Balkans SS Units!

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Scanderbeg
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Balkans SS Units!

#1

Post by Scanderbeg » 07 Apr 2002, 07:23

I am very interested in the Balkan SS units. This is what i found about the Albanian Waffen-SS unit. If anyone has more information about any other Balkan units please let me know.

21st Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Skanderbeg (alban. Nr. 1)

DESCRIPTION
Short-lived unit of Kosovo Albanian Waffen-SS volunteers of minimal combat value, although elements of the division did fight rear-guard actions to allow for the 1944 German retreat from the Balkan peninsula.

COMMANDERS
Brigadeführer August Schmidhuber 05/1944 - 08/1944
SS-Ostubaführer Graaf 08/1944 - 10/1944

COMPOSITION
Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS Regt. 50
Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS Regt. 51
Waffen-Gebirgs Artillerie Regiment 21
SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 21 SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 21
SS-Pionier-Bataillon 21
SS-Versorgüngs-Abteilung 21
SS-Gebirgs-Nachrichten-Abteilung 21
SS-Sanitäts-Abteilung 21

UNIT HISTORY

April 1939: April 7: Italy invades & occupies Albania. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's intentions are to make Albania a province of Italy, and forms Fascist and Blackshirt organizations in the occupied country.

October 1940: Italian units in Albania invade Greece. The attack turns into a major catastrophe for Mussolini with the Greeks routing the Italian Army and chasing it back into Albania.

April 1941: Hitler, fed up with Mussolini's misadventures in the Balkans (which are destabilizing his plans and the southern flank for his invasion of the Soviet Union) invades and occupies Yugoslavia and Greece. The Axis powers proclaim a "Greater Albania" under Italian juristiction.

September 1943: Albanian partisans, under Communist Enver Hoxha, number 20,000. Italian occupation troops abandon the countryside to guerrillas and only garrison major towns.
Sept 8: Italian government under Badoglio announce armistice. The Italian "Firenze" division surrenders en masse to the Albanian Communists. The German 1st Jäger and 297th Infantry Divisions rush to occupy (and attempt to pacify) Albania.

April 1944: April 17: SS Main Office orders formation of Albanian SS division. Recruiting begins in the Kosovo area (which has been transferred to Albania after the German conquest of Yugoslavia). I Battalion of Regiment 28, 13th Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS (kroatische Nr 1) Handschar, sent to Pristina to form nucleus of division.

May 1944: Units participate in guard duty Gjakova & the deportation of 281 Jews to the concentration camps.

June 1944: Division strength: 6,000 - 6,156. Supposedly 9,000 Albanians had volunteers for unit, but only 6,000 accepted.

July 1944: Division participates in Operations "Draufgäger" against Yugoslav partisan 2nd, 5th & 17th divisions in Andrijenica, southern Montenegro.
SS-Gruppenführer Josef Fitzthum becomes Albanian HSSPF.

August 1944: Stationed Kosovo, guarding chrome mines.
Aug 19: Albanian partisan overrun chrome mines, some Skanderbeg troops desert.
Aug 29: German-appointed Albanian puppet leader Fikri Dine resigns

September 1944: Division strength estimated at 6,500? Kosovo Albanians (peak strength); anti-partisan duties, suffer many partisan attacks. German Army Group E report states division has "no military value;" possibly up to 1,000 troops from Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS Regt. 50 desert.
Sept 8: Soviet troops enter Bulgaria.
Sept 9: Bulgaria switches sides and declares war on Germany.

October 1944: Mass desertions (circa 3,500) reduce strength to Kosovar Albanian strength 1,300-3,500 (figures vary); division probably has only 1,440 troops combat-ready.
Oct 3: Germans decide to abandon Albania
Oct 14: Bulgarians/Soviets take Nis.
Oct 15: Himmler draws plans to incorporate 3,800- 4,000 Kriegsmarine from the dissolved Aegean Sea fleet into unit.
Oct 20: Partisan and Soviet troops capture Belgrade.
Oct 23: elements of Skanderbeg division, along with other German units, hold off Soviet/Bulgarian troops at Kumanovo; allowing 350,000 German troops to retreat from Greece and Albania into Bosnia.

November 1944: 1st SS Division 21st Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Skanderbeg (alban. Nr1) officially disbanded; units incorporated into Prinz Eugen 14th Regiment; retreats into Bosnia. Other members may have been fought with the Bulgarisches Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS in Vardar against Soviet troops and Yugoslav partisans.
Nov 11: Germans abandon Skopje
Nov 19: Germans abandon Pristina

December 1944: Some of the division's former Naval personnel possibly transferred to SS replacement depots and then onward to the 32nd SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division "30 Januar"


Regards, Besian. :)

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Andy H
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#2

Post by Andy H » 07 Apr 2002, 18:27

Though a Division in theory, it's strength by October 1st 1944 stood at only 3,504, with the "Division" finally disbanding at the end of 1944. The German staff were transferred into the 14th SS Gebirgsregiment in the Prinz Eugen Division.

Hi Ho Silver Away :D


Scratch
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#3

Post by Scratch » 11 Apr 2002, 19:42

The SS Handschar was formed in 1943 out of Muslims living in Bosnia. They fought against the Yugoslav Partisans, but did not do well, because they were usually outnumbered and outgunned. They even allied themselves with Chetniks for a short period (the Chetniks were Serbs who were fighting both the Nazis and the Partisans).

COMMANDERS
SS-Standartenführer Herbert von Obwurzer 03/1943 - 08/1943
SS-Oberführer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig 08/1943 - 08/1944
SS-Oberführer Desiderius Hampel 08/1944 - 05/1945

Anyone who wants more information about this division should read a book by George Lepre called "Himmler's Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943 - 1945"

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Scanderbeg
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#4

Post by Scanderbeg » 12 Apr 2002, 06:35

Thank you both of you. I just want to tell everyone that this post is about ALL Balkan SS units and their activities.

Regards, Besian.

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Polynike
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#5

Post by Polynike » 12 Apr 2002, 15:26


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Scanderbeg
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#6

Post by Scanderbeg » 13 Apr 2002, 00:55

Plynike
Tha was quite a help. Thanks.

Regards, Besian

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Andy H
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#7

Post by Andy H » 14 Apr 2002, 17:44

The divisional history of "Prinz Eugen" by Otto Kumm is a must.

Hi Ho Silver Away

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