World War II

## About

**World War II** or the **Second World War**, often abbreviated as **WWII** or **WW2**, was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. Many participants threw their economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and the delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in an estimated 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and disease. In the wake of Axis defeat, Germany, Austria and Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.

The causes of World War II are debated, but contributing factors included the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, the rise of fascism in Europe, and European tensions in the aftermath of World War I. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The United Kingdom and France subsequently declared war on Germany on 3 September. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland and marked out their "spheres of influence" across Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, in a military alliance with Italy, Japan and other countries called the Axis. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, and the fall of France in mid-1940, the war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the British Empire, with war in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz of the United Kingdom, and the Battle of the Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, Germany led the European Axis powers in an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front, the largest land theatre of war in history.

Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with the Republic of China by 1937. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor which resulted in the United States and United Kingdom declaring war against Japan. The European Axis powers declared war on the United States in solidarity. Japan soon conquered much of the western Pacific, but its advances were halted in 1942 after losing the critical Battle of Midway; later, Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian mainland, and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies back. During 1944 and 1945, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key western Pacific islands. The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories and the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the Fall of Berlin to Soviet troops, Hitler's suicide, and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration (issued 26 July 1945), the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, and the Soviet Union's declared entry into the war against Japan on the eve of invading Manchuria, Japan announced on 10 August its intention to surrender, signing a surrender document on 2 September 1945.

World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe and set the foundation for the international order of the world's nations for the rest of the 20th century and into the present day. The United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—becoming the permanent members of its Security Council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century-long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion. Political and economic integration, especially in Europe, began as an effort to forestall future hostilities, end pre-war enmities, and forge a sense of common identity.

## Involved Paramilitaries

SS
--

### 1939

#### Invasion of PolandHimmler's military formations at the outbreak of the war comprised several subgroups that would become the basis of the *Waffen-SS*:

* The *Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler* (LSSAH), under then SS-*Obergruppenführer* Josef "Sepp" Dietrich
* The Inspectorate of *Verfügungstruppe* (SS-VT), under then SS-*Gruppenführer* Paul Hausser, which commanded the *Deutschland*, *Germania* and *Der Führer* regiments. The latter was recruited in Austria after the *Anschluss* and was not yet combat-ready.
* The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, under SS-*Gruppenführer* Theodor Eicke, which fielded four infantry and one cavalry Death's Head *Standarten*, comprising camp guards of the *SS-Totenkopfverbände* (SS-TV). These troops wore the SS-TV skull and crossbones rather than the SS-VT "SS" runes.
* Police units of *Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei* Kurt Daluege's *Ordnungspolizei*, which reported to Himmler in his capacity as Chief of German Police. These troops used police ranks and insignia rather than those of the SS.

In August 1939, Hitler placed the *Leibstandarte* and the SS-VT under the operational control of the Army High Command (OKH). Himmler retained command of the *Totenkopfstandarten* for employment behind the advancing combat units in what were euphemistically called "special tasks of a police nature".

In spite of the swift military victory over Poland in September 1939, the regular army felt that the performance of the SS-VT left much to be desired; its units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army. They also stated that the SS-VT was poorly trained and its officers unsuitable for combat command. As an example, the OKW noted that the *Leibstandarte* had to be rescued by an army regiment after becoming surrounded by the Poles at Pabianice. In its defence, the SS insisted that it had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal instead of as one formation, and was improperly equipped by the army to carry out its objectives. Himmler insisted that the SS-VT should be allowed to fight in its own formations under its own commanders, while the OKW tried to have the SS-VT disbanded altogether. Hitler was unwilling to upset either the army or Himmler, and chose a third path. He ordered that the SS-VT form its own divisions but that the divisions would be under army command. Hitler resisted integrating the *Waffen-SS* into the army, as it was intended to remain the armed wing of the party and to become an elite police force once the war was won.

During the invasion, numerous war crimes were committed against the Polish people. The *Leibstandarte* became notorious for torching villages without military justification. Members of the *Leibstandarte* also committed atrocities in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre of 200 civilians, including children, who were machine gunned in Złoczew. Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec, Torzeniec, Goworowo, Mława, and Włocławek. Eicke's SS-TV field forces were not military. Their military capabilities were employed instead in terrorizing the civilian population through acts that included hunting down straggling Polish soldiers, confiscating agricultural produce and livestock, and torturing and murdering large numbers of Polish political leaders, aristocrats, businessmen, priests, intellectuals, and Jews.

His *Totenkopfverbände* troops were called on to carry out "police and security measures" in the rear areas. What these measures involved is demonstrated by the record of *SS Totenkopf Standarte "Brandenburg"*. It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en-masse of the leaders of the Jewish community. On 29 September the *Standarte* travelled to Bydgoszcz to conduct an "intelligentsia action".

#### First divisions

In October 1939, the *Deutschland*, *Germania*, and *Der Führer* regiments were reorganised into the *SS-Verfügungs-Division*. The *Leibstandarte* remained independent and was increased in strength to a reinforced motorised regiment. Hitler authorised the creation of two new divisions: the SS *Totenkopf* Division, formed from militarised *Standarten* of the *SS-Totenkopfverbände*, and the Polizei Division, formed from members of the national police force. Almost overnight the force that the OKW had tried to disband had increased from 18,000 to over 100,000 men. Hitler next authorised the creation of four motorised artillery battalions in March 1940, one for each division and the *Leibstandarte*. The OKW was supposed to supply these new battalions with artillery, but was reluctant to hand over guns from its own arsenal. The weapons arrived only slowly and, by the time of the Battle of France, only the *Leibstandarte* battalion was up to strength.

### 1940

The three SS divisions and the *Leibstandarte* spent the winter of 1939 and the spring of 1940 training and preparing for the coming war in the west. In May, they moved to the front, and the *Leibstandarte* was attached to the army's 227th Infantry Division. The *Der Führer* Regiment was detached from the SS-VT Division and attached to the 207th Infantry Division. The SS-VT Division minus *Der Führer* was concentrated near Münster awaiting the invasion of the Netherlands. The SS *Totenkopf* and Polizei Divisions were held in reserve.

On 10 May, the *Leibstandarte* overcame Dutch border guards to spearhead the German advance of X Corps into the Netherlands, north of the rivers towards the Dutch Grebbe Line and subsequently the Amsterdam region. The neighbouring *Der Führer* Regiment advanced towards the Grebbe Line in the sector of the Grebbeberg with as a follow-up objective the city of Utrecht. The Battle of the Grebbeberg lasted three days and took a toll on *Der Führer*. On 11 May, the SS-VT Division crossed into the Netherlands south of the rivers and headed towards Breda. It fought a series of skirmishes before *Germania* advanced into the Dutch province of Zeeland on 14 May. The rest of the SS-VT Division joined the northern front against the forces in Antwerp. On the same day, the *Leibstandarte* entered Rotterdam. After the surrender of Rotterdam, the *Leibstandarte* left for The Hague, which they reached on 15 May, capturing 3,500 Dutch soldiers as prisoners of war.

