history of the 3.ss-panzer-division "totenkopf"
The 3.SS Division “Totenkopf” was formed in October, 1939, following the invasion of Poland. The division was formed of new recruits, men from SS-Totenkopfstandarten 1, 2, and 3, as well as a cadre of officers and NCOs from the SSVT. The division was formed in the town of Dachau, at an SS-Training Depot.
The Division was transferred from the SS-Ubungslager-Dachau to Wurttemberg and then on to Truppen-Ubungsplatz-Obermunsingen. It was there that training was finished. Command of the division was given to SS-Gruppenfuhrer Theodor Eicke, the former head of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the units responsible for administering the camp system. The Totenkopfdivision was made infamous, due to its insignia, and the fact that many of the initial soldiers were former SS-TV members. However, due to high casualty rates, and the personnel changes in the Totenkopfdivision throughout the war, the early SS-TV members would not make up a great majority of the Totenkopf troops after the invasion of France, in 1940.
(Note: As the Totenkopf, or Death’s Head, was the universal cap badge of the Waffen-SS, it was also adapted by the SS-Totenkopfverbande, or SS-TV, as their collar insignia. Later, when Theodor Eicke was given command as his own Division, he also adapted the insignia for his unit, a decision that would give the division its namesake, as well as seal the fate of many of the men who wore it.)
In the beginning of December, the division moved to its new quarters near Stuttgart. Camouflage items were received and issued, including smocks and helmet covers. The division also began intense political indoctrination, the men trained heavily every day, and from March to mid April, ever day from dawn until dusk, the men train in assembly, coordinated movement, marksmanship, and tactics of assault in company and battalion strength, hand to hand combat, river crossing, street and night fighting, and the use of heavy explosives.
Because the Waffen-SS was a new formation and had not proven itself in battle, it was not immediately involved in the invasion of France. Totenkopf, for its poor reputation among local commanders, was placed in reserve.
On May 16, 1940 the division was ordered into battle. The SS-Totenkopfdivision would see its first action east of Camrai, with the cost of 16 dead and 53 wounded. The division captured 16,000 prisoners, including two Colonels and four Majors.
On May 19, 1940, it was used to secure the area of Le Cateau and Cambrai. Several days later, the division was transferred to the 16th Panzer Corps and moved North-West towards the town of Bethune on the Le Bassee Canal. The Division crossed the river and attacked the town and was under British counter-attack on the 24th of May. However, the men were ordered to retreat the next day on orders from Adolf Hitler, issued to preserve tanks for the upcoming drive on Dunkirk.
The men thus had to make the hazardous crossing again on May 26, and the men were successful in taking Bethune after Heavy Street and house to house fighting, with the British who withdrew to a line between Locon and Le Paradis.
It was during this period that elements of the division were involved in actions that led to the execution of a group of allied prisoners. The commander of the unit found responsible was Fritz Knochlein. Men of the 14. Kompanie killed 97 British officers and enlisted men after they had surrendered on a farm near Le Paradis. After the war, Knochlein was charged with war crimes; he was sentenced to death and hung. His trial was biased, and the actual guilt lay with the officer in command of the machine gun company, who had been killed in Russia in 1943.
Following the heavy fighting around Le Paradis, the division was transferred to Boulouge for rest and coastal duty. The division spent the rest of the time in June, mopping up prisoners and remaining combatants.
In ten days, between May 19 and May 29, the division lost 1,140 men, 300 officers, and hundreds of vehicles. These would be the highest casualty rates of any unit during the French campaign, which was a testament to the leadership style and fanaticism of the division’s officers.
The division was accused of several other crimes during the fighting in France:
---Soldiers from SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 1 killed 92 civilians in Aubigny-en-Artois in France on 22 May 1940.
---Soldiers from SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 2 killed 45 civilians in Vandelicourt / Berles-Montchel on 22 May 1940.
---Soldiers from SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 1 and SS-Pionier-Bataillon Totenkopf killed 48 civilians in Beuvry 24 May 1940.
From June 1940 to May 1941, the men of the SS-Totenkopfdivision were stationed in various areas in France, mainly in Avallon and Boradeux. During the fall and winter, the unit would grow, re-organize and continue to train, this time for the upcoming invasion of Russia.
