SS Parachute Battalion 500/600
The SS-Parachute Battalion 500, as of November 1944 SS-Parachute Battalion 600 (German: SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500/600), was the airborne unit of the Waffen-SS.
Name development
unit consisted of about 900 to 1,000 officers and enlisted men, of whom 634 were deployed.
- September 1943 SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon
- May 1944 SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 500
- 9 November 1944 SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 600
Commanders
- SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Gilhofer (October 1943 - April 1944)
- SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka (April 1944 - 26 June 1944)
- SS-Hauptsturmführer Siegfried Milius (26 June 1944 - May 1945)
- When Milius was assigned with parts of the battalion to the SS combat group (SS-Kampfgruppe) "Solar" (led by Werner Hunke) of the SS-Jagdverband Mitte at the beginning of March 1945, SS Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Leifheit, who was in charge of deputy command, took over until the end of March/beginning of April of the staff and the remnants of the battalion.
History
The idea to form a paratrooper unit within the Waffen-SS, allegedly, came from Reichsführer Himmler. The plan was made in September 1943, after the escapade of Otto Skorzeny and the raid on Gran Sasso, during which a group of parachutists had freed the Benito Mussolini (on September 12 Skorzeny took part as a guest in Unternehmen Eiche, a daring glider-based assault on the Campo Imperatore Hotel at Gran Sasso, and rescued Mussolini without firing a single bullet). Considering that the new unit of parachutists had to be employed in dangerous actions beyond the enemy lines, it was decided to extend enlistment to those in the SS disciplinary units which were formed from officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers who had had problems with the military law: an order of the SS-FHA (the SS High Command) fixed a percentage of 50 % for the coming from volunteers from Waffen-SS units and the rest for volunteers from the disciplinary units.
Per Massimiliano Afiero, in The Crusade against Bolshevism; European Voluntary Legions (1941-1944), Vol.1, states that many witnesses and historians placed excessive emphasis on the presence of these in the unit, mainly because of the number of identification of same unit (500) assigned to SS-Bewährungsbataillon 500, a penal unit of the SS.
The gathering of the personnel for new unit, ordered on 9 September 1943, was at the SS troop training ground in Bohemia (SS-Truppenübungsplatz Böhmen) near Beneschau (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) in October 1943. As first commander of the battalion was SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Gilhofer, coming from from the 21st SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment of the 10th SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg. In November 1943 the battalion began its training in Madanrushka-Banja (Mataruška banja), close to Sarajevo, with the Luftwaffe Fallschirmschule number 3. The training was completed in the area around Pápa, Hungary in the beginning of 1944.
On 1 October 1944, all probationary privates of the SS-Parachute Battalion 500 received the pardon of impunity or cancellation of sentence due to the probation. The SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon 600 was incorporated into the SS-Jagdverband Mitte on 10 November 1944.
Operations
- General anti-partisan operations (Bandenbekämpfung)
- Operation "Maypole" (Unternehmen „Maibaum“)
- Operation "Maibaum", including together with the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian), lasted from 26 April to 7 May 1944, in which strong partisan units in the Majevica were to be prevented from crossing the Drina into Serbia. Heavy fighting ensued, during which the partisans were prevented from crossing the Drina, but they were not destroyed. The operation ended in mid-May 1944 with heavy losses for the criminal Yugoslav gangs.
- Operation "Margarethe" (Unternehmen „Margarethe“)
- Operation "Margarethe" was the German code name for the military operation to occupy Hungary after the treason of prime minister Miklós Kállay during World War II, carried out on 19 March 1944. However, a planned "Operation "Margarethe II"" to occupy Romania did not take place. After Miklós Horthy also committed treason, Hitler ordered the Operation "Panzerfaust" (Unternehmen „Panzerfaust“).
- Operation "Rösselsprung" (Unternehmen „Rösselsprung“)
- After the end of this costly operation, the SS-Fsch.Jg.Btl. 500 to Ljubljana to clean up the Carniola (Slovenia) from the communist Tito terrorists, but the situation on the Eastern Front required it to be deployed to Army Group North.
- Eastern Front in Lithuania
- Liberation of the surrounded SS troops in Wilna
- Operation "Panzerfaust"
- After Miklós Horthy also committed treason, Hitler ordered the Operation "Panzerfaust" (Unternehmen „Panzerfaust“) under Otto Skorzeny.
- Memel (Courland Pocket)
- Battle of the Bulge
- Bridgehead Schwedt and Bridgehead Zehden/West Pomerania (as a replacement for parts of the bled out 1st Marine Infantry Division)
- together with the successors of the SS-Sonderverband z. b. V. "Friedenthal" and the SS Jagdverbände as well as the German soldiers and SS volunteers of the mostly unsuccessful Operation "Sonnenwende" (Unternehmen „Sonnenwende“). Milius was commanded with parts of the battalion to the SS combat group "Solar".
- Battle of Berlin (parts) and Alpine Fortress (parts)
Further reading
- Siegfried Milius: Fallschirmjager der Waffen-SS im Bild, Deutsche Stimme Verlag, 2007
