1st tank destruction brigade "Hitler Youth"

The 1st tank destruction brigade "Hitler Youth" was set up in Radebeul near Dresden in February 1945 towards the end of the Second World War . It consisted of 2,400 and later 4,200 young people aged 14 to 17 and adult officers. The unit was used in the last defensive battles in the Berlin area against the advancing Red Army and at Gotha against the US Army .

Composition, organization

The team ranks were made up of students from Adolf Hitler schools , National Socialist educational institutions , participants in courses from the military training camps and Hitler Youth leaders. The Unterführer were NCOs and Sergeants of the Army, the officers came from the Army and the Air Force. On paper , the commander was the Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann , the actual commander was the Oberbannführer Otto Kern, whose rank corresponded to that of an SS Oberführer . The brigade was subordinate to the Wehrmacht . Those of the Hitler Youth leader corps served as a badge of rank .

Calls

A unit initially consisting of around 2,400 young people was deployed on February 13 and 14, 1945 in Dresden for rescue work after air raids . This was followed by the transfer to Zossen , where the training took place.

The brigade, which later consisted of around 4,200 combatants, was deployed on the Beeskow – Herzfelde line on both sides of the Berlin – Frankfurt (Oder) motorway and was intended to secure it against the breakthrough of Soviet tank units. From April 16-20, 1945, it fought broken Soviet tanks.

Then the association was divided. About 2000 soldiers stayed with the 9th Army in the Beeskow , Storkow and Strausberg area , 900 were relocated to Gotha to fight the US Army, and 1500 were placed under the command of the Berlin city ​​commander . In the Berlin area , a barrier line was set up on both sides of Reichsstrasse 167 near Löwenberg between Oranienburg and Gransee on April 23 . In the last days of the war, remnants of the tank destruction brigade fought with the 12th Army .

literature

• Günther W. Gellermann : The Wenck Army - Hitler's Last Hope. Establishment, deployment and end of the 12th German Army in spring 1945 , Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-7637-6266-3 , pp. 45–48.
• Michael Buddrus : Total education for total war: Hitler Youth and National Socialist Youth Policy , KG Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-5981-1615-5 , pp. 55-57 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.passionmilitaria.com/t44032-panzer-vernichtungs-brigade-hitlerjugendd
2. ↑ Hans Holzträger: Combat deployment of the Hitler Youth in the chaos of the last months of the war , AGK 1995, ISBN 978-3-928389-15-0 , pp. 45-50.
3. ↑ [1] . Michael Buddrus: Total education for total war .