35th SS Police Grenadier Division
35th SS Police Grenadier Division |
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Troop registration |
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active | February 10, 1945 to May 1945 |
Country | German Empire |
Armed forces | Armed SS |
Branch of service | Grenadiers |
Type | division |
structure | See outline |
commander | |
list of | Commanders |
On February 10, 1945, the 35th SS Police Grenadier Division was formed by renaming the SS Police Brigade Wirth . The division consisted of the two police regiments z. b. V. (for special use) as well as units that had been set up from members of the Police Weapons School II Dresden- Hellerau and the SS Junkerschule Braunschweig . The division fought on the Lusatian Neisse in April 1945 and largely surrendered to Halbe of the Red Army in May 1945 . Remains were distributed to other SS divisions.
Installation and use
After the Red Army had advanced as far as the Oder in January 1945 , new formations were formed from available armed units, including a police brigade, two regiments under Lieutenant Colonel of the Wirth Protection Police. In February the brigade was the XXXX. Subordinate to Panzer Corps and took part in German counter-attacks, which were supposed to encircle invading Soviet armored forces, which however failed. On February 10, while the brigade was engaged in combat, the SS Command Main Office issued an order to form the 35th SS and Police Grenadier Division. For this purpose, a fusilier battalion, an intelligence, an artillery and a tank destroyer department were set up in the Police Weapons School II Dresden-Hellerau. In addition, on February 24th, the anti-aircraft department 1203 (motorized) of the home air defense came. A supply regiment was formed from numerous smaller units. The SS Junker School in Braunschweig assigned 120 men as guides. In March, two Volkssturm battalions and the SS guard battalion 4 “Kurmark” reinforced the division. On March 16, the two police regiments of the Ordnungspolizei were renamed SS Police Regiment 29 and 30 respectively. The next day the division took over the defense of a section of the front at Guben .
At the end of March 1945, SS Police Regiment 14, which had previously been deployed in Slovenia, joined the division as the third grenadier regiment, and on April 6 the three regiments were renamed SS Police Regiments 89, 90 and 91. At about the same time, the division was assigned to the V Army Corps in the command area of the 4th Panzer Army.
The Soviet major offensive to encircle Berlin separated the V Army Corps from the 4th Panzer Army and on April 21 this was subordinated to the 9th Army ( Army Group Vistula ). At the same time, the division split into two combat groups . While one combat group took up position on the Neisse , the other tried to retake Lübben , whereby the SS-Police-Grenadier-Regiment 91 was smashed. Finally, at the end of April, both combat groups were wiped out while attempting to break out of the Halbe pocket. Most of the survivors ended up in Soviet captivity, a few managed to make their way to the 12th Army near Beelitz .
structure
- SS Police Grenadier Regiment 89 (I. - III.)
- SS Police Grenadier Regiment 90 (I. - II.)
- SS Police Grenadier Regiment 91 (I. - II.)
- SS Police Artillery Regiment 35 (I. - III.)
- SS Police Fusilier Department 35
- SS tank destroyer division 35
- SS Police Pioneer Battalion 35
- SS Police News Department 35
- SS Supply Regiment 35
- SS-Feldgendarmerie-Troop 35
Commanders
- February to March 1, 1945: SS-Oberführer Johannes Wirth
- March 1 to April 24, 1945: SS-Standartenführer Rüdiger Pipkorn
literature
- Rolf Michaelis : The Grenadier Divisions of the Waffen SS. Part 3. Michaelis-Verlag, Erlangen 1995, pp. 122-130, ISBN 3-930849-05-4 .
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945 . Volume 8: The Land Forces 201–280 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1979, ISBN 3-7648-1174-9 , p. 109,116,121 ( limited preview in the Google book search - under SS and Police Grenadier Regiments 89, 90 and 91).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ GORDON WILLIAMSON: “The SS Hitler's Instrument of the power”; published by KAISER; appendix, page 246, “Order of battle of the Waffen-SS / Waffen-SS order of battle… 35. SS-Police-Grenadier-Division”; copyright 1994 by Brown Packaging Books Ltd., London.