Waffen-SS Mountain Divisions and Brigades - origins, development and deployment (1942-1945)
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- The Waffen-SS began developing dedicated mountain units from 1942 onwards, especially on the Balkans where they were employed in anti-partisan operations. Most planned divisions never made it through the formation phase and were prematurely thrown into battle. In 1945 there were little left of the SS mountain armycorps, when they surrendered.
My mother's cousin served in the 7th Mountain Division. He did not survive the war.
Respect.
Allah Rahmo
was he from Siebenbürgen?
Bosnian Muslims were SS
I have had several items from the SS Gebirgsjäger units to include complete uniforms. I met a Volksdeutsche Hauptsturmführer from Würzburg near where I lived. He was born and raised in the Banat and went to school in Kronstadt...today's Braşov in Romania. He was Wounded and evacuated to Italy and then to Nurnberg. He described the Wars end where whole Units of Prinz Eugen were talked into surrender but were then horribly executed by Soviet Kommisars...to include a particularly horrible incident where SS Gebirgsjäger were tied together with commo wire and thrown into the Drvar river to drown. The excesses on both sides in the Balkans were horrifying. I was also personal friends with Albert Stenwedel who was a Knights Cross winner in the Handschar. He was one of the original LAH members and was close to Sepp Dietrich, but he was an alcoholic and had discipline issues so he was tossed out of LAH and was placed as a Battalion Commander in Handschar. The guy was a drinker and a fighter to the end...meeting him and hearing his stories was amazing. He escaped the Balkans by the skin of his teeth and lived into his 90s.
My Great grandfather was in 13. SS, he didnt join because he loved the Nazis but because they paid decently, they gave new uniforms and new guns aswell to members... Just like most Bosniaks, they all joined because Bosnia was very very poor and people especially children died of hunger in some parts of Bosnia at that time. So it was an way to have some protection against Serbian Chetniks and to get paid so you can feed your family...
First blond Bosnian division !
Partizans were mainly made of the Serbs. Partizans and Cetniks fough together in first days of the war, then they split. There is nice song on You Tube about Partizan hero Sava Kovacevic " Komadant Sava".
Wrong, From 41-43 Most partisans were Bosnians and Serbs when Tito began recruiting Chetnik prisoners Serbs over took the scale by the end of 43 and 45
@@arik6561 Bosnian Muslims are mostly were nazis,over 90 percent during ww2,as a ustashas.they made about 30 percent ustashas,croatian nazis.In Bosnia they made 54 percent of ustashas. In Partizans muvement they made only 3 percent. Read historien books,please.
Thank you .I learned some things new to me about my father's Homeland and the terrible times of his youth.
My grandpa was drafted into the "Prinz Eugen" division at the age of 17 along with many other young ethnic Germans throughout the Balkans. Became a POW in April 1945 and spent months in an American Camp in North Italy. Grateful that I were able to grow up around him. Also my grandma and great grandma who lost nearly everything in Serbia & survived a russian camp in Romania. He died in September 2020 at the age of 95 ... and boy do I miss him.
Thank you for sharing this story. Very interesting.
@@ArmiesAndBattles my pleasure ✌️ thank you for uploading this video and telling the story about this division
My Grandfather was ethnic German and drafted into the Prinz Eugen in 1942 aged 17. He was in the First Battalion Prinz Eugen that was raised in Zagreb where he lived as a tailor. That Battalion seeded the 7SS division about six months later. He was a basic Soldat in a AA gun crew. He was wounded twice in 1943 and 1944 respectively, the first time being sent to hospital in Southern Germany. My grandfather was captured in 1945 and spent time in an American POW camp (not sure where) and eventually ended up in a refugee camp in Austria where he married a Czech, and had a few kids. This is where my mother was born. They migrated to Australia in 1954. And he died in 1988.
Amazing how these things happened.
those who didnt reach the western allies in time faced something much worse in titoland
My father was in the ss prinz augen 7th panzer division ,and survived also !
thank you for this. it helped me understand more
Thank you for this video very interesting you really researched this learned something new
Can you make a video in Banja Luka and the airborne raid on Tito`s HQ as well as the conference there, which supposedly entailed Churchills son and one of the leading sowjet generals the week or so before. (I´d have to look the names up).
