Waffen SS. 1 Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.pdf

1.SS Panzer Division: Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

In the Ardennes Offensive (the Battle of the Bulge), one of its battlegroup,

Kampfgruppe Peiper lead by Joachim Peiper, penetrated deep into Allied lines

attempting to capture fuel. Facing the loosly deployed 14th Cavalary Group, they

easily overran them and by the end of the day, they were racing for the Meuse river!

Another battlegroup of the LSSAH was Kampfgruppe Hansen who led his group to

fight at the town north of St. Vith, Ponteau.

Another fact about the LSSAH was that many of its officers were transferred to the

12.SS Panzer Division creating the deadly Hitler Youth division led by Kurt Meyer in

Normandy!

This site is still under construction!

1.SS Pz Div: Order of Battle

SS Panzer Regiment 1

- SS Panzer Abteilung I

- SS Panzer Abteilung II

•

SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 1

- SS Panzer Grenadier Bataillon I

- SS Panzer Grenadier Bataillon II

- SS Panzer Grenadier Bataillon III

•

SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 2

- SS Panzer Grenadier Bataillon I

- SS Panzer Grenadier Bataillon II

- SS Panzer Grenadier Bataillon III

•

SS Panzer Artillerie Regiment 1

- SS Panzer Artillerie Abteilung I

- SS Panzer Artillerie Abteilung II

- SS Panzer Artillerie Abteilung III

- SS Panzer Artillerie Abteilung IV

•

SS Flak Artillerie Abteilung 1

•

SS Sturmgeschuetz Abteilung 1

•

SS Panzer Aufklaerungs Abteilung 1

•

SS Panzerjaeger Abteilung 1

•

SS Panzer Pionier Bataillon 1

•

SS Panzer Nachrichten Abteilung 1

•

SS Versorgungs Einheiten 1

•

1.SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler

Lineage

The pre-SS formations:

• Stabswache (SA Control), 1923

• Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler (SA Control), 1923

The formation of the SS:

• Stabswache, 1925

• Schutzstaffel, 1925

The Leibstandarte units:

• SS-Stabswache Berlin, 1933

• SS-Sonderkommando Berlin, (Also, SS-Sonderkommando Zossen and

Jüterbog), 1933

• Adolf Hitler-Standarte, 1933

• Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 1933

• Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 1934

• Infanterie-Regiment Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (mot.), 1938

• SS-Division Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, 1941

• SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 1942

• 1.SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 1944

Traditions

This unit was given the title of "Adolf Hitler" in honor of the units standing

and position within the politcal hierarchy of the Third Reich, and because of it

long standing as Hitler's elite personal body guard, a function that the

foundational elements of this unit served in the early days of the rise of the

NSDAP, before it eventually evolved into a full sized division.

Campaigns

• Saar/Rhineland Occupation 1935

• Austrian Occupation 1938

• Czechoslovak Occupation 1939

• Poland 1939

• Western Campaign 1940

• Balkan Campaign 1941

• Eastern Front 1941-1942

• Western Front 1943

• Eastern Front 1943

• Italian Campaign 1943

• Eastern Front 1943

• Western Front 1944

• Eastern Front 1945

History

Long before the NSDAP came to power in 1933, during the formative years of

its existence, the elite of the party had formed special units whose sole purpose

was to guard and protect those in command. The first record of any such unit

was in the early days of the party when men of the 19th Trench Mortar

Company, under the leadership of Ernst Röhm, acted as a body guard unit

during the first demonstrations and speeches by Hitler and other party

members. This first grouping of men eventually was formed into the

Sturmabteilung, or SA, which quickly began to grow.

From the very beginning, Hitler viewed the SA as a potential threat as well as a

useful tool. As a means to offset the growing power and potential threat of the

SA, Hitler ordered the formation of special unit to be made up of loyal

followers that would protect the NSDAP leadership. This special unit was

formed with Julius Schreck and Joseph Berchtold as its members, and was

named the Stabswache. Although this new formation was a unique and

separate cadre, it was still under the ultimate control of the SA.

From its initial formation, the Stabswache was designed to be separate from the

SA, even if still under its control. To this end, the basic uniform and insignia of

the Stabswache were designed especially for the men of the unit, consisting at

this time of the very first use of the Totenkopf, or Death's Head, on the caps of

the men, as well as a number of other specific elements, unique to the

Stabswache. Soon after formation, the Stabswache was renamed as the

Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler.

On November 9th, 1923, the Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler, along with the SA and

other NSDAP formations, took part in the attempted Putsch in Munich against

the Weimar Republic. The Putsch failed and Hitler was jailed along with many

other members, and the NSDAP was banned. The Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler was

officially disbanded, as were all the formations of the NSDAP. The SA would

continue to exist after the NSDAP was disbanded though, although under a

new name, the Frontbahn, which was led by Ersnt Röhm while much of the

rest of the leadership was in prison. Under Röhm's leadership, the SA began to

grow substantially, from about 2,000 members before the abortive Putsch in

November of 1923, to nearly 30,000 soon after.

When Adolf Hitler was released from jail in December of 1924, a rift had

formed between Hitler and Ernst Röhm over the direction and the future of the

SA. This rift would eventually lead to the murder of Röhm during the

figurative beheading of the power structure of the SA in 1934, during the

"Night of the Long Knives" in which a number of SA leaders were eliminated.

As a result of this move, the SA, a once powerful paramilitary political force in

the NSDAP structure, was rendered impotent. This move would, in 1934, give

the SA's rival at the time, the SS (At this point in our story still unformed), the

go-ahead to take center stage of the political and paramilitary aspects of the

NSDAP, and by very extension, of the German Nation.

