Panzergrenadiers "ARNHEM 1944" WO2

'39-'45 SERIES

The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS panzer division.

The division was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France. However, their first campaign was in Ukraine in April 1944. Highly motivated after combat success in Ukraine, the unit was then transported back to the west where they fought the Allies in France and at Arnhem. The division was later transported to Pomerania then fought south east of Berlin in the Lausitz area to the end of the war. Unlike several of the earlier SS panzer divisions, the "Frundsberg" division did not engage in atrocities against either civilians or combatants. Based on its fighting record, it was an elite division which also had a reputation of fighting a "clean war." Postwar, the division had a very active veteran's association. 

Originally, the name Karl der Große (Charlemagne) was used for some time in 1943, but French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS used Charlemagne (33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)), so the honor title Frundsberg was chosen, which refers to 16th Century German landsknecht commander Georg von Frundsberg.

The division was mainly formed from conscripts and it first saw action at Tarnopol in April 1944. It took part in the rescue of German troops cut off in the Kamianets-Podilskyi pocket.

It was then sent to Normandy to counter the Allied landings. It and its "twin" Division, the 9th SS Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen, played an important part in holding the British Forces back in Normandy, particularly during Operation Epsom.

It retreated into Belgium before being sent to rest near Arnhem where they soon had to fight the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, at which time it, along with the 9th SS Panzer, constituted the II SS Panzer Corps.

After rebuilding, it fought in the Alsace in January 1945. It was then sent to the Eastern Front, where it fought against the Red Army invading Pomerania and later Saxony.

Encircled at the Halbe Pocket, the division took heavy losses but managed to break out of the encirclement and retreated through Moritzburg, before reaching the area of Teplice in Czechoslovakia at the end of the war. At this location, the division surrendered to the US Army.

Aantal onderdelen; 64

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Released by Dragon in 2002

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