Soon after entering the city, Klingenberg encountered a group of twenty Yugoslavian soldiers, and without firing a shot the Yugoslavs surrendered. Forcing a crossing, Klingenberg crossed the river and approached the city, proceeding into downtown Belgrade with only six men. On the morning of 12 April 1941, SS Hauptsturmführer Fritz Klingenberg and members of his motorcycle assault company approached Belgrade from Pancevo along the bank of the Danube river.
In April 1941, Reich took part in the successful capture of Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia. The Division was moved to Romania to take part in the Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece in March 1941. At the end of the campaign, it had advanced all the way to the Spanish frontier.ĭuring the period after the fall of France, the Division was stationed in France preparing for the invasion of England. The Division was then transferred to France and helped breach a stiffly defended canal line, and then participated in the drive on Paris. They were next used to mop up small pockets of resistance in the areas already captured by the German advance. After Rotterdam had been captured, the Division, along with other divisions, intercepted a French force and forced them back to the area of Zeeland and Antwerp. In October 1939 the Deutschland, Germania and Der Führer were reorganized into the 'SS-Verfügungs Division the Germania regiment was then sent to be the cadre in the formation of another division SS Division Wiking, and a new third regiment was created (SS Regiment 11) together with the existing two regiments in the SS-Verfungungs Division they took part in the Campaigns in the West against the Low Countries and France in 1940, first seeing action in the main drive for the Dutch central front and Rotterdam. He ordered that the SS-VT form its own Divisions but the Divisions would be under Army command. Hitler, unwilling to upset the Army and Himmler, chose a different path.
Heinrich Himmler insisted that 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. In its defence the SS-VT insisted that it had been hampered by its order fighting piecemeal instead of as one formation and improperly equipped to carry out what had been required of it. They also stated that the SS-VT was poorly trained and its officers unsuitable for command. The OKW reported that the SS-VT had unnecessarily exposed themselves to risks and acted recklessly, incurring heavier losses then Army troops. Their willingness to fight was never in any doubt at times they were almost too eager to fight. Events during the Invasion of Poland raised doubts over the combat effectiveness of the SS-VT. Thus, at the outbreak of hostilities, there were four SS armed regiments: Leibstandarte, Deutschland, Germania, and the new regiment from Austria ,Der Führer (although Der Führer was not yet combat-ready). In August 1939 Adolf Hitler placed the SS-VT under the operational command of the OKW. History Early war and the SS-VT - 1939/1940 The division was a component of the Waffen-SS, which was found guilty of war crimes in the Nuremberg tribunal. The symbol for the Das Reich division was the wolf's hook or Wolfsangel rune. It served from the invasion of France and took part in several major battles on the Eastern Front (particularly in the Battle of Prokhorovka against The 5th Guards Tank Army at the titanic Battle of Kursk), before it was pulled back to France and took part in the fighting in Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and the last, desperate fighting in Hungary and Austria. 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich) was one of the elite divisions of the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II.
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