Lesser known Waffen-SS division-Polizei the 4th

Alternate names:
Polizei-Division
SS-Polizei-Division
1943-44: Kampfgruppe Polizei-Division
SS-Polizei-Division
4. SS-Polizei Panzergrenadier Division

In 1939, Reichführer-SS Heinrich Himmler raised the 4th SS-Panzergrenadier Division SS-Polizei from Ordnungpolizei and Allgemeine-SS recruits. It was a "police" division and did not fall under general SS administration until 1941 and Waffen-SS control until 1942. Division members wore a hybrid uniform with a combination of police/SS insignia and were poorly armed with horse drawn artillery and Czech weapons.

Never an elite unit, the 4th SS Polizei division fought in the invasions of Poland, France and the Soviet Union, spending many months of defensive combat on the eastern front. It was one of the few Waffen-SS divisions posted to Greece for security duty, where it was implicated in war crimes in May 1944.

Commanders:

SS-Gruppenführer Pfeffer-Wildenbruch 10/1940 - 11/1940
SS Officer Arthur Mülverstedt? - supposedly the first Waffen-SS divisional commander killed in WWII
SS-Brigadeführer Hebert-Ernst Vahl 07/1944
SS-Brigadeführer Schmedes 08/1944 - 11/1944
SS-Standartenführer Harzer 11/1944 - 05/1945

October 1939: Division raised at Truppenübungsplatz Wandernas, near Black Forest as "Polizei-Division." 15,000 members of Ordnungpolizei assigned to unit; occupation duties Poland.

May 1940: May 10: Fall Gelb - the German invasion of France begins; 4th SS in reserve at Tübingen as part of Army Group C

June 1940: French campaign
June 9: first combat Aisne River/Ardennes Canal.
June 10: Argonne Forest; crosses Aisne River
June 14: Paris surrenders
June 20: division placed in reserve until June 1941.
June 24: French sign Armistice & capitualte to Germany

January 1941: Jan 17: Polizei-Division transferred from Police to SS administration

June 1941: Division strength: 17,347

June 27: Division transfered to the Eastern Front (East Prussia) and put into Army Group North reserve.
Heavy combat on the Leningrad front at the Luga bridgehead; division loses over 2,000 soldiers.

August 1941: attacks Soviet positions at Luga with the 269th Infantry Division

Aug 8: Division CO Müverstedt KIA

January 1942: combat, Wolchow River, Russia

February 1942: combat, Wolchow River, Russia

Feb 24: unit officially integrated into Waffen-SS as SS-Polizei-Division; Army/Police uniforms/insignia replaced with Waffen-SS equivalents; division members continue to wear the Police emblem.

March 1942: heavy combat Wolchow River; division reduced to Kampfgruppe SS Polizei. Other units withdrawn to be refitted as a Panzergrenadier division

December 1942: Division discontinues use of police emblem; division strength: 13,299

January 1943: combat south Lake Ladoga

February 1943: combat; division retreats west of Kolpino

March 1943: In a related development, all German police regiments are ordered to add "SS-" to their unit names.

April 1943: conversion begins as motorized, panzergrenadier division

May 1943: security duty: Poland

June 1943: upgraded into a Panzer-Grenadier Division; anti-partisan duties

July 1943: July 15: 2 regiments moved to the Balkans

August 1943: anti-partisan operations, Balkans.

September 1943: Division sent south of Belgrade for training & to protect against a possible allied invasion of the Balkans.

October 1943: Some divisional officers transferred to 13th Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS (kroatische Nr 1) Handschar; division, as part of XXII Army Corps, participates in the antipartisan sweep "Operation Panther," clearing the Jannina-Metsovo road of ELAS guerrillas.
4th SS orchestra plays in the Larissa town square on the occasion of division CO Fritz Schmedes' birthday
December 1943: division posted to Saloniki, Greece; Division strength: 16,000


January - February 1944: anti-partisan operations, Greece

March 1944: Division sent to Salonika (also stationed Florina & Kozani), Greece, to calm Bulgarian fears of an allied invasion. Becomes part of the "Salonika-Aegean Administrative Area" with the Bulgarian 7th Infantry Division under the German LXXXXI Army Corps.

