SS und Polizei: Myths and Lies of Hitler's SS and Police

by J. Lee Ready

  However, it was one of the interrogations that did the most damage, because American military intelligence became convinced these men had been sent to assassinate General Eisenhower! From now on every American GI questioned every other GI he did not personally know. Countless innocent men were arrested. And Eisenhower allowed himself to be put under secure lock down, effectively abdicating all his responsibilities!

  On the 21st the remaining two segments of Skorzeny’s 150th SS Trojan Horse Panzer Brigade were finally unleashed - they had been stuck in traffic for almost a week! He now put American vehicles [captured in earlier battles] in the lead manned by men who spoke American English and he aimed for Malmedy. But the GIs did not fall for this trick and began shooting. The battle was on. The Americans, by a combination of air-bursting artillery fire and plenty of anti-tank guns, repelled Skorzeny’s Panthers and panzergrenadiers.

  This day Peiper’s exterior lines were forced to shrink away from Stoumont, Trois Ponts and Cheneux into La Gleize. He radioed desperately for the relief column to break through. However, the 3rd Parachute Division, Kraas’ division and Skorzeny’s brigade had all failed.

  On the seventh day, the 22nd, the SS Hohenstaufen made an all out effort to take Poteau in a blinding snowstorm. They had to stop eventually.

  This same day Kraas tried again, and this time some of his SS HJ panzergrenadiers actually got inside Dom Butgenbach, but American counterattacks pushed them out by dusk.

  Kraas must have been exceedingly despondent. This village had tied down his division and cost him some valuable men, including several ‘old hares’, such as Sturmbannfuehrer Arnold Juergensen, who lay dying in a makeshift medical tent.

  Peiper too was watching his men being blown apart by artillery one by one and he finally came to the conclusion that they were worth more than his vehicles, so he ordered his battlegroup to prepare to walk home!

  However, on the 23rd it was obvious the Americans were pulling out of the St Vith salient. Brigadefuehrer Heinz Lammerding and his SS Das Reich now moved off westwards on a parallel course hoping to advance faster than these Americans could retreat. His SS troops ran into a small rearguard at Baraque de Fraiture and did not overcome it until dusk. A few miles away the SS Das Reich’s reconnaissance battalion had run into retreating Americans and shot them up, taking many prisoners.

  Despite the victory at St Vith it had come too late. Already Peiper had ordered his surviving 800 men to walk out during the night, and this evening Kraas ordered his SS HJ to retreat. Peiper just laughed when he received an order by radio to bring his tanks and guns with him when he walked out. Besides his vehicles and heavy equipment he also left behind his seriously wounded and about 150 prisoners. His part in the offensive had cost him circa 85% losses in personnel and 100% losses in equipment. [Miraculously Peiper and his men reached German lines.]

  Yet the German offensive was not over, for German Army troops and Luftwaffe paratroopers had surrounded an entire American corps at Bastogne, and Fifth Panzer Army was sending armored units westwards from Bastogne and Stavelot towards the Meuse. To aid Fifth Panzer Army Dietrich assigned Bittrich’s II SS Panzer Corps to attack northwestwards from Baraque de Fraiture towards Tri-le-Cheslaing and Manhay.

  On the ninth day of battle, 24 December, the SS Hohenstaufen ran into paratroopers of the US 82nd Airborne Division, and though these SS continued to advance it was slow going, but when the SS Das Reich ran into a retreating column of the US 7th Armored Division the Americans scattered and did not put up too much of a fight. In fact the SS Das Reich chased them into Manhay. Yet, the SS Das Reich then had to halt to await refueling. At last these SS troops could take a breather and mourn their losses, such as Obersturmfuehrer Adolf Reeb, who would be sadly missed.

  To the northeast of Manhay the SS LAH [minus Peiper’s battlegroup] tried to advance around Wanne, but ran into serious resistance from the US 30th Infantry Division. Belgian partisans were active here too. One of them killed Obersturmfuehrer Frank Hasse.

  On the 25th, Christmas Day, a detachment of the SS Das Reich was counter attacked at Manhay by elements of the American 75th Infantry, 3rd Armored and 7th Armored Divisions, but these SS held their ground, aided in part by American aircraft which insisted on attacking their own people. However, the fact that the skies were at last clear enough for air raids boded ill for the German offensive, for the Luftwaffe was sorely outnumbered and the Anglo-Americans owned the skies.