In France, the SS *Totenkopf* Division was involved in the only Allied tank counterattack in the Battle of France. On 21 May, units of the 1st Army Tank Brigade, supported by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, took part in the Battle of Arras. The SS *Totenkopf*, on the southern flank of the 7th Panzer Division, was overrun, finding their standard anti-tank gun, the 3.7 cm PaK 36, was no match for the British Matilda II tank.

After the Dutch surrender, the *Leibstandarte* moved south to France on 24 May. Becoming part of the XIX Panzer Corps under the command of General Heinz Guderian, they took up a position 15 miles south west of Dunkirk along the line of the Aa Canal, facing the Allied defensive line near Watten. A patrol from the SS-VT Division crossed the canal at Saint-Venant, but was destroyed by British armour. A larger force from the SS-VT Division then crossed the canal and formed a bridgehead at Saint-Venant; 30 miles from Dunkirk. That night the OKW ordered the advance to halt, with the British Expeditionary Force trapped. The *Leibstandarte* paused for the night. However, on the following day, in defiance of Hitler's orders, Dietrich ordered his 3rd Battalion to cross the canal and take the heights beyond, where British artillery observers were putting the regiment at risk. They assaulted the heights and drove the observers off. Instead of being censured for his act of defiance, Dietrich was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On that same day, British forces attacked Saint-Venant, forcing the SS-VT Division to retreat.

On 26 May, the German advance resumed. On 27 May, the *Deutschland* Regiment of the SS-VT Division reached the Allied defensive line on the Leie River at Merville. They forced a bridgehead across the river and waited for the SS *Totenkopf* Division to arrive to cover their flank. What arrived first was a unit of British tanks, which penetrated their position. The SS-VT managed to hold on against the British tank force, which got to within 15 feet of commander Felix Steiner's position. Only the arrival of the *Totenkopf* *Panzerjäger* platoon saved the *Deutschland* Regiment from being destroyed and their bridgehead lost.

That same day, as the SS *Totenkopf* Division advanced near Merville, they encountered stubborn resistance from British Army units, which slowed their advance. The SS *Totenkopf* 4 Company, then committed the Le Paradis massacre, where 97 captured men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets. Only two men survived.

By 28 May, the *Leibstandarte* had taken the village of Wormhout, only ten miles from Dunkirk. After their surrender, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, along with some other units (including French soldiers), were taken to a barn in *La Plaine au Bois* near Wormhout and Esquelbecq. It was there that troops of the *Leibstandarte*'s 2nd Battalion committed the Wormhoudt massacre, where 81 British and French prisoners of war were murdered.

By 30 May, the British were cornered at Dunkirk, and the SS divisions continued the advance into France. The *Leibstandarte* reached Saint-Étienne, 250 miles south of Paris, and had advanced further into France than any other unit. By the next day, the fighting was all but over. German forces arrived in Paris unopposed on 14 June and France formally surrendered on 25 June. Hitler expressed his pleasure with the performance of the *Leibstandarte* in the Netherlands and France, telling them, "Henceforth it will be an honour for you, who bear my name, to lead every German attack."

#### 1940 expansion

On 19 July 1940, Hitler gave a speech to the *Reichstag*, where he gave a summary of the western campaign and praised the German forces involved. He used the term "*Waffen-SS*" when describing the units of the LSSAH and SS-VT that took part. From that day forward, the term *Waffen-SS* became the official designation for the SS combat formations. Himmler gained approval for the *Waffen-SS* to form its own high command, the *Kommandoamt der Waffen-SS* within the *SS Führungshauptamt*, which was created in August 1940. It received command of the SS-VT (the *Leibstandarte* and the *Verfügungs-Division*, renamed *Reich*) and the armed SS-TV regiments (the *Totenkopf* Division together with several independent *Totenkopf-Standarten*).

In 1940, SS chief of staff Gottlob Berger approached Himmler with a plan to recruit volunteers in the conquered territories from the ethnic German and Germanic populations. At first, Hitler had doubts about recruiting foreigners, but he was persuaded by Himmler and Berger. He gave approval for a new division to be formed from foreign nationals with German officers. By June 1940, Danish and Norwegian volunteers had formed the SS Regiment *Nordland*, with Dutch and Flemish volunteers forming the SS Regiment *Westland*. The two regiments, together with *Germania* (transferred from the *Reich* Division), formed the SS Division *Wiking*. A sufficient number of volunteers came forward requiring the SS to open a new training camp just for foreign volunteers at Sennheim in Alsace-Lorraine.

### 1941

At the beginning of the new year, the *Polizei* Division was brought under FHA administration, although it would not be formally merged into the *Waffen-SS* until 1942. At the same time, the *Totenkopf-Standarten*, aside from the three constituting the TK-Division, lost their Death's Head designation and insignia and were reclassified *SS-Infanterie-* (or *Kavallerie-*) *Regimente*. The 11th Regiment was transferred into the *Reich* Division to replace *Germania*; the remainder were grouped into three independent brigades and a battle group in Norway.

By the spring of 1941, the *Waffen-SS* consisted of the equivalent of six or seven divisions: the *Reich*, *Totenkopf*, *Polizei*, and *Wiking* Divisions and *Kampfgruppe* (later Division) *Nord*, and the *Leibstandarte*, 1 SS Infantry, 2 SS Infantry, and SS Cavalry Brigades.

#### Balkans

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_101I-158-0094-35,\_Balkan,\_PKW\_der\_Leibstandarte\_Adolf\_Hitler.jpg|thumb|Troops of the *Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler* Division advancing into the Balkans, 1941
In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack against Greek forces failed, and Germany came to the aid of its ally. Operation Marita began on 6 April 1941, with German troops invading Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in an effort to secure its southern flank.

*Reich* was ordered to leave France and head for Romania, and the *Leibstandarte* was ordered to Bulgaria. The *Leibstandarte*, attached to the XL Panzer Corps, advanced west then south from Bulgaria into the mountains, and by 9 April had reached Prilep in Yugoslavia, 30 miles from the Greek border. Further north the *Reich* Division, with the XLI Panzer Corps, crossed the Romanian border and advanced on Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. Fritz Klingenberg, a company commander in the *Reich*, led his men into Belgrade, where a small group in the vanguard accepted the surrender of the city on 13 April. A few days later the Royal Yugoslav Army surrendered.

The *Leibstandarte* had now crossed into Greece, and on 10 April engaged the 6th Australian Division in the Battle of the Klidi Pass. For 48 hours they fought for control of the heights, often engaging in hand-to-hand combat, eventually gaining control with the capture of Height 997, which opened the pass and allowed the German Army to advance into the Greek interior. This victory gained praise from the OKW: in the order of the day they were commended for their "unshakable offensive spirit" and told that "the present victory signifies for the *Leibstandarte* a new and imperishable page of honour in its history."

