Outside the battered Reichstag the sound of artillery and small arms fire echoed across the ruins of the Königsplatz. The building shook as chunks of stone were torn off in great showers of debris. Inside cowered the remains of Heinrich Himmler’s mighty Waffen-SS. How had his private army that once numbered almost 40 divisions been reduced to this? Hitler, in the closing months of World War II, vainly hoped that the Waffen-SS could turn the tide on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. Ever since the assassination attempt on his life on 20 July 1944 he had refused to trust the German armed forces – especially the army.
Instead Hitler put his faith in Himmler’s Nazi fanatics and it was the SS who spearheaded his last two offensives. First in the Ardennes to halt the British and the Americans, and then in Hungary to stop the Soviets. These operations represented Hitler’s last stand yet both were characterised by poor planning and political infighting. The result was defeat and Hitler angrily denounced the SS. It was only in the dying days of the Third Reich, as they fought to defend the Nazi capital, that Hitler found it in his suicidal heart to thank the SS.
Rejuvenated SS
The Allies became aware in late September 1944 that Hitler was withdrawing his armour from the Western Front to build up a very large panzer reserve. Intelligence indicated that the 1st SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, 2nd SS Das Reich, 9th SS Hohenstaufen and 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Divisions were being refitted for renewed combat. Most notably, the two SS Panzer Corps were swiftly rebuilt as the strike force of SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich’s new 6th Panzer Army. This was not officially designated an SS army until 1945 as it also included army divisions, but nevertheless led by the Waffen-SS was considered as such.
The two panzer divisions of SS-Gruppenführer Herman Priess’ I SS Panzer Corps were each brought up to about 22,000 men; Leibstandarte was supplemented with Tiger II
