Seventh Army
98-394: [REDACTED] First Army Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns Operation Northwind ( German : Unternehmen Nordwind ) was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front . Northwind was launched to support the German Ardennes offensive campaign in
196-823: A fighting retreat back to Norway. It was then redeployed to the Western Front against the Western Allied invasion of Germany . Elements of the 6th SS Mountain Division took part in Operation Nordwind in January 1945 along the French–German border , where they took heavy losses in several failed attempts to break through the U.S. Seventh Army in the Vosges mountains to reach Alsace . Afterwards
294-503: A referendum on 5 May 1946 resulting in the dissolution of parliament and the resignation of de Gaulle's successor Félix Gouin of the SFIO. A new election for a Constituent Assembly of 1946 was held on 2 June 1946 , marked by a strengthening of the MRP and the decline of the left. The constitutional project then shifted from pursuing unicameralism to bicameralism . The constitution of
392-606: A mountain pass and allow German forces to enter the Rhine Valley . On 3 January, the SS troops advanced toward the town on their own after the volksgrenadier units failed to capture their objective. The initial attack caught the American troops off guard, they were able to capture the town, taking 350 American prisoners at the 117th Cavalry headquarters. But by 6 January, the U.S. troops had captured positions behind them and cut off
490-423: A police company and the volunteer ski company "Norway" ( SS-Freiwilligen-Schikompanie-Norwegen ). There were also some Swiss volunteers. The SS had plans to expand the 6th Mountain Division into a two-division corps, so it had about 22,000 troops, larger than a normal German mountain division, but this was never implemented because of events in 1944. On 15 January 1944, SS-Gruppenführer Lothar Debes became
588-510: A possible Soviet encirclement of the division, for which Renz and the 82nd battalion commander were both awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . On 23 August 1944, Krüger was assigned to another unit and relinquished command to SS-Standartenführer Gustav Lombard until 1 September, when his replacement arrived, SS-Gruppenführer Karl-Heinrich Brenner . Later that month Finland signed
686-589: A reconnaissance battalion, and other support units in March 1941. In April and May, the Kampfgruppe Nord was moved into the Kirkenes region of northern Norway. There they were joined by the 9th SS Infantry Regiment. The unit still lacked training and could not effectively fight with combined arms . On 17 June 1941, Herrmann was replaced by SS-Brigadeführer Karl-Maria Demelhuber and Kampfgruppe Nord
784-787: A route towards the Rhine from Waldesch as the Americans began taking the rest of the German positions in the Moselle area. On 16 March the LXXXIX Army Corps was ordered to withdraw, and they evacuated from the western side of the Rhine. Koblenz and Trier had both fallen by 17 March, creating a risk of collapse in the German defensive positions. The regiment that remained behind with the LXXXII Corps continued to fight separately from
882-551: A train to the southern coast. On 19 December 1944, the Nord Division departed from Norway to Denmark by ship. Karl-Heinrich Brenner was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for commanding the division's successful withdrawal from Finland. The Norwegian ski battalion did not join the rest of the division when it was sent back to Germany, and other units also got reassigned, bringing down its strength to about 15,000 from
980-778: A training camp for arctic and mountain warfare in Oulu , Finland. The division became part of the Wehrmacht's 20th Mountain Army , and more specifically the XVIII Mountain Corps , which it formed along with the 7th Mountain Division . Under the corps commander, General of Mountain Troops Franz Böhme , the Nord Division and other German units were to hold the sector from the Loukhsky District area to
1078-583: A unified formation. The Nord Division was also reinforced with the arrival of 700 Waffen-SS troops, who were trained infantrymen, unlike the former paramilitary members of the Allgemeine-SS. In addition, it received three artillery battalions in September. From October to November, SS-Standartenführer Franz Schreiber briefly took command in Demelhuber's place. The Nord Division had a role in
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#17327753176281176-531: Is responsible", he said in September 1994. Jacques Chirac , who became president in 1995, was the first French leader to accept collective guilt for Vichy's deeds, stating on the anniversary of the July 1942 Vel' d'Hiv Roundup that France had committed an "irreparable" act. The GPRF was dominated by the tripartisme alliance between the French Communist Party (PCF), claiming itself to be
1274-739: The parti des 75,000 fusillés ("party of the 75,000 shot ") because of its role in the Resistance , the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party) and the Christian democratic Popular Republican Movement (MRP), led by Georges Bidault . This alliance between the three political parties lasted until the May 1947 crisis during which Maurice Thorez , vice-premier, and four other Communist ministers were expelled from