The *Leibstandarte* continued the advance on 13 May. When the Reconnaissance Battalion under the command of Kurt Meyer came under heavy fire from the Greek Army defending the Klisura Pass, they broke through the defenders and captured 1,000 prisoners of war at the cost of only six dead and nine wounded. The next day, Meyer captured Kastoria and took another 11,000 prisoners of war. By 20 May, the *Leibstandarte* had cut off the retreating Greek Army at Metsovon and accepted the surrender of the Greek Epirus-Macedonian Army. As a reward, the *Leibstandarte* was nominally redesignated as a full motorised division, although few additional elements had been added by the start of the Russian campaign and the "division" remained effectively a reinforced brigade.

#### Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, started on 22 June 1941, and all the *Waffen-SS* formations participated (including the *Reich* Division, which was formally renamed to *Das Reich* by the fall of 1941).
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_183-A0706-0018-030,\_Ukraine,\_ermordete\_Familie.jpg|thumb|*Einsatzgruppen* members at a murder site of Jews in the village of Zboriv, Ukraine, 1941
SS Division Nord, which was in northern Finland, took part in Operation Arctic Fox with the Finnish Army and fought at the battle of Salla, where against strong Soviet forces they suffered 300 killed and 400 wounded in the first two days of the invasion. Thick forests and heavy smoke from forest fires disoriented the troops and the division's units completely fell apart. By the end of 1941, *Nord* had suffered severe casualties. Over the winter of 1941–42 it received replacements from the general pool of *Waffen-SS* recruits, who were supposedly younger and better trained than the SS men of the original formation, which had been drawn largely from *Totenkopfstandarten* of Nazi concentration camp guards.

The rest of the *Waffen-SS* divisions and brigades fared better. The *Totenkopf* and *Polizei* divisions were attached to Army Group North, with the mission to advance through the Baltic states and on to Leningrad. The *Das Reich* Division was with Army Group Centre and headed towards Moscow. The *Leibstandarte* and *Wiking* Divisions were with Army Group South, heading for Ukraine and the city of Kiev.

The invasion of the Soviet Union proceeded well at first, but the cost to the *Waffen-SS* was extreme: by late October, the *Leibstandarte* was at half strength due to enemy action and dysentery that swept through the ranks. *Das Reich* lost 60% of its strength and was still to take part in the Battle of Moscow. The unit was later decimated in the following Soviet offensive. The *Der Führer* Regiment was reduced to 35 men out of the 2,000 that had started the campaign in June. Altogether, the *Waffen-SS* had suffered 43,000 casualties.

While the *Leibstandarte* and the SS divisions were fighting in the front line, behind the lines it was a different story. The 1st SS Infantry and 2nd SS Infantry Brigades, which had been formed from surplus concentration camp guards of the SS-TV, and the SS Cavalry Brigade moved into the Soviet Union behind the advancing armies. At first, they fought Soviet partisans and cut off units of the Red Army in the rear of Army Group South, capturing 7,000 prisoners of war, but from mid-August 1941 until late 1942 they were assigned to the Reich Security Main Office headed by Reinhard Heydrich. The brigades were now used for rear area security and policing, and were no longer under army or *Waffen-SS* command. In the autumn of 1941, they left the anti-partisan role to other units and actively took part in the Holocaust. While assisting the *Einsatzgruppen*, they participated in the extermination of the Jewish population of the Soviet Union, forming firing parties when required. The three brigades were responsible for the murder of tens of thousands by the end of 1941.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_101III-Adendorff-002-18A,\_Russland,\_SS-Kavallerie-Brigade.jpg|thumb|Cavalrymen of the SS Cavalry Brigade, September 1941
Because it was more mobile and better able to carry out large-scale operations, the SS Cavalry Brigade had 2 regiments with a strength of 3500 men and played a pivotal role in the transition to the wholesale extermination of the Jewish population. In the summer of 1941, Himmler assigned Hermann Fegelein to be in charge of both regiments. On 19 July 1941, Himmler assigned Fegelein's regiments to the general command of HSSPF Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski for the "systematic combing" of the Pripyat swamps, an operation designed to round up and exterminate Jews, partisans, and civilians in that area of the Byelorussian SSR.

Fegelein split the territory to be covered into two sections divided by the Pripyat River, with the 1st Regiment taking the northern half and the 2nd Regiment the south. The regiments worked their way from east to west through their assigned territory, and filed daily reports on the number of people killed and taken prisoner. By 1 August, 1st SS Cavalry Regiment under the command of Gustav Lombard was responsible for the death of 800 people; by 6 August, this total had reached 3,000 "Jews and partisans". Throughout the following weeks, the regiment's personnel under Lombard's command murdered an estimated 11,000 Jews and more than 400 dispersed soldiers of the Red Army. Thus Fegelein's units were among the first in the Holocaust to wipe out entire Jewish communities. Fegelein's final operational report dated 18 September 1941, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, 699 Red Army soldiers, with 830 prisoners taken and losses of 17 dead, 36 wounded, and 3 missing. Historian Henning Pieper estimates the actual number of Jews killed was closer to 23,700.

### 1942

#### 1942 expansion

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Demjansk\_Einkesselung.png|thumb|Offensive of the Red Army south of Lake Ilmen, 7 January – 21 February 1942, creating the Demyansk Pocket
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_146-1977-143-15,\_Russland,\_Angeh%C3%B6rige\_der\_Waffen-SS.jpg|thumb|Troops of the 3rd SS Division on the Eastern Front, 1942
In 1942, the *Waffen-SS* was further expanded and a new division was entered on the rolls in March. By the second half of 1942, an increasing number of foreigners, many of whom were not volunteers, began entering the ranks. The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division *Prinz Eugen* was recruited from *Volksdeutsche* (ethnic Germans) drafted under threat of punishment by the local German leadership from Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, and Romania and used for anti-partisan operations in the Balkans. Himmler approved the introduction of formal compulsory service for the *Volksdeutsche* in German-occupied Serbia. Another new division was formed at the same time, when the SS Cavalry Brigade was used as the cadre in the formation of the 8th SS Cavalry Division *Florian Geyer*.

#### *Panzergrenadier* divisions

The front line divisions of the *Waffen-SS* that had suffered losses through the winter of 1941–1942 and during the Soviet counter-offensive were withdrawn to France to recover and be reformed as *Panzergrenadier* divisions. Due to the efforts of Himmler and Hausser, the new commander of the SS Panzer Corps, the three SS *Panzergrenadier* divisions *Leibstandarte*, *Das Reich*, and *Totenkopf* were to be formed with a full regiment of tanks rather than only a battalion. This meant that the SS *Panzergrenadier* divisions were full-strength Panzer divisions in all but name. They each received nine Tiger tanks, which were formed into the heavy panzer companies.

