3 Dywizja Pancerna SS „Totenkopf” – dywizja pancerna uznawana za najbardziej fanatyczną spośród dywizji Waffen-SS.
Dywizja została sformowana po kampanii wrześniowej w październiku 1939 roku. Jej żołnierze oraz dowódca Theodor Eicke w większości wywodzili się z jednostek pełniących służbę wartowniczą w obozach koncentracyjnych. W 1942 roku ochrzczono ją mianem „Totenkopf” (trupia czaszka).
Pierwszy raz wkroczyła do boju 16 maja 1940 roku podczas kampanii francuskiej. W rejonie Cambrai dywizja wzięła do niewoli ok. 16 000 francuskich żołnierzy.
Następnie walczyła na froncie wschodnim odnosząc wiele militarnych sukcesów i dopuszczając się licznych okrucieństw. Prowadziła szczególnie ciężkie i zawzięte boje w tzw. kotle demiańskim, gdzie wiosną 1942 roku zostało okrążonych ok. 90 tys. żołnierzy niemieckich. W kwietniu 1942 dywizja zdołała wyrwać się z okrążenia i dotrzeć do obszarów kontrolowanych przez armie niemieckie.
W roku 1943 została przekształcona w dywizję pancerną. W przededniu bitwy pod Kurskiem dywizja liczyła 139 czołgów, a więc znacznie więcej od analogicznych formacji pancernych Wehrmachtu (np. 3 Dywizja Pancerna posiadała wtedy 90 czołgów, a 9 Dywizja Pancerna 83 czołgi). Na przełomie lipca i sierpnia 1943 wzięła udział w ciężkich walkach nad Miusem. W sierpniu 1944 roku w wielkiej bitwie pancernej w rejonie Wołomina koło Warszawy dywizja „Totenkopf” walcząc razem z Dywizją Pancerną Hermann Göring i 5 Dywizją Pancerną SS „Wiking” praktycznie unicestwiła sowiecki 3 Korpus Pancerny.
W 1945 walczyła na Węgrzech i w Austrii. 9 maja 1945 roku dywizja oficjalnie poddała się amerykańskim siłom, jednakże została przekazana wojskom sowieckim. Niewolę rosyjską przeżyło niewielu.
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źródłó: wikipedia
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Forgotten battle with SS Totenkompf
The 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" (German: 3. SS-Panzerdivision "Totenkopf") was one of 38 divisions of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. Its name, Totenkopf means "death's head" in German) and it is thus sometimes referred to as the Death's Head Division.
Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe (battlegroup) "Eicke". Most of the division's initial personnel belonged to the SS-Totenkopfverbände (concentration camp guards), and others were members of German militias that had committed war crimes in Poland.
In January 1944, Totenkopf was still engaged in heavy defensive fighting east of the Dniepr near Krivoi Rog. In February 1944, Totenkopf took part in the relief attempt of German troops encircled in the Korsun Pocket. In the second week of March, after a fierce battle near Kirovograd, the Totenkopf fell back behind the Bug River. Totenkopf took up new defensive positions. After two weeks of heavy fighting, again alongside the Panzer-Grenadier-Division Grossdeutschland, the Axis forces were retreated to the Dniestr on the Romanian border near Iaşi. In the first week of April, the division received replacements and new equipment, including Panther tanks. In the second week of April, Totenkopf took part in fighting against a heavy Soviet Army attacks towards Second Battle of Târgu Frumos. By 7 May, the front had quietened and the Totenkopf resumed its reorganizing.
In the Second Battle of Târgu Frumos, elements of the division, together with elements of the Grossdeutschland, managed to halt an armoured assault by the Red Army. The assault, which in many aspects bore similarities to those of the later British Operation Goodwood, was carried out by approximately 500 tanks.[need quotation to verify] In early July, the division was ordered to the area near Grodno in Poland, where it formed a part of SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Gille's IV SS Panzer Corps, covering the approaches to Warsaw near the Modlin Fortress.
After the Soviet Operation Bagration and the destruction of Army Group Centre the German lines had been pushed back over 480 kilometres, to the outskirts of the Polish capital. The division arrived at the Warsaw front in late July 1944. After the collapse of the German Army Group Centre, the IV SS Panzer Corps was one of the few functioning formations on the central-Eastern Front. On 1 August 1944, the Armia Krajowa (the Polish Home Army) launched the Warsaw Uprising. A column of Totenkopf Tiger tanks were caught up in the fighting, and several were lost. The Totenkopf itself was not involved in the suppression of the uprising, instead guarding the front lines, and fighting off several Red Army probe attacks into the city's eastern suburbs.
In several battles near the town of Modlin in mid-August, the Totenkopf, fighting alongside the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking and the Hermann Göring Panzer Division destroyed the Soviet 3rd Tank Corps. The terrain around Modlin is excellent for armour, and Totenkopf's panzers exploited this to their advantage, engaging Soviet tanks from a range where the superiority of the German optics and the 75 mm high-velocity gun gave the Panthers an edge over the T-34s.
With the invasion of Poland, Theodor Eicke – who was the commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, inspector of the camps, and murderer of Ernst Röhm – joined the fray with one cavalry and four infantry regiments. Three of his regiments, Oberbayern, Brandenburg and Thuringen, formed the basis of the first Einsatzgruppen; the Oberbayern and Thuringen (EG II and EG z. B.V) followed the Tenth Army in Upper Silesia; the Brandenburg (EG III) followed the Eight Army across Warthegau. His Totenkopfverbände troops were called on to carry out "police and security measures" in the rear areas. What these measures involved is demonstrated by the record of SS Totenkopf Standarte "Brandenburg". It arrived in Włocławek on 22 September 1939 and embarked on a four-day "Jewish action" that included the burning of synagogues and the execution en-masse of the leaders of the Jewish community. On 29 September the Standarte travelled to Bydgoszcz to conduct an "intelligentsia action". The German Intelligenzaktion resulting in the annihilation of approximately 100,000 Poles, was a major step in the implementation of Sonderaktion Tannenberg (Operation Tannenberg a.k.a. Unternehmen Tannenberg) of installing Nazi officials from SiPo, Kripo, Gestapo and SD to head an administrative machine in occupied Poland, leading to the Generalplan Ost colonization programme. In October 1939, these Totenkopfverbände troops formed the core of the 3 Totenkopf Division, of which Eicke became the commander. During the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising the training Battalion of the 3rd Panzer Division Totenkopf took part in the suppression of the uprising.
source: wikipedia