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kurtbj -> (6/11/2001 3:18:00 AM)
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Campaign Introduction
Balkan Crisis
February 1945
By the end of 1944 the Yugoslav Army of National Liberation (JANL) was no longer just a partisan force. Over the course of three years it had grown from being a number of scattered bands and this growth had not just given it parity with the German forces. It was now so qualitatively and quantitively superior to its enemies that Field Marshall Loehr's Army group E had been forced into fighting a defensive campaign. This is not to say that his hard pressed formations mounted no offensive operations. This they certainly did and among the most aggressive units in the Balkan theatre of operations was 7th SS Gebirgs Division 'Prinz Eugen'.
The story of the formation during the last months of the war is a bewildering kaleidoscope of furious attack and staunch defence as the whole division or its individual regiments were detached to be rushed from one crisis point to another. That 'Prinz Eugen' was the formation so frequently called upon was due to the fact that towards the end of the war there were very few crack units anywhere in the German Army that were capable of withstanding massive enemy assaults, or leading daring assaults. The 7th SS Gebirgs Division was one such formation and its prowess in conducting 'fire brigade' operations meant that it was selected time and time again to stiffen a battle line that threatened to rupture or to spearhead a berserker charge in some short lived but reputedly vital mission. And those who called upon the 7th knew that it would never fail to respond to the call.
Formation of the 7th SS Gebirgs Division 'Prinz Eugen'
Recruited predominently from the Volksdeutsche community in Croatia and the Banat, this unit was founded in March 1942 as the Ss Freiwilligen Gebirgs Division, receiving its honour title 'Prinz Eugen' a month later. By October 1942 its title had reached its final form, being accorded seventh place in the order of battle of Waffen-SS divisions.
The division, however, was a volunteer unit in name only. almost from the beginning volunteer recruitment was backed up by widespread coercion and conscription. A number of Serbs, Romanians and Hungarians also found their way into the division.
Although the manpower required to raise the unit to divisional status was found through various means, equipment was to be more problematic. As it was intended to utilise Prinz Eugen for internal security and anti-partisan duties, the Germans were unwilling to give it large quantities of first rate arms and equipment, and in the event a large supply of obsolete and obsolescent material found its way into the division arsenal. This included French, Belgian, Yugoslav, Czech and Italian weapons. Even so the division was comparatively well manned and certainly fully if variably equipped, even to the extent of boasting a panzer detachment equipped with captured French tanks.
Text reproduced from the following sources;
Hitlers Mountain Troops by James Lucas
The SS Hitlers Instrument of Terror by Gordon Williamson
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