Italian Waffen-SS

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Platon
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Posts: 7
Joined: 23 Oct 2018, 00:31
Location: Argentina

Italian Waffen-SS

#1

Post by Platon » 18 Jul 2019, 03:36

Hello. I searched the forum looking for information about the Italian units in the Waffen-SS but I could not find any. As far as I know, there is a book dedicated to them "Italiani nella Waffen-SS" by Massimiliano Afiero (223 pages). I managed to get some information from Italian sources on the Internet which I would like to share with you.

On September 18th, 1943 the Repubblica Sociale Italiana was created and, one week later, Himmler ordered the formation of an Italienische Waffenverbande der SS known to the Italians as Legione SS Italiana. The idea was to assemble and organize, as quickly as possible, all the Italians willing to carry on fighting alongside Germany. By October 1943 the military base of Münsingen housed nearly 15.000 volunteers. The officer in charge of the training and the Legion's first commander was the SS-Brigadeführer Peter Hansen. In February 1944 the Italienische Waffenverbande der SS is renamed 1. Surmbrigade der Italienische Freiwilligen Legionen. The men wore Italian uniforms but with the Waffen-SS collar patches which were red instead of black.

In March 1944 the "Vendetta" battalion was sent to Anzio where it fought heroically during 70 days losing 340 men out of 650. In July the Italians took positions on the "Gothic Line". On September 7th, 1944 the assault brigade was renamed Waffen Grenadier Brigade der SS (Italienische Nr.1) In December 1944 the brigade was taken out of the front and employed in anti-partisan operations. In March 1945 the brigade was renamed 29 Waffen Grenadier Division der SS (Italienische 1) and fought against the Americans until the end of the war in Italy.

Other Italians served in different SS units, like 300 who joined the Leibstandarte in 1943. In Greece, nearly 300 Italians joined the 4th SS Division Polizei and about 1.000 enlisted in the 7th SS Division Prinz Eugen. Finally, around 500 Italians joined the 17th SS Division Goetz von Berlichingen and fought in France and Germany.

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