I was reading in a recent issue of Strategy and Tactics Magazine about the 6th Panzer Army that was formed in 1944 to face the Russian advance into Hungary. This German army was involved in the last offensive of the war by the Germans, which ended in March.
As a result of the predictable defeat of Sepp Dietrich and the 6th Army by the Russians, Hitler was ‘less than pleased’, and issued an order that various divisions of the Waffen SS be stripped of their armbands, believing that “the troops have not fought as the situation demandedâ€.
The rumor quickly spread that even Sepp Dietrich was defiant of the order, refusing to obey it and publicly telling his officers in disgust, “That’s all the thanks you get for all you’ve done in five years!â€
A further story is told that one Waffen SS commander told his officers to load up a chamber pot with the medals and emblems of their units and sent it to Hitler.
I found the story interesting because it suggests that even Hitler’s SS wasn’t as firmly behind the Fuhrer as often thought.
But it also made me wonder, what if this had happened in 1944, say after D-Day? What if Hitler had issued such an order and it caused the same reaction on the Western Front?
As a result of the predictable defeat of Sepp Dietrich and the 6th Army by the Russians, Hitler was ‘less than pleased’, and issued an order that various divisions of the Waffen SS be stripped of their armbands, believing that “the troops have not fought as the situation demandedâ€.
The rumor quickly spread that even Sepp Dietrich was defiant of the order, refusing to obey it and publicly telling his officers in disgust, “That’s all the thanks you get for all you’ve done in five years!â€
A further story is told that one Waffen SS commander told his officers to load up a chamber pot with the medals and emblems of their units and sent it to Hitler.
I found the story interesting because it suggests that even Hitler’s SS wasn’t as firmly behind the Fuhrer as often thought.
But it also made me wonder, what if this had happened in 1944, say after D-Day? What if Hitler had issued such an order and it caused the same reaction on the Western Front?