23rd SS Kama Mountain Division (2nd Croatian) ( German 23. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Kama (kroatische Nr. 2) ) - Mountain division Waffen-SS Nazi Germany , formed from Croatian and Bosnian Muslims and existing de facto from June to October 1944. The positions of the commanders in the division were occupied by ethnic Germans. The name of the Kama division was taken in honor of the name of the dagger traditional for Balkan Muslims with a curved blade worn by shepherds. The core of the division were former soldiers of the 13th SS Mountain Division Khanjar . The process of creating the division was not completed.
| 23rd SS Mountain Division Kama (2nd Croatian) | |
|---|---|
 Division Emblem - Stylized Vergina Star | |
| Years of existence | June 10 - October 31, 1944 |
| A country |  Germany |
| Subordination | Waffen-SS |
| Type of | mountain arrows |
| Includes | three regiments, seven battalions |
| Function | anti-partisan operations |
| Dislocation | southern part of Hungary |
| Nickname | Kama ( Serbohorv. Kama ) |
| Motto | My honor is called “fidelity” ( German: Meine Ehre heisst Treue ) |
| Colors | White black |
| Mascot | Vergina Star |
| Equipment | German weapon, SS uniform with fez caps |
| Participation in | The Second World War |
| Commanders | |
| Famous commanders | Helmut Reitel |
Parts of the division participated in battles against Soviet troops in southern Hungary in early October 1944, together with the forces of the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division . Soon the division was removed from the front and sent to the Independent State of Croatia (puppet state of the Third Reich), where the personnel of the 23rd SS division was to be transferred to the 13th SS division “Khanjar”. On October 17, 1944, a rebellion broke out in the 23rd SS division, which was suppressed, but on October 31 the division was formally dissolved.
Content
Background
After the invasion of axis countries into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , which began on April 6, 1941 , the head of the Croatian ultranationalist and fascist movement Ustasha Ante Pavelic , who was exiled in Italy and enjoyed the patronage of Benito Mussolini , was appointed head of the so-called Independent State of Croatia ( Croatian Nezavisna Država Hava abbreviated as NGH ), proclaimed by the Ustashas in Yugoslavia. The NHC included almost the entire territory of modern Croatia , the entire territory of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and part of Serbia. According to historians, the new state was “an Italian-German quasi-protectorate” [1] . After coming to power, the Ustashi organized the Serb genocide , evictions and forced conversion of the Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism living in the territories included in the NHC, especially the Serbian Orthodox Church suffered from this [2] .
Despite the assurances on the part of Ante Pavelic regarding the Muslims of the NHC that they were equal in rights with the Croatian Catholics, many Muslims were unhappy with the rule of the Ustasha. Muslim leaders accused the authorities of not allowing Muslims to hold leadership positions in government. By the beginning of 1942, a war was going on in the territory of the National Palace of Arts with the participation of three parties - the Ustasha, the Yugoslav Chetniks and the Communist partisans . Some Ustashi units burned Muslim villages and killed the local population, accusing them of aiding Communists. The Chetniks committed the same crimes against Muslims, who were accused of collaborating with the Ustash and the massacre of Serbs. Little support was given to Muslims by the Croatian housekeeping - regular troops of the NHC, which for the Germans did not represent any military value. Local self-defense units were created, but their strength was also limited, and the detachment of the Croatian housekeeping, known as the Legion of Hadzhifendicha and led by Mohamed Hadzhiefendichym , and there was no significance at all [3] [4] .
Bosniaks sought help and independence from the NHC, viewing German support as a means to achieve these goals. Many Bosnian Muslims were friendly to Germany and spoke favorably about the era of the existence of Austria-Hungary , when Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of it. Pavelich regarded this as a threat to the territorial integrity of the NHC. By November 1942, desperate Bosnian Muslim leaders sent an open letter to Adolf Hitler asking them to include Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Third Reich , but the Führer did not support this idea, fearing to create problems for Pavelic. Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler was more optimistic, hoping to call on the Muslim population of the NHC to the Waffen-SS [5] , and in early 1943 Hitler signed a decree on the formation of the first SS division, to which representatives of non-German peoples would be called up - it became the 13th Mountain Division SS "Khanjar" (1st Croatian) . Its personnel was recruited mainly from the Muslim population of the NGH [6] [7] .