June 1944: June 10: Units from SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 7 on an antipartisan sweep, massacre circa 218-300+ Greek civilians in the village of Distomo. George Koch, a member of the Wehrmacht GFP (Geheime Feldpolizei), accompanied the SS troops during the sweep and submits report on the incident. Koch's report states that: the Polizei troops walked through the village without incident, but were later ambused by Greek guerrillas outside of it. The guerrillas escaped, and that the SS troops actually doubled back into the village and began a viscious "atonement action" which included rape and looting as well as shooting civilians. Koch's report directly contradicts the report SS-Hauptstrumführer Fritz Lautenbach, submitted to his battalion CO (SS-Standartenführer Schührers).

June 20: A Red Cross delegation visits Distomo to investigate the incident and find corpses swinging from the trees along the route. News of the massacre travels to the collaborationist Greek govenrment.

Concerned over the impact of the massacre on both the military and political situation in occupied Greece, the Wehrmacht opens up an investigation headed by Special Envoy Neubacher & charges SS-Hauptstrumführer Lautenbach with falsifying a military report. (of course the investigation team neither includes nor interviews Greek civilians) SS-Standartenführer Schührers responds to the charges that although his company is technically guilty of falsifying a report, his unit acted correctly under the circumstances. The inquiry is dropped as the massacre is judged a "military necessity" due to the supposed collaboration between the guerrillas and the Distomo villagers.

July 1944: anti-partisan operation - clashes with EDES, the Greek royalist partisan organization; Division strength 16,000

August 1944: OKH Chief Guderian orders division to Bucharest to stiffen Bulgarian resolve?

Destroys Greek villages of Karpenisi & Agios Geirgios on antipartisan sweeps: houses burned, crops destroyed and wells poisoned with the carcasses of dead animals.


Sept 25: Defensive battles against Soviets at Turnu Severin, allowing 1st Mountain Division to escape encirclement?


January 1945: Division retreats into Slovakia.

February 1945: combat Pommerania, Danzig?

April 1945: some divisional elements may have fought in the Battle of Berlin

May 1945: Remmnants of division surrender to US troops at Wittenberge-Lenzen.




http://www.soldat.com/abz%20Polizie%20Gen%20Insig.htm

http://www.feldgrau.com/4ss.html

http://www.wssob.com/004divpol.html

 

Very interesting!

 

Excellent stuff my friend!

Ive got the sketches done on Mulverstedt, and will be doing harzer in the future. I think I have one other done or about to be started on on the names you have listed here.

[ 08. March 2003, 02:49 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]

 

Again Kai-unrivalled post in all respects-I must admit I class the Polizei as a very intersting unit-howver I know relatively nothing of them!!!

Were they classed as a Military Police unit?
Were their ranks made up of pre-war civil policemen?

 

Actually the Ordnungpolizei was under military control from 1933-34 so technically all police were military police. Their ranks were made up of a combination of these civil police and alegemein SS blokes as Kai said.

 

I aldo read that the division performed very ineffectively during the invasion of France, bearing many casualties due to unexperienced officers...

 

The Polizei division had many handicaps that prevented it from performing well. In addition to the lack of experienced officers, there was the inferior equipment it initially got. Alot of these Waffen SS divisions were rushed into formation without being fully outfitted. Theodor Eicke had to scrap up stuff for his Totenkopf division. They started out with Czech vehicles and weapons. So the Polizei had started out in a similiar path

 

The actions of the Polizeidivision and its members can be decribed with with two words: HELMUT DÖRNER.

 

Is that good or bad?

 

I guess you could say it was a good thing (at least that's my opinion).

Helmut was one of the heroes of the 1941/42 Winter war, so in the same category as August Dieckmann, Otto Baum, Georg Bochmann, Hinrich Schuldt, Otto Kumm, Wilhelm Bittrich and Hermann Fegelein and guess what like they, he was also the Swords winner, though probably the most underrated one (at least among the Waffen-SS).

