Walter Harzer

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Walter Harzer
Ritterkreuzträger SS-Obersturmbannführer Walter Harzer.jpg
Birth date 29 September 1912
Place of birth Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire
Death date 29 May 1982 (aged 69)
Place of death Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Resting place Friedhof Feuerbach[1]
Allegiance  Weimar Republic
 National Socialist Germany
Service/branch SA-Logo.png Sturmabteilung
Schutzstaffel
Polizei in der Weimarer Republik.jpg Police
War Ensign of the Reichswehr, 1919 - 1935.png Reichswehr
Flag Schutzstaffel.png Waffen-SS
Years of service 1930–1945
Rank SS-Oberführer
Commands held 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen
4. SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division
Battles/wars World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Relations ∞ 1941 Gisela Görhardt

Walter Harzer (29 September 1912 – 29 May 1982) was a German Waffen-SS officer and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in WWII. After the war, he became active in the veteran's association HIAG.

Life

SS-Untersturmführer Walter Harzer.jpg
Bilder Walter Harzer.jpg
Walter Harzer VI.jpg
Walter Harzer on an English loot vehicle.jpg
Walter Harzer, Traueranzeige der Familie.jpg
Gravesite Walter Harzer.jpeg

Walter Harzer was born in Stuttgart-Feuerbach in 1912. After his Abitur (Oberrealschule), he began his civil engineering studies (Bauingenieurstudium) at the Württemberg Building Trades School Stuttgart (Württembergische Baugewerkschule Stuttgart) and became a member of the patriotic fraternity Burschenschaft Arminia Stuttgart. His scars (known in academic fencing as a Schmiss) on his left cheek testify to his courage in duels (Mensuren). He had already joined the SA and the NSDAP (No.: 477,371) in November 1930 after he came of age. In November 1931, he transferred to the Allgemeine SS (No.: 23,101) and served with the 13. SS-Standarte in Stuttgart. He dropped out of his studies before earning his degree and joined the Württemberg State Police (Landespolizei) in Stuttgart in the spring of 1933 as an auxiliary police officer (Hilfspolizist).

In April 1933, Harzer was also a member of the Politische Bereitschaft (SS Political Readiness Detachment) in Württemberg. In October 1933, he volunteered for six months with the Reichswehr. He was assigned to the 13. (Württemburgisches) Infanterie-Regiment, eventually reaching the rank of Gefreiter (Private E-2 / Lance Corporal). In March 1934, the 21-year old Harzer joined SS-Verfügungstruppe, graduating from the new SS-Junkerschule (officer candidate school) at Bad Tölz in 1936. After his graduation, he was assigned to the SD-Hauptamt (Main Office) and later the SS-Standarte Deutschland, one of the four regiments of the Verfügungstruppe. On 1 April 1939, he was appointed leader (Führer) of the 14. Sturm, on 1 July 1939, he was appointed commander of the 9th Company.

World War II

With Deutschland, Harzer participated in the Poland Campaign and was awarded the Iron Cross II. Class. However, on 1 November 1939, instead of continuing on with his regiment, Harzer was transferred as a tactics instructor to the SS-Junkerschule in Braunschweig and in March 1941 to the SS-Unterführerschule (NCO and reserve officer candidate school) in Radolfzell (4. Reserve-Führer-Anwärter-Lehrgang [4. RFA-Lehrgang] from 1 March to 31 May 1941). On 12 June 1941, he was assigned as commander to the II. Bataillon/SS-Infanterie-Regiment 4. It was with this unit that Harzer received the Iron Cross I. Class. From mid 1942 until April 1943, Harzer served as a staff officer first with the LVII. Panzerkorps and later, after completing General Staff Course, with the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 10, later renamed the 10th SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg.

On 10 April 1943, Harzer was assigned to the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 9 (from 23 October 1943 a part of the 9. SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen). He remained with the division for 19 months and saw it to become a fully equipped Panzer division. He proved himself to be an excellent staff and combat officer during the division’s relief attack on Tarnopol and later during the Allied attacks on Caen during the Invasion of Normandy. On 19 August 1944, Harzer was decorated with the German Cross in Gold for his exemplary leadership during the operations in Normandy.

As the 9. SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen was ordered for a refit in Holland, Walter Harzer became its fifth commander, taking over for SS-Oberführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock. The division reached Arnhem on 9 September 1944, where they were to hand most of its vehicles and heavy equipment to Frundsburg in preparation for a move to Germany for refitting. However, on Sunday, 17 September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden. Harzer’s division was reinforced and reclassified to a combat group (Kampfgruppe/Sperrverband "Harzer").

The combat group was engaged mainly to the west of Arnhem, preventing the British forces from linking with the elements of the Red Devils of the 1. Airborne Division that were surrounded in Arnhem and thus preventing them from securing a bridgehead across the Rhine. Later on, under Walter Harzer’s command, the remnants of his division played a major part in the near total destruction of the Allied forces in the Arnhem area, an achievement for which Harzer was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

On 10 October 1944, Harzer left Hohenstaufen and went on to become the Chief of Staff of the 5th SS Mountain Korps before receiving the command of the 4th SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division at the end of November 1944. Together with the rest of this division, SS-Oberführer Walter Harzer surrendered himself to the Americans near Wittenberge-Lenzen on 8 May 1945.

