6th Battery SS-Artillery Regiments 4 („Polizei” Division) and 38 „Nibelungen” 1945

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine – Volume 7, Number 6, Whole Number 42,

January – March 1987

When the 4th SS Polizei-Pz.Gren.Div. was ordered to relocate from Slovakia to Pomerania in late January 1945, SS-AR 4 was reorganized. Its three surviving detachments (two light and one heavy) were reformed into three light detachments each with two batteries of six guns each. Two leftover batteries from III. Abteilung (5th and 6th) were to be used as the nucleus of a new IV. (Heavy) Abteilung. These two batteries were sent to a training grounds in Landshut, Moravia to the north of Ludenburg (which was about 100 km north of Bratislava, Slovakia), at the end of January 1945. The new proposed detachment had the following command alignment:

Commander: Hstuf. Wode

Adjutant: Ustuf. Gehm

5th Battery: Ostuf. Schwarz (ex-LSSAH)

6th Battery: Ustuf. Behnke

Over the next several weeks the batteries were over- hauled and reequipped with six light field howitzers (Model 18/42) per each, along with tracked vehicles to haul them. In early April 1945, the batteries were ordered to proceed to Southern Germany in two separate troop trains to join the newly constituted 38th SS Pz.Gr.Div. „Nibelungen.“ Delays were numerous due to a lack of adequate transport and the depredations of Czech Partisans, who among other things, sabotaged the railroad lines.

On 17 April, the detachment was in Pilsen where it survived a fierce enemy fighter attack without loss. However, at the next stop further down the line another fighter attack caused some casualties, including the wounding of Hstuf. Wode (who managed to stay with his troops, however). At Furth, 5th Battery began to disembark only to be caught up in yet another enemy air attack, losing all of its weapons and equipment in the process. The 6th Battery was lucky and escaped destruction since it had been holed up in a railroad tunnel. On the next day it was just able to disembark and reach the cover of a forest before the railroad Station was obliterated by enemy fighter-bombers.

The 6th Battery was then able to successfully join SS-AR 38 of the „Nibelungen“ Division, which at that time was being led by SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Lammerding. SS-AR 38 had been constructed from an SS Artillery Training Regiment at the Beneschau Training Grounds near Prague. Its commander was Ostubaf.  Hornung. The 6th Battery first went into action with „Nibelungen“ near Ingolstadt on the grounds of an Army engineer water crossing training camp located on the south bank of the Danube River. It spent two days in active firing positions here before being forced to withdraw with the rest of the division.

38. SS-Panzergrenadier Division „Nibelungen“

As SS-AR 38 pulled out, an airbase directly behind it was destroyed by Allied carpet bombing. A fighting retreat was conducted through Landshut (Bavaria) and Wasserburg to the east of Munich. At this point, SS-AR 38 was severely mauled by overwhelming American forces. The 6th Battery was reduced to two guns, both of which were deployed against a U.S. armored spearhead near Reichenhall in early May over the strenuous objections of the local townspeople, who wanted to avert the destruction of their Community. This undertaking proved to be the last combat action by the battery which then continued on with „Nibelungen“ through Zell-am-See to Liezen in the designated „Alpine Redoubt.“

On 6 May 1945, a „truce“ was in effect and „Nibelungen“ troops made friendly contact with Gis from the 6th U.S. Army, during which encounters cigarettes and other small items were exchanged. Soon afterwards the retreat to the east continued in the vain hope that if the division stayed intact long enough it would be asked to join the Americans in fighting off the Soviets!

May 7th saw the remnants of SS-AR 38 regroup in Bruck an der Mur, where they were placed at the disposal of an unspecified Army Corps for possible future deployment. On 8 May radio news of the capitulation reached the „Nibelungen“ Division and SS-AR 38 went to work destroying its field pieces with Panzerfausts. The wrecked guns were then pushed into the Enns River. Following this conclusive act, the 38th SS artillery troops were trucked to Zell-am-See, where they surrendered to the Americans.