1372-496: The 6th SS Mountain , 17th SS Panzergrenadier , 21st Panzer , and 25th Panzergrenadier Divisions were engaged in the fighting. Another smaller attack was made against the French positions south of Strasbourg , but it was finally stopped. The U.S. VI Corps —which bore the brunt of the German attacks—was fighting on three sides by 15 January. The 125th Regiment of the 21st Panzer Division under Colonel Hans von Luck aimed to sever
1470-829: The Allgemeine-SS , the general service branch of the Nazi Party militia, becoming known as the Norges-SS . On 24 February 1941, two SS infantry regiments in German-occupied southern Norway , the 6th and 7th SS-Totenkopf-Standarten , were ordered to form a Kampfgruppe (battle group) ahead of the anticipated German invasion of the Soviet Union , Operation Barbarossa . These regiments consisted of ethnic Germans from annexed Czechoslovakia who had infantry training and were used in paramilitary functions by
1568-688: The Allied air forces based in northwestern Europe was known as Operation Bodenplatte . It failed without having achieved any of its key objectives. The initial Nordwind attack was conducted by three corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, the XXXIX (39th) Panzer Corps was heavily engaged as well. By 15 January at least 17 German divisions (including units in the Colmar Pocket ) from Army Group G and Army Group Oberrhein, including
1666-698: The Battle of the Bulge had begun to dissipate, and it was evident that the operation was on the brink of failure. It was believed that an attack against the United States Seventh Army further south, which had extended its lines and taken on a defensive posture to cover the area vacated by the United States Third Army (which turned north to assist at the site of the German breakthrough), could relieve pressure on German forces in
1764-471: The Battle of the Bulge , which by late December 1944 had decisively turned against the German forces. It began on 31 December 1944 in Rhineland-Palatinate , Alsace and Lorraine in southwestern Germany and northeastern France, and ended on 25 January 1945. The German offensive was an operational failure, with its main objectives not achieved. By 21 December 1944, the German momentum during
1862-781: The Finnish Armed Forces , while the northern Finnish and the Norwegian portions were overseen by the German Army High Command Norway . In the north, the German and Finnish forces had the objective of capturing Murmansk and cutting off the Murmansk railway that connected the vital Arctic Sea port with central Russia . The SS Division Nord attacked the Soviet border in central Finland (as part of Operation Arctic Fox ) on 1 July 1941, alongside
1960-818: The First Indochina War . Although the GPRF was active only from 1944 to 1946, it had a lasting influence, in particular regarding the enacting of labour laws which were put forward by the National Council of the Resistance , the umbrella organisation which united all resistance movements, in particular the communist Front National . The Front National was the political front of the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) resistance movement. In addition to de Gaulle's edicts granting, for
2058-576: The French Fourth Republic . Its establishment marked the official restoration and re-establishment of a provisional French Republic, assuring continuity with the defunct French Third Republic . It succeeded the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN), which had been the provisional government of France in the overseas territories and metropolitan parts of the country (Algeria and Corsica) that had been liberated by
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#17327753176282156-535: The Moscow Armistice with the Soviet Union, following the successful Red Army offensive in the south, requiring Finland to cut its ties with Germany. The Nord Division staff then received word of the 20th Mountain Army's plans for Operation Birke , the evacuation of all troops from Finland into Norway. The Nord Division left its positions and passed through central Finland before taking a road along
2254-724: The Oath of Kufra made by its commanding officer General Leclerc almost four years earlier. The unit under his command, barely above company size when it had captured the Italian fort, had grown into a full-strength armoured division . The spearhead of the Free French First Army that had landed in Provence was the I Corps . Its leading unit, the French 1st Armoured Division , was the first Western Allied unit to reach
2352-756: The Ordinance of 9 August 1944 . However, since mass cancellation of all decisions taken by Vichy was impractical, it was decided that any repeal of specific ordinances or decrees was to be expressly acknowledged by the government. The 9 August ordinance only invalidated those it listed. The ordinance provided that acts not expressly noted as nullified in the ordinance were to continue to receive "provisional application". Many acts were explicitly repealed, including all acts that Vichy had called "constitutional acts", all acts that discriminated against Jews, all acts related to so-called "secret societies" (e.g., Freemasons), and all acts that established special tribunals. While