#### Demyansk Pocket

The Soviet offensive of January 1942 trapped a number of German divisions in the Demyansk Pocket between February and April 1942; the 3rd SS *Totenkopf* Division was one of the divisions encircled by the Red Army. The Red Army liberated Demyansk on 1 March 1943 with the retreat of German troops. "For his excellence in command and the particularly fierce fighting of the *Totenkopf*", Eicke was awarded Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross on 20 May 1942.

### 1943

#### 1943 expansion

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_101III-Mielke-036-23,\_Waffen-SS,\_13.\_Gebirgs-Div.\_%22Handschar%22.jpg|left|thumb|Bosnian Muslims (ethnic Bosniaks), members of the *Handschar* Division, the first non-Germanic, multi-ethnic *Waffen-SS* division in 1943
The *Waffen-SS* expanded further in 1943: in February the 9th SS Panzer Division *Hohenstaufen* and its sister division, the 10th SS Panzer Division *Frundsberg*, were formed in France. They were followed in July by the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division *Nordland* created from Norwegian and Danish volunteers. September saw the formation of the 12th SS Panzer Division *Hitlerjugend* using volunteers from the Hitler Youth. Himmler and Berger successfully appealed to Hitler to form a Bosnian Muslim division, and the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS *Handschar* (1st Croatian), the first non-Germanic division, was formed, to fight Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav Partisans. This was followed by the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) formed from volunteers from Galicia in western Ukraine. The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) was created in 1943, using compulsory military service in the *Ostland*. The final new division of 1943 was the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division *Reichsführer-SS*, which was created using the *Sturmbrigade Reichsführer SS* as a cadre. By the end of the year, the *Waffen-SS* had increased in size from eight divisions and some brigades to 16 divisions. By 1943 the *Waffen-SS* could no longer claim to be an "elite" fighting force. Recruitment and conscription based on "numerical over qualitative expansion" took place, with many of the "foreign" units being good for only rear-guard duty.

#### Kharkov

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_101III-Zschaeckel-189-13,\_Russland,\_Charkow,\_Waffen-SS\_mit\_Panzer\_IV.jpg|left|thumb|German tanks at Kharkov, 1943
On the Eastern Front, the Germans suffered a devastating defeat when the 6th Army was destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad. Hitler ordered the SS Panzer Corps back to the Eastern Front for a counter-attack with the city of Kharkov as its objective. The SS Panzer Corps was in full retreat on 19 February, having been attacked by the Soviet 6th Army, when they received the order to counter-attack. Disobeying Hitler's order to "stand fast and fight to the death", Hausser withdrew in front of the Red Army. During Field Marshal Erich von Manstein's counteroffensive, the SS Panzer Corps, without support from the *Luftwaffe* or neighbouring German formations, broke through the Soviet line and advanced on Kharkov. Despite orders to encircle Kharkov from the north, the SS Panzer Corps directly attacked in the Third Battle of Kharkov on 11 March. This led to four days of house-to-house fighting before Kharkov was recaptured by the *Leibstandarte* Division on 15 March. Two days later, the Germans recaptured Belgorod, creating the salient that, in July 1943, led to the Battle of Kursk. The German offensive cost the Red Army an estimated 70,000 casualties but the house-to-house fighting in Kharkov was particularly bloody for the SS Panzer Corps, which lost approximately 44% of its strength by the time operations ended in late March.

#### Warsaw Ghetto uprising

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stroop\_Report\_-\_Warsaw\_Ghetto\_Uprising\_03.jpg|thumb|Original caption from the Stroop Report: "The leader of the grand operation." *SS-Brigadeführer* Jürgen Stroop (center) watches housing blocks burn.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a Jewish insurgency that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto from 19 April to 16 May, an effort to prevent the transportation of the remaining population of the ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp. Units involved from the *Waffen-SS* were 821 *Waffen-SS* *Panzergrenadiers* from five reserve and training battalions and one cavalry reserve and training battalion.

#### Kursk

For the Battle of Kursk, the SS Panzer Corps was renamed the II SS Panzer Corps and was part of the 4th Panzer Army. The II SS Panzer Corps spearheaded the attack through the Soviet defences. The attack penetrated to a depth of 35 kilometres (22 mi) and was then stopped by the Soviet 1st Tank Army.

The Soviet reserves had been sent south to defend against a German attack by the III Panzer Corps. With the loss of their reserves, any hope they may have had of dealing a major defeat to the II SS Panzer Corps ended. But the German advances now failed – despite appalling losses, the Soviet tank armies held the line and prevented the II SS Panzer Corps from making the expected breakthrough.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_101III-Zschaeckel-207-12,\_Schlacht\_um\_Kursk,\_Panzer\_VI\_(Tiger\_I).jpg|thumb|Tiger I tank company of the *Das Reich* division during the Battle of Kursk, July 1943
The failure to break through the Soviet tactical zone and the need to break off the assault by the German 9th Army on the northern shoulder of the Kursk salient due to Operation Kutuzov contributed to Hitler's decision to halt the offensive. A parallel attack by the Red Army against the new 6th Army on the Mius river south of Kharkov necessitated the withdrawal of reserve forces held to exploit any success on the southern shoulder of Kursk. The OKW also had to draw on some German troops from the Eastern Front to bolster the Mediterranean theatre following the Anglo-American Invasion of Sicily. On 17 July, Hitler called off the operation and ordered a withdrawal. The Soviet Union was not beaten, and the strategic initiative had swung to the Red Army. The Germans were forced onto the defensive as the Red Army began the liberation of Western Russia.

#### Italy

The *Leibstandarte* was thereafter sent to Italy to help stabilise the situation there following the deposal of Benito Mussolini by the Badoglio government and the Allied invasion of Sicily, which marked the beginning of the Italian campaign. The division left behind its armour and equipment, which was given to the *Das Reich* and *Totenkopf* Divisions. After the Italian surrender and collapse of 8 September 1943, the *Leibstandarte* was ordered to begin disarming nearby Italian units. It also had the task of guarding vital road and rail junctions in the north of Italy and was involved in several skirmishes with partisans. This went smoothly, with the exception of a brief skirmish with Italian troops stationed in Parma on 9 September. By 19 September, all Italian forces in the Po River plain had been disarmed, but the OKW received reports that elements of the Italian Fourth Army were regrouping in Piedmont, near the French border. Joachim Peiper's mechanised 3rd Battalion, 2nd SS *Panzergrenadier* Regiment, was sent to disarm these units. On arriving in the province of Cuneo, Peiper was met by an Italian officer who warned that his forces would attack unless Peiper's unit vacated the province immediately. After Peiper refused, the Italians attacked. Peiper's battalion defeated the Italians, and subsequently shelled and burnt down the village of Boves, killing at least 34 civilians. Peiper's battalion then disarmed the remaining Italian forces in the area.