During the fall of 1940, Theodor Eicke sends a large number of hand-picked NCO’s to Bad Tolz to train as officers for the division. The preparation for Barbarossa is even more intense than that of the invasion of France. Between January and April of 1941, 10 men are killed and 16 wounded, and 250 are hospitalized for wounds received in training.
Halfway through May, Theodor Eicke cancels all leave, and orders the men to return. The division leaves its training areas in Boredeux for East Prussia. On June, 24, the SS-Totenkopfdivision is committed to the action of Operation Barbarossa. The division moved east as part of Army Group North, combing the forests and crossing the Dvina River at Dvinsk. The villages of Dvinsk, Krlaslau, and Dagda are secured, and the town of Rosenov soon follows. On July 5, the division rested to prepare for their attack on the Stalin Line. The Division was accused of looting and burning the village of Kraslau on 5 July, although that has never been confirmed
For five days, the men of SS-Totenkopf stormed the Stalin Line and the Opachka Line, taking heavy casualties. After capturing the defensive lines, the Soviets withdrawal to the Luga Line. Early in August 1941, Totenkopf managed to capture the city of Chudovo, which was on the main Leningrad-Moscow Railway. The men of Totenkopf then moved towards the area around Lake Ilmen.
During this time, the fall and winter of 1941, the Soviets launched a number of operations against German lines in the Northern Sector of the front, keeping the men of SS-Totenkopf on the defensive for the rest of the year. Several men were awarded the Knight’s Cross for their actions during this period.
Fritz Christen, became the first enlisted person in the Totenkopfdivision to earn this award. He was the last man alive out of his entire Kompanie, and managed to single handedly destroy 14 Soviet tanks, and kill over 200 Soviet infantryman, and hold his position, being relieved two days later by his baffled comrades.
While the men of the Totenkopfdivision defended their positions in the winter of 1941, they were eventually cut off and surrounded. The encirclement began with a massive Soviet Offensive in the Northern Sector during January, 1942. Totenkopf was surrounded from January 8 until April 21. During that time, Totenkopf held its ground, defending against an onslaught of five Soviet armies, including 18 Rifle Divisions, and 3 Armored Brigades. One should also note, at this time the division was not a Panzer Division, and thus was not outfitted with many tanks.
The men of SS-Totenkopf, led a counter-assault, and managed to break out of the encirclement on April 21, and managed to reach the area of the Lovat River, and link up with other German forces. The division, now at less than 15% strength, more or less the size of a battalion, from the intense fighting in their defense of Demjansk, stayed in the area until October, 1942 when it was pulled off the line and sent to France to re-fit.
The fighting took a heavy toll on the division, the once proud division, now the size of a battalion, had to draw thousands of new replacements. The casualties of France didn’t even compare to the bloodbath the division experienced in Russia, in the Northern Sector. Adolf Hitler was so proud of the division’s actions at Demjansk; he issued a special award for all men who served with distinction in the pocket. Aside from that, nearly 20 men of the Totenkopfdivision would be awarded the Knight’s Cross for bravery during that period.
While in France, in 1942, the division took part in the Vichy take-over of France, and was provided with a Panzer Abteilung, and a new name, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division “Totenkopf”. The division remained in France until February, 1943. The survivors of Demjansk, the officers and NCOs, and wounded that were flown out in Demjansk took this time to train the thousands of fresh troops replacing all their dead friends.
In February 1943, the division was once again sent to the Eastern Front, this time attached to Army Group South. It was then that the division took part in the massive counter-offensive that destroyed the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. The division took part in the 2nd Battle of Kharkov and helped to stop the Soviet offensive in the South. During this time, the division’s commander, Theodor Eicke was killed when his aircraft was shot down behind enemy lines. The men of the division took it upon themselves to attack the soviets, and drive towards his plane. The men slammed through Soviet defenses and recovered the body of their commander.
From Kharkov, the division was sent into the massive battles for the Kursk Salient, fighting in some of the most bloody and fierce combat of the war and what would become the largest tank battle in history. The operation soon came to a halt, and the Kursk offensive was called off. The Totenkopfdivision was pulled off out along with the other German units, but stayed on conducting defensive operations, helping to restore the German front once again.