2450-822: The Rhône (25 August 1944), the Rhine (19 November 1944) and the Danube (21 April 1945). On 22 April 1945, it captured the Sigmaringen enclave in Baden-Württemberg , where the last Vichy regime exiles, including Marshal Philippe Pétain , were hosted by the Germans in one of the ancestral castles of the Hohenzollern dynasty. They participated in stopping Operation Nordwind , the final German major offensive on
2548-466: The Third Republic . Becoming a constituent assembly , the newly elected parliament was charged with drafting a constitution for a new fourth republic. De Gaulle , favouring a stronger executive, resigned in disagreement with Communist ministers on 20 January 1946. A first draft constitution, supported by the left but denounced by de Gaulle and by centre and right-wing parties, was rejected by
2646-653: The 6th SS Mountain Division Nord commander. He was in command when the Soviets began an attack on the division on 7 March 1944, part of the Red Army winter spring campaign of 1944 . The main blow of the attack fell on the division's SS Volunteer Ski Battalion "Norway" and the 6th SS Mountain Reconnaissance Battalion. The SS troops were pushed back, but launched a successful counterattack that drove
2744-424: The 79th Infantry Division, the 14th Armoured Division, plus elements of the 42nd Infantry Division. On January 10 Luck reached the villages. Two weeks of heavy fighting followed, Germans and Americans each occupying parts of the villages while civilians sheltered in cellars. Luck later said that the fighting around Rittershoffen had been "one of the hardest and most costly battles that ever raged". Eisenhower, fearing
2842-660: The Allgemeine-SS in Sudetenland . They included members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (concentration camp guards). The two regiments were transferred from the Allgemeine-SS to the Waffen-SS to form the Kampfgruppe Nord . Under the command of SS-Brigadeführer Richard Herrmann , the Kampfgruppe received a full headquarters, including a cartographic section, two pioneer (combat engineer) companies,
2940-594: The American supply line to Strasbourg, by cutting across the eastern foothills of the Vosges at the northwest base of a natural salient in a bend of the River Rhine . Here the Maginot Line , running east–west, was used by Allied forces, and "showed what a superb fortification it was". On January 7 Luck approached the line south of Wissembourg at the villages of Rittershoffen and Hatten. Heavy American fire came from
3038-657: The Arctic Sea coast in the north. The division received more skis and other types of equipment for the Arctic environment over the course of 1942, and a divisional training battalion was established at Berchtesgaden in the German Alps to prepare recruits for fighting in mountain and Arctic environments. The Nord Division was involved in occasional skirmishes with Soviet troops along the front in which they were able to defend their positions, and German commanders began seeing
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3136-456: The Ardennes. In a briefing at his military command complex at Adlerhorst , Adolf Hitler declared in his speech to his division commanders on 28 December 1944 (three days prior to the launch of Operation Nordwind ), "This attack has a very clear objective, namely the destruction of the enemy forces. There is not a matter of prestige involved here. It is a matter of destroying and exterminating
3234-680: The CFLN on 21 April 1944, and was confirmed by the GPRF with the 5 October 1944 decree. They went to the polls for the first time in the local elections of 29 April 1945 . It passed decisions about Social Security ( Sécurité sociale , decree of 19 October 1945), and child benefits (law of 22 August 1946), laying the foundations of the welfare state in France. In the dirigist spirit, it created large state-owned companies, for instance by nationalising Renault and founding electricity company EDF and airline Air France . Another main objective of
3332-428: The Finnish encirclement and reached Muonio, and continued the rest of the 320 kilometres (200 miles) into Norway without any more disruptions. In the first week of November 1944 they crossed the Finnish–Norwegian border , and continued marching in subzero temperatures before reaching Gratangen . There they took a ferry to Fauske , from where they marched to the most northern point of the Norwegian railway system to take
3430-404: The Fourth Republic , established under the chairmanship of Georges Bidault (MRP), was finally adopted by the 13 October 1946 referendum . Following the elections for a new Chamber of parliament held on 10 November 1946 , former Popular Front leader Leon Blum became the Chairman of the last interim government on 16 December. One month later, Vincent Auriol succeeded Blum as President of
3528-450: The Free French. As the wartime government of France in 1944–1945, its main purposes were to handle the aftermath of the occupation of France and continue to wage war against Germany as one of the major Allies . Its principal mission (in addition to the war) was to prepare the ground for a new constitutional order that resulted in the Fourth Republic. It also made several important reforms and political decisions, such as granting women
3626-408: The French Republic In Alsace-Lorraine: The Provisional Government of the French Republic ( PGFR ; French : Gouvernement provisoire de la République française ( GPRF )) was the provisional government of Free France between 3 June 1944 and 27 October 1946, following the liberation of continental France after Operations Overlord and Dragoon , and lasting until the establishment of