  Dietrich knew his army had failed and now the high command recognized this brutal fact. He was ordered to hand over the SS LAH and in return he was reinforced with the 18th and 62nd Volksgrenadier Divisions, but both were already bruised and bloodied from a week of combat. It was not a good trade.

  On day eleven, the 26th, Lammerding’s SS Das Reich pulled back from Manhay, but not quick enough for Obersturmfuehrer Karl Muehleck’s tank. He was killed.

  On the 27th to the northeast of Manhay the SS Hohenstaufen together with the 62nd Volksgrenadier Division attacked elements of the US 82nd Airborne Division, but after initial gains they were repelled.

  During the night southwest of Manhay battlegroups of the SS Das Reich and SS HJ continued to advance. In the dark they reached Sadzot, but awoke a hornet’s nest and were at once counterattacked by parts of the American 30th Infantry, 75th Infantry, 82nd Airborne and 3rd Armored Divisions. Fortunately the dawn produced fog, which kept Allied aircraft at bay, but the ground battle remained ferocious, and only mutual exhaustion called a halt on the night of the 28th.

  Now Dietrich was relieved of responsibility for the northern shoulder of the ‘Bulge’, and was ordered to hand over his LXVII Corps and I SS Panzer Corps. In return he received the LXVI Corps, which would command the 12th and 560th Volksgrenadier Divisions, and Group Felber, which would command the 18th and 62nd Volksgrenadier Divisions. His II SS Panzer Corps would retain the SS Das Reich and gain the 116th Panzer Division, but would lose the SS Hohenstaufen. Thus his army had gone from nine divisions to six, from four panzer to two, and more importantly as far as Dietrich was concerned he had gone from four SS divisions to one.

  On the 28th Mohnke’s SS LAH was directed southwards to enter the battle for Bastogne. Mohnke complained. His men had fought for ten days, and had had only two days to refit and rest, and that had been among the rubble of St Vith. Nonetheless the order stood. He was to take over responsibility for the eastern flank of Bastogne with the Americans to his west.

  Then Priess was told to leave the Manhay sector and also drive southwards to join the Bastogne affair. His I SS Panzer Corps would now have the SS HJ and SS Hohenstaufen and would be responsible for the northern flank of the town with the Americans to his south. The US corps trapped inside Bastogne had already been rescued by Patton’s US Third Army, and it was obvious that Patton intended to keep pushing northwards out of Bastogne, hoping to cut off every German division in the ‘Bulge’. It was up to the Waffen SS to prevent this from happening.

  Mohnke set up his headquarters in Longvilly and reported to the army’s XXXIX Panzer Corps. He was informed that about two hundred thousand Germans were battling a similar number of Americans for this pile of rubble called Bastogne. The mission assigned to Mohnke’s SS LAH was to smash into the American rescue force and seal off Bastogne once again.

  On the fifteenth day of the offensive, 30 December, Mohnke attacked in the Lutrebois area alongside army formations, and while the army troops made little headway against the US 35th Infantry Division, Mohnke’s people did advance about 2,500 yards overrunning three Yank infantry companies. However, the following day the neighboring 167th Volksgrenadier Division was driven back by a counterattack by the US 4th Armored Division, and Mohnke’s SS LAH was driven back a thousand yards by the US 35th Infantry Division. In this last encounter Sturmbannfuehrer Gustav Knittel was seriously wounded.

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  On 11 December inside Budapest the staff of the 22nd SS Maria Theresa Cavalry Division was given responsibility for the Hungarian 1st Arm
ored Division as well. Both formations were sadly depleted.

  In mid-December the Soviets launched an all out offensive north of Budapest, broke through and on the 26th linked up with their southern drive at Eztergom, thus surrounding Budapest. Sturmbannfuehrer Kurt Kaul the overqualified artilleryman in the SS Maria Theresa did not hear the dreaded news. He had been killed in action hours earlier.

  Realizing they were trapped, the SS cavalry units in the city let loose their horses. Most would end up in someone’s cooking pot.

  In a rare occurrence an SS flak unit commander was awarded the Knight's Cross: Hauptsturmfuehrer Hans Lipinski, a Ukrainian Volksdeutsch of the SS Horst Wessel currently fighting on the Hungarian front.

