SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 4 "Der Führer"

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The SS standard “Der Führer” , later (from 1939) SS Regiment “Der Führer” and (from 1941) SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 4 “Der Führer” was a military association of the Waffen-SS and on almost all fronts in the Commitment. The unit became known for the war crimes of Oradour-sur-Glane committed on June 10, 1944 by members of the regiment .

SS standard / regiment "Der Führer"

The later regiment was set up after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938 as the 3rd SS standard “Der Führer” of the SS disposable troops under the command of SS standard leader Georg Keppler . The standard staff and the I. Sturmbann were stationed in Vienna , the II. Sturmbann in Graz and the III. Sturmbann in Klagenfurt . Because of this, many soldiers of the “original formation” of the regiment came from Austria . The first deployment took place during the invasion of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia in 1939. During the attack on Poland , the regiment was in Prague and was then transferred as part of the SS disposal division in December to the Siegfried Line, where it was under the command of the western campaign 207th Infantry Division against the Netherlands took part. Here the regiment broke through the heavily developed Grebbe line during the Battle of Grebbeberg from May 11th to 13th, 1940. Then it returned to northern France to the disposal division and remained there as a crew.

SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 4 "Der Führer"

This was followed by the reclassification to a Panzer Grenadier Regiment (with the number 4) under the SS division "Reich" . In the subsequent war against the Soviet Union , the regiment initially took part in the Kessel Battle of Kiev under Colonel General Heinz Guderian's Panzer Group 2 . In fighting in Elnya bow , the advance on Moscow and especially during the defensive battle the regiment 1941/1942 in was Battle of Rzhev almost completely destroyed. After the breakthrough of strong Soviet forces west of Moscow, which in January 1942 had pushed into the rear of Army Group Center, the Commander-in-Chief of the 9th Army , General Walter Model , ordered the regiment under Obersturmbannführer Otto Kumm at the Volga arch near Rzhev. It was supposed to hold a thin barrier that secured a connection with neighboring army units. Of the 2,000 men who fought off seven Soviet divisions for a month at temperatures down to -52 degrees, 35 survived. In the course of 1942, the regiment of recovered and recruits was re-formed into a unit. After the lost battle of Stalingrad , the regiment was moved to the south wing in 1943 and helped to stabilize it again. In the summer it took part in the Battle of the Kursk Arch and was worn out a second time.

Another deployment followed in the south of France, which was not yet complete when it was moved to the invasion front in 1944. During the transfer, 120 members of the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion carried out the massacre near Oradour-sur-Glane . The regiment played a key role in keeping the Falaise pocket open and suffered heavy losses. Until and during the Battle of the Bulge , the regiment suffered heavy losses again. In 1945 the regiment was transferred to the Eastern Front in Hungary , where it was to take part in Operation Spring Awakening . The operation failed and the regiment withdrew fighting through Austria (→ Vienna Operation ). There it surrendered to the Americans after the surrender.

Special

  • Soldiers of the Panzergrenadier Regiment 4 "Der Führer" wore corresponding cuffs and until May 10, 1940, in addition to the double sigrune on the right collar tab, a subordinate "3" (shown in the mirror as "ᛋᛋ 3 "). In May 1940, the practice of special characters next to the Sigrunen was abandoned for security reasons.
  • Before the reorganization in 1942, the then commander Otto Kumm reported to Colonel General Walter Model a combat strength of 35 men.
  • During the reorganization in 1942, the III. The regiment's battalion was equipped with armored rifle vehicles and was henceforth known as an armored battalion.
  • 16 soldiers of the regiment were awarded the knight's cross , three with the oak leaves for the knight's cross and one with the swords for the oak leaves.
  • Due to the heavy losses of the regiment, ethnic Germans and French from Alsace were increasingly used to replace those who had fallen in the course of the war . At the time of the Oradour massacre , a good third of the crews were Alsatian.

Commanders

See also

literature

  • Max Hastings : The Empire. Resistance and the March of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944. Michael Joseph, London 1981, ISBN 0-7181-2074-4 .
  • James Sidney Lucas : The Empire. The Military Role of the 2nd SS Division, Arms & Armor. 1992, ISBN 978-1854090676 .
  • Norbert Számvéber: Waffen-SS Armor in Normandy. (SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 4 "Der Führer"). Helion & Company, 2012, ISBN 978-1-907677-24-3 , page 80.
  • Christer Bergström: The Ardennes, 1944-1945 Hitler's Winter Offensive. Factel, 2013. Casemate Publishers, 2014, ISBN 978-1-61200-277-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Höhne: The order under the skull. The history of the SS. In: Der Spiegel 6/1967.
  2. ^ Siegmar Josef Lengauer: The life picture of Gottfried Lengauer. online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, biography of Gottfried Lengauer, a soldier of the SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 4 "Der Führer".
  3. ↑ Andrew Mollo: Uniforms of the Waffen-SS , p. 183.