Soon after Hitler was released in 1924, a new unit was formed along the same

lines as the original Stabswache and Stosstrupp Adolf Hitler. This new

formation was once again named the Stabswache, but it was not formed under

control of the SA, but as a completely separate unit. The new Stabswache was

to consist of ultra devoted followers that could be relied upon under any

circumstances to protect the NSDAP leadership and Hitler himself. Shortly

after the formation of the new Stabswache, it was renamed as the Schutzstaffel.

With the formation of the Schuzstaffel in 1925 there existed two competing

and separate paramilitary political organizations within the NSDAP, The SA

and the SS. It is from this point that the history of the Leibstandarte truly

begins.

After the formation of the SS in 1925 it experienced a great deal of growth.

The expansion of the SS is a highly complex and very detailed topic though,

and this is not the focus of our study of the Leibstandarte formations. With a

basic understanding of the initial formations of the various body guard and

protection units up to 1925, ending in the creation of the SS itself, and of the

difference between the SA and the SS, we are prepared to enter into a

discussion of the formation and growth of the actual Leibstandarte units of the

SS.

In 1933, 8 years after the initial formation of the SS, it had grown to nearly

50,000 members. It was at this point in the history of the Schutzstaffel, in the

Sping of 1933, that a move was made to form an elite unit within the already

elite SS. This elite of the elite was to be a new, special body guard unit, formed

from hand picked SS men, to act as the special body guard of Hitler, and to be

responsible only to his wishes. This new unit was named the SS-Stabswache

Berlin. Shortly after its formation, later in 1933, it was redesignated as the SS-

Sonderkommando Berlin.

Two other SS-Sonderkommando units were formed in the early summer of

1933, SS-Sonderkommando Zossen and SS-Sonderkommando Jüterbog. These

two Sonderkommandos functioned as training cadres for the SS, as well as in

the role of auxiliary police units until that function was later dissovled. Both

units were later absorbed into the SS-Sonderkommando Berlin in 1933, at

which time, its designation was changed once more to the Adolf Hitler-

Standart.

On November 8/9th, 1933, the 10th anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch,

the entire Adolf Hitler-Standarte took part in a mass oath taking rally, in

honour of those killed in the 1923 uprising. The rally took place at the location

of the Feldherrnhalle, erected on the spot where many of the party members

had been killed during the Putsch. During this rally, each member personally

swore his life to the Führer. Also during this rally, the unit was again renamed,

this time as the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler.

In 1934, by order of Himmler, the initials "SS" were added to the

Leibstandarte's title, thus becoming the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Then, in

late June of 1934, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was called into serious

action for the first time. As a result of a the political situation that had been

growing within the NSDAP over Ernst Röhm and his stated desire for a second

revolution in Germany, with the ultimate creation of a true "People's Army" in

place of the regular armed forces, a move was made to remove the problematic

heads of the SA. This action culmintated in what is known as Die Röhm Affäre

and the Night of the Long Knives.

For its part in the move to quell the real and imagined threat within the ranks of

the SA, two companies of the LSSAH were organized under the control of Otto

Reich and Jürgen Wagner. They were transfered from their barracks in Berlin

to the countryside, and then to Munich, arriving there on the afternoon of the

30th of June. From there, a small group of men from the 2 companies present

were sent to the Stadelheim prision to take part in the death by firing squad of a

group of SA men who had been arrested and charged with treason and

attempting to overthrow the State. The orders given to these men and the men

of the LSSAH were followed without question, as they were expected to do by

Hitler and leaders of the SS. Most of the men of the LSSAH actually remained

in their barracks in Berlin during this time, only 2 companies being sent to

Munich, but during the time of the Röhtm Affair, other small groups of men

were selected from those still in barracks to take part in the killing of other

various accused. When the Röhrm Affair was officially over on the 13th of

July, 1934, around 177 people had been executed and the SS had become a

independent organization, no longer subordinate to the SA, and the wishful and

seemingly problematic SA leader, Ernst Röhm, had been eliminated.

On the 26th of February, 1935, a small group of LSSAH men were sent into

the Saarland as an advanced group, and soon after, on the 28th of February, the

5./I.Btl, 6./I.Btl, 7./II.Btl, and 8./II.Btl, along with the Bataillone stabs, were

sent into the Saarland to take part in the festivities marking the recent return of

the Saarland to Germany. Later on the 1st of March, other units of the LSSAH

joined the rest of their unit in the Saarland.

After the Polish Campaign, the LAH was pulled back into Germany for rest

and refitting. The LAH then took part in the Western Campaign, first against

the Low Countries and then against France. The LAH was initially in Army

Reserve, while one of its motorcycle battalions linked up with the

Fallschrimjager troops that had jumped into Rotterdam. After a lull in action

for the LAH, it fought against the shrinking beach-heads of the evacuating

British Army at Dunkirk, but were only able to maintain pressure against their

lines. During the second phase of the Campaign in France, the LAH was once

again organized as an independent regiment, this time under 14 Armee Korps

(mot). 14th Armee Korp initially attacked south from a bridge-head at Amiens,

but was stopped by severe French resistance. After limited successes and little

advance, the 14th Armee Korp was withdrawn and transferred 75 miles to the

East. This time the attack was very successful and the 14th Armee Korps

rapidly advanced, crossing the Seine River, and moving to cut the retreat of

numerous French units at Loire. After the Armistice was signed ending the

Campaign in the West, the 14th Armee Korps continued down the French coast

to the border with Spain, securing the rest of occupied France.

After the Campaign in France ended, the LAH was stationed in France for rest

and refitting. Initially, the LAH was going to be given a partial lead role in the

planned invasion of England. To prepare for the upcoming invasion, the LAH

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