Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring

Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Göring
1st Paratroop Panzer Division Hermann Göring
Active 1935–45
Country  Germany
Branch Luftwaffe
Type Panzer/Fallschirmjäger
Size Regiment
Brigade
Division
Patron Hermann Göring
Engagements

World War II

Insignia
Identification
symbol
Identification
symbol		 Divisional insignia

The Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Göring (1st Paratroop Panzer Division Hermann Göring - abbreviated Fallschirm-Panzer-Div 1 HG) was an elite German Luftwaffe armoured division. The HG saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and on the Eastern Front.

The division began as a battalion-sized Landespolizeigruppe (State Police Group) inherited by then Oberster SA-Führer Hermann Göring in 1933. Over time it grew into a regiment, brigade, division, and finally was combined with the Fallschirm-Panzergrenadier Division 2. Hermann Göring in 1944 to form a Panzer corps under the by then Reichsmarschall.

The Panzerkorps surrendered to the Soviet Army near Dresden on May 8, 1945.


East Prussia

In April, the remnants of the Hermann Göring Panzerkorps was sent to Silesia, and in heavy fighting was slowly pushed back into Saxony. On April 22, the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Göring was one of two divisions that broke through the inter-army boundary of the Polish 2nd Army (Polish People's Army or LWP) and the Soviet 52nd Army, in an action near Bautzen, destroying parts of their communications and logistics trains and severely damaging the Polish (LWP) 5th Infantry Division and 16th Tank Brigade before being stopped two days later.[1][2][3][4] The corps surrendered to the Red Army on 8 May 1945.

Alleged war crimes

According to a British Government report, the Hermann Göring Division was involved in several reprisal operations during its time in Italy . One of these occurred in the surrounding area of the village of Civitella in Val di Chiana on 6 June 1944 where 250 civilians were killed.[5]

Around 800 soldiers from the division took part in fighting during the August–October 1944 Warsaw Uprising in the Wola district, where mass executions of civilians occurred in connection with Hitler's orders to destroy the city. The units were:

Polish sources claim soldiers of the Hermann Göring Division used civilians as human shields in front of its tanks while clearing barricades during the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

Commanders

Fallschirm-Panzer-Korps Hermann Göring


Citations

  1. ↑ Erickson, John: "The Road to Berlin", page 591. Yale University Press, 1999.
  2. ↑ D. F. Ustinov et al.: "Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges" (Volume 10), page 399. Militärverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1979.
  3. ↑ von Ahlfen, Hans: "Der Kampf um Schlesien 1944/1945", pages 208-209. Motorbuch Verlag, 1977. v. Ahlfen quotes the April 27, 1945 war diary entry of Luftflottenkommando 6, noting that for all operations between Görlitz and Bautzen, involving multiple German divisions, during April 20–26, that the Soviet 94th Rifle Division was destroyed, and that the Soviet 7th Guards Mechanized Corps, the Soviet 254th Rifle Division, the Polish 1st Tank Corps (LWP), the Polish 16th Tank Brigade (LWP), and the Polish 5th, 7th, and 8th Infantry Divisions (LWP) took heavy losses. The war diary goes to state that 355 enemy tanks were destroyed, 320 enemy guns of all kinds were destroyed or captured, about 7,000 enemy dead were tallied, and that 800 prisoners were taken.
  4. ↑ Grzelak, Czesław et al.: "Armia Berlinga i Żymierskiego", pages 275 and 279. Wydawnictwo Neriton, 2002. As described here, after penetrating the inter-army boundary, the German attack struck the Polish 5th Infantry Division and 16th Tank Brigade (LWP) in the rear, practically destroying both units and killing the commanding general of the 5th Infantry Division. Losses for the Polish 2nd Army (LWP) in the area of Bautzen and Dresden are noted as approximately 5,000 KIA, 2,800 missing or taken prisoner, and 10,500 WIA. Overall the Polish 2nd Army lost 20 per cent of its personnel and material strength. Among these losses were 170 tanks, 56 self-propelled guns, 124 mortars, 232 guns of all calibers, 330 vehicles, and 1,373 horses.
  5. ↑ Michael Geyer:Es muß daher mit schnellen und drakonischen Maßnahmen durchgegriffen werden in: Hannes Heer, Klaus Neumann (Hrsg.): Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-930908-04-2, S.208ff.
  6. ↑ http://wilk.wpk.p.lodz.pl/~whatfor/niemcy%20_w_powstaniu_warszawskim.htm

References

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