Download or read book The 8th Waffen SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2017 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Formed in 1942, the 8th SS Cavalry Division "Florian Geyer" was one of the most controversial units in the Waffen-SS. Created with the intention of making it an elite unit within the Waffen-SS, it instead saw its main employment from the beginning of the war in Russia as a rear area security force against partisans. The SS cavalrymen carried out these duties with terrible effectiveness, demonstrating the full capabilities of horse-mounted units in securing terrain that was militarily difficult. Late in the war, "Florian Geyer" was employed on the front lines against regular units of the Red Army. The unit was wiped out during final battle of Budapest in February 1945. Detailed operational history, rare combat images, maps, and personality profiles make this book the definitive history of "Florian Geyer."
Download or read book Florian Geyer Division written by Charles Trang and published by Editions Heimdal. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This realtively unknown mounted SS Cavalry Division (8th Waffen SS Mounted Cavalry Division) was under the direct command of Heinrich Himmler and served on the Eastern Front during World War ll. Over 300 rare photographs of the troops are accompanied by detailed captions, describing uniforms and equipment.
Download or read book 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer written by Ian Baxter and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2023-06-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers the operations of a leading SS Calvary Regiment and describes fighting under desperate conditions on the Eastern Front. Formed in 1942 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer was soon deployed to the Eastern Front where Hitlerâs ambition to conquer Russia was stalling badly. In common with other SS units the Division was responsible for razing towns and villages, poisoning wells and genocide often against unarmed civilians. This scorched earth policy was aimed at hindering the Red Armyâs advance. After moving South, the Division took part in the retreat from the Dnieper River before operating in Hungary and Croatia. The end came when trapped in Budapest by Soviet and Romanian forces, the Division was destroyed in December 1944. By the end of the siege only 800 of the 30,000 men in the SS Corps reached German lines. Using many startling contemporary images, this latest book in the Authorâs Images of War series vividly illustrates the horror of warfare on the Eastern Front.
Download or read book Cavalry Divisions of the Waffen SS written by Rolf Michaelis and published by Schiffer Pub Limited. This book was released on 2010 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new book is a concise combat history of the three Waffen-SS cavalry divisions in World War II. The 8th SS-Cavalry Division Florian Geyer was established out of the SS-Cavalry Brigade under Hitlers future brother-in-law Hermann Fegelein. The 22nd SS-Freiwilligen Cavalry Division Maria Theresia was formed out of ethnic Germans from Hungary. The 37th SS-Freiwilligen Cavalry Division Lützow was built out of the first two cavalry divisions along with new volunteers from Hungary including ethnic Germans and Hungarians. The formation and combat histories of each are discussed in detailed text, along with maps and rare photographs.
Download or read book Steadfast Hussars written by Richard Landwehr and published by Merriam Press. This book was released on 1997-09 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is concerned with the development, formation, and history of the late-war cavalry formations of the Waffen-SS, excluding the 8th SS Cavalry Division 'Florian Geyer, ' which was formed and activated earlier in World War II. Most of the material is derived from articles that appeared in now out-of-print issues of Siegrunen magazine"--Foreword
Download or read book Budapest written by Richard Landwehr and published by Merriam Press. This book was released on 1998-05 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The SS Cavalry Divisions written by Alberto Peruffo and published by Witness to war. This book was released on 2023-04-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Florian Geyer division was created as a unit prepared to fight the partisan forces, but it also found itself performing front-line tasks for which it was not prepared. Compared to the other SS divisions, Florian Geyer found itself at a disadvantage in regular combat, especially with regard to the tactical preparation of the middle officers. These shortcomings were compensated for, in part, by the strong esprit de corps of the division's men, which never failed even at the end, thus making it an elite unit. The events of the 22nd Maria Theresia Division remain closely linked to the terrible battle of Budapest. This SS unit was able to hold its own against the overwhelming enemy forces, despite the fact that the division was formed only a few months before the decisive battle. Most of its men were conscripts, and its armament was certainly not the most advanced. Despite this, its soldiers preferred total annihilation rather than surrender, demonstrating uncommon valour.
Download or read book The Waffen SS 2 written by Gordon Williamson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The military branch of the Nazi SS security organisation grew by the end of World War II from a handful of poorly regarded infantry battalions in 1939, into a force of more than 30 divisions including units of every type. Their battlefield reputation varied widely, from the premier armoured divisions which formed Germany's utterly reliable spearheads on both main fronts, to low quality 'anti-partisan' units. The divisions covered in this second of four titles include the first mountain and cavalry units, and two of the remarkable new Panzer divisions raised in the great 1943 expansion. Illustrated with rare photographs from private collections, the text details their organisation, uniforms and insignia, and summarises their battle record.
