Published in
„Siegrunen“ Magazine - Volume 7, Number 2, Whole Number 38, April - June 1985
In late February and early March 1945, the Waffen-SS
commander-in-chief for the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia, SS-Brigadeführer
Karl Graf von Pueckler-Burghaus began ordering the mobilization of SS security,
training and replacement troops stationed in the territory. The massive
Waffen-SS training grounds at Beneschau near Prague, which provided facilities
for artillery, panzergrenadier and engineer schools, now had to begin the
process of forming the training personnel and students into front line battle
groups. Part of the Beneschau (or Bohemia) complex was the SS Panzergrenadier
School at Kienschlag, which since the 17th of February 1945 had been under the
supervision of SS-Brigfhr. August-Wilhelm Trabandt (former CO of the 18th SS
Div. „Horst Wessel“). He was now instructed to reform his training regiment
into a combat ready battle group of roughly brigade strength with the addition
of an engineer battalion and an artillery detachment.
In
the course of March. Trabandt succeeded in putting together a three battalion
grenadier regiment, drawing the personnel from Kienschlag and other facilities
in the area. The engineer battalion for Kampfgruppe „Trabandt” was drawn from
the SS Combat Engineer School at Hradischko. The artillery detachment seems to
have been formed from part of the SS Artillery School I at Glau-Trebbin, which
had begun mobilizing in late March 1945. It consisted of two field howitzer
batteries and a rocket mortar element containing two truck-mounted
multi-barreled units. The detachment commander was SS- Obersturmbannführer Dr.
Arthur Curtis.
Simultaneously,
the remainder of the staff and students affiliated with the Kienschlag facility
were also formed into another battle group that came under the command of the
school’s instructional commandant, SS-Ostubaf. Rudolf Konopaki. This unit was
based on the members of a Hitler Youth military training camp in Bohemia and
their instruction cadre which had come from Kienschlag. Part of the SS
Grenadier Training and Replacement Bn. 10 at Bruenn (Brno) was also used in
this formation which was referred to as SS-Regimental Kampfgruppe „Konopaki.”
It was subordinated to KGr. „Trabandt” in April 1945.
SS-Staf. Karl Schlamelcher, CO of SS Artillery Rgt. „Bohemia- Moravia.”
On
9 April 1945, SS-KGr. „Trabandt” was transported by truck to the Zistersdorf
area on the Austrian border where it was attached to the 8th Army of Army Group
South. It was ordered to prepare for an attack aimed at eliminating a Soviet
bridgehead over the March River—an action that never seems to have developed.
In
the meantime, Brigfhr. Pueckler-Burghaus was busy putting together two further
regimental battle groups, named appropriately „Bohemia” and „Moravia,” from
Waffen-SS troops stationed in the Protectorate. These two battle groups were
supposed to combine with KGr. „Trabandt” to form two brigades (again named „Bohemia”
and „Moravia”), which were to serve as the basis for a new SS division. From
all avail-able evidence, the „Bohemia” Rgt. never actually linked up with KGr. „Trabandt,”
but remained 250 km away from it in the vicinity of Prague through the first
part of May 1945. But the „Moravia” Rgt. had joined KGr. „Trabandt” by mid-April,
and was in the vicinity of Furth, Lower Austria by 16 April 1945. The only part
of the new division to ever be grouped together properly was the headquarters
staff (essentially just the command post of KGr. „Trabandt”), which would be
classified as a „reserve” formation in the ranks of 8th Army.
The
only additional reinforcement sent to KGr. „Trabandt” was the Kampfgruppe „Schulze,”
consisting of 4th Co./SS- Pz.Gr. T & R Bn. 2 (actually a replacement unit
for the 2nd SS Pz.Div. „Das Reich”) from Prag-Rusin, and a number of officer
cadets from SS Junkerschule „Prag.” This task force was sent to Mistelbach,
Austria (near Zistersdorf) via a motorized convoy on 10April 1945.
SS-Staf. Wolfgang Joerchel, CO of SS-Rgt. „Bohemia.”