3724-509: The French State" and Verdun hero, was also condemned to death but his sentence was commuted to life. Thousands of collaborators were summarily executed by local Resistance forces in so-called "savage purges" ( épuration sauvage ). Collaborationist paramilitary and political organizations, such as the Milice and the Legionary Order Service , were also disbanded. The provisional government also took steps to replace local governments, including governments that had been suppressed by
3822-420: The GPRF under de Gaulle leadership was to give a voice to the people by organizing elections which took place on 21 October 1945 . The polls saw the victory of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Popular Republican Movement (MRP), collecting three-quarters of the votes, and the referendum had an outcome of 96% of voters in favour of abolishing
3920-414: The German city of Trier , becoming part of the LXXXII Army Corps . Brenner moved the division headquarters to Holzerath in Rhineland. On 7 March 1945 the Nord infantry crossed the Ruwer river and attacked positions held by the U.S. 94th Infantry Division . They cut off the highway south of Trier, the main American line of communication in the area. However, the Nord Division took significant losses and
4018-412: The German-Finnish invasion of Karelia and the Kola peninsula did not begin for another week. Soviet aircraft bombed the Finnish side of the border shortly after the start of Barbarossa, causing Finland to enter the war. The Eastern Front along the Soviet border with Finland and German-controlled Norway consisted of two halves, with the southern portion of the Finnish border being the responsibility of
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4116-410: The III Corps, there was tension between the SS Division Nord staff and the Finns, with the former seeing the situation as a humiliation. Despite this, the Nord Division troops learned tactics from the Finns and the other units they were attached to in the continued fighting. In late August and early September, Army Command Norway sent all of the remaining SS troops to III Corps, recreating the division as
4214-437: The Moselle. They were immediately sent into battle against the U.S. 90th Infantry Division , to hold a route eastward to the Rhine for the rest of the corps. The SS troops held out and cut off an American infantry company when they attempted to force their way into the area the Nord Division troops were holding. When the rest of the 6th SS Mountain Division caught up with the recon battalion, they continued to hold out and created
4312-412: The Nord Division before the end of Operation Nordwind, and it failed despite making initial advances. By the end of the operation, the infantry regiments had taken 50% losses, although the other divisional units were intact. The losses were replaced by poorly trained conscripts and volunteers in February 1945. With the failure of the last German offensive in the West, the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord and
4410-442: The Nord Division men still in Wingen-sur-Moder, who later received orders to abandon the town from the commander of the 361st Volksgrenadier Division. German attacks elsewhere also led to little progress, and offensive operations were temporarily called off. The 12th SS Mountain Infantry Regiment managed to break out of the American encirclement, facing troops from the U.S. 179th and 180th Infantry Regiments , but took heavy losses in
4508-402: The Nord troops had established south of Limburg before advancing to the southeast. Having taken heavy losses from the American attack, the Nord Division was down to just 2,000 men, and remained west of Limburg before attempting to reach German lines further east as the Americans overran the surrounding area. By this point in late March 1945 American troops had broken through the German front along
4606-423: The Republic , marking the entry into force of the institutions of the Fourth Republic. 6th SS Mountain Division Nord The 6th SS Mountain Division Nord ( German : 6. SS-Gebirgs-Division Nord ) was a World War II mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS , the military wing of the German Nazi Party , primarily consisting of ethnic Germans along with some Norwegian and Swiss volunteers. It
4704-433: The Rhine, cutting off Army Group G in the south from Army Group B to the north, and advanced deeper into Germany. The remnants of some German units were left behind as the American main force advanced, including the Nord Division. On 30 March, Brenner led those who were left in an attempt to break out of the American encirclement as units of the 5th and 71st Infantry Divisions were tasked with finishing them off. In
4802-497: The SS troops counterattacked. The Soviet offensive was fought off and the front line remained static for the rest of 1942. In the early summer of 1942, the SS Division Nord was renamed SS-Mountain Division Nord ( SS-Gebirgs-Division Nord ) to solve its supply problems. The infantry and artillery regiments were reformed. This included reducing the number of regiments from three to two, both of which became mountain regiments staffed by experienced personnel. The division also established
