SS Charlemagne: The 33rd Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS

After three month’s training, on 28 July, the battery was issued with new uniforms and entrained for Bruss in the Danzig Corridor, where it was issued with its complete establishment of nine 37mm guns, arms, ammunition and vehicles. It then moved to Saalesch, and Officer-Cadet Fayard, soon to be promoted to second-lieutenant, took over the battery, which began training up to 10 hours a day.

Then, on 31 October, the battery entrained for Wildflecken Camp to join the Charlemagne Brigade. Some two months later, on 3 January 1945, being considered the only unit of the Brigade fit for combat, the Flak Battery was detached in defence of the little town of Fulda, a frequent target of Anglo-American air raids.

With the Greifenberg Depot under the command of Swiss SS-Major Hersche coming under threat from the Russian advance, it was obliged to move to Wildflecken. The Depot units consisted of the 1st Training Company under SS-Second-Lieutenant Schüler, the Depot Company under SS-Lieutenant Allgeier and the Recruit Company under Lieutenant Crespin. Having dispensed with about 250 undesirable or dubious characters, the Depot now amounted to about 400 men.

According to one of the instructors, the value of those elements trained at Greinfenberg was very mediocre. They were good at drill, but were not much use on the ground, not knowing how to conceal themselves or to spread out, and they also lacked firing training.

On 23 January 1945, all these depot elements were formed into a field replacement battalion under Captain Michel Bisiau, which eventually arrived to reinforce the Division at Körlin on 3 March. The final establishment of the Charlemagne Division was as follows:

SS-Grenadier Regiment 57 of two battalions (continuing the SS connection)

SS-Grenadier Regiment 58 of two battalions (continuing the LVF connection)

SS-Artillery Regiment 57 (one HQ and two gun batteries)

SS-Tank Hunting Battalion 57 (combining tank destroyers, flak and armoured vehicles)

Divisional Units (engineers, signals, supply, etc. with the serial number 57):

Each regiment consisted of:

HQ Company with:-

HQ Staff

– Reconnaissance Platoon

– Pioneer Platoon

– Signals Platoon

3 x Rifle Companies, each of 144 men:-

– HQ Platoon

– 3 x Rifle Platoons (each of 3 sections)

– 1 Heavy Machine Gun Section

Tank Hunting Company:-

– 50mm Pak Platoon

– Panzerschreck Platoon

– Panzerfaust Platoon

Infantry Gun Company:-

– HQ Platoon

– Heavy Platoon (2 x 150mm guns)

– 3 x Light Platoons (each of 2 x 75mm guns (short-barrelled))

3 x Rifle Companies, each of 144 men and:-

– HQ Platoon

– 3 x Rifle Platoons (each of 3 sections)

– 1 Heavy Machine Gun Section

Heavy Weapons Company of 170 men:-

– HQ Platoon

– 2 x Mortar Platoons (4 x 80mm each)

– 3 x Heavy Machine Gun Platoons (4 x HMG each)

The Tank Hunting Battalion consisted of:-

– 1 x Heavy Company (75mm Pak)

– 1 x Flak Company (9 x 37mm)

– 1 x Assault Gun Company

– 1 x Infantry Escort Company

Each of the Artillery Regiment’s batteries had 4 x 105mm guns.

Theoretically, the Brigade’s fire-power was quite considerable, but in fact it was to be sent into action without its artillery and armoured vehicles, being thus deprived of 12 x 105mm pieces and 14 light tank-hunting Czech-built Hetzer tanks with 75mm guns.

The troop establishment was satisfactory, but that of the battalion and regimental headquarters less so, because of the lack of sufficient qualified technical personnel. There was a dearth of officers and, upon departure for the front, each of the regiments was only commanded by a captain, several companies by a WO I or II, and several platoons by a sergeant. The Charlemagne, now officially rated as a Division, consisted of 102 officers, 886 noncommissioned officers and 5,375 men, a total strength of 6,363 all ranks.

The command structures of the Inspectorate, Brigade, Regiments and Battalions with the names of the officers concerned prior to departure is given at Annex B.

Chapter Two Action

The circumstances in which the Charlemagne was committed to war were indeed desperate.

In mid-January the Soviets had broken out of their bridgeheads across the Vistula River and swept up to the Oder River opposite Berlin by the end of the month in a lightening operation. But, in doing so the Soviets had left Pomerania out of the line of advance, enabling the Germans to muster a force there that was intended to strike south into the flank of the Soviet vanguards and annihilate them while Soviet lines of communication were still hampered by lack of bridges across the Vistula.