Download or read book SS Specialist Units in Combat written by Bob Carruthers and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2016-07-30 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is an often overlooked fact that the SS Divisions included Cavalrymen, Paratroopers, Mountain and Ski Battalions and these rare photographs illustrate the unique role played by specialist units in action.
Download or read book Retreat to the Reich written by Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2007-01-23 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Western Front from a German perspective ranges from the collapse of the Normandy line in the summer of 1944 until the Germans were able to bring the Allied juggernaut to a halt on the borders of the Reich itself.
Download or read book Riders of the Apocalypse written by David R Dorondo and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the enduring popular image of the blitzkrieg of World War II, the German Army always depended on horses. It could not have waged war without them. While the Army’s reliance on draft horses to pull artillery, supply wagons, and field kitchens is now generally acknowledged, D. R. Dorondo’s Riders of the Apocalypse examines the history of the German cavalry, a combat arm that not only survived World War I but also rode to war again in 1939. Though concentrating on the period between 1939 and 1945, the book places that history firmly within the larger context of the mounted arm’s development from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to the Third Reich’s surrender. Driven by both internal and external constraints to retain mounted forces after 1918, the German Army effectively did nothing to reduce, much less eliminate, the preponderance of non-mechanized formations during its breakneck expansion under the Nazis after 1933. Instead, politicized command decisions, technical insufficiency, industrial bottlenecks, and, finally, wartime attrition meant that Army leaders were compelled to rely on a steadily growing number of combat horsemen throughout World War II. These horsemen were best represented by the 1st Cavalry Brigade (later Division) which saw combat in Poland, the Netherlands, France, Russia, and Hungary. Their service, however, came to be cruelly dishonored by the horsemen of the 8th Waffen-SS Cavalry Division, a unit whose troopers spent more time killing civilians than fighting enemy soldiers. Throughout the story of these formations, and drawing extensively on both primary and secondary sources, Dorondo shows how the cavalry’s tradition carried on in a German and European world undergoing rapid military industrialization after the mid-nineteenth century. And though Riders of the Apocalypse focuses on the German element of this tradition, it also notes other countries’ continuing (and, in the case of Russia, much more extensive) use of combat horsemen after 1900. However, precisely because the Nazi regime devoted so much effort to portray Germany’s armed forces as fully modern and mechanized, the combat effectiveness of so many German horsemen on the battlefields of Europe until 1945 remains a story that deserves to be more widely known. Dorondo’s work does much to tell that story.
Download or read book Riding East written by Mark C. Yerger and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 1996 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Riding East details the history of the previously unexamined SS Cavalry Brigade. Beginning with a background of the General SS mounted units, from which personnel formed part of the Brigade's cadre, the author details the organizations, units and commanders of these pre-war formations. A detailed biography of Hermann Fegelein, commander of the Brigade, is followed by a chapter devoted to the SS command in Poland where the Brigade operated during 1939-40 as an occupational force. The units themselves are next examined from first creation in 1939 until they divided into two regiments in 1941, including all duties and operations in Poland. Assigned to the Headquarters Staff "Reichsfuhrer-SS" at the start of the invasion of Russia, the regiments the combined with other units to form the SS-Cavalry Brigade and conducted anti-partisan warfare operations for most of the remainder of 1941. All the summer 1941 operations are examined in depth, including the massive Pripet marshes actions, using original documents from American and European archive sources. Subordinated on 1942 to Army Group "Center" the SS-Cavalry Brigade fought at the front during the massive Russian offensive in 1942 and was almost completely annihilated in the Rshev area before finally being withdrwan and used as cadre for the new SS-Kavallerie-Division. Heavily documented, the detailed text is supplemented by 109 photographs, most of which are previously unpublished. In addition, six maps, six Order of Battle charts, complete officer rosters 1939-142, feldpost numbers, details of primary commanders within the Brigade, as well information on the units and commanders it was subordinated to, complete a comprehensive history of first combat mounted unit of the SS.
Download or read book 6th SS Mountain Division Nord at War 1941 1945 written by Ian Baxter and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a superb collection of rare and unpublished photographs the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord 1941 - 1945 is the 6th book in the Waffen-SS Images of War Series compiled by Ian Baxter. The book tells the story of the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord, which was formed in February 1941 as SS Kampfgruppe Nord (SS Battle Group North). The Division was the only Waffen-SS unit to fight in the Arctic Circle when it was stationed in Finland and northern Russia between June and November 1941. It fought in Karelia until the Moscow Armistice in September 1944, at which point it left Finland. It suffered heavy losses in the Operation Nordwind in January 1945 and in early April 1945, the division was destroyed by the US forces near Budingen, Germany.
