Formation
The division was formed in late 1941 following the Invasion of Yugoslavia, initially from German-speaking Danube Swabian Selbschutz in the Serbian province of Banat.
"After the initial rush of Volksdeutsche to join, voluntary enlistments tapered off, and the new formation did not reach division size. Therefore, in August 1941, the SS discarded the voluntary approach, and after a favorable judgement from the SS court in Belgrade, imposed a mandatory military obligation on all Volksdeutsche in Banat, the first of its kind for non-Reich Germans."
One of the reasons for the forced conscription of ethnic Germans was the disappointingly low amount of volunteers for the division after the initial recruitments (no more than 5000). While the division remained "volunteer" in name, few of the conscripted ethnic Germans actively sought entry into the unit. SS Reichsführer Himmler had announced that the wishes of the Volksdeutsche were irrelevant, while in connection with the Balkan Germans the SS head of recruitment Gottlob Berger remarked: "kein Mensch darum, was wir unten mit unseren Volksdeutschen tun" ("no person cares what we do with our ethnic Germans in the South"). Ethnic Germans in the Balkans were therefore powerless and could not oppose conscription into the SS.
The unwillingness of ethnic Germans to serve in the unit is illustrated by a mutiny of 173 Croatian Germans of the division in 1943 in Bosnia. Apparently the men of mixed ancestry did not speak German and were mistreated by their superiors as a result. Himmler intervened personally in the problem and even ordered any NCO that insulted the mother of the Croatian German troops to be shot on the spot (the insulting of mothers being common in the Balkans) Many of these men preferred service in the Croatian Home Guard for a variety of reasons.
In 1942, the Pančevo-based unit was declared a Mountain Division. They were issued with non standard German weapons and used captured equipment such as Czech machine guns and French light tanks.
When the division was formed, it was assigned to the Balkans as an anti-Partisan mountain division.
The division's first action was in the Serbian-Montenegro border in the mountains east of the Ibar River and afterwards it took part in the Fourth anti-Partisan Offensive in the Zagreb-Karlovac area, where together with Italian forces attempted to defeat the Partisans commanded by Josip Broz Tito, the operation failed and most of the Partisans managed to evade the main attack.
Read more about this topic: 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
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