The division stayed on defensive operations in the South and Central sector of the German front for nearly a year, and during this time, in October 1943, the division was reformed and renamed as the 3.SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf”.
By 1944, the situation on the Eastern Front was very dire. Everywhere the Soviets were advancing. In the center of the front, the Soviets managed to launch what was possibly the largest offensive of the entire war, sending thousands of units against German lines, pushing them back nearly 300 miles in a month.
When the Soviets finally came to a halt, they were at the gates of Warsaw. With the Soviets so near, an uprising in Warsaw took place, and the 3.SS Division was sent in. The division helped push the Soviets out of the city and back across the Vistula River. Two Soviet Armies were held back by the operations of the 3.SS Division and 5.SS Division.
Next, the division was sent south to help rescue the encircled German units in Budapest. SS-Totenkopf launched an assault, taking it all the way to the Budapest airport, but was ordered to pull back in an action that was hoped would result in the destruction of Soviet units North of Budapest, while rescuing the German divisions entrapped in the city. The division was on the verge of rescuing some 45,000 German soldiers. The Soviet’s stiff resistance proved none of the Soviet units were entrapped, as was hoped. The assault failed.
By the end of 1942, the division had experienced virtually a complete turnover in personell. The high casualty rates meant that by 1943, virtually none of the original cadre were left. However, while the division’s record in the brutal Eastern Front fighting to follow was not marked by war crimes, like their tour in France, however their reputation lingered. The Totenkopf division did not want to be captured by Soviets, because they were particularly brutal in their treatment of Soviets, so they attacked the American 11th Armored Division, and then surrendered.
The Americans, who suffered high casualties, were angered by this. When the division surrendered, they were turned over to the Soviets in Linz, Austria. Those who were wounded or too exhausted to walk, and many high ranking officers were executed by the NKVD, others were executed by Americans along the way to their new Soviet captors. (Some 80 men suffered this fate) A small portion of the men who surrendered would ever return to Germany, and those that did actually survive their internment in Siberia would return decades later, as some of the last Prisoners of War from World War Two to be released.
The Division was transferred from the SS-Ubungslager-Dachau to Wurttemberg and then on to Truppen-Ubungsplatz-Obermunsingen. It was there that training was finished. Command of the division was given to SS-Gruppenfuhrer Theodor Eicke, the former head of the SS-Totenkopfverbande, the units responsible for administering the camp system. The Totenkopfdivision was made infamous, due to its insignia, and the fact that many of the initial soldiers were former SS-TV members. However, due to high casualty rates, and the personnel changes in the Totenkopfdivision throughout the war, the early SS-TV members would not make up a great majority of the Totenkopf troops after the invasion of France, in 1940.
(Note: As the Totenkopf, or Death’s Head, was the universal cap badge of the Waffen-SS, it was also adapted by the SS-Totenkopfverbande, or SS-TV, as their collar insignia. Later, when Theodor Eicke was given command as his own Division, he also adapted the insignia for his unit, a decision that would give the division its namesake, as well as seal the fate of many of the men who wore it.)
In the beginning of December, the division moved to its new quarters near Stuttgart. Camouflage items were received and issued, including smocks and helmet covers. The division also began intense political indoctrination, the men trained heavily every day, and from March to mid April, ever day from dawn until dusk, the men train in assembly, coordinated movement, marksmanship, and tactics of assault in company and battalion strength, hand to hand combat, river crossing, street and night fighting, and the use of heavy explosives.
Because the Waffen-SS was a new formation and had not proven itself in battle, it was not immediately involved in the invasion of France. Totenkopf, for its poor reputation among local commanders, was placed in reserve.
On May 16, 1940 the division was ordered into battle. The SS-Totenkopfdivision would see its first action east of Camrai, with the cost of 16 dead and 53 wounded. The division captured 16,000 prisoners, including two Colonels and four Majors.
On May 19, 1940, it was used to secure the area of Le Cateau and Cambrai. Several days later, the division was transferred to the 16th Panzer Corps and moved North-West towards the town of Bethune on the Le Bassee Canal. The Division crossed the river and attacked the town and was under British counter-attack on the 24th of May. However, the men were ordered to retreat the next day on orders from Adolf Hitler, issued to preserve tanks for the upcoming drive on Dunkirk.
