Deployment
The newly created division was soon sent back to the Eastern Front and fought in the Rzhev and Orel sectors in central Russia until the spring of 1943. The division was then moved to the area around Bobruisk, on internal security and anti partisan duties until September 1943. In September the division was moved again to the Southern front and took part in the German retreat to the Dnieper river.
The division was then sent to Hungary in October 1943, where the Panzerjager and Sturmgeschütz Battalions were combined and the Reconnaissance Battalion became a Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. Following this reorganization the division was posted to Croatia. In April 1944, they returned to Hungary and took part in the fighting in Transylvania after the Romanian front collapsed.
The Division was trapped in Budapest with the IX SS Mountain Corps when the Russians surrounded the city in December 1944. The 8th SS Cavalry Division was then involved in the fierce fighting to hold the city often engaged in hand to hand combat and fighting house to house. The Division was destroyed in the fighting for Budapest and by the end of the siege of the 30,000 men of the SS Corps only about 800 survived to reach the German lines.
Read more about this topic: 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer