37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Lützow
The 37th SS Volunteer Cavalry Division was a federation of the Waffen- SS. An award of the honorary name " Lützow " source is not used excessively. The terms "division" and " volunteers " are misleading, because the Division reached maximum strength and combat power of a weak brigade and the staff was a significant part of the Hungarian ethnic Germans were forcibly recruited by the SS.
Background
With the conquest of Budapest on 11 February 1945 by the Red Army, the 8th SS Cavalry Division " Florian Geyer " and the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division " Maria Theresia " were destroyed.
Three days earlier ( 8 ) possessed the SS Main Office that from standing outside the boiler from Budapest units of the above two SS divisions and personnel replacement of Hungarian ethnic Germans a new division called " 37 SS Cavalry Division " was set up. Official line-up appointment was the 20th February 1945.
Use
The organization of the Division was first carried out in Slovakia in the Bratislava ( Pressburg ). As a result of the Soviet advance moved the Division continues to move westward, first to Moravia (room Znojmo ), then Bohemia (room Pisek ). It was not until late April 1945 the Division received a combat mission to secure the left flank of the 6th SS Panzer Army in the Zwettl. Just a few days later, the Division moved however, Freistadt westward back and surrendered on 5 May 1945 in Austria the American troops.
Detached from the establishment of continuing division received the divisional staff in March / April 1945, Special Order: With imputed German and Hungarian associations he formed a battle group, close in the area north of Vienna, the front gap between the 6th SS Panzer Army and the 8th Army should. Unsuccessful, the battle group was forced to withdraw and was disbanded in April 1945.
In the schema tables of Battle of the OKH, the division is listed on 1 March 1945 as the disposal of the Army Group South in the east / Hungary, on 12 April 1945 as the XLIII. Army Corps of 8th Army, Army Group South also / East / Hungary, assumed. This entry probably refers to the use of the conducted by Division staff battle group, not to the Division itself in the last schema tables of Battle of May 7, 1945, the Division is no longer listed.
Structure (according to Ticino)
- SS Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 92 (2 departments with a total of 8 squadrons ) (SS -Sturmbannführer Karl -Heinz Keitel, son of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel )
- SS Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 93 ( ditto) ( Kdr SS - Obersturmbannführer Friedrich ) SS Artillery Division 37 (3 batteries) ( SS -Sturmbannführer Albert Scheuffele )
- SS Pioneer Battalion 37 (2 companies ) (SS First Lieutenant of Wanka )
- SS Field Replacement Battalion 37 ( only in April 1945, 4 companies ) (SS -Sturmbannführer Ernst Imhoff )
Additional units not included in the box Item Overview, who belonged to the Division and should be prepared for the Division:
- SS Volunteer Cavalry Regiment 94 (SS -Sturmbannführer Anton Ameiser ) SS Panzer Jäger Division 37 ( a company Hetzer ) (SS First Lieutenant Rudolf Müller)
- SS Reconnaissance Battalion 37 (SS -Sturmbannführer Karl Siegemund Litzmann )
- SS -News- Company 37 (SS First Lieutenant Heinz Winkler )
- SS sanitary division 37 (SS -Hauptsturmführer Dr. Erwin Dom, then SS -Hauptsturmführer Dr. Richard Schreiner )
- SS division supply officer
- SS resupplying squad 37 (SS- Obersturmbannführer Helmut Barthelme )
Commanders
- February 26 to March 1945: SS - Standartenführer Waldemar Fegelein
- March to May 8, 1945: SS- Standartenführer Karl Gisele