While the *Leibstandarte* was operating in the north, the 16th SS *Reichsführer-SS* Division sent a small battlegroup to contain the Anzio landings in January 1944. In March, the bulk of the 1st *Italienische Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade* (or *Brigata d'Assalto, Volontari* in Italian) was sent to the Anzio beachhead, where they fought alongside their German allies, receiving favourable reports and taking heavy losses. In recognition of their performance, Himmler declared the unit to be fully integrated into the *Waffen-SS*.

### 1944

#### 1944 expansion

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_183-J16696,\_Soldaten\_der\_Legion\_%22Freies\_Indien%22.jpg|thumb|After D-Day, the Indian Legion was transferred from the *Heer* to the *Waffen-SS*.
The *Waffen-SS* expanded again during 1944. January saw the formation of the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian), formed from the two SS infantry brigades as cadre with Latvian conscripts. The 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) was formed via general conscription in February 1944, around a cadre from the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade. The 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS *Skanderbeg* (1st Albanian) was formed in March 1944 from Albanian and Kosovan volunteers, which as with other "eastern formations" were intended for use against "irregular forces". A second *Waffen-SS* cavalry division followed in April 1944, the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division *Maria Theresia*. The bulk of the troops were Hungarian Army *Volksdeutsche* conscripts transferred to the *Waffen-SS* following an agreement between Germany and Hungary. The 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division *Nederland* followed, formed from the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade *Nederland*, but it was never more than a large brigade. The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS *Karstjäger* was another division that was never more than brigade size, consisting mainly of ethnic German volunteers from Italy and Yugoslavia, along with volunteers from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Ukraine. They were primarily involved in fighting partisans in the Kras region of the Alps on the frontiers of Slovenia, Italy, and Austria, the mountainous terrain requiring specialised mountain troops and equipment. Two Hungarian divisions followed: the 25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS *Hunyadi* (1st Hungarian) and the 26th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Hungarian). These were formed under the authority of the Hungarian defence minister, at the request of Himmler. One regiment from the Hungarian Army was ordered to join, but they mostly consisted of Hungarian and Romanian volunteers.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_101I-721-0387-05A,\_Frankreich,\_SS-Panzersoldaten\_vor\_Panzer.jpg|thumb|Members of the *Waffen-SS* in front of a camouflaged tank in France, June 1944
The SS Division *Langemarck* was formed next in October 1944, from Flemish volunteers added to the 6th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade *Langemarck*, but again it was nothing more than a large brigade. The 5th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade *Wallonien* was also upgraded to the SS Division *Wallonien*, but it too was never more than a large brigade. Plans to convert the Kaminski Brigade into the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS RONA (1st Russian) were dropped after the execution of their commander, Bronislav Kaminski; instead the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of SS (Italian no. 1) became the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Italian). The 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian) was formed from the *Schutzmannschaft-Brigade Siegling*. The final new division of late 1944 was the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division, formed from Hungarians and conscripted *Volksdeutsche*.

In November 1944 the 1st Cossack Division, originally mustered by the German Army in 1943, was taken over by the *Waffen-SS*. The *SS Führungshauptamt* reorganised the division and used further Cossack combat units from the army and the *Ordnungspolizei* to form a 2nd Cossack Division. Both divisions were placed under the command of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps on 1 February 1945. With the transfer of the 5th Volunteer *Cossack-Stamm-Regiment* from the *Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division* on the same day the takeover of the Cossack units by the *Waffen-SS* was complete.

#### Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket

The Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket was formed in January 1944 when units of the 8th Army withdrew to the Panther-Wotan Line, a defensive position along the Dnieper River in Ukraine. Two army corps were left holding a salient into the Soviet lines extending some 100 kilometres (62 mi). The Red Army's 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts encircled the pocket. Trapped in the pocket were a total of six German divisions, including the 5th SS *Wiking* Division, with the attached 5th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade *Wallonien*, and the Estonian SS Battalion *Narwa*. The Germans broke out in coordination with other German forces from the outside, including the 1st SS Panzer Division *Leibstandarte*. Roughly two out of every three encircled men successfully escaped the pocket.

#### Raid on Drvar

The Raid on Drvar, codenamed Operation *Rösselsprung*, was an attack by the *Waffen-SS* and *Luftwaffe* on the command structure of the Yugoslav partisans. Their objective was the elimination of the partisan-controlled Supreme Headquarters and the capture of Tito. The offensive took place in April and May 1944. The *Waffen-SS* units involved were the 500th SS Parachute Battalion and the 7th SS *Prinz Eugen* Division.

The assault started when a small group parachuted into Drvar to secure landing grounds for the following glider force. The 500th SS Parachute Battalion fought their way to Tito's cave headquarters and exchanged heavy gunfire resulting in numerous casualties on both sides. By the time German forces had penetrated into the cave, Tito had already escaped. At the end of the battle, only 200 men of the 500th SS Parachute Battalion remained unwounded.

#### Baltic states

In Estonia, the Battle of Narva started in February. The battle can be divided into two phases: the Battle for Narva Bridgehead from February to July and the Battle of Tannenberg Line from July to September. A number of volunteer and conscript *Waffen-SS* units from Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Estonia fought in Narva. The units were all part of the III SS (Germanic) Panzer Corps in Army Group North, which consisted of the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division *Nordland*, the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade *Nederland*, the 5th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade *Wallonien*, the 6th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade *Langemarck*, and the conscript 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian), under the command of *Obergruppenführer* Felix Steiner.

Also in Army Group North was the VI SS Corps, which consisted of the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian). Latvian *Waffen SS* and German Army units held out in the Courland Pocket until the end of the war.

#### Normandy

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Operation\_Spring.png|thumb|The starting lines of Operation Spring. *Waffen-SS* units identified are the 1st, 9th, 10th, and 12th *SS* Divisions and the 101st and 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalions.
Operation Overlord, the Allied "D-Day" landings in Normandy, took place on 6 June 1944. In preparation for the expected landings, the I SS Panzer Corps was moved to Septeuil to the west of Paris in April 1944. The corps had the 1st SS Panzer Division *Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler*, the 12th SS Panzer Division *Hitlerjugend*, and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier *Götz von Berlichingen* Divisions, along with the army's Panzer-Lehr-Division assigned to it. The corps was to form a part of General Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg's Panzer Group West, the Western theatre's armoured reserve. The corps was restructured on 4 July 1944 and only the 1st SS *Leibstandarte* and the 12th SS *Hitlerjugend* Divisions remained on strength.

After the landings, the first *Waffen-SS* unit in action was the 12th SS *Hitlerjugend* Division, which arrived at the invasion front on 7 June, in the Caen area. That same day they committed the Ardenne Abbey massacre against Canadian Army prisoners of war. The next unit to arrive was the 17th SS Division *Götz von Berlichingen* on 11 June, which came into contact with the US 101st Airborne Division. The 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion arrived next to protect the left wing of the I SS Panzer Corps. The 1st SS Division *Leibstandarte* arrived towards the end of the month with lead elements becoming embroiled in the British offensive Operation Epsom.