  This very same day, Gille’s IV SS Panzer Corps, consisting of the 3rd SS Totenkopf and 5th SS Wiking Panzer Divisions, which was holding the line of the Vistula in Poland, was ordered to pack up and move south to Hungary.

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  In Yugoslavia the 31st SS Boehmen-Maehren Grenadier Division began to reassemble following its debacle at Mohacs. Friends, each believing the other dead, reunited in an embrace. Companies and battalions began to glue together again. Then the surviving remnant was ordered to move to the Alpenvorland [South Tyrol]. Neither trucks nor fuel were available and the rail lines were overcrowded, so the weary soldiers would have to walk! It was only 450 miles across Croatia over snowy mountains! Moreover, along the way they would be subjected to air raids and sniping by Titoists. It was dangerous behind the lines here. On December 28 Brigadefuehrer Willi Brandner, deputy HSSPF for Croatia, was ambushed and mortally wounded by Titoists. And there would be no peace for the Boehmen-Maehren once they reached the Alpenvorland. Here the 1st Battalion of SS Police Regiment Alpenvorland was in fierce combat with Italian partisans.

  On 25 December the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps repulsed the Soviet 133rd Rifle Division when it tried to break through at Pitomacha in Yugoslavia. When captured Soviet prisoners heard the Cossacks speaking in Russian, and were told why the Cossacks were wearing German uniform, many of them defected to the Cossacks!

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  Chapter Forty-one

  JANUARY 1945

  The SS Landstorm Brigade remained in the line in the Netherlands, and as more personnel were transferred to it from the various Dutch Nazi organizations it was expanded into the 34th SS Landstorm Grenadier Division. At this time Haupsturmfuehrer J. Hendrik Feldmeijer, the founder of the Dutch SS, was killed when an Allied fighter plane strafed his car. Though some suspected he was murdered by rival Dutch Nazis!

  By now the Dutch people were starving, because most of the Dutch rail workers were on strike. The Germans needed the rail lines for their war machine and therefore the few trains they could keep going [with either Dutch Nazi crews or German rail workers] were used almost exclusively for military purposes, leaving almost none to carry food. The small amount of food that was carried invariably was apportioned to Germans and Nazi Dutch. Belonging to a pro-Nazi organization at least ensured that one’s family would eat.

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  On New Year’s Day 1945, the seventeenth day of Hitler’s winter offensive, Mohnke’s 1st SS LAH Panzer Division held off another American attack in the ruins of Lutrebois near Bastogne. His men repeated their performance the next day.

  Priess and his I SS Panzer Corps were told to take over responsibility for the 26th and 340th Volksgrenadier Divisions in addition to his 12th SS HJ and 9th SS Hohenstaufen Panzer Divisions, and at dusk on 2 January Priess launched his corps into the attack through snow-covered forests southwards towards Bastogne. Kraas’ SS HJ swiftly captured Oubourcy and Michamps from the US 6th Armored Division, while the SS Hohenstaufen, once again commanded by Oberfuehrer Sylvester Stadler, advanced on Kraas’ right [west] in the Vaux area against elements of the US 6th Armored and 101st Airborne Divisions, and simultaneously the 340th Volksgrenadier Division advanced on Kraas’ left. Perhaps possessing about 70% of their assigned panzergrenadier strength, these two SS divisions also each possessed about 90 tanks and StuGs, thus in armor they were fighting at odds of two to one against them. This evening each of these SS divisions lost about 200 men and several armored fighting vehicles in the tough struggle.

  On the 3rd the SS Hohenstaufen charged into Longchamps with panzergrenadiers riding on tanks and StuGs, to be opposed only by paratroopers of the US 101st Airborne Division. However, the American ability to call upon intense artillery barrages seemingly at will, coupled with hidden anti-tank guns, shattered the SS attack. In these snowy woods shells often hit trees and the flying wood fragments were as deadly as the shrapnel.

  Meanwhile elements of the SS HJ drove along a railway embankment for cover and managed to catch an American company in flank near Foy, while at Michamps another detachment of the SS HJ supported by Tigers pushed back the US 6th Armored Division.

  On 4 January members of the SS HJ reported to Kraas and thence to Priess that they had reached Wardin. Priess’ corps was now just five thousand yards from the center of Bastogne.

