The 2nd division S Das Reich

See also: Das Reich

The the 2nd division S Das Reich is one of 38 divisions of the Waffen-SS during the Second world war.

See also: Waffen-SS

History

Formed in 1939 starting from three regiments S, Deutschland , Der Führer and Germania , it will be decorated with 69 Croix of iron.

Successive designations

  • September 10th, 1939: Panzerverband Ostpreussen

  • October 10th, 1939: SS-Verfügungs Division (mot.)
  • April 1st, 1940: SS-Division Deutschland
  • December 21st, 1940: SS-Division (mot.) Reich
  • May 1942: SS-Division (mot.) Das Reich
  • November 9th, 1942: SS-Panzergrenadier Division Das Reich
  • October 22nd, 1943: 2. SS-Panzer Division Das Reich

SS-division Verfügungstruppe (1939)

Composed as follows:

  • SS-Standarte Deutschland
  • SS-Standarte Germania
  • SS-Standarte Der Führer
  • SS-Nachrichtensturmbann
  • SS-Artillery-Standarte
  • SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung
  • SS-Pioniersturmbann

SS-division Reich (mot.) (1941)

Composed as follows:

  • SS-Regiment Der Führer
  • SS-Regiment Deutschland
  • SS-Infantry-Regiment 11
    • Flak-MG-Battalion SS-Division Reich
    • Kradschützen-Abteilung SS-Division Reich
    • Artillery-Regiment SS-Division Reich
    • Aufklärung-Abteilung SS-Division Reich
    • Panzerjäger-Battalion SS-Division Reich
    • Pioneer-Battalion SS-Division Reich
      • Sturmgeschütz-Battery SS-Division Reich
    • Nachrichten-Abteilung SS-Division Reich
    • Nachschubtruppen SS-Division Reich

SS-Panzer-division Das Reich (1943)

Composed as follows:

  • SS-Panzer-Regiment 2 Das Reich
  • SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 3 Deutschland
  • SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 4 Der Führer
  • SS-Infantry-Regiment (word) Langemarck
  • SS-Panzer-Artillery Regiment 2
    • SS-Flak-Artillery-Abteilung 2
    • SS-Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 2
    • SS-Nebelwerfer-Abteilung 2
    • SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 2
    • SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 2
    • SS-Panzer-Pioneer-Battalion 2
    • SS-Panzer-Nachrichten-Abteilung 2
    • SS-Versorgungs-Einheiten 2

2.SS-Panzer-division Das Reich (1944)

Composed of approximately: 19200 men on the whole:

  • General headquarter: 500 men. Heinz Lammerding, ordering division in June 1944.
  • SS-Panzer-Regiment 2: 2000 men (1 group of tanks Panzer IV; 1 group of tanks Panzer V Panther ).
  • SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 3 Deutschland : 3250 men (3 mechanized battalions).
  • SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 4 Der Führer : 3250 men (3 mechanized battalions). Sylvester Stadler, ordering regiment; Adolf Diekmann, ordering battalion and Otto Weidinger which becomes the commander of the regiment on June 14th.
  • SS-Panzer-Artillery-Regiment 2: 2250 men (1 self-propelled group and 4 tractor drawn groups).
  • SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 2 (self-propelled anti-tank group): 500 men.
  • SS-Flak-Abteilung 2 (group DCA): 820 men.
  • SS-" Nebel" werfer-Abteilung 2 (rocket launcher group): 480 men.
  • SS-Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 2 (group of self-propelled guns of attack): 350 men. Karl Gerlach, ordering on June 9th, 1944.
  • SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 2 (group of recognition): 950 men. Helmut Kämpfe, ordering on June 9th, 1944.
  • SS-Pioneer-Battalion 2 (battalion of the genius): 900 men.
  • SS-Nachrichten-Abteilung 2 (group of transmissions): 500 men.
  • Other units: battalion of replacement (infantry, Feldersatz-Battalion): 950 men; troops of replacement (tanks): 800 men; transport, provisioning, health, maintenance: 1500 men; mail, prévôté, etc: 200 men = 3450 men.

List successive commanders

Theaters of operation

August 1st

Poland, Holland, France, Serbia, Moscow, Kharkov, Koursk, Normandy, the Ardennes, Budapest, Vienna.