4900-425: The Soviet lines and rescued the surrounded troops. He was awarded the Knight's Cross. The 11th Regiment reunited with the rest of the Nord Division, which began the march out of Finland towards Norway in late September 1944. On 26 October, Finnish troops began attacking the 11th Regiment near Muonio while another Finnish unit blocked the road behind them. The Germans, led by Günther Degen, were able to break through
4998-405: The Soviets out of the area. Later, in May 1944, Debes was relieved of command by SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger . Much further to the south, on 10 June 1944 the Red Army launched an offensive to drive the Finnish Army out of the Karelian isthmus near Leningrad . The massive Soviet attack rapidly pushed back the Finns. The German XVIII Mountain Corps tried to assist them on
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#17327753176285096-458: The Swedish border into Norway. As the SS troops withdrew from northern Russia they fought off units of the Soviet 26th Army . The 12th Regiment evacuated first while the 11th was left to cover the retreat of the rest of the division and the entire XVIII Mountain Corps. When the rear-guard battalion of the 11th Regiment was cut off by Soviet troops from the rest of the force, another battalion commander, Günther Degen , led an attack that broke through
5194-520: The Vichy regime, through new elections or by extending the terms of those who had been elected no later than 1939. The provisional government resumed the project started in 1936 by Jean Zay to create a national administration school ( École nationale d'administration ), which was founded on 9 October 1945, to ensure high-ranking civil servants of consistent high quality, as well as allow gifted people to reach these functions regardless of social origin. The right to vote had been granted to women by
5292-429: The area was reinforced by Task Force from the 70th Infantry Division (United States) Task Force Herren under the command of Brigadier General Thomas W. Herren Assistant Divisional Commander, and a regiment from the 45th Infantry Division . Troops from the 12th SS Mountain Infantry Regiment and the 361st Volksgrenadier Division were prepared to take Wingen-sur-Moder and other towns in the area, initially to break through
5390-407: The city. Kesselring then changed his order, sending the 6,000 survivors of the Nord Division eastward to Limburg an der Lahn to hold the river crossing there. The division reached the southern outskirts of Limburg on 26 March, having marched there after they ran out of fuel, but the U.S. 9th Armored Division was already there. On 27 March the American division broke through the line of defense that
5488-433: The course of 1942 and 1943. From that point they consisted of combat veterans and graduates of the Waffen-SS mountain warfare school. With the improvement in its combat capability, the division fought off multiple Soviet attacks. It was also renamed again as the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord. After Finland signed an armistice with the Soviet Union in 1944, the Nord Division broke through lines of Soviet and Finnish troops in
5586-406: The criminal behavior of Vichy France was consistently acknowledged, this point of view denied any responsibility of the state of France, alleging that acts committed between 1940 and 1944 were unconstitutional acts devoid of legitimacy. De Gaulle said that Vichy's actions were "null and void". He and others emphasized the unclear conditions of the June 1940 vote granting full powers to Pétain, which
5684-414: The decision was made to expand the Waffen-SS, the front-line combat arm of the SS , which had to recruit from foreign countries because of limitations imposed in Germany by the Wehrmacht . Scandinavians were the first to be recruited into the SS as they were considered to be Aryan and Germanic. Shortly after the German invasion of Norway , Norwegian volunteers were used to form police and security units of
5782-416: The dissolution of all German units. Some members of the division were able to escape eastward from Büdingen, including the commander, Karl-Heinrich Brenner. Later that month a significant number of the survivors were combined with SS officer cadets in Bavaria to form the 38th SS Grenadier Division Nibelungen , though this unit did not finish forming before the defeat of Germany in early May. The following
5880-467: The division as more combat capable. At the start of 1943 the SS-Mountain Division Nord had 560 officers and 20,176 NCOs and soldiers. In late 1943 Waffen-SS divisions were reorganized and given a number based on seniority, with the unit being renamed the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord. New recruits trained at the Waffen-SS mountain warfare school continued to be sent to the division in late 1943, and around that time they also received two Norwegian SS units,
5978-405: The division was effectively destroyed by the Red Army during Operation Arctic Fox , when it advanced into Soviet territory alongside the Finnish Army and the Wehrmacht. After taking massive losses in its first operation the Nord Division was entirely rebuilt starting from late 1941. The SS Division Nord remained in Finland and northern Russia , where most of its personnel were replaced over
