9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen

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9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen
Battle of Tarnopol
  • Falaise pocket
  • Operation Market Garden
  • Battle of the Bulge
  • Operation Spring Awakening
    • Commanders
    Notable
    commanders    		Wilhelm Bittrich
    Sylvester Stadler

    The 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" (

    Ardennes Offensive and Operation Spring Awakening.[4] The division surrendered to the United States Army on 8 May 1945, at Steyr.[5]

    Formation and Eastern Front

    The SS Division Hohenstaufen was formed, along with its sister formation

    Hohenstaufen dynasty, a German noble family who produced a number of kings and emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries AD.[6]

    After the encirclement of General

    Tarnopol.[8] In three days of combat, the Hohenstaufen destroyed 74 Soviet tanks, 84 self propelled assault guns, 21 anti tank guns, and 12 mortars.[9] After heavy fighting in the season of rasputitsa ("roadlessness"), the division effected a link-up with Hube's forces near the town of Buchach. The division's actions helped prevent the encirclement of the 1st Panzer Army.[9] During these battles, Hohenstaufen had suffered 1,011 casualties.[10] The II SS Panzer Corps was to act as reserve for Army Group North Ukraine.[10] After the Allied invasion of northern France on 6 June 1944, the II SS Panzer Corps, including Hohenstaufen, was sent west on 12 June, to defend Caen in Normandy.[5]

    Western Front

    Normandy

    Hohenstaufen suffered losses from Allied

    277th Infantry Division. The division's depleted Panzergrenadier regiments were eventually merged to form Panzergrenadier Regiment Hohenstaufen. The division saw much action defending against British armour during Operation Goodwood.[13] During Operation Jupiter Hohenstaufen destroyed 58 British tanks with many of them being Churchill tanks.[14]

    After the launch of the Canadian Operation Totalize, Hohenstaufen avoided encirclement in the Falaise pocket and kept the narrow escape route from this pocket open. By 21 August, the Battle of Normandy was over, and the German forces were in full retreat. Obersturmbannführer Walter Harzer was placed in command of the division. It fought several rearguard actions during the retreat through France and Belgium and in early September 1944, the exhausted formation was pulled out of the line for rest and refit near the Dutch city of Arnhem.[5] By this time, Hohenstaufen was down to approximately 7,000 men, from 15,900 at the end of June.

    Soldiers ride a Sturmgeschütz III through the streets of Arnhem during Market Garden

    Arnhem

    Upon arriving in the Arnhem area, the majority of the remaining armoured vehicles were loaded onto trains in preparation for transport to repair depots in Germany. On Sunday, 17 September 1944, the Allies launched

    Operation Market-Garden, and the division fought in the Battle of Arnhem.[5] The British 1st Airborne Division was dropped in Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem. Only the division's reconnaissance battalion, equipped mostly with wheeled and half tracked
    vehicles, was ready for action.

    Members of the 9. SS Div. captured by British forces after the Battle of Arnhem

    Bittrich ordered Hohenstaufen to occupy Arnhem and secure a vital metal girder bridge (later torn down, rebuilt in concrete and named

    A Bridge Too Far.[18]
    An examination of the aerial photograph taken after the battle appears to show around double the dozen destroyed reconnaissance vehicles, which is the more commonly accepted number. [19]

    Ardennes Offensive

    After the battle of Arnhem, Hohenstaufen moved to

    Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein). The 6th Panzer Army was to attack in the north, along the line St. Vith–Vielsalm. Initially, only the divisional reconnaissance and artillery units were involved in the fighting but on 21 December, the entire division was committed.[5] The 9th SS Division tried to breakthrough defensive positions of the 82nd Airborne Division but failed.[20]

    When the attack in the north stalled, the division was sent south to assist in the attacks on Bastogne, where it took heavy casualties from the American defenders and lost much of its equipment to Allied ground attack aircraft. On 7 January 1945, Hitler called off the operation and ordered all forces to concentrate around Longchamps, Belgium.

    Hungary and surrender

    Throughout the rest of January 1945, Hohenstaufen retreated to the German border. At the end of the month, the division was transferred to the Kaifenheim-Mayen area to be refitted. At the end of February, the division was sent east to Hungary as a part of the reformed 6th SS Panzer Army under Sepp Dietrich.[5] The division, along with the majority of the SS Panzer units available, was to take part in Operation Spring Awakening, the offensive near Lake Balaton, which was aimed at relieving the forces encircled in Budapest by the Red Army.[21]

    The attack got under way on 6 March 1945. Due to the condition of the roads, the division had not reached its jump-off position when the attack began. A combination of mud and stiff Soviet resistance brought the offensive to a halt and on 16 March a Soviet counter-offensive threatened to cut off the 6th SS Panzer Army. Hohenstaufen was involved in the fighting to escape the Soviet encirclement.[22] During these actions, Hohenstaufen destroyed 80 Soviet T-34 and IS tanks.[22] On 1 May, the greatly depleted division was moved west to the Steyr–Amstetten area. On 8 May 1945, Hohenstaufen surrendered to the Americans.[5]