History
The Germans wanted to form a second SS division of Bosnian Muslims [8] . Heinrich Himmler planned to expand the draft in the Balkans in the Waffen-SS , for which he needed to create two corps of two divisions, one of which was to operate in the Bosnian region of the Independent State of Croatia, and the second in Albania. The same corps could work together with the 7th Volunteer SS Mountain Division “Prince Eugen” (it consisted of Yugoslav Volksdeutsche ), and in the future they would create the Balkan SS Mountain Army with five divisions in number [9] . On May 28, 1944, Adolf Hitler gave his formal consent to the formation of the 23rd SS division [10] , and on June 10 the formation of a new military unit began. The training was planned to be completed by the end of 1944 [11] . Himmler, following the advice of the commander of the 13th SS Mountain Division “Khanjar”, the Brigadeführer SS and Major General Waffen-SS Karl Gustav Sauberzweig , chose the Bachka region, formerly owned by Yugoslavia and annexed by Hungary , as the training place for the personnel of the division. Sauberzweig was convinced that the Ustashi would undermine the morale of the conscripts if the training of the division took place in the NHC [12] . The division was named "Kama" in honor of the small dagger worn by Balkan shepherds [10] .
The 13th SS division received an order to provide personnel for training and service in the new division. Helmut Reitel , Standartenfuhrer SS, was appointed commander of the Waffen SS Kama division. He previously commanded the 28th SS Mountain Regiment in the 13th SS Division [10] . However, the formation of a new division was postponed until June 19 due to the operation "Full Moon", which involved significant forces of the 13th SS division [10] . On June 21, Himmler promoted Sauberzweig to the SS groupführer and lieutenant general of the Waffen-SS, appointing him commander of the 9th mountain corps of the Waffen-SS (Croatian) , which was formed in Bachalmash , where the 18th volunteer motorized SS division “Horst W” was stationed " [11] . On June 23, 54 senior officers, 187 junior officers, and 1,137 soldiers of the 13th SS division, who were selected to be transferred to the 23rd SS Kama Division, were assembled in the town of Bosniatsi (Posavinsky County of the Independent State of Croatia) and went to Bachka on July 15. Among them were three junior officers from each company of the 13th SS division and one cavalry squadron [10] , one battery from each artillery battalion and military personnel of auxiliary units. German reserve officers from Waffen SS units were also present. The area of operations of the division was located along the Big Bach Canal , with garrisons in the cities of Sentamash and Kula and on the other side of the Sombor – Verbas road [11] .
It was planned to recruit 10 thousand people from among Muslim conscripts born in 1926 and 1927 (with some exceptions) and Muslims who served in military units of the National Palace of Culture. The Muslim conscripts were handed over by the NGH government to the German command [9] , which sent them to the Waffen-SS recruitment centers in Sombor and Bosniak [13] . It was planned that by September 15, 1944, the recruitment of volunteers would end, but already in mid-August SS Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger sent Himmler a message in which he expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that most Muslim recruits were ideologically not ready for service in the division and asked to be accepted at 23- SS division of Croatian Catholics [9] [8] . In September 1944, during the visit of Pavelich to Hitler, the Minister of Defense of the National Palace of Defense Dzhuro Gruyich informed the Germans that it would be difficult to call up another 5 thousand people, since the division did not exceed 5 thousand people [8] . To somehow replenish the size of the division, the Germans called the Volksdeutsche from Croatia and Hungary to the division as translators [11] .