On the face of the East, division Das Reich takes part in the operations of extermination carried out by the Einsatzgruppe B in the sector of Minsk

Course in South of France

Situation in 1944

Division S Das Reich underwent large losses as men and material at the time of the Bataille of Koursk on the face of the East. According to the report/ratio of situation addressed to the general inspector of the armor-plated troops on December 1st, 1943 (BA-MA RH 10/313), it misses 7972 men. While Kampfgruppe continues to fight on the Russian face until April 1944, 2500 men, among the most tested, are sent in precursory detachment in the area of Montauban to prepare the reconstitution of the great unit. Stationed at equal distance from the foreseeable places of unloading, on the coasts of North and the South, division Das Reich receives gradually, during spring and of the summer 1944, men and material in complement, but it will never reach the complete theoretical equipment. More than 9000 young recruits (old in general of 17 - 18 years) are built-in, of which many In spite of us Alsatian.

From the abundant data in particular by the report/ratio of situation addressed to the general inspector of the armor-plated troops in June 1944 (BA-MA RH 10/313 - BA-MA RH 10/112), one can establish that 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich is in the following situation around on June 10th, 1944:

1) Situation of manpower: (after arrival of approximately 9000 recruits and the convalescents of the face of L `Is) 17283 men (at the end of June); miss tested executives and qualified technicians.

2) Situation of equipment: lack material, ammunition and spare parts;

- Tanks type IV: 54 (including 44 loans with the combat - equipment theoretical: 90) - Tanks type V Panther : 63 (if reception of the 24 envoys at the end of May - theoretical equipment: 70) - Self-propelled guns of attack: 41 - Motorized pieces of artillery: 11 (6 Wespe , 5 Hummel ) - tractor drawn Pieces of artillery: 22 - Anti-tank parts of 75 mm (PAK 40): 21 - Parts of DCA: 36 + 2 quadruple parts of 20 mm (HQ) - Guns of infantry: 30 - Half-track vehicles: 249 (including 14 in repair) - Trucks: 1821 (including only 617 in operating condition! - 768 at July 1st…) - Etc

Complementary sources: Verteilung der Panzerfahrzeuge, data base ab May 43, BA-MA RH 10/349.

May 2nd, 1944

May 2nd, 1944, a battalion of tanks is involved close to Montpezat-with-Quercy and of the balls are drawn in their direction. Reprisals against the civil population:

  • with Montpezat-with-Quercy: plunderings and fires of dwellings, five killed people and fifteen off-set;
  • with Belfort-of-Quercy the: six stopped people including four dead in deportation.

May 11th and 12th 1944: area of Figeac

Division receives the order then to inspect the railway ways and the roads for a movement towards North.

May 11th, 1944, at dawn, Adolf Diekmann ordering the 1st battalion of the regiment Der Führer, share with its unit of the towns of Valence of Agen and Moissac. They move on D653 towards the North-West of the department of the Batch. In way, in the crossed villages (Roofing stones, Orniac, Blars, Grèzes), they stop people who will be off-set. Between Livernon and Assier, a fixing occurs between the S and the men of the maquis. With Latronquière, they burn and plunder houses. Forty men are stopped among the population, fifteen will die in deportation. Fifteen men are stopped in Sousceyrac. They capture also resistant, André Pezet, who will die following violent tortures. The S divide and invest simultaneously several villages: Cardaillac, Gorses, Molières, and makes plunderings, arrests and deportations.

Another column of division " Das Reich" reached the Borough. Thirteen men, after violences, are stopped. At 8 a.m., with Lacapelle-Marival, all the men, from 16 to 60 years, are gathered on the place of the village. Sixty thirteen are stopped and conveyed with all the other prisoners towards Cahors where they are locked up for the night in the cellars with coal of the college Clément Marot. May 12th, they are brought to the barracks of Montauban where they arrive at 14:00 During a few days, they will undergo summary violences, tortures, and executions. Starting from May 21st, the officers, randomly, send the prisoners towards the concentration camps or forced labor in Germany. Some will not return from there. The S join Terrou to capture the men there, but the inhabitants, defendants hid in the forests. The soldiers plunder the houses. They go then to Saint-Céré where thirty-seven people are locked up in a bus then led and imprisoned to Maurs.

May 12th, 1944, the S encircle the town of Figeac. Four hundred forty-eight inhabitants are gathered in the court of the gendarmerie or are held with the Hotel Tillet, Place of the Carmelite friars (now Place of May 12th, 1944). Gathered with other prisoners, it is more than 800 people who are stopped and gathered with the barracks of the Dragons of Montauban. Some are tortured, others are shot, 540 are off-set (with Neuengamme and Dachau), a great number is also sent to the forced labor in Germany. The same day, out of the soldiers kill and plunder in two villages of the surroundings: Lunan and Saint-Felix.