The men thus had to make the hazardous crossing again on May 26, and the men were successful in taking Bethune after Heavy Street and house to house fighting, with the British who withdrew to a line between Locon and Le Paradis.
It was during this period that elements of the division were involved in actions that led to the execution of a group of allied prisoners. The commander of the unit found responsible was Fritz Knochlein. Men of the 14. Kompanie killed 97 British officers and enlisted men after they had surrendered on a farm near Le Paradis. After the war, Knochlein was charged with war crimes; he was sentenced to death and hung. His trial was biased, and the actual guilt lay with the officer in command of the machine gun company, who had been killed in Russia in 1943.
Following the heavy fighting around Le Paradis, the division was transferred to Boulouge for rest and coastal duty. The division spent the rest of the time in June, mopping up prisoners and remaining combatants.
In ten days, between May 19 and May 29, the division lost 1,140 men, 300 officers, and hundreds of vehicles. These would be the highest casualty rates of any unit during the French campaign, which was a testament to the leadership style and fanaticism of the division’s officers.
The division was accused of several other crimes during the fighting in France:
---Soldiers from SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 1 killed 92 civilians in Aubigny-en-Artois in France on 22 May 1940.
---Soldiers from SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 2 killed 45 civilians in Vandelicourt / Berles-Montchel on 22 May 1940.
---Soldiers from SS-Totenkopf-Infanterie-Regiment 1 and SS-Pionier-Bataillon Totenkopf killed 48 civilians in Beuvry 24 May 1940.
From June 1940 to May 1941, the men of the SS-Totenkopfdivision were stationed in various areas in France, mainly in Avallon and Boradeux. During the fall and winter, the unit would grow, re-organize and continue to train, this time for the upcoming invasion of Russia.
During the fall of 1940, Theodor Eicke sends a large number of hand-picked NCO’s to Bad Tolz to train as officers for the division. The preparation for Barbarossa is even more intense than that of the invasion of France. Between January and April of 1941, 10 men are killed and 16 wounded, and 250 are hospitalized for wounds received in training.
Halfway through May, Theodor Eicke cancels all leave, and orders the men to return. The division leaves its training areas in Boredeux for East Prussia. On June, 24, the SS-Totenkopfdivision is committed to the action of Operation Barbarossa. The division moved east as part of Army Group North, combing the forests and crossing the Dvina River at Dvinsk. The villages of Dvinsk, Krlaslau, and Dagda are secured, and the town of Rosenov soon follows. On July 5, the division rested to prepare for their attack on the Stalin Line. The Division was accused of looting and burning the village of Kraslau on 5 July, although that has never been confirmed
For five days, the men of SS-Totenkopf stormed the Stalin Line and the Opachka Line, taking heavy casualties. After capturing the defensive lines, the Soviets withdrawal to the Luga Line. Early in August 1941, Totenkopf managed to capture the city of Chudovo, which was on the main Leningrad-Moscow Railway. The men of Totenkopf then moved towards the area around Lake Ilmen.
During this time, the fall and winter of 1941, the Soviets launched a number of operations against German lines in the Northern Sector of the front, keeping the men of SS-Totenkopf on the defensive for the rest of the year. Several men were awarded the Knight’s Cross for their actions during this period.
Fritz Christen, became the first enlisted person in the Totenkopfdivision to earn this award. He was the last man alive out of his entire Kompanie, and managed to single handedly destroy 14 Soviet tanks, and kill over 200 Soviet infantryman, and hold his position, being relieved two days later by his baffled comrades.
While the men of the Totenkopfdivision defended their positions in the winter of 1941, they were eventually cut off and surrounded. The encirclement began with a massive Soviet Offensive in the Northern Sector during January, 1942. Totenkopf was surrounded from January 8 until April 21. During that time, Totenkopf held its ground, defending against an onslaught of five Soviet armies, including 18 Rifle Divisions, and 3 Armored Brigades. One should also note, at this time the division was not a Panzer Division, and thus was not outfitted with many tanks.