Despite
the wide separation of the various units, the formation of the „Bohemia-Moravia”
SS Div. was well underway by the second half of April. Germans were not the
only nationality in the division; at the Bohemia Troop Training Grounds several
units of the Slovakian Army and the Slovak Hlinka Guard Militia were
incorporated into the Waffen-SS during April 1945 and found their way into the
new division. The initial divisional order-of-battle looked like this:
Divisional
Staff at Zistersdorf (actually, the staff of SS-KGr. „Trabandt”)
1st
Grenadier Rgt. (KGr. „Trabandt”)
2nd
Grenadier Rgt. („Bohemia” [in Prague])
3rd
Grenadier Rgt. („Moravia”)
Battle-Group
Rgt. „Konopaki” (at Zistersdorf)
Battle-Group
„Schulze” (at Mistelbach)
Engineer
Bn. (KGr. „Trabandt”)
Bicycle
Reconnaissance Detachment (KGr. „Bohemia- Moravia” [in Prague])
Signals
Detachment (KGr. „Bohemia-Moravia” [in Prague])
Artillery
Detachment „Trabandt” (at Zistersdorf)
Artillery
Regimental Battle-Group „Bohemia-Moravia” (Prague)
Strength: 8,000 to 10,000 men all ranks.
Grave marker of two members of SS-Rgt. „Moravia” killed in the early
morning of 16 April 1945 at HUI 408 near Riad, Lower Austria. Ustuf. Carstensen
was a company commander.
The
commander of the 2nd Reinforced Grenadier Rgt. was SS- Standartenführer
Wolfgang Joerchel (formerly CO of SS Rgt. 48 „General Seyffardt”/“Nederland”
Brigade). This unit was formed from portions of the SS-Junkerschule „Prag” and
the SS Infantry Replacement Rgt. „Prag” and remained in the vicinity of Prague
throughout April 1945.
The
divisional bicycle recce detachment, known as the SS Radfahr Abteilung „Koerner,”
was formed at the SS Artillery School II in Beneschau under a tactical
instructor, SS-Hauptsturmführer Koerner. It contained four squadrons of roughly
company size each. On 30 April it was sent to Prague with its supply column
remaining in the garden of Konopish Castle at Beneschau. The -detachment
orderly officer was SS-Standartenoberjunker Helmut Sieben.
Brigfhr. Karl Graf von Pueckler-Burghaus W-SS C-in-C Prague.
SS-Freiwilligen Div. Kampfgruppe BOHMEN-MAHREN (Bohemia-Moravia) Emblem:
The coat-of-arms of Bohemia and Moravia. This Division was formed in the last
weeks of the war from the SS KGr. „Bohmen-Mahren” which had contained smaller
battle groups formed from various W-SS training schools and replacement units
in the Protectorate. The new Division was never numbered but contained three
infantry and one artillery regiments and was a full-strength unit.
The
divisional signals detachment seems to have been formed around the signals
battery of the SS Artillery T & R Rgt. in Prague, and came under the
command of Hstuf. Gonschor. The regimental artillery group consisted of 26
highly mixed batteries under the command of SS-Staf. Karl Schlamelcher, who was
also the commandant of the SS Artillery School II at Beneschau. This element of
the division also remained around Prague and Staf. Schlamelcher was effectively
the commander of the „northern” half of the „Bohemia-Moravia” Division.
Brigfhr. August-Wilhelm Trabandt.
THURN, Oswald. 18 376. SS-Ostubaf. 1909 Marmagen. Rekr.-Dep. „Boehmen-Maehren. MIA 5 May 1945 Teinitz.
GOLANBECK, Guenther. 25 919. SS-Uscha. 21 March 1923. SS-Junkerschule Prag
(13. Lehrgang, I.
Lehrgruppe). MIA.
SCHARENBERG, Wolfgang. 22 378. SS-Junker. 1920, Rostock. SS-Art.-Schule
Beneschau? MIA 4 May 1945 Prag-Beneschau.
By
late April the Austrian portion of the division, including the 1st Grenadier
Rgt., was seeing very heavy defensive action against the Soviets, first at
Zistersdorf then to the south of the Danube near Vienna, Gross Tajax and Krems.