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#17327753176286076-499: The division was reinforced by poorly trained conscripts and new recruits, though it remained one of the most capable German divisions remaining in Army Group G , defending the Rhineland . In March 1945 it fought near Trier and Koblenz before retreating west of the Rhine , and was encircled by the U.S. 5th and 71st Infantry Divisions near Büdingen . After several days of fighting the Nord Division effectively ceased to exist on 4 April 1945. After Germany invaded Poland in 1939,
6174-408: The early days of April 1945, the SS Mountain Division Nord was in an area near Büdingen , where there was fierce fighting against U.S. troops with the use of Sherman tanks and other captured American weapons. Organized resistance ceased with the surrender of the last divisional units on 3 April. The division was no longer an effective force by 4 April, and formally ceased to exist on 8 May 1945 with
6272-418: The enemy forces wherever we find them." The goal of the offensive was to break through the lines of the U.S. Seventh Army and French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges Mountains and the Alsatian Plain and destroy them, as well as seize Strasbourg, which Himmler had promised would be captured by 30 January. That would leave the way open for Operation Dentist ( Unternehmen Zahnarzt ), a planned major thrust into
6370-509: The final offensive of Operation Arctic Fox, in the first two weeks of November 1941. The Finnish III Corps and the Nord Division advanced together in the Loukhsky District in a last attempt to sever the Murmansk railway. Although they made progress and inflicted losses on the Red Army, the SS and Finnish troops also sustained casualties from the strong Soviet resistance. The attack was called off by Finland on 17 November. The Nord Division conducted mopping-up operations and anti-partisan patrols in
6468-459: The first time in France, right of vote to women in 1944 , the GPRF passed various labour laws, including the 11 October 1946 act establishing occupational medicine . It also appointed commissioners to fulfill its aims. Vichy loyalists were put on trial by the GPRF in legal purges ( épuration légale ), and a number were executed for treason , among them Pierre Laval , Vichy's prime minister in 1942–44. The Marshal Philippe Pétain , "Chief of
6566-461: The forests of Karelia for the rest of November and December 1941. The high casualties taken during Operation Barbarossa led to almost all of the Nord Division's original members being replaced by new reinforcements by January 1942, including by Volksdeutsche Germans from Hungary and Romania . On 20 April 1942, the division received a new commander, SS-Brigadeführer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp , after Franz Schreiber briefly assumed command in
6664-408: The government, both in France and in Italy . Along with the acceptance of the Marshall Plan , refused by countries who had fallen under the influence of the USSR , this marked the official beginning of the Cold War in these countries. It started decolonisation by recognising the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , but the refusal to include Cochinchina in the new state led to
6762-402: The head of Army Command Norway, Nikolaus von Falkenhorst . After this, the Nord Division was temporarily divided between other units. The 6th SS Infantry Regiment and the Artillery Regiment were sent to the 169th Infantry Division, the 7th SS Infantry Regiment went to the Finnish III Corps , and the 9th Regiment was with Mountain Corps Norway patrolling near the Arctic Sea. Now subordinated to
6860-421: The interim from 1 April until his arrival. The division was used to guard nickel mines in Finland and later was planned to take part in another German offensive toward the railway. Before this could happen, on 24 April 1942 the Soviets launched an attack in the sector where SS Division Nord was. The 23rd Guards Rifle Division , the 8th Ski Brigade, and the 80th Independent Brigade made some initial advances before
6958-425: The moment just before midnight on 17 June 1940 when Pétain took power. The provisional government considered the Vichy regime (officially: " French State ") to have been unconstitutional and all its actions therefore taken without legitimate authority and illegal. All "constitutional acts, legislative or regulatory" taken by the Vichy government, as well as decrees taken to implement them, were declared null and void by
7056-407: The northern flank but was also attacked by the Soviets, with three divisions hitting the 6th SS Mountain Division. The Red Army troops broke through the left flank of the Nord Division, causing the corps commander to send his reserve, Ski Battalion 82, and Krüger to send the Nord Division's 6th Rifle Battalion (reserve), led by Gottlieb Renz . Together they were able to push the Soviets out and prevent
7154-402: The offensive commenced, and the lead elements of the Nord Division, known as Kampfgruppe Schreiber after its commander, took part in the attack, subordinated to the 361st Volksgrenadier Division . The Nord Division troops were tasked with capturing the town of Wingen-sur-Moder . The town was the headquarters of the 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron from the 14th Armored Division , and
7252-419: The outright destruction of the U.S. 7th Army, had rushed already battered divisions hurriedly relieved from the Ardennes, southeast over 100 km (62 mi), to reinforce the 7th Army. But their arrival was delayed, and on 21 January with supplies and ammunition short, Seventh Army ordered the much-depleted 79th Infantry and 14th Armored Divisions to retreat from Rittershoffen and fall back on new positions on