The men of SS-Totenkopf, led a counter-assault, and managed to break out of the encirclement on April 21, and managed to reach the area of the Lovat River, and link up with other German forces. The division, now at less than 15% strength, more or less the size of a battalion, from the intense fighting in their defense of Demjansk, stayed in the area until October, 1942 when it was pulled off the line and sent to France to re-fit.
The fighting took a heavy toll on the division, the once proud division, now the size of a battalion, had to draw thousands of new replacements. The casualties of France didn’t even compare to the bloodbath the division experienced in Russia, in the Northern Sector. Adolf Hitler was so proud of the division’s actions at Demjansk; he issued a special award for all men who served with distinction in the pocket. Aside from that, nearly 20 men of the Totenkopfdivision would be awarded the Knight’s Cross for bravery during that period.
While in France, in 1942, the division took part in the Vichy take-over of France, and was provided with a Panzer Abteilung, and a new name, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division “Totenkopf”. The division remained in France until February, 1943. The survivors of Demjansk, the officers and NCOs, and wounded that were flown out in Demjansk took this time to train the thousands of fresh troops replacing all their dead friends.
In February 1943, the division was once again sent to the Eastern Front, this time attached to Army Group South. It was then that the division took part in the massive counter-offensive that destroyed the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. The division took part in the 2nd Battle of Kharkov and helped to stop the Soviet offensive in the South. During this time, the division’s commander, Theodor Eicke was killed when his aircraft was shot down behind enemy lines. The men of the division took it upon themselves to attack the soviets, and drive towards his plane. The men slammed through Soviet defenses and recovered the body of their commander.
From Kharkov, the division was sent into the massive battles for the Kursk Salient, fighting in some of the most bloody and fierce combat of the war and what would become the largest tank battle in history. The operation soon came to a halt, and the Kursk offensive was called off. The Totenkopfdivision was pulled off out along with the other German units, but stayed on conducting defensive operations, helping to restore the German front once again.
The division stayed on defensive operations in the South and Central sector of the German front for nearly a year, and during this time, in October 1943, the division was reformed and renamed as the 3.SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf”.
By 1944, the situation on the Eastern Front was very dire. Everywhere the Soviets were advancing. In the center of the front, the Soviets managed to launch what was possibly the largest offensive of the entire war, sending thousands of units against German lines, pushing them back nearly 300 miles in a month.
When the Soviets finally came to a halt, they were at the gates of Warsaw. With the Soviets so near, an uprising in Warsaw took place, and the 3.SS Division was sent in. The division helped push the Soviets out of the city and back across the Vistula River. Two Soviet Armies were held back by the operations of the 3.SS Division and 5.SS Division.
Next, the division was sent south to help rescue the encircled German units in Budapest. SS-Totenkopf launched an assault, taking it all the way to the Budapest airport, but was ordered to pull back in an action that was hoped would result in the destruction of Soviet units North of Budapest, while rescuing the German divisions entrapped in the city. The division was on the verge of rescuing some 45,000 German soldiers. The Soviet’s stiff resistance proved none of the Soviet units were entrapped, as was hoped. The assault failed.
By the end of 1942, the division had experienced virtually a complete turnover in personell. The high casualty rates meant that by 1943, virtually none of the original cadre were left. However, while the division’s record in the brutal Eastern Front fighting to follow was not marked by war crimes, like their tour in France, however their reputation lingered. The Totenkopf division did not want to be captured by Soviets, because they were particularly brutal in their treatment of Soviets, so they attacked the American 11th Armored Division, and then surrendered.
The Americans, who suffered high casualties, were angered by this. When the division surrendered, they were turned over to the Soviets in Linz, Austria. Those who were wounded or too exhausted to walk, and many high ranking officers were executed by the NKVD, others were executed by Americans along the way to their new Soviet captors. (Some 80 men suffered this fate) A small portion of the men who surrendered would ever return to Germany, and those that did actually survive their internment in Siberia would return decades later, as some of the last Prisoners of War from World War Two to be released.
DISCLAIMER: 2. Kompanie is a non-political organization We do not support naziism, or fascism. We are not associated with nor do we condone the actions of the Third Reich or the actual 3.SS Division.
