Eastern Front
The 1st Mountain Division participated in Operation Barbarossa, (the invasion of the Soviet Union). On 30 June, the division captured Lvov. There, the Germans discovered several thousand bodies of prisoners who had been executed by the NKVD, as they could not be evacuated. As the news spread, a large-scale anti-Jewish pogrom broke out, in which the town's Ukrainian population participated, stirred up in part by German and 'Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists' (OUN) posters and proclamations calling for revenge against the "Jewish Bolshevik murders".
The 1st Mountain Division continued its advance into the Soviet Union, participating in the breakthrough of the Stalin Line and the advance to the Dniepr and Mius rivers. In May 1942, the division fought in the Second Battle of Kharkov and then participated in the offensive through southern Russia and into the Caucasus (Operation Edelweiss).
In a symbolic propaganda move, the division sent a detachment to raise the German flag on Mount Elbrus on 21 August. Although the feat was widely publicized by Goebbels, Hitler was furious at this. After the Caucasus campaign the division was posted to Greece and later Serbia where it took part in anti- partisan operations.
But by late 1944 the division, as part of Army Group E, had been withdrawn to Hungary from the Balkans.
It was renamed 1. Volks-Gebirgs-Division in March 1945. Its final major operations were near Lake Balaton (Operation Spring Awakening) against the 3rd Ukrainian Front. Two months later the shattered division surrendered to the Americans in Austria.
Read more about this topic: 1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht)
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