Hi, unfortunately it is difficult to travel to Banja Luka under the current circumstances. It would be interesting to make a video about that but I takes a lot of time to make such videos and i am currently working on other projects. Maybe later.
@@ArmiesAndBattles Almost all i know about Banja Luka is that it was an old fortress and that it was basically "the" Bandenkampfschule in the balkans but i find it hard to find informations on it e.g. what exactly was trained except the "cryptic" "in Volltarnung".
To my understanding it`s now a big city which for me is quite unusual for a military training area.
So far i wasn`t able to find any manual or so on it.
I know a little bit about "Jagdkampf" but in Banja Luka it seems to have been somethig different.
Thanks for your time anyway.
Bosnian Muslims are mostly were nazis,over 90 percent during ww2,as a ustashas.they made about 30 percent ustashas,croatian nazis.In Bosnia they made 54 percent of ustashas. In Partizans muvement they made only 3 percent.
My grandfather was in the first mountain division edelweiss waffen SS, after being conscripted in Serbia. He was an MG42 gunner, his platoon was overrun, he was shot a bunch of times in the confusion was able to change uniforms with a Russian he killed. was found out and captured being able to speak Russian and make shoes sent to prison. This video was awesome wondering if anyone knew any more videos like this or anything more about the 1st mountain division. He served in north Africa for a while until he got malaria the cure was being sent to the Russian front. He died when he was 88 RIP Opa.
This division is well known for war crimes in many areas, particularly in north western Greece. Very bad reputation probably second only to the totenkopf division
Why some Waffen-SS troops had "broken" corners, right, left and center?
My grandad was part of this unit
Respect
My grandma`s brother was conscripted just a few days after becoming 16. Was told to get to mayors house next day or him and the family being punished, when he would not obey. it´s so sarcastic this division was called "Volunteer". He died last year, still having shrapnels in back and eye. Never spoke about the war, never married, this damn war and the imprisonement and the forced labor in coal mines in yugoslavia for several years just broke him. R.I.P.
You forgot the murder of king of yugoslavia, other than that the muslim people of bosnia were treated as normal people with in croatia, otherwise germany would have not started the 13th ss division full stop as part of president DR Ante Pavlovic ideas and programmes. :)
Ideas were good but Serbs and Muslims were executed to the point where the Bosniaks asked Germany to annex Bosnia and protect it or give them weapons to protect them selves where the 13th SS Handžar division was made and when in 43 was sent in france it began rebelling where most men were killed and some officers escaped and joined the French Ressistiance
Hey mate, I like tour video. It was very informative and I learned some new stuff about the history of the Handschar Division.
I wanted to point out that the pictures you used from the 2.25 minute mark, are not of 2 muslim soldiers. The right picture is a picture of a orthodox Serb that was fighting for the Austrians. Serbs and Croat identities were just sparking up at the time in Bosnia. But most people considered themself to be inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and mostly identify as Bosniak.
@Isaac Steinerhauser true, but i. Ww1 they fought in the same units.
Serbs living in Bosnia and Herzegovina call their selves Serbs. Muslims living in Bosnia and Herzegovina they were declaring them selves Serbs or Croats until 1971.
@Isaac Steinerhauser they did before 1878 man
@Isaac Steinerhauser Serbs side of history of course!!
History of Bosnia and Hercegovina by Ilija Garasanin 1844 Bosniak-muslim Bosniak- katolik Bosniak- ortodox!!!
Germans weren't satisfied with Albanian SS Skanderbeg which was composed of 5000 poor fighters that were recruited for money, in the other hand Germans were very satisfied with Albanian National Front which had 50000 troops and had high morale and didn't surrender to the communists and chetniks until they all died or imprisoned after the war.
My father is Croatian and all his where in German Wehrmacht and wafen
Sarajevo!
Interesting cheers
Glad you enjoyed it
At 19:25 Prisoners from 12 SS Panzer division H.J. in Normandy battle field - France summer 1944..!
Catching up on 'old'video's
This one was great
I had a lot of fun making it, so I am happy you enjoyed it too.
