10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg

10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
	Insignia of 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
Active	2 January 1943 – 8 May 1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Waffen-SS
Type	Panzer
Size	Division
Engagements	Operation Epsom; Operation Market Garden; Operation Nordwind; Halbe Pocket

The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS panzer division. The division was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France. However, their first campaign was in the Ukraine in April 1944. Highly motivated after combat success in Ukraine, the unit was then transported back to the west where they fought the Allies in France and at Arnhem. The division was later transported to Pomerania then fought south east of Berlin in the Lausitz area to the end of the war. Unlike several of the earlier SS panzer divisions, the "Frundsberg" division did not engage in atrocities against either civilians or combatants. Based on its fighting record, it was an elite division which also had a reputation of fighting a "clean war." Postwar, the division had a very active veteran's association.

History[]

Originally, the name Karl der Große (Charlemagne) was used for some time in 1943, but French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS used Charlemagne (33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)), so the honor title Frundsberg was chosen, which refers to 16th Century German landsknecht commander Georg von Frundsberg.

The division was mainly formed from conscripts and it first saw action at Tarnopol in April 1944. It took part in the rescue of German troops cut off in the Kamianets-Podilskyi pocket.

It was then sent to Normandy to counter the Allied landings. It and its "twin" Division, the 9th SS Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen, played an important part in holding the British Forces back in Normandy, particularly during Operation Epsom.

It retreated into Belgium before being sent to rest near Arnhem where they soon had to fight the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, at which time it, along with the 9th SS Panzer, constituted the II SS Panzer Corps.

After rebuilding, it fought in the Alsace in January 1945. It was then sent to the Eastern Front, where it fought against the Red Army invading Pomerania and later Saxony.

Encircled at the Halbe Pocket, the division took heavy losses but managed to break out of the encirclement and retreated through Moritzburg, before reaching the area of Teplice in Czechoslovakia at the end of the war.^[1] At this location, the division surrendered to the US Army.^[2]

Günter Grass[]

German writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass was an assistant tank gunner with the division after having been conscripted into the Waffen-SS at the age of 17 in November 1944. He was wounded in action on 25 April 1945 and captured in a hospital.^[3]

Commanders[]

SS-Standartenführer – Michael Lippert: (1 February 1943 – 15 February 1943)
SS-Gruppenführer – Lothar Debes: (15 February 1943 – 15 November 1943)
SS-Gruppenführer – Karl Fischer von Treuenfeld: (15 November 1943 – 27 April 1944)
SS-Brigadeführer – Heinz Harmel: (27 April 1944 – 28 April 1945)
SS-Obersturmbannführer – Franz Roestel: (28 April 1945 – 8 May 1945)

Order of battle[]

SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 21
SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 22
SS Panzer Regiment 10
SS Panzer Artillery Regiment 10
SS Aufklärungs Battalion 10
SS Sturmgeschütz Battalion 10
SS Panzerjäger Battalion 10
SS Flak Battalion 10
SS Pionier Battalion 10
SS Panzer Signal Battalion 10
SS Verwaltungs Troop 10
SS Instandsetzungs Battalion 10
SS Medical Battalion 10
SS Supply Battalion 10
SS Field Post Department 10
SS War Reporter Platoon 10
SS Feldgendarmerie Troop 10

Area of operations[]

France, (January 1943 – March 1944 on formation)
Eastern Front, Southern sector (March 1944 – April 1944)
Poland, (April 1944 – June 1944)
France, (June 1944 – September 1944)
Belgium & Holland, (September 1944 – October 1944)
West Germany, (October 1944 – February 1945)
Northwest Germany, (February 1945 – March 1945)
East Germany & Czechoslovakia, (March 1945 – May 1945)
Surrender and disbanded

External links[]

The Combat History of the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg Available on line [1]

References[]

↑ www.lexicon-der-wehrmacht.de 10th SS sub-page
↑ Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS, Vol. III, p. 188, Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1974
↑ Irving, John (19 August 2006). "Günter Grass is my hero, as a writer and a moral compass". London: The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060820101933/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1853745,00.html. Retrieved 19 August 2006.

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[1] www.lexicon-der-wehrmacht.de 10th SS sub-page

[2] Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS, Vol. III, p. 188, Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 1974

[3] Irving, John (19 August 2006). "Günter Grass is my hero, as a writer and a moral compass". London: The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060820101933/http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1853745,00.html. Retrieved 19 August 2006.

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