführer (HSSPF), appointing a senior officer – usually an SS-Gruf or SS-Ogruf – in every military district (Wehrkreis) in Germany and in the occupied territories. They were effectively Himmler’s personal representatives in the region, and on occasion had control of Waffen-SS as well as the usual police and security forces.
2 Janos Hunyadi (c1387–1456) was Captain-General of Hungary, and her greatest leader in the wars against the Turks in the 1440s–50s.
27 Dec 1944–May 1945 | 26. Waffen Grenadier Division der SS (ungarische Nr.2). Some sources state that the title Hungaria was awarded on 29 January 1945. |
Nov 1944–Jan 1945 SS-Standartenführer Rolf Tiemann, Waffen-Oberführer Zoltan Pisky, SS-Oberführer Laszlo Deak; Jan–Mar 1945 SS-Brigadeführer Berthold Mack; Mar–May 1945 Waffen-Gruppenführer Jozef Grassy
Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS 64, 65 & 66; Waffen-Schi Bataillon der SS 26; SS-Panzer Bataillon 26
This division was authorised at the same time as HunyadiHunyadi