Download or read book 4th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division Polizei written by Gustavo Uruena A and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Waffen-SS, as with the Heer, possessed a great variety of divisional structures. The complexities of this variety were further complicated by a more or less continuous evolution of authorized division structures throughout the war. For example, the first Waffen-SS divisions were organized as motorized infantry ones, with little armor. Four of the earliest divisions (SS-LAH, SS-Das Reich, SS-Totenkopf, and SS-Wiking'] were then reformed as Panzer (armored)- divisions, and three new-armored divisions joined them (SS-Hohenstaufen, &S-Frundsberg, and SS-Hitlerjugend). Four additional divisions were raised as Panzer-Grenadier (armored infantry) (SS-Nordland, SS-Reichsfuhrer-SS, SS-Gotz von Berlichingen, and SS-Horst Wessel). The motorized SS-Combat Group Nord evolved into SS-Nord, which set the standard for the establishment of an SS mountain division. This was used as the intended structure for SS-Prinz Eugen, SS-Handschar, SS-Skanderbeg, and SS-Kama, though the last two didn't complete formation. Similarly, the SS-Cavalry Brigade developed into SS-Florian Geyer, which had a structure copied for SS-Maria Theresia (though not for SS-Lutzow, which had a structure similar to an infantry division). The SS infantry divisions, in particular the 14th, 15th, 19th, and 20th Waffen-Grenadier Divisions and the 31st SS-Volunteer Grenadier Division, used a standard Heer infantry division structure, first found in the 1940 version of SS-Polizei (which by the spring of 1944 had reformed into a Panzer-Grenadier division of the same structure as SS-Nordland). This was also the intended model for the 25th and 26th Waffen-Grenadier Divisions, the 27th, 28th, and 32d SS-Volunteer Grenadier Divisions, and the 35th SS-Polizei-Grenadier Division, none of which completed their formation, though they did take the field in a semblance of what was intended. The remaining divisions of the Waffen-SS were essentially enlarged brigades or combat groups, and had unique structures, especially as they often fought in several separate parts. This sounds like, and is, a complex subject. The following represents the idealized structure of Waffen-SS early war motorized, Panzer, Panzer-Grenadier, mountain, cavalry, and infantry divisions. Each division usually differed slightly in one way or another, and the divisional list in this book is the best way to trace each individual Waffen-SS division. Only the major combat elements are included; the supply regiment, for example, is not listed in detail. Units that are not described as "motorized" or "armored" can be assumed to be horse-drawn or dismounted, as appropriate."
Download or read book The 7th Waffen SS Volunteer Gebirgs Mountain Division Prinz Eugen written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2017-01-28 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the complete history of one of the most famous and well-known divisions of the Waffen-SS. Created as a mountain unit to be employed exclusively on the Balkan Front against partisan units, the unit fought with valor and fierceness on the battlefield. After numerous anti-guerrilla operations in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, towards the end of the war it was employed against units of the Bulgarian Army and Red Army forces in the difficult mission of covering the withdrawal of German forces retreating from Greece and Albania. It was one of the few Waffen-SS formations to be used in offensive actions during the final phases of the war, all of which were carried out successfully. Accused of having committed numerous crimes against civilians, its members met with a tragic fate, especially those who ended up in the hands of communist partisans.
Download or read book Albert Schwenn s Memories of the Waffen SS written by Albert Schwenn and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2017 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albert Schwenn was called up by the SS Cavalry Replacement Battalion in Warsaw in October 1942, and in March 1943, was seconded to the SS Cavalry Division. Schwenn gives a vivid account of the brutal combat on the Russian front, and especially operations against partisans, where he took part in so-called "pacification actions" behind the front lines. In August 1943, his division was transferred to the front near Kharkov. After recovering from wounds received during the Soviet offensive, he served as an instructor, lastly with the SS Cavalry Replacement and Training Regiment in Bohemia. In addition to nearly three months of action during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, Schwenn also took part in operations during the Prague Uprising in May 1945. Because of his participation in operations against partisans in 1943, he was given a death sentence, and ultimately served nearly eleven years as a POW in the USSR.
Download or read book The 17th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division G tz Von Berlichingen written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 17th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Division "G�tz von Berlichingen" was one of the few SS formations to be employed exclusively on the western front during World War II. From the time of its formation in France in 1943, "G�tz von Berlichingen" saw bitter and bloody fighting in Normandy, the Seine front, Metz, the Saar, the Palatinate, and later the defense of the west wall until the final battles in Germany. Despite the overwhelming superiority of Allied forces, the units that comprised the division always managed to offer dogged resistance, counterattacking ferociously, and defending every foot of ground with great courage and determination. The units of "G�tz von Berlichingen" received praise, not only from the German high command, but also earned the respect of its Allied adversaries. In addition, the "G�tz von Berlichingen" division was never involved in any war crimes, or in crimes against civilians. Detailed operational history, rare combat images, maps, and personality profiles make this book the definitive history of "G�tz von Berlichingen."