May 21st, 1944 with Frayssinet it Gélat

May 21st, 1944 around 5 p.m., two columns coming from Villefranche-of-Périgord the cross the village and stop on the road of Cahors. With 18:30, a last column arriving of Fumel stops in the middle of the borough. All the men are gathered on the place of the village, the phone lines are cut. Finally, three women are hung and eleven men are shot.

At the beginning of June 1944: Figeac and Issendolus

June 1st, the resistant sabotage the railway with Capdenac-Station. In reprisals, the German soldiers based with Caylus kill nine civilians with Limogne-in-Quercy, Cadrieu and Frontenac.

June 3rd, the maquis of the Dovecote attacks two German cars. German then shoots 19 inhabitants in Cayla, commune of Linac, with Viazac and Bagnac-on-That.

June 8th, they kill an old man with Issendolus, then leave to the hamlet Gabaudet or of many volunteers gathered in the barns following the advertisement of the unloading of Normandy. 44 people are massacred, 70 are off-set.

Displacement towards the Face

June 8th, 1944, the marshal von Rundstedt, commander-in-chief of the face of the West, orders with division Das Reich to go to Normandy, as soon as possible. The urgency does not appear however very large, since the unit must join the face while crossing the interior of France starting from the area of Toulouse where it is stationed, whereas the route by the old Z.O and the littoral would have been at the same time shorter and surer. Indeed, division Das Reich initially has the role of helping with the fight against the terrorism . Also it was not delayed nor badgered during a forced march towards the face and pushed of this fact to the reprisals. On the contrary, it has as a express order to fight the " bandes" , this why it makes a turning.

In its newspaper of war (KTB/Ob. West, XIII-f Anl. 159 and XIV-f), the marshal von Rundstedt gives the following explanations: the development of the bands in the Massif Central during these last days requires the immediate and pitiless use of more important forces. to take actions of great scale against the bands in the south of France with most extreme strength and without care. The hearth of agitation which persists in this area must be definitively extinct. The result of the company is moreover high importance for the later evolution of the situation in the West. In this kind of operation, a semisuccess is not used for nothing. It is necessary to crush the forces of resistance by means of fast and enveloping attacks. For the re-establishment of the order and safety, the most energetic measurements will have to be taken in order to frighten the inhabitants of this infested area, with which it will be necessary to make pass the taste to accommodate the groups of resistance and to let themselves control by them. That will be used moreover as warning with all the population.

June 9th, of the units of division Das Reich intervene with Tulle following an attack of the city by F.T.P. As those were folded up precipitately on arrival of Waffen-SS, than nine soldiers of the German garrison (8th and 13th companies of the 95e regiment of safety), made captive, were shot by the maquis and than of others killed traces of maltreatment (badly cleared up business) carry, the " general ordering the troops allemandes" decide by reprisals to make hang 120 " maquisards". Actually, 99 Tulle inhabitants are hung and 149 are off-set.

June 10th, because they want to quickly finish their mission of repression in the area by a great blow and also, consequently occasion, to be avenged for the capture and execution by the maquis for officers of division, in particular of a major prestigious, Adolf Diekmann and its men massacre the population and destroy the village of Oradour-on-Glane: 642 victims.

June 11th, in accordance with the order received on June 9th, the motorized elements of division Das Reich go up slowly towards the face of Normandy. The vehicles on wheels take the road whereas the tracked machines already went by the train as of on June 9th, it is only on June 12th that division Das Reich receives the order to make movement towards Normandy.

According to OB West Ia NR. 5135/44 g.Kdos. 1.7.44, T 311, R 28, F7034111f.le, it is neither French Resistance nor even the allied power air which make mainly obstacle with the displacement of division towards the face, but the lack of vehicles and spare parts.

In fact, for this reason, most of the 2. SS-Pz.Div. (approximately 8300 men) must remain in South-west until the end of June… The last quotas of division finally are started towards Normandy only on July 21st. In any event, the elements arrived in first on June 16th are maintained in reserve with the back of the face and the first detachment is committed only ten days after its arrival, on June 26th.

The battle of Normandy

August 1st

Fold towards Germany

S of the " Das Reich" also made themselves guilty of the massacre of 18 people to Tourouvre (Orne) and of the fire of part of the city, on August 13rd, 1944, during their fold after the battle of Normandy.

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • Year in-depth examination off the 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich
  • the battle order of division Das Reich in July 1944, to see the significance of the symbols
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