The only other *Waffen-SS* unit in France at this time was the 2nd SS Panzer Division *Das Reich*, in Montauban, north of Toulouse. They were ordered north to the landing beaches and on 9 June were responsible for the Tulle massacre, where 99 men were murdered. The next day, they reached the village of Oradour-sur-Glane where they massacred 642 civilians including 247 children.

The II SS Panzer Corps, consisting of the 9th SS *Hohenstaufen* and 10th SS *Frundsberg* Panzer Divisions and the SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 102, was transferred from the Eastern Front to spearhead an offensive to destroy the Allied beachhead. However, the British launched Operation Epsom and the two divisions were fed piecemeal into the battle, and launched several counterattacks over the following days.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Falaise\_Pocket\_German\_Counterattack.png|left|thumb|German counterattacks against Canadian-Polish positions on 20 August 1944
Without any further reinforcements in men or materiel, the *Waffen-SS* divisions could not stop the Allied advance. Both the 1st SS and 2nd SS Panzer Divisions took part in the failed Operation Lüttich in early August. The end came in mid August when the German Army was encircled and trapped in the Falaise pocket, including the 1st SS, 10th SS, 12th SS, and 17th SS Divisions, while the 2nd SS and 9th SS Panzer Divisions were ordered to attack Hill 262 from the outside in order to keep the gap open. By 22 August, the Falaise pocket had been closed, and all German forces west of the Allied lines were either dead or in captivity. In the fighting around Hill 262 alone, casualties totalled 2,000 killed and 5,000 taken prisoner. The 12th SS Panzer Division *Hitlerjugend* had lost 94 per cent of its armour, nearly all of its artillery, and 70 per cent of its vehicles. The division had close to 20,000 men and 150 tanks before the campaign started, and was now reduced to just 300 men and 10 tanks.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:German\_prisoners\_SS-Panzerdivision\_Hitlerjugend.jpg|thumb|12 SS *Hitlerjugend* troops taken prisoner in Normandy
With the German Army in full retreat, two further *Waffen-SS* formations entered the battle in France, the SS Panzergrenadier Brigade 49 and the SS Panzergrenadier Brigade 51. Both had been formed in June 1944 from staff and students at the SS Junker Schools. They were stationed in Denmark to allow the garrison there to move into France, but were brought forward at the beginning of August to the area south and east of Paris. Both brigades were tasked to hold crossings over the Seine River allowing the army to retreat. Eventually, they were forced back and then withdrew, the surviving troops being incorporated into the 17th SS Division.

#### Greece

While the bulk of the *Waffen-SS* was now on the Eastern Front or in Normandy, the 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division was stationed in Greece on internal security duties and anti-partisan operations. On 10 June, they committed the Distomo massacre, when over a period of two hours they went door to door and massacred Greek civilians, reportedly in revenge for a Greek resistance attack. In total, 218 men, women, and children were murdered. According to survivors, the SS forces "bayoneted babies in their cribs, stabbed pregnant women, and beheaded the village priest."

#### Italy

On the Italian Front, the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division *Reichsführer-SS*, conducting anti-partisan operations, is remembered more for the atrocities it perpetrated than its fighting ability; the division committed the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre in August 1944 and the Marzabotto massacre between September and October 1944.

#### Finland

In Finland, the 6th SS Mountain Division *Nord* had held its lines during the Soviet summer offensive until it was ordered to withdraw from Finland upon the conclusion of an armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union in September 1944. It then formed the rear guard for the three German corps withdrawing from Finland in Operation Birch, and from September to November 1944 marched 1,600 kilometres to Mo i Rana, Norway, where it entrained for the southern end of the country, crossing the Skagerrak to Denmark.

#### Arnhem and Operation Market Garden

In early September 1944, the II SS Panzer Corps (comprising the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions) was pulled out of the line and sent to the Arnhem area in the Netherlands. Upon arrival, they began the task of refitting, and the majority of the remaining armoured vehicles were loaded onto trains in preparation for transport to repair depots in Germany. On 17 September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, and the British 1st Airborne Division was dropped in Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem. Realizing the threat, Wilhelm Bittrich, commander of the II SS Panzer Corps, ordered the *Hohenstaufen* and *Frundsberg* divisions to ready themselves for combat. Also in the area was the Training and Reserve Battalion of the 16th SS Division. The Allied airborne operation was a failure, and Arnhem was not liberated until 14 April 1945.

#### Warsaw Uprising

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Warsaw\_Old\_Town\_1945.jpg|thumb|Ruins of Warsaw's Old Town Market Square. In total, eighty-five per cent of the city was destroyed and nearly 200,000 civilians killed.
At the other end of Europe, the *Waffen-SS* was dealing with the Warsaw Uprising. Between August and October 1944, the Dirlewanger Brigade (recruited from criminals and the mentally ill throughout Germany), which included the Azerbaijani Legion (part of the *Ostlegionen*), and the SS Assault Brigade RONA (Russian National Liberation Army), which was made up of anti-Soviet Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian collaborators, were both sent to Warsaw to put down the uprising. During the battle, the Dirlewanger Brigade behaved atrociously, raping, looting, and killing citizens regardless of whether they belonged to the Polish resistance or not; the unit's commander SS-*Oberführer* Oskar Dirlewanger encouraged their excesses. The unit's behaviour was reportedly so bestial and indiscriminate that Himmler was forced to send a battalion of SS military police to ensure the *Dirlewanger* convicts did not turn their aggressions against the leadership of the brigade or other nearby German units. At the same time, they were encouraged by Himmler to terrorise freely, take no prisoners, and generally indulge their perverse tendencies. Favoured tactics during the siege reportedly included the ubiquitous gang rape of female Poles, both women and children; playing "bayonet catch" with live babies; and torturing captives to death by hacking off their arms, dousing them with gasoline, and setting them alight to run armless and flaming down the street. The Dirlewanger Brigade committed almost non-stop atrocities during this period, in particular the four-day Wola massacre.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polish\_civilians\_murdered\_by\_German-SS-troops\_in\_Warsaw\_Uprising\_Warsaw\_August\_1944.jpg|left|thumb|Photo taken by the Polish Underground showing the bodies of women and children murdered by SS troops during the Warsaw Uprising, August 1944
The other unit, the Kaminski Brigade, was tasked with clearing the Ochota district in Warsaw that was defended by members of the Polish Home Army. Their attack was planned for the morning of 5 August, but when the time came, the Kaminski Brigade could not be found; after some searching by the SS military police, members of the unit were found looting abandoned houses in the rear of the German column. Later, thousands of Polish civilians were killed during the events known as the Ochota massacre; many victims were also raped. In the following weeks, the unit was moved south to the Wola district, but it fared no better in combat there than it did in Ochota; in one incident, a sub-unit of the Kaminski Brigade advanced to loot a captured building on the front line, but was subsequently cut off from the rest of the SS formation and wiped out by the Poles. Following the fiasco, SS-*Brigadeführer* Bronislav Vladislavovich Kaminski, the unit's commander, was called to Łódź to attend an SS leadership conference. He never arrived; official Nazi sources blamed Polish partisans for an alleged ambush that killed the RONA commander. But, according to various other sources, he was arrested and tried by the SS, or simply shot on spot by the Gestapo. The behaviour of the Kaminski Brigade during the battle was an embarrassment even to the SS, and the alleged rape and murder of two German Strength Through Joy girls may have played a part in the eventual execution of the brigade's commander.