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  By the beginning of 1945 in the northern sector of the ‘Bulge’ Dietrich was on the ropes, and he knew a major Anglo-American counter-offensive was coming towards him. He had never supported the goals of Hitler’s offensive in the first place, and now he was to suffer the consequences of the Fuhrer’s over ambition. Yet Dietrich had few of his ‘boys’ with him by now, as he only commanded three formations. One was Group Felber on his right facing north, which supervised the badly depleted 18th and 62nd Volksgrenadier Divisions holding twenty miles of front line including Malmedy, Stavelot, Trois Ponts and Odrimont. In his center was LXVI Corps of the 12th and 560th Volksgrenadier Divisions, both also in poor shape, holding fifteen miles of front including Manhay and Grandmenil and facing northwest. On Dietrich’s left facing west was his third formation: the II SS Panzer Corps with the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division at Beffe and the army’s 116th Panzer Division south of the Ourthe River. Dietrich’s left flank was wide open. Though SS Das Reich still had circa 70% of its panzergrenadiers, it was down to about 50 tanks and StuGs.

  On 3 January the expected Allied counteroffensive against Dietrich began. Group Felber was struck by the US 30th Infantry and 82nd Airborne Divisions. LXVI Corps was struck by the US 3rd Armored and 83rd Infantry Divisions north of Manhay and by the US 2nd Armored and 84th Infantry Divisions around Grandmenil. The SS Das Reich was attacked by the US 4th Cavalry Group. Every German defender began falling back at once, though the Waffen SS fell back at a slower rate, and the following day the Americans reinforced their offensive with their 75th Infantry Division.

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  Near Bastogne the SS Hohenstaufen was ordered to pull out to refit. The men of the SS LAH probably wished for similar orders, but on 5 January they were struck by the US 35th Infantry Division at Lutrebois. The panzergrenadiers defended their piles of rubble like castles. This same day the SS HJ attacked the US 6th Armored Division, but gained nothing. Another attempt the next day also failed.

  By 8 January, the twenty-fourth day of Hitler’s winter offensive, Dietrich’s Sixth Panzer Army had fallen back ten miles, but it was still cohesive. Yet now Dietrich received a surprising order. He was to leave this battlefield and take his entire Sixth Panzer Army headquarters with him, handing over responsibility for his army units to the Fifth Panzer Army. Hitler assured him that he was destined to command another all-SS force. In fact Dietrich learned his Sixth Panzer Army would now control the I and II SS Panzer Corps with the following divisions: SS LAH, SS Das Reich, SS Hohenstaufen and SS HJ. Hitler had come up with yet another idea for an offensive and he required Dietrich and his ‘boys’.

  However, it was 12 January before all four divisions could fully disengage from the ‘Battle of the Bulge’.

  Even then, while Dietrich’s army was busy assembling at St Vith the Americans broke through nearby. Dietrich told his four divisions to create some small task forces to go back into the line and plug the gap. These
ad hoc outfits saw combat for the next five days.

  On 22 January Dietrich’s Sixth Panzer Army was strengthened with the arrival of two army panzer brigades, the Fuehrer Begleit and the Fuehrer Grenadier, and this day he was given his mission. He was to take his ‘boys’ by rail to Hungary, where the Soviet Army had broken through and had all but taken Budapest. To honor the deeds of Dietrich’s ‘boys’ his command would henceforth be known as Sixth SS Panzer Army. Unofficially his command had already been using the designation ‘SS’.

  Thus Dietrich now commanded the largest Waffen SS unit. To say the least, Dietrich was more frustrated than honored. After thirty-three days of battle, his units were little more than rag tag assemblies of panzer grenadiers without vehicles, artillerymen without guns and tankers without tanks. But of course he obeyed the order.

  In the month long Ardennes offensive these four SS panzer divisions had lost about 3,500 personnel each. Skorzeny’s brigade had lost about 450.

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  Hitler had in fact planned for two winter offensives against the Americans, ‘Watch on the Rhine’ for December 16 [creating the ‘Bulge’], and North Wind for January 1. This made sense actually, for in order to allow Patton’s Third Army to leave Lorraine and counter attack into the Ardennes, the Americans had been forced to stretch their Seventh Army to cover its own positions in Alsace and to cover most of Patton’s abandoned line in Lorraine as well. If Operation North Wind could be launched with enough punch against US Seventh Army, it might break through the thin line and seriously derail Allied plans.