6th SS Mountain Division "North"
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6th SS Mountain Division "North" |
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|---|---|
 Troop registration |
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| active | January 15, 1942 to April 1945 (surrender) |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces |
 Armed SS
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| Branch of service | Mountaineer |
| Type | Mountaineering Division |
| structure | See outline |
| Second World War | Silberfuchs company |
| commander | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 6th SS Mountain Division "North" was a division of the Waffen-SS , which was formed on January 15, 1942 by order of Heinrich Himmler as SS-Kampfgruppe Nord from units of the Waffen-SS stationed in Norway .
history
Lineup
On February 28, 1941, the 6th, 7th and 9th SS-Totenkopf-Standarte in Northern Norway formed the SS-Kampfgruppe Nord , an association of brigade strength . During the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the combat group was unable to break through the positions of the Red Army and was repulsed. By September 1941, the combat group was expanded to become the SS Division North , before it was converted to the SS Mountain Division "North" on January 15, 1942 . In the course of numbering the divisions of the Waffen SS on October 22, 1943, the division was given the number 6.
commitment
The division was deployed in Finland and Norway for most of the war. In December 1944 she was relocated to the western front and fought in the Vosges as part of the attack operation "Nordwind" . In northern Alsace and in the Saar-Mosel triangle around Trier , it was used in defense and retreat battles against the 3rd US Army from February 1945 . At the beginning of March it was supposed to strengthen the defense of the Rhine-Moselle area around Koblenz in the east of the Vorderhunsrück .
The division was formed in March 1945 by the 11th Gebirgsjägerregiment with 3 battalions (Commander SS-Standartenführer Helmuth Raithel), the 12th Gebirgsjägerregiment (3 battalions, Kdr. SS-Standartenführer Franz Schreiber), the Artillery Regiment 6 (Kdr. SS-Sturmbannführer Goebel), the 4. Enlightenment Department 6, the Engineer Battalion. 6, the Panzerjägerabteilung 6, an anti-aircraft department and a communications department. The 12th regiment had previously been withdrawn to defend the town of Trarbach (Mosel) and was missing from the division in the area of operation near Koblenz. Due to a lack of material and fuel, the 11th regiment reached this area of operation only with a reconnaissance division, two light artillery divisions and parts of an anti-tank division. Until March 17, 1945 the regiment fought loss-making battles with infantry and tank units of the 90th US Infantry Division between Untermosel and the Hunsrück Heights, in the course of which 189 members of the SS division were killed. These are buried on the Pfaffenheck war cemetery.
At the end of March the division got behind the American lines and was able to assemble around 2000 men, underestimated in numbers by the enemy, after heavy defensive battles near Bad Camberg in the Usingen area , including members of the Weilburg combat group and members of the army and air force. Believing that he would be able to connect to a German defensive line near Gelnhausen that did not actually exist , SS-Gruppenführer Brenner led the division through sometimes fierce fighting across the Wetterau to the Büdinger Forest . The motorized column of the division, divided into two columns (2nd mounted), consisting almost entirely of American captured vehicles, was able to take Waldensberg on April 1st . It was only at this point that the American military realized that they were not dealing with an estimated 600 stragglers of the Wehrmacht , but that a 2000-man Waffen SS division was threatening the supply routes of the American units and the headquarters in Lauterbach. Previously, parts of the division had been able to capture a field hospital and a repair company of the US Army. After a successful attack by the Americans, the remaining German units retreated to Leisenwald, where they were encircled and wiped out on April 3. Both Waldensberg and Leisenwald were largely destroyed in the course of the fighting. The remaining 800 combat-capable members of the division as well as units of the army and air force were able to escape unnoticed by the Americans and leaving behind the wounded, paramedics and almost all of their field equipment in the Büdinger Forest, where they were ultimately captured and captured. The 6th SS Mountain Division "North" was completely destroyed. Up until April 3, there were minor skirmishes between US units and parts of the division in the area north of Büdingen. The members of the "Nord" fought until they were completely dissolved and did not show themselves to be cooperative even after their capture. Nothing is known of the mistreatment of American prisoners of war, in particular of the Afro-American repair companies or nurses. If they couldn't be carried any further, they were simply left behind.
The SS-Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 12, which was separated from the division in mid-March 1945, fought under the leadership of SS-Standartenführer Franz Schreiber until the end of the war, but with considerable restrictions in leadership and communication structure as well as among each other. It finally surrendered to the Americans in Bavaria.
structure
From 1943 the division was structured as follows:
- SS-Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 11 " Reinhard Heydrich "
- SS-Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 12 " Michael Gaißmair "
- SS Infantry Regiment (mot) 5
- SS Infantry Battalion 9
- SS Panzer Grenadier Battalion 506
- SS Rifle Battalion "Nord" (mot) 6
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SS-Jäger ski battalion "Norge" (1942/43: Ski company "Norge")
- SS assault gun battery 6
- SS Mountain Artillery Regiment 6
- SS throwing department 6
- SS Flak Department 6
- SS mountain reconnaissance department (mot) 6
- SS Mountain News Department 6
- SS Mountain Pioneer Battalion 6
- SS Field Replacement Battalion 6
- 2 u. 3 SS-og-Politi-companies (Norwegian units)
- Division troops
- SS repair department 6
- SS mountain medical department 6
- SS Economic Battalion 6
- SS administration troops department 6
- SS field dog troop division 6
- SS clothing company 6
- SS Veterinary Company 6
- SS mountain war reporter platoon 6
- SS-Feldgendarmerie-Zug 6
Commanders
- February 28 to May 15, 1941 SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Waffen-SS Richard Herrmann
- May 15, 1941 to April 20, 1942 SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS Karl Demelhuber
- April 20, 1942 to December 15, 1943 Major General of the Waffen-SS (from January 30, 1944 also SS Brigade Leader) Matthias Kleinheisterkamp
- December 15, 1943 to June 14, 1944 SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS Lothar Debes
- June 14 to August 23, 1944 SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger
- August 23 to September 1, 1944 SS-Standartenführer Gustav Lombard
- September 1, 1944 to April 2, 1945 SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police Karl Jakob Heinrich Brenner
- April 2 to May 8, 1945 SS standard leader Franz Schreiber
literature
- Stephen M. Rusiecki: In Final Defense of the Reich: The Destruction of the 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord". 2011, ISBN 978-1-59114-744-2 .
- Rolf Michaelis : The mountain divisions of the Waffen SS. 2nd Edition. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-930849-22-4 .
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .
- Willi Wagner, war at home. The final phase of World War II in the Moselle-Rhine-Hunsrück area. Simmern 1995, ISBN 3-9804416-1-X .
- Alfred Steurich, mountain hunter in the picture. 6th SS Mountain Division North 1940–1945. Martensrade 2010. ISBN 978-3-942145-05-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c 6th SS Mountain Division North RS 3-6 1941-1943 edited by Elfriede Frischmuth Koblenz April 2008.
- ^ Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 , p. 45 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ W. Wagner, Krieg in der Heimat , pp. 48 ff., 79 ff.
- ↑ Mark C. Yerger : Waffen-SS Commanders: The Army, Corps and Divisional Leaders of a Legend: Krüger to Zimmermann (v. 2) , Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA 1999, ISBN 978-0764307690 , p. 214.
- ↑ Order of the day . Archived from the original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved on August 8, 2013 .. "[...] SS-Jäg.Schi-Btl. Norge "