7350-646: The overextended U.S. 7th Army in dire straits; the 7th Army (at the orders of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower ) had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes involved in the Battle of the Bulge. On the same day that the German Army launched Operation Nordwind, the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) committed almost 1,000 aircraft in support. This attempt to cripple
7448-454: The previous 22,000. After arriving in Denmark the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord was immediately sent to reinforce the Western Front , where a German operation known as the Ardennes offensive failed to break through American positions in France in late 1944. On 29 December 1944 the lead elements of the Nord Division arrived near the French–German border by train from Denmark, marching to
7546-411: The process. Even after taking losses, the 6th SS Mountain Division was still in a better condition than the 361st Volksgrenadier Division. The remaining divisional units also arrived at the front and rejoined what was left of the 12th Regiment. Fighting continued between the Germans and the Americans in this sector after 11 January, with no German breakthrough initially, and around this time the division
7644-414: The rear of the U.S. Third Army , intended to lead to the destruction of that army. On 31 December 1944, German Army Group G (commanded by Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz ) and Army Group Upper Rhine (commanded by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ) launched a major offensive against the thinly stretched, 110-kilometre-long (68 mi) front line held by the U.S. 7th Army. Operation Nordwind soon had
7742-525: The regiment of the Nord Division that stayed behind with the LXXXII Army Corps, which launched a counterattack that slowed down the 80th Infantry Division . Meanwhile, the Nord reconnaissance battalion reached the Moselle river ahead of the rest of the division, where it fought against American troops on 14 March. The rest of the SS division minus the regiment that stayed behind arrived by 15 March to
7840-576: The rest of Army Group G was tasked with holding the Rhineland in southwest Germany. At this point it was one of the most capable divisions remaining in Army Group G, though its losses in the offensive and the arrival of new replacements was changing the Nord Division from the experienced mountain infantry unit it had been in Finland. In early March 1945 the division was given new orders to retake
7938-470: The rest of XXXVI Army Corps, which included the 169th Infantry Division . One of the Nord Division's infantry regiments, the 9th, was sent to the most northern sector near the Arctic Sea coast, where it was part of Mountain Corps Norway . The bulk of the division that was in the central region passed through the dense forests and swamps of Salla to attack Soviet positions. In the first week of fighting,
8036-463: The rest of the Nord Division before dissolving in mid-April 1945. The rest of the Nord Division, which remained the most intact unit in the LXXXIX Corps, remained in the Rhine valley until it was ordered by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring to move southeast to Wiesbaden shortly before 24 March, in preparation for a counterattack against General George Patton 's troops crossing the Rhine near
8134-532: The restoration of the republic, the general replied that he could not, because the republic had never ceased to exist. De Gaulle used his old office as a junior cabinet minister at the Ministry of War as symbol of the continuity between the pre- and post-Vichy governments. He refused to make a speech to open the first meeting of the provisional government in September 1944, stating that the republic continued but in reorganized form. Theoretically, France returned to
8232-673: The right to vote , founding the École nationale d'administration and laying the grounds of social security in France . The PGFR was officially created by the CFLN on 3 June 1944, the day before Charles de Gaulle arrived in London from Algiers on Winston Churchill 's invitation, and three days before D-Day . The CFLN itself had been created exactly one year earlier through the uniting of de Gaulle's ( Comité national français , or CNF ) and Henri Giraud 's organisations. Among its most immediate concerns were to ensure that France did not come under allied military administration , preserving
8330-744: The south bank of the Moder River . On 25 January the German offensive was halted, after the US 222nd Infantry Regiment stopped their advance near Haguenau , earning the Presidential Unit Citation in the process. The same day reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Although Strasbourg had been successfully defended, the Colmar Pocket had not yet been eliminated. https://wisvetsmuseum.com/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=OH_00915.xml Provisional Government of
8428-621: The south, threatening the Red Army with a double-envelopment. The successful Finnish and Wehrmacht advance forced the Soviets to withdraw from Salla, though they did not make it to their objective, the Murmansk railway. By the end of August 1941 the SS Division Nord had lost 1,085 dead. The terrible performance damaged the Nord Division's reputation among Wehrmacht and SS leaders, including Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and