The Battle- Group Rgt. „Konopaki” appears to have veered off from the remainder
of KGr. „Trabandt” towards the end of April and was reported at Znaim, south of
Bruenn and then in the Budweis area of the Sudetenland. On 20 April a combat
detachment assigned to KGr. „Trabandt” from the SS Artillery School I (Glau),
led by SS-Obersturmführer Landrock, was engaged against enemy tank forces
around Siethen. During the evacuation of the town, 12 badly wounded soldiers
had to be left behind and they were promptly murdered by the communists.
At the beginning of May 1945, the southern part of the
„Bohemia-Moravia” Div. was deployed around Krems on the Danube. On 8 and 9 May,
Brigfhr. Trabandt made the decision to release all of the Russian prisoners
that had been taken and head for the American lines. The surrender of this part
of the division was accepted by U.S. troops at Gallneukirchen on 10 May 1945. On
the very next day the disarmed Waffen-SS men were turned over to the Soviets at
Pregarten. The result was a tragedy for the „Bohemia-Moravia” Division.
Brigfhr. Trabandt and thousands of his soldiers wound up in distant parts of
the Gulag system. Trabandt returned home 9 ½ years later but not many of his men ever made it back.
The
„northern” branch of the „Bohemia-Moravia” Div. led by Staf. Schlamelcher, and
consisting of the regimental artillery group, the 2nd Grenadier Rgt. and the
bicycle and signals detachments, found itself fighting Czech partisans around
Prague during the first days of May 1945. It was not an easy struggle and
German soldiers and civilian who fell into the hands of the terrorist „freedom
fighters” were invariably tortured and killed. This is what happened to Staf.
Joerchel, Brigfhr. Pueckler-Burghaus and the Estonian Waffen-Ostubaf. Maitla,
among others. The „Allied” atrocities committed in Prague were of a particular
bestial nature, but needless to say no one was ever asked to account for those „war
crimes”!
After
the capitulation, the northern portion of the „Bohemia- Moravia” Div. together
with the SS Panzergrenadier Rgt. 4 „Der Führer” of the „Das Reich” Div., had
the responsibility for escorting some of the 280,000 German civilians who were
attempting to escape the Protectorate, back to the Reich. Most of these people,
including many weaponless soldiers, were able to cross the demarcation lines at
Strakowitz.
Bridging column from SS Eng.Bn. „Hradischko.”
The
rest of the „Bohemia-Moravia” Div. which was serving as a rearguard for the
massive civilian evacuation now had to get through the Soviet lines on its own.
The breakout was set for 14 May 1945, five days after the bulk of the German
Armed Forces had surrendered! The division was split into three main groups,
each of which was to try and get out of the Soviet-held territory in a
different direction.
The
1st Group led by Hans Joachim Lindow, a long-time officer-instructor at SS
Artillery School II, was to head for the direction of Lower Bavaria. The 2nd
Group under Ostubaf. Gattinger was to make its way to the Wald Kotzten-Cham
area in Bavaria and the 3rd Group led by Guenter Woltersdorf was to steer for
western Austria.
Flamethrowers from SS-Engineer Bn. „Hradischko,” „Bohemia-Moravia”
Division.
Even
at this late date the Soviet-held lines were filled with gaps and openings that
still offered avenues of escape to retreating soldiers and civilians. But it
was a risky proposition getting through them. The first „Bohemia-Moravia”
divisional elements managed to slip through but it was too late for many of the
follow-up columns that were being led by the senior officers. The Russians
reacted to the breakthroughs by rapidly plugging up the holes in their
positions and a sizeable part of the division was captured. These unfortunate
soldiers were first sent to the Platna POW Camp and then gradually dispersed to
far-flung slave labor camps.
The
whole story of the „Bohemia-Moravia” Div. from be-ginning to end was one of
unavoidable confusion. It was the shortest-lived division of the Waffen-SS and
as far as is known, was never assigned any specific unit numbers. The
divisional ID sign was supposed to have been the coat-of-arms for Bohemia and
Moravia. In a number of post-war histories this unit has been confused with the
31st SS Grenadier Div. „Batschka,” but there were no connections between the
two formations. „Bohemia-Moravia” was a unique division in its own right that
made its own important contributions in the last critical days of the war. It
is not an understatement to say that the lives of many thousands of people were
owed to the brave soldiers of this division.
Thank you for posting. I am privileged to own an original copy of Siegrunen issue #38.
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