#### Vistula River line

In late August 1944, the 5th SS Panzer Division *Wiking* was ordered back to Modlin on the Vistula River line near Warsaw, where it was to join the newly formed Army Group Vistula. Fighting alongside the *Luftwaffe*'s 1st Fallschirm-Panzer Division *Hermann Göring*, they were faced against the Soviet 3rd Tank Corps. The advent of the Warsaw Uprising brought the Soviet offensive to a halt, and relative peace fell on the front line. The division remained in the Modlin area, grouped with the 3th SS Panzer Division *Totenkopf* in the IV SS Panzer Corps. Heavy defensive battles around Modlin followed for the rest of the year.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kampfgruppe\_Knittel%27s\_troops\_on\_the\_road\_to\_Stavelot.jpg|thumb|Kampfgruppe Knittel's troops on the road to Stavelot to support Peiper
The Ardennes Offensive (popularly known as the "Battle of the Bulge"), between 16 December 1944 and 25 January 1945, was a major German offensive through the forested Ardennes mountains region of Belgium. The *Waffen-SS* units included the 6th Panzer Army under Sepp Dietrich. Created on 26 October 1944, it incorporated the I SS Panzer Corps (the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions along with the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion). It also had the II SS Panzer Corps (the 2nd and 9th SS Panzer Divisions). Another unit involved was Otto Skorzeny's SS Panzer Brigade 150.

The purpose of the attack was to split the British and American line in half, capture Antwerp, and encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty on terms favourable to the Axis Powers. However, advancing through the forests and wooded hills of the Ardennes proved difficult in the winter weather. Initially, the Germans made good progress in the northern end of its advance. However, they ran into unexpectedly strong resistance by the US 2nd and 99th Infantry Divisions. By 23 December, weather conditions started improving, allowing the Allied air forces, which had been grounded, to attack. In increasingly difficult conditions, the German advance slowed. The attack was ultimately a failure. Despite the efforts of the *Waffen-SS* and the German Army, fuel shortages, stiff American resistance, including in and around the town of Bastogne, and Allied air-assaults on German supply columns proved too much, costing the Germans 700 tanks and most of their remaining mobile forces in the west. Hitler's failed counteroffensive had used most of Germany's remaining reserves of manpower and materiel, which could not be replaced.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Malmedy\_Massacre.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of the Malmedy Massacre
During the battle, *Kampfgruppe Peiper*, part of the *Leibstandarte* Division, left a path of destruction, which included *Waffen-SS* soldiers murdering American POWs and unarmed Belgian civilians. It is infamous for the Malmedy massacre, in which approximately 90 unarmed American prisoners of war were murdered on 17 December 1944. Also during this battle, 3./SS-PzAA1 LSSAH captured and shot eleven African-American soldiers from the US 333rd Field Artillery Battalion in the hamlet of Wereth. Their remains were found by Allied troops two months later. The soldiers had their fingers cut off and legs broken, and one was shot while trying to bandage a comrade's wounds.

#### Siege of Budapest

In late December 1944, Axis forces, including the IX SS Mountain Corps, defending Budapest, were encircled in the Siege of Budapest. The IV SS Panzer Corps (the 3rd and 5th SS Panzer Divisions) was ordered south to join General Hermann Balck's 6th Army (Army Group Balck), which was mustering for a relief effort code named Operation Konrad.

As a part of Operation Konrad I, the IV SS Panzer Corps was committed to action on 1 January 1945, near Tata, with the advance columns of the *Wiking* Division slamming into the Soviet 4th Guards Army. A heavy battle ensued, with the *Wiking* and *Totenkopf* Division destroying many of the Soviet tanks. In three days their panzer spearheads had driven 45 kilometres, over half the distance from the start point to Budapest. The Red Army manoeuvred forces to block the advance, halting them at Bicske, 28 kilometres (17 mi) from Budapest. Two further attacks, Operations Konrad II and III, also failed.

The Hungarian Third Army was besieged in Budapest along with the IX SS Mountain Corps (the 8th and 22nd SS Cavalry Divisions). The siege lasted from 29 December 1944 until the city surrendered unconditionally on 13 February 1945. Only 170 men of the 22nd SS Cavalry Division *Maria Theresa* made it back to the German lines.

### 1945

#### 1945 expansion

The *Waffen-SS* continued to expand in 1945. January saw the 32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier Division *30 Januar* formed from the remnants of other units and staff from the SS Junker Schools. In February, the Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS *Charlemagne* was upgraded to a division and became known as the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS *Charlemagne* (1st French). At this time, it had a strength of 7,340 men. The SS Volunteer Grenadier Brigade *Landstorm Nederland* was upgraded to the 34th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division *Landstorm Nederland*. The second SS police division followed when the 35th SS-Police Grenadier Division was formed from SS police units that had been transferred to the *Waffen-SS*. The Dirlewanger Brigade was reformed as the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. As there was now a real shortage of *Waffen-SS* volunteers and conscripts, units from the army were attached to bring it up to strength. The third SS cavalry division, the 37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division *Lützow*, was formed from the remnants of the 8th and 22nd SS Cavalry Divisions, which had both been virtually destroyed. The last *Waffen-SS* division was the 38th SS Grenadier Division *Nibelungen*, which was formed from students and staff from the SS Junker Schools, but consisted of only around 6,000 men, the strength of a normal brigade.

#### Operation Nordwind

Operation Nordwind was the last major German offensive on the Western Front. It began on 1 January 1945 in Alsace and Lorraine in northeastern France, and it ended on 25 January. The initial attack was conducted by three corps of the 1st Army. By 15 January, at least 17 German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket) were engaged, including the XIII SS Army Corps (the 17th and 38th SS Divisions) and the 6th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions. At the same time, the *Luftwaffe* mounted a large offensive over the skies of France. Some 240 fighters were lost and just as many pilots. It was the 'last gasp' attempt for the *Luftwaffe* to take back air supremacy from the Western Allies.

#### Operation Solstice

Operation Solstice, or the "Stargard Tank Battle" (February 1945) was one of the last armoured offensive operations on the Eastern Front. It was a limited counterattack by the three Corps of the 11th SS Panzer Army, which was being assembled in Pomerania, against the spearheads of the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front. Originally planned as a major offensive, it was executed as a more limited attack. It was repulsed by the Red Army, but helped to convince the Soviet High Command to postpone the planned attack on Berlin.

