History 14/01/20 SS Division “Florian Geyer”: the worst cavalry Hitler
8th SS cavalry division formed on 1 June 1942 and was immediately sent to the Eastern front. March 12, 1944 for combat service in honor of the medieval knight and a national hero of Germany, the division received the honorary name “Florian Geyer”. Commanded a division of SS brigadeführer Hermann Fegelein, who was the husband of the sister of Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress. In the USSR, the division fought against the personnel of the red army units and partisans, but to the civilian population of the SS cavalry was remembered as the cruel executioners, who killed people and burned villages.
the crimes of the cavalry in the summer of 1941
the future of the division was the 1st cavalry regiment of the SS sturmbannführer Gustav Lombard. On 29 July 1941 the division went to the village of Homsk, which lived up to 2 thousand Jews. The whole community was herded into the building of the local Church and the next day shot with machine guns. August 2 cavalry occupied the town of Motol, where he lived 3 thousands of Jews. Male population gathered in the town square, and women and children gathered in the school and the synagogue. August 3, 800 men killed. The next morning kill women and children.
In 1941 the regiment deployed to cambrigde, soldiers of which in the area of the Pripyat marshes staged mass executions. According to German archives, they killed around 15 thousand Jews and civilians suspected of supporting the Soviet regime. Was also executed thousands of partisans and 700 prisoners of war.
Cavalry – punitive in Belarus
In the battles with the red army cavalry suffered heavy losses and in may 1942, the brigade withdrew from the front. After a rest it was reorganized into the SS division. From August 1942, the cavalry was oyewale against units of the red Army, and then they were transferred to Belorussia to fight the guerrillas. SS soldiers were well armed and had a large military experience, and their “calling card” was brutality against the civilian population.
the SS had no cavalry and other cavalry weapons, riding horses, and during the battle acted as regular infantry. By the summer of 1943, the division because of losses was reduced to two regiments numbering 8308 people. Also to part pinned 740 Soviet prisoners of war that were used in supporting roles. In the summer of 1943 the SS cavalry raised for the next operation against the Belarusian partisans. According to German documents in the period from 25 June to 27 July, they burned 96 villages and hamlets and killed 1256 partisans with the captured and destroyed, only 118 units of the weapon.
Battle for the harvest
By 1943, the most difficult was the situation in Volhynia, where the German occupation administration has lost control over most of the territory. In the order No. 40 of July 14, 1943 commander of SS and police in the South of Russia, Obergruppenfuhrer SS Hans-Adolf Prutzmann, suspended anti-partisan actions in Belarus. So the 8th SS cavalry division was in the Ukraine. In the fight with partisans German Fegelein ordered not to allow people’s Avengers to thwart the harvest.
the report dated July 27, 1943, the chief of operations division, chief of SS sturmbannführer Joachim Rhumor, wrote: “Ukrainians attacked the German commercial warehouses, utilities, dairies, orchards, blocking roads. Also attacking the Church and the city hall to destroy the register of inhabitants and register of births… there is a lot of activity of the Ukrainian partisans against the poles, while the latter act with great cruelty.”
the Cavalry was used to patrol the area and catch the underground, trying to destroy fields of crops. In the German papers described the fact of a direct military confrontation soldiers of the SS division with detachments of the UPA. 15 August in the villages of Barsuki, Markovic and Worlds they fought against two huts of Ukrainian nationalists. Local residents managed to leave the village. National Parkthe leaves are fired at the Germans from machine guns and mortars, and then went into the forest, and on 16 August the troopers burned the village.
After the Soviet Union
in the Autumn of 1943 the division was transferred to Kharkov, and in November, she was defended by the red army from the city of Kremenchug. Unable to withstand the advance of the red army, the cavalry was in Kirovograd, where they are again attracted to fight local guerrillas. Suffering heavy losses, the part was removed from the front and sent for replenishment in Croatia. In the Soviet Union from division had only the 17th regiment.
SS Cavalry division “Florian Geyer” fought in Hungary and in the Balkans. In April 1944, the remnants of the unit became part of SS division “Maria Theresia”. In the winter of 1945, former soldiers of the 8th division was encircled in Budapest. Almost all of them were killed while trying to break out of encirclement.
Alexander Brazhnik
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