8526-481: The sovereignty of France and freeing allied troops for fighting on the front. After the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944, it moved back to the capital, establishing a new "national unanimity" government on 9 September 1944, including Gaullists , nationalists, socialists, communists and anarchists. Among its foreign policy goals was to secure a French occupation zone in Germany and a permanent UNSC seat . This
8624-468: The two Nord Division regiments sustained massive losses. They launched three attacks to force the Red Army from its positions but all of them failed. The Soviets then launched an armored counterattack that pushed back the remaining SS troops, who abandoned their positions and fled in panic. This lasted until 8 July, when the 169th Infantry Division attacked from the north and the Finnish 6th Division from
8722-528: The villages of Ludwigswinkel and Eppenbrunn . There the SS troops came into contact with stragglers from other German units that fought in the recent battles of the Western Front. The division was to take part in Operation Nordwind , an attack on the U.S. 7th Army of Lieutenant General Alexander Patch in southeastern France, which held a relatively weak position in the Allied line. On 1 January 1945
8820-750: The western front in January 1945, and in collapsing the Colmar Pocket in January–February 1945, capturing and destroying most of the German XIXth Army . At the Hôtel de Ville, Paris on 25 August 1944, where the French Second Republic and French Third Republic had been declared, de Gaulle explicitly refused to declare a new republic. When Georges Bidault of the French Resistance said that de Gaulle could declare
8918-605: Was assured through a large military contribution on the western front . The GPRF set about raising new troops to participate in the advance to the Rhine and the invasion of Germany , using the French Forces of the Interior as military cadres and manpower pools of experienced fighters to allow a very large and rapid expansion of the French Liberation Army ( Armée française de la Libération ). It
9016-673: Was ordered to withdraw. One infantry regiment, the 12th, stayed behind while the rest of the division made their way to the section of the Moselle river between Koblenz and Cochem , where it was nominally assigned to the LXXXIX Army Corps , which consisted of several infantry divisions. The U.S. XX Corps and XII Corps began attacking the positions held by the LXXXII and LXXXIX Army Corps, respectively, on 12 March. The American troops encountered fierce resistance, including from
9114-485: Was part of the XXXVI Army Corps . By 18 June they completed their deployment to the positions for the invasion near Salla. Demelhuber noted that the division was not combat ready, because most of the troops had no experience in combat and their vehicles had maintenance problems. When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, Finland initially chose not to attack the Soviet Union unless it was provoked, and so
9212-547: Was reassigned to the XC Army Corps . But on 15 January the 11th SS Mountain Infantry Regiment counterattacked the advance forces of the 45th Infantry Division after they overran the 256th Volksgrenadier Division . The attack encircled and captured several companies from the U.S. 157th Infantry . After this success, Brenner was ordered to capture Zinswiller on 23 January. This was the last offensive action by
9310-399: Was refused by the minority of Vichy 80 . In particular, coercive measures used by Pierre Laval have been denounced by those historians who hold that the vote did not, therefore, have constitutional legality. In later years, de Gaulle's position was reiterated by president Mitterrand. "I will not apologize in the name of France. The Republic had nothing to do with this. I do not believe France
9408-645: Was renamed the SS Division Nord (German: SS-Division Nord ), becoming a motorized division. The division insignia was the Hagal rune, part of the system of runes invented by Guido von List . After Finland entered into an agreement with Nazi Germany to participate in Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, the new SS division was moved into central Finland opposite of the Soviet-occupied Finnish region of Salla . The division
9506-541: Was the only Waffen-SS division to operate in the Arctic Circle . It was founded in early 1941 as the SS Battle Group Nord (German: SS- Kampfgruppe Nord ) in southern Norway before being upgraded and renamed the SS Division Nord in preparation for Operation Barbarossa . Its original personnel came from Allgemeine-SS paramilitary units and had low combat effectiveness. In the second half of 1941
9604-652: Was well equipped and well supplied despite the economic disruption brought by the occupation thanks to Lend-Lease , and grew from 500,000 men in the summer of 1944 to over 1,300,000 by V-E day , making it the fourth largest Allied army in Europe. The French 2nd Armoured Division , tip of the spear of the Free French forces that had participated in the Normandy Campaign and liberated Paris, went on to liberate Strasbourg on 23 November 1944, thus fulfilling
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