Initially, the attack achieved a total surprise, reaching the banks of the Ina River and, on 17 January, Arnswalde. Strong Soviet counterattacks halted the advance, and the operation was called off. The III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, was pulled back to the Stargard and Stettin on the northern Oder River.

#### East Pomeranian Offensive

The East Pomeranian Offensive lasted from 24 February to 4 April, in Pomerania and West Prussia. The *Waffen-SS* units involved were the 11th SS *Nordland*, 20th SS *Estonian*, 23rd SS *Nederland*, 27th SS *Langemark*, and 28th SS *Wallonien* Divisions all in the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps and the X SS Corps, which did not command any SS units.

In March 1945, the X SS Corps was encircled by the 1st Guards Tank Army, 3rd Shock Army, and First Polish Army in the area of Dramburg. This pocket was destroyed by the Red Army on 7 March 1945. On 8 March 1945, the Soviets announced the capture of General Krappe and 8,000 men of the corps.

#### Operation Spring Awakening

link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv\_Bild\_146-1989-105-13A,\_Ungarn,\_deutscher\_R%C3%BCckzug.jpg|thumb|German units during the Lake Balaton Offensive, March 1945
After the Ardennes offensive failed, in Hitler's estimation, the Nagykanizsa oilfields southwest of Lake Balaton were the most strategically valuable reserves on the Eastern Front. The SS divisions were pulled out and refitted in Germany in preparation for Operation Spring Awakening (*Frühlingserwachsen*). Hitler ordered Dietrich's 6th Panzer Army to take the lead and move to Hungary in order to protect the oilfields and refineries there. The 6th Panzer Army was made up of the I SS Panzer Corps (the 1st and 12th SS Panzer Divisions) and the II SS Panzer Corps (the 2nd and 10th SS Panzer Divisions). Also present but not part of the 6th Panzer Army was the IV SS Panzer Corps (the 3rd and 5th SS Panzer Divisions).

This final German offensive in the east began on 6 March. The German forces attacked near Lake Balaton with the 6th Panzer Army advancing northwards towards Budapest and the 2nd Panzer Army moving eastwards and south. Dietrich's army made "good progress" at first, but as they drew near the Danube, the combination of the muddy terrain and strong resistance by the Soviets ground them to a halt. The overwhelming numerical superiority of the Red Army made any defence impossible, yet Hitler somehow had believed victory was attainable.

After Operation Spring Awakening, the 6th Panzer Army withdrew towards Vienna and was involved what became known as the Vienna Offensive. The only major force to face the attacking Red Army was the II SS Panzer Corps (the 2nd and 3rd SS Panzer Divisions), under the command of Wilhelm Bittrich, along with *ad hoc* forces made up of garrison and anti-aircraft units. Vienna fell to the Soviets on 13 April. Bittrich's II SS Panzer Corps had pulled out to the west that evening to avoid encirclement. The LSSAH retreated westward with less than 1,600 men and 16 tanks remaining.

This failure is famous for the "armband order" that followed. The order was issued to Dietrich by Hitler, who claimed that the troops, and more importantly, the 1st SS Division *Leibstandarte*, "did not fight as the situation demanded". As a mark of disgrace, the *Waffen-SS* units involved in the battle were ordered to remove their distinctive cuff titles. Dietrich did not relay the order to his troops.

#### Berlin

Army Group Vistula was formed in 1945 to protect Berlin from the advancing Red Army. It fought in the Battle of the Seelow Heights (16–19 April) and the Battle of Halbe (21 April – 1 May), both part of the Battle of Berlin. The *Waffen-SS* was represented by the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps.

On 23 April, SS-*Brigadeführer* Wilhelm Mohnke was appointed by Hitler as Battle Commander for the centre government district (Zitadelle sector), which included the Reich Chancellery and the *Führerbunker*. Mohnke's command post was in the bunkers under the Reich Chancellery. He formed *Kampfgruppe Mohnke*, divided into two weak regiments. It was made up of the LSSAH Flak Company, replacements from the LSSAH Training and Reserve Battalion from Spreenhagan (under *Standartenfuhrer* Anhalt), 600 men from the *Begleit-Bataillon Reichsführer-SS*, the Führer-Begleit-Company, and the core group—800 men of the LSSAH Guard Battalion assigned to guard the *Führer*.

On 23 April, the Reich Chancellery ordered SS-*Brigadeführer* Gustav Krukenberg to proceed to Berlin with his men, who were reorganised as Assault Battalion *Charlemagne*. Between 320 and 330 French troops arrived in Berlin on 24 April after a long detour to avoid Soviet advance columns. Krukenberg was also appointed the commander of (Berlin) Defence Sector C. This included the *Nordland* Division, whose previous commander, Joachim Ziegler, was relieved of command the same day. On 27 April, after a futile defence, the remnants of *Nordland* were pushed back into the centre government district (Zitadelle sector) in Defence Sector Z. There Krukenberg's headquarters was a carriage in the Stadtmitte U-Bahn station. The men of the *Nordland* Division were now under Mohnke's overall command. Among the men were French, Latvian, and Scandinavian *Waffen-SS* troops.

A heavy artillery bombardment of the centre government district had begun on 20 April 1945 and lasted until the end of hostilities. Under intense shelling, the SS troops put up stiff resistance which led to bitter and bloody street fighting with the Red Army. By 26 April, the defenders were pushed back into the Reichstag and Reich Chancellery. There, over the next few days, the survivors (mainly French SS troops from the former 33rd SS Division *Charlemagne*) fought in vain against the Soviets.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Himmler\_Dead.jpg|thumb|Himmler's corpse after his suicide, May 1945
On 30 April, after receiving news of Hitler's suicide, orders were issued that those who could do so were to break out. Prior to the break-out, Mohnke briefed all commanders that could be reached within the Zitadelle sector about Hitler's death and the planned break-out. The break out started at 2300 hours on 1 May. There were ten main groups that attempted to head northwest towards Mecklenburg. Fierce fighting continued all around, especially in the Weidendammer Bridge area. What was left of the *Nordland* Division under Krukenberg fought hard in that area, but Soviet artillery, anti-tank guns, and tanks destroyed the groups. Several very small groups managed to reach the Americans at the Elbe's west bank, but most, including Mohnke's group, could not make it through the Soviet rings.

Himmler fled and attempted to go into hiding. Using a forged paybook under the name of Sergeant Heinrich Hitzinger, he fled south on 11 May to Friedrichskoog. On 21 May, Himmler and two aides were detained at a checkpoint set up by former Soviet POWs and then handed over to the British Army. On 23 May, after Himmler had admitted his real identity, a doctor attempted to examine him. However, Himmler bit into a hidden cyanide pill and collapsed onto the floor. He was dead within 15 minutes.