Very good your video , pal. Congratulations!
4 of my family members fought in SS Skanderbeg divizion. 90% of them were from Kosovo.
My family witnesses all of this.
Your from Bosnia?
Interested stuff!
Great video and love it ! Though can I ask about the footage at 16:54 ? Do you maybe know it's description and backstory ?
Thank for your praise. Regarding the footage, I don't know the backstory unfortunately.
It would be interesting to point out that only a small portion of Handschar deserted & they were catholic Croats (of the 1,000 men only 400 remained in mid 1944),the proof being that the division keep figthing until the end of the war.In late 1944 they were transferred in Hungary,there they did encounters some difficulty because it was the first time that they fought frontline troops but in the other hand they did fought well,repulsing many soviet assaults & gaining several local victories & after that were ultimately transferred on the Oder front sadly theres no information about their actions there.Same goes for "Skanderberg" the division was in some part disbanded but a number of 3,000/4,000 men considered reliable would continue the figthing until the end of the war.
The history of Handschar is indeed surrounded by myths and falsehoods. The fact remains that the division was plagued by the lack of officers and was poorly equipped. It was good enough to perform anti-partisan operations, but it was by no means meant as a front-line unit.
Ruud Bruijns yeah exactly it was never ment to be sent in firs line,but the situation was so desperate in late 44 early 45 that even anti-partisan units were thrown into frontline actions.
@@docan6817 Both Croats and Bosnian Muslims deserted just like in the case of the mutiny at Villefranche de Rouergue which was led by Ferid Dzanic, Nikola Vukelic, Eduard Matutinovic and Lutfija Dizdarevic,two Bosnian Muslims and two Croat Catholics.The greatest majority of Handschar Division was comprised of Muslims so yea,your story has nothing to do with reality.
Hollandse accent haha goeie video hoor ik heb veel meer informatie gekregen over de balkan dan in school!
Ik doe mijn best! Ik heb ook een Nederlandstalig kanaal, mocht je dat interesseren: ruclips.net/channel/UCC_asz9wQ_RWtHVmjImsgbw
Very informative video . Thank you !
Thank you!
Fantastic documentary, finally some more TRUTH!!! I am still searching for my Dutch uncle who served in " Freiwillige Legion Niederlande". He wrote his last letter from the Feldlazaret in Riga (Letland). But was probably last seen in Pommern in 1945. Do you have any suggestions how or where to look, to find out more information about individual cases/destanies of the Dutch volunteers in the Waffen SS? PLEASE?!? It's also known, that those Dutch fought for some time in the Jugoslavion region, before transfered to the Eastern front!!! Greetings from, Wim van Lent. Holland. ( I was named after him by my parents, and it would mean so much especially to my dad "just" to KNOW or even to visit a grave, of something!!! )
Thank you for your appreciation!
I would suggest that you can enquire at the WASt in Berlin. That's repository of personnel files regarding people who served in the German armed forces during the Second World War: www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/Meldungen/20181221-integration-wast.html
Okey Ruud, thanks for your help, I will contact them. Keep up the good work!!!
Greetings from the Netherlands,
willemvanlent@gmail.com
Dank je wel!
Bosniaks 💪💪💪⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️☪️☪️☪️☪️
first and very nice this is finally up props to you man
EXCELLENT video! Thankyou! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Zeer informatief, klasse! Great video and good info. 👍🏻😎💪🏻💥
superficially
Sorry, but what do you mean by that?
Ruud Bruijns There is no mention made of the SDK forces that formed part of the Prinz Eugen Division.
Ruud Bruijns don't take me maliciously please.
Ruud Bruijns of kunnen wij naar NL overschakelen ???
Dank je voor je toelichting. Ja, het is een oppervlakkig overzicht, maar ik heb het gemaakt voor een groot publiek. Veel feiten zullen kenners wel bekend zijn. Overigens ben ik er door recent onderzoek achter gekomen dat de StuG-Kompanie feitelijk alleen op papier bestond, maar eigenlijk zelden echt was toegevoegd aan de bergdivisies.
❤👏
Reading exactly from book hahaha good ones