Born in 1909, Dörner soon reminded his superiors of his true potential, wining both Iron Crosses in the French campaign as a company commander. Promoted to Major and commander of II./Polizei-Sch.Rgt.2, he and his battalion soon established a reputation within the Army group North as a crack unit. During one of the numerous combat patrols the battalion managed to smash the Russian frontline and destroy 53 bunkers in 3 hours with minimal losses. The first recognition of his achievements came in December 1941 when he received the German Cross in Gold, but more was soon to come.

In early 1942 AG Noth sent the battalion to Wolchow to counter the Russian breakthrough there(2nd Army - Wlassow). Deceiving Russians of his real strength, by constant attacks, he managed to stop the breakthrough of Wlassow's 2nd Army and thus helped considerably in its encirclement and destruction.

Dörner stayed with the Polizei division (from 1943 named KG Polizei division) until late 1943. After some well earned holidays he returned to the division which was reforming in Greece and becoming the commander of SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt.8. When Schümers (divisional commander) got killed in a partisan ambush, Helmut took over the command until the arrival of the new commander.

In September 1944 the division, now known as 4.SS-Polizei Panzergrenadier Division, was sent to Rumania and Hungary in order to slow the Russian offensive. Dörner again proved his worth, especially at the Szolnok bridgehead. During this attack a Tiger battalion was sent to reinforce the unit, but its commander was at first reluctant to attach his panzers to Dörner, but he soon changed his mind after hearing Dörner's plan.
During the siege of Budapest, he became the commander of a mixed KG and died while leading the breakthrough attempt. He was posthumously awarded the Swords to his KC with Oak leaves.

To sum up he was a really though soldier, what the Germans called Frontschwein, leading his soldiers always up front and when his soldiers were completely exhausted he still managed to inspire them for one last push by his personal example.

Here're the citations for the awards he received:

Helmut Dörner
* 26.06.1909 München-Gladbach
+ 11.02.1945 Ungarn

EK II 14.06.1940
EK I 19.06.1940
DKIG 24.12.1941


Ritterkreuz (997) am 15.05.1942 als SS-Sturmbannführer und Kommandeur des II. Bataillon / SS-Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 2 / SS-Polizei-Division / I. Armee-Korps / 18. Armee / Heeresgruppe Nord

»SS-Sturmbannführer Dörner hatte bei den schweren Kämpfen an der Rollbahn bei Mostki (Wolchow-Abschnitt) durch fürsorgliche Vorbereitung, durch sehr gute Führung und persönliche beispielgebende Tapferkeit wesentlich zum Gelingen des Angriffs beigetragen. Von kampfentscheidender Bedeutung war sein selbständig gefaßter Entschluß, nach Erreichen des Angriffszieles am 19.03.1942 weiter nach Süden vorzustoßen, wodurch an diesem Tage die Verbindung mit der 58. Infanterie-Division hergestellt werden konnte.«

650. Eichenlaub am 16.11.1944 als SS-Standartenführer und Kommandeur des SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 8 / 4. SS-Polizei-Panzer-Grenadier-Division / Heeresgruppe Süd

»Im September 1944 gelang es Dörner, die südlich des Marosch auf Szegedin vorstoßenden Feindkräfte zu durchstoßen, so daß dadurch ein verstärktes sowjetisches Regiment abgeschnitten und vernichtet werden konnte. Im Oktober 1944 griff die Division mit dem Schwerpunktregiment Dörner über Törek-St. Miklos-Kenderesch in Richtung Debrecen an und nahm Kiskunhalass. Als das Bataillon Tappe seines Regiments dort eingeschlossen wurde, fuhr Dörner allein mit einem Schützenpanzer bei Nacht durch die Umklammerung und holte das Bataillon heraus. Beim Vorstoß aus dem Brückenkopf Szolnok am 19.10.1944 war dem Regiment Dörner eine Tiger-Abteilung unterstellt. Der Angriff war ein voller Erfolg und brachte Entlastung für das III. Panzer-Korps um Debrecen, weil drei sowjetische schnelle Korps von dort nach Szolnok geworfen wurden.«

129. Schwerter am 01.02.1945 als SS-Oberführer und Führer einer Divisionskampfgruppe im Rahmen des IX. SS-Gebirgs-Armee-Korps

»Für die überragende Tapferkeit des SS-Oberführer Dörner und als Anerkennung für den Kampf in Budapest.«

Cheers
Mark