Active Service
The 38th SS division was ready for battle on 24 April 1945, when it entered the ranks of the XIII SS Army Corps on the Danube river Front, facing American forces on the southern bank.
The Nibelungen was supposed to hold the Corps right wing from Vohburg to Kelheim, but the line was too long for the Divisions' strength, so it withdrew to a new front on 26 April, which it held until the 28th. On 29 April it had to retreat again across the Isar river to a new position south of Landshut, while coming under strong pressure on its flanks. The next day the Division retreated once again, this time to a defensive line northwest of Pastetten and on 1 May it had to withdraw almost 20 km to Wasseburg. The US 20th Armored Division then breached the division's front on 2 May, forcing the Nibelungen to retreat once more to Chiemsee. The remains of the division regrouped on 4 May and established a new line west of Oberwoessen. It surrendered to the American forces on 8 May 1945.
The German actor Hardy Kruger was among the members of the Hitler Youth battalion that was incorporated into the division. He was later captured by advancing units of the US Army.
Read more about this topic: 38th SS Division Nibelungen
Famous quotes containing the words active and/or service:
“The sense of an entailed disadvantage—the deformed foot doubtfully hidden by the shoe, makes a restlessly active spiritual yeast, and easily turns a self-centred, unloving nature into an Ishmaelite. But in the rarer sort, who presently see their own frustrated claim as one among a myriad, the inexorable sorrow takes the form of fellowship and makes the imagination tender.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Let the good service of well-deservers be never rewarded with loss. Let their thanks be such as may encourage more strivers for the like.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)