21e division S of Skanderbeg mountain

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The 21e Division S of mountain Skanderbeg is a division S created by Heinrich Himmler in March 1944 and thus named in homage to Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg. The 21. Waffen-Gebirgs-division DER S - Division of Mountain of Waffen-SS - " Skanderbeg" was created in April 1944 with the Kosovo (Priština) after decision of SS-Führungs-Hauptamt previous in March. It recruited primarily in the Albanian villages of Kosovo and from the north of Macedonia, benefitted from transfers of the Albanian gendarmerie and the militia armed with Bali Kombëtar and the Second League of Prizren. Including/understanding some 9.000 men (officers included/understood) of which a framing of Volksdeutsche of Balkans (coming from divisions S Handschar and Prinz Eugen), she was considered to be operational in July following and was directly engaged, although incomplete, in the operations antipartisans in the north of the Montenegro (Draufgänger & Rübezahl).

July 28th, 1944, one of its detachments massacres the 800 inhabitants of the village of Velika, and 673 civilians in the hamlets of the neighborhoods.

Following the multiple losses and desertions from summer 44 (more than 7.000 deserters), division was refondée then built-in such an amount of Kampfgruppe " Skanderbeg" within the remainders of the 7th division S Prinz Eugen before being committed in the battle of Belgrade (October 44) then in the defensive operations in Bosnia-Herzégovine with the autumn 1944-winter 45. In March 1945, the remainders of Kampfgruppe Skanderbeg are dispersed at the same time in north of the Yugoslavia and on the face of Oder where they disappear. The majority of the Albanian elements having deserted in Kosovo will be found in the Albanian revolt of the first quarter 1945, revolt mâtée by the Yugoslav communist forces on order of Tito.

Creation: April 1944

Origin : second great Moslem unit, it recruited until September 6 500 Albanians of the Kosovo.

Its name comes from the Albanian national hero who at the 15th century could conquer by the weapons a transitory independence against the Turks.

Cross of Iron obtained : 0

Emblem : the bicephalous eagle of Albania

Commander : Oberführer Schmidhuber

Grounds of operations : Montenegro, Sandjak and south of Serbia against the partisans of Tito. Become simple Kampfgruppe its members still fight in Bosnia into 1944-1945 within the division Prinz Eugen and on the Face of Oder in March 1945 in the south of Stettin.

See too

Units of Waffen S
Division S Handschar

Notes and references of the article

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