Knight's Cross

Harzer’s Knight’s Cross recommendation reads as follows:

“SS-Obersturmbannführer Harzer took over command of the 9. SS-Pz.Div. ‘Hohenstaufen’ from his original position as its first general staff officer (Ia). During the heavy defensive battles in the area St. Quentin-Cambrai-Valenciennes it had been formed into a Kampfgruppe from the remnants of the 9. SS-Pz.Div.
1.) On the night of the 01.-02.09.1944, near St. Quentin, SS-Obersturmbannführer Harzer received the task of protecting the German troops still located south of the city. He would do this by blocking all the roads from the southwest and west that led towards Cambrai from advancing enemy units. By the time the designated area was reached however strong enemy armoured forces had already overrun the planned blocking line in the southwest, and were already advancing from the south towards Cambrai. For this reason Harzer decided to conduct a swift bypassing march to the east, in which he would overtake the enemy by advancing north (see sketch) and try again at blocking the road that led to Cambrai from the south.
Harzer helped this operation to succeed despite a fuel shortage and the heavily worn out vehicles involved. Despite strong enemy armoured attacks that lasted the whole day Harzer held onto Cambrai, and also succeeded in successfully repulsing an enemy encirclement maneuver from the south that aimed to get into the eastern flank of the city. During the afternoon strong enemy tank forces launched a surprise advance from Arras (located to the northwest) against Cambrai. Only now did Harzer decide to pull his Kampfgruppe out of the city, having no units to spare from his weak forces. With his Kampfgruppe he managed to set up a new blocking line to the northwest (see sketch) under continual pressure from the enemy.
Although the enemy had meanwhile already begun to threaten the only retreat route to the northeast from both the south and northwest, SS-Obersturmbannführer Harzer (himself remaining in contact with the enemy until the last moment) succeeded in extracting his Kampfgruppe from Cambrai without notable losses. In the process he was cut off from the Kampfgruppe with the remnants of his staff. Now fully dependent on himself, he fought his way back to friendly forces over the course of 2 days and 2 nights, a period in which he was at times forced to employ clever ruses that even saw his group march amongst enemy columns. (Refer to the sketch for this).
Through his bitter steadfastness in this almost hopeless situation, Obersturmbannführer Harzer demonstrated outstanding bravery and flexibility before the enemy. He succeeded in tying down the lead enemy armoured spearheads in the Cambrai area for over 24 hours, and drawing the enemy to the northwest through his timely fighting retreat. In doing so he kept open the retreat route towards Mons for those combat elements of the II. SS-Pz.Korps that were still in the St. Quentin area.
2.) When English and American air-landing and parachute forces conducted their surprise landing in the Arnhem area, Obersturmbannführer Harzer received the order to take the handful of still available combat elements of the 9. SS-Pz.Div. and with these attack the enemy and destroy him. As his own Kampfgruppe was not sufficient for the carrying out of this mission, Harzer rallied all available soldiers in the Arnhem area from every branch of service. With these, as well as the reinforcing units from the Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS, he created additional Kampfgruppen and led them immediately against the enemy airborne troops and Dutch terrorists that were already in control of a bridge quarter. Through his especially prudent and clever tactical leadership, he succeeded in engaging the enemy in difficult and ever-changing combat. In doing so he eventually brought the vital Arnhem bridge back into our hands in an undamaged state.
At the same time Harzer dispatched a Kampfgruppe for a deliberate attack against the other enemy group that had landed just to the west of Arnhem. It is exclusively due to his energy and personal bravery that the bitterly defending enemy was compressed into a tiny space within 48 hours, and thereafter forced to capitulate. Altogether this operation led by the divisional commander resulted in the capture of over 10000 prisoners as well as a large amount of war material.”[2]

Post-war

After the war, Harzer became active in HIAG, a lobby group established by senior Waffen-SS men in 1951 in West Germany. He acted as the organisation's official historian, coordinating the writing and publications of Waffen-SS unit histories, which appears in German via the Munin Verlag imprint. He also built an archive to help historians with their research on Waffen-SS topics. The magazine Der Freiwillige called for material to be made available to the HIAG archive.

Death

Colonel (ret.) in the General Staff (Oberst i. G.) Walter Harzer passed away after a heart failure in Stuttgart hospital on 29 May 1982.

Family

Harzer married his fiancée Gisela Görhardt (1918–2002) on the winter solstice on 21 December 1941 in Krakow, and their daughter Brigitte was born from the marriage. His brother was NSKK-Oberführer Fritz Harzer.

Promotions

SS

SS-Verfügungstruppe

Waffen-SS

Awards and decorations

Military awards

References

  1. ↑ Walter Harzer
  2. ↑ Harzer, Walter (Waffen SS)
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