HG Division

Description
The Fallschirm-Panzerkorps Hermann Göring was activated in early October 1944, and the Hermann Göring Panzer division, along with its sister Panzergrenadier division, was transferred to the command of the corps. The Panzerkorps was then transferred to the East Prussia-Kurland region to halt the Soviet offensive which had already achieved the isolation of Army Group North in the Kurland Pocket and was now aimed at the capture of East Prussia. The Panzerkorps was involved in heavy defensive fighting near Gumbinnen, and when the Soviet assault petered out in late November, the Panzerkorps set up static defensive lines.


The massive Soviet Vistula-Oder Offensive trapped the Hermann Göring Panzerkorps in the Heiligenbeil Pocket along with the rest of the 4.Armee. In February, the Heer's élite Panzergrenadier-Division Großdeutschland was attached to the corps.

Despite several breakout attempts, the Panzerkorps had to be evacuated by sea to Swinemünde in Pomerania. Upon landing, it was thrown back into combat, defending the Oder-Neisse line against Soviet attacks through mid-March. To bolster the corps' strength, the elite Panzergrenadier-Division Brandenburg was attached to the unit.

In April, the remnants of the Hermann Göring Panzerkorps was sent to Silesia, and in heavy fighting was slowly pushed back into Saxony. On April 22, the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division 1. Hermann Göring was one of two divisions that broke through the inter-army boundary of the Polish 2nd Army (Polish People's Army or LWP) and the Soviet 52nd Army, in an action near Bautzen, destroying parts of their communications and logistics trains and severely damaging the Polish (LWP) 5th Infantry Division and 16th Tank Brigade before being stopped two days later.[1][2][3][4]

By early May, the Panzerkorps was positioned near the Saxon capitol of Dresden. The remains of the corps began breakout attempts to the west, in order to surrender to the Americans who were currently halted on the Elbe. Despite valiant breakout attempts, the corps was encircled, and although several small groups successfully made it through to the west, the majority of the corps surrendered to the Soviets on 8 May 1945. As Luftwaffe men, along with the Waffen-SS and Polizei units, were seen by the Russians as war criminals, due to their involvement in atrocities committed on Eastern Front, the majority of the survivors of the Panzerkorps would not return from the Gulags of the Soviet Union


War_Crimes!!!/John_Mclane