By September 10, the division had 126 senior officers, 374 junior officers and 3,293 soldiers [11] : the officers were Germans, the soldiers were Bosniaks [14] . It was expected that the division should already have reached a number of 19 thousand people [11] . However, by the time soldiers completed their training in Hungary, the fighting spirit of the division was rapidly declining, since the course of the war was already not in Germany's favor. Among the recruits there were rumors that the Germans would simply leave the Balkans and force the Muslims to fight alone against the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition [15] . Desertions from the 13th SS division became more frequent, and Sauberzweig proposed disarming Bosniaks in both divisions, for which purpose he went to Himmler on September 18. However, he proposed to transfer 2 thousand Bosniaks from the 23rd SS division to the coverage area of the 13th SS division and thereby reorganize both divisions. The military units of the 13th SS Division were transferred under the control of the 9th mountain corps of the Waffen-SS (Croatian), which went to Bosnia. On September 24, a decision was made to finally cease the formation of the 23rd SS Division, and SS Oberführer Gustav Lombard, the commander of the division, was ordered to form a new SS infantry division from the German personnel and armed with the 23rd SS Division, and to call on the Volksdeutsche to replenish the composition Hungary [16] . Boshniakov was planned to be sent by rail to the district of Gradishte - Zhupanya - Bosniazi to create a new Kama division there [17] [16] .
The command of the 9th mountain corps of the Waffen-SS (Croatian) left Hungary and on October 3, 1944 arrived in the village of Andriyashevtsi near Vinkovci . On October 7, an operational headquarters was formed [18] . Bosniaks did not immediately leave Bachka, remaining with the personnel of the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division under the command of Lombard [19] . Meanwhile, the Red Army continued to advance into Hungary, and on October 9, the Waffen-SS troop commander in Hungary sent a telegram to the command of the 9th mountain corps with the message that the 31st volunteer grenadier and the remnants of the 23rd SS mountain divisions had entered the battle [18 ] [20] . Bosnian units were deployed along the banks of the Tisza River as part of the Zyur battle group to detain Soviet troops [21] . As a result of this, the recall of Bosnians in the NHC was postponed [18] .
Bosniaks soon retreated from Hungary and went to the location of the 13th SS division, but on October 17, 1944, a riot occurred among the personnel. Although Reitel crushed him, rioting already meant that reorganization of the 23rd SS Division had become impossible. A small part of the loyal Bosniaks went to the reserve of the 13th SS division, and on October 31, 1944, the 23rd SS Kama mountain division finally ceased to exist [22] . Formally, it is considered to exist, despite the short period of existence, and is included in the number of 38 divisions of the SS troops [23] . The 23rd division number was transferred to the SS Nederland volunteer motorized division (1st Dutch) [24] , Reitel headed the 11th SS mountain rangers regiment Reinhard Heydrich as part of the 6th SS mountain division Nord , who fought against the US Army in southern Germany at the end of the war [25] .
Structure
The final composition of the division included the following units [26] [27] [28] :
- 55th SS mountain regiment (3rd Croatian) ( German: Waffen-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment der SS 55 (3. kroatisch) )
- 56th SS mountain regiment (4th Croatian) ( German: Waffen-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment der SS 56 (4. kroatisch) )
- 23rd Mountain Artillery Regiment SS ( German: Waffen-Gebirgs-Artillerie-Regiment der SS 23 ), four battalions
- 23rd SS Division ( German: Divisionseinheiten 23 )
- 23rd SS Reconnaissance Battalion
- 23rd SS anti-tank battalion
- 23rd SS combat engineer battalion
- 23rd SS Mountain Communications Battalion
- 23rd SS Division Support Battalion
- 23rd SS Sanitary Battalion
- 23rd SS Reserve Battalion
The division also included a company workshop, a company of veterinarians and an economic department [27] .
Uniforms
The tactical mark of the division was a stylized image of the astronomical sign of the Sun in a crown of 16 rays on a heraldic tarch shield - this sun resembled a Verginsky star, a symbol of Alexander the Great . Soldiers during their training in Bachka in the summer of 1944 wore a khaki tropical uniform with shorts. The headpiece was the Waffen-SS fez M43: gray for the field uniform, red for the front form. Most of the personnel wore the old buttonholes of the 13th SS division [27] with the image of a hand clutching a saber over a swastika [29] . A similar uniform was worn by some military personnel who left for the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division in October 1944 [27] .
Commanders
- Standartenfuhrer SS Helmut Reitel ( June 1 - September 28, 1944 )
- SS Oberfuhrer Gustav Lombard ( September 28 - October 1, 1944 )
See also
- Croatian formations of the Third Reich
Notes
- ↑ Tomasevich, 2001 , p. 272.
- ↑ Tomasevich, 2001 , pp. 397-409.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , pp. 15-16.
- ↑ Tomasevich, 2001 , pp. 488-493.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , pp. 16-17.
- ↑ Tomasevich, 2001 , p. 496.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , p. nineteen.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Tomasevich, 2001 , p. 500.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Lepre, 1997 , p. 223.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Lepre, 1997 , p. 228.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pencz, 2010 , p. 3.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , pp. 223, 228.
- ↑ Pencz, 2010 , p. five.
- ↑ Tomasevich, 2001 , p. 268.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , p. 252.
- ↑ 1 2 Pencz, 2010 , p. 6.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , pp. 256-257.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Lepre, 1997 , p. 263.
- ↑ Pencz, 2010 , pp. 6-7.
- ↑ Stein, 1984 , p. 185.
- ↑ Pencz, 2010 , p. 7.
- ↑ Lepre, 1997 , p. 266.
- ↑ Keegan, 1970 , pp. 156-159.
- ↑ Keegan, 1970 , p. 158.
- ↑ Rusiecki, 2011 , pp. 38, 340.
- ↑ Williamson, 2004 , p. 245.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Pencz, 2010 , p. four.
- ↑ Tessin, Kannapin, Meyer, 2000 , p. 95.
- ↑ Military Intelligence Division, 1944 , pp. 88-89.
Literature
Books
- Drobyazko S., Romanko O, Semenov K. Foreign formations of the Third Reich. - M .: AST, 2011 .-- 832 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-070068-4 .
- P. Abbott, N. Thomas. Allies of Germany on the Eastern Front. 1941-1945. - AST, 2002. - 64 p. - ISBN 5-17-008681-4 .
- John Keegan Waffen SS: The Asphalt Soldiers. - London: Pan / Ballantine, 1970 .-- ISBN 978-0-345-09768-2 .
- George Lepre. Himmler's Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943–1945. - Atglen, Philadelphia: Schiffer Publishing, 1997 .-- ISBN 978-0-7643-0134-6 .
- Rudolf Pencz. For the Homeland: The 31st Waffen-SS Volunteer Grenadier Division in World War II . - Mechanicsburg, Philadelphia: Stackpole Books, 2010 .-- ISBN 978-0-8117-3582-7 .
- Stephen Rusiecki. In Final Defense of the Reich: The Destruction of the 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord" . - Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2011 .-- ISBN 978-1-59114-744-2 .
- George H. Stein. The Waffen SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War, 1939–45 . - Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1984. - ISBN 978-0-8014-9275-4 .
- Georg Tessin, Norbert Kannapin, Brün Meyer. Waffen-SS und Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939 - 1945 .-- Osnabrück: Biblio Verlag, 2000 .-- ISBN 978-3-7648-2471-6 .
- Jozo Tomasevich. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration . - San Francisco: Stanford University Press, 2001 .-- ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2 .
- Gordon Williamson The SS: Hitler's Instrument Of Terror . - St Paul, Minnesota: Zenith Press, 2004 .-- ISBN 978-0-7603-1933-8 .
Documents
- Military Intelligence Division. Special Series No.21, German Mountain Warfare . - Carlisle, Pennsylvania: United States Army Military History Institute, 1944.