    Commanders

    No. Portrait Commander Took office Left office Time in office
    1
    Wilhelm Bittrich
    		Bittrich, WilhelmSS-Obergruppenführer
    Wilhelm Bittrich
    (1894–1979)    		15 February 194329 June 19441 year, 135 days
    2
    Thomas Müller
    		Müller, ThomasSS-Standartenführer
    Thomas Müller
    (1902–?)    		29 June 194410 July 194411 days
    3
    Sylvester Stadler
    		Stadler, SylvesterSS-Brigadeführer
    Sylvester Stadler
    (1910–1995)    		10 July 194431 July 194421 days
    4
    Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock
    		Bock, FriedrichSS-Oberführer
    Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock
    (1897–1978)    		31 July 194429 August 194429 days
    5
    Walter Harzer
    		Harzer, WalterSS-Oberführer
    Walter Harzer
    (1912–1982)    		29 August 194410 October 194442 days
    (3)
    Sylvester Stadler
    		Stadler, SylvesterSS-Brigadeführer
    Sylvester Stadler
    (1910–1995)    		10 October 19448 May 1945299 days

    Organisation

    Structure of the division:

    • Headquarters:
      Berlin-Lichterfelde
      • 9th Panzer Regiment
      • 19th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment
      • 20th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment
      • 9th SS Panzer Artillery Regiment
      • 9th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Tank Destroyer Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Assault Gun Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Engineer Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Signal Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Anti-Aircraft Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Rocket Launcher Battalion
      • 9th SS Panzer Divisional Supply Group

    War crimes

    Heinz Hagendorf, a medical NCO, was prosecuted at the

    Red Cross emblem in Belgium on 15 January 1945. On August 1946, Hagendorf was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison. The verdict and sentence were upheld on appeal.[23]

    In 1946, Markus Lienhart, a lieutenant, was prosecuted for the murders of three American airmen in Straßgang, Austria, in March 1945. After their planes were shot down, the airmen had surrendered. An SS officer, Wilhelm Schweitzer, arrived and ordered one of police officers escorting the airmen to kill them. After the officer refused, Markus arrived and personally shot two of the airmen. The other airman was assaulted by Markus's father, Franz Lienhart. However, the attack was interrupted by an air raid. Afterwards, the airman was handed over to the SS and shot by unknown men.[24]

    Markus was found guilty of shooting the two airmen and sentenced to death. Franz, who was also prosecuted, was found guilty of assaulting the third airman and sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour. Markus was hanged in Salzburg on 26 October 1946. Due to crippling injuries that he suffered from an accident while in custody, Franz's sentence was reduced to three years. He died in 1957.[24] Schweitzer was put on trial in 1948, found guilty of war crimes, and sentenced to death. However, in light of the controversy surrounding the Malmedy massacre trial, and that Markus Lienhart appeared to have shot two of the airmen entirely of his own volition, Schweitzer's sentence was commuted to life in prison. He was released in the 1950s, and died in 1993.[25][26]

    See also

    References

    Notes

    1. ^ Official designation in German language as to "Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv“ in Freiburg im Breisgau, stores of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS.

    Citations

    1. ^ Reynolds P.3-312
    2. ^ Reynolds P.1
    3. ^ Reynolds P.2
    4. ^ Reynolds P.4,90,262
    5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Windrow & Burn, p.15
    6. ^ DiNardo, p.37
    7. ^ Ripley, pp. 181–182
    8. ^ Ripley, p. 182
    9. ^ a b Reynolds P.11
    10. ^ a b Reynolds P.12
    11. ^ a b c Reynolds P.17
    12. ^ Reynolds P.43
    13. ^ Reynolds P.52
    14. ^ Reynolds P.48,49
    15. ^ Reynolds P.66-81
    16. ^ Reynolds P.67
    17. ^ a b Reynolds P.72
    18. ^ a b Reynolds P.77
    19. ^ "ParaData.org.uk". AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WRECKAGE AT ARNHEM BRIDGE AFTER THE BATTLE. 1 October 1944. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
    20. ^ LoFaro G., “The Sword of St. Michael: The 82nd Airborne Division in World War II” 2011, p. 481
    21. ^ Reynolds P.262-277
    22. ^ a b Reynolds P.284-285
    23. ^ "United States v. Hagendorf, Judgment, N/A (U.S. Intermed. Gov. Ct. (Dachau, Germany), Aug. 09, 1946)". www.worldcourts.com. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
    24. ^ a b Youngs, Kelvin. "Aircrew Remembered Aviation Personal Histories and Databases". Aircrew Remembered site (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 4 October 2022.
    25. ISBN 978-90-8964-489-3
      .
    26. ^ "Schweitzer, Willi 'Tuck' (Waffen SS) - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com. Retrieved 4 October 2022.

    Bibliography

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