SS-Jäger-Bataillon 502

SS-Jäger-Bataillon 502

SS-Jäger-Bataillon 502 was Nazi Germany's main special forces unit from 1943-1944.

Formed in June 1943, the unit was commanded by Otto Skorzeny and was based at Friedenthal just north of Berlin, consisting originally of the three hundred members of the former Sonder Lehrgang zbv Friedenthal. After an unsuccessful attempt to train members of an SS penal facility, Skorzeny obtained permission to recruit volunteers from the Wehrmacht, and a hundred SS personnel, fifty Luftwaffe and a hundred and fifty army personnel were admitted, allowing the formation of a headquarters company and two line companies. An intensive training programme was instituted.

In September 1943, fourteen members of this unit carried out the raid on Gran Sasso which resulted in the rescue of deposed Italian dictator Mussolini.

They were later placed on standby for several operations that never took place, including a proposed kidnapping of Marshal Petain.

In February 1944, a third company was formed from mainly Flemish and Dutch personnel with Hauptsturmfuhrer Hoyer as its commanding officer. In the same month, No. 1 and 2 companies of the battalion went to the Kurmark troop training area near Cologne for four weeks intensive training, after which they saw combat on the Eastern front for over a month. At the same time, a small detachment of veterans of the Gran Sasso raid were carrying out terrorist operations in Occupied Denmark; this group is known to have carried out ten assassinations, over thirty attacks on civilians and nearly twenty attacks on Danish factories.

On 20 July 1944, No. 1 Company was deployed in Berlin, briefly occupying the Benderblock after the attempted assassination of Hitler.

In August 1944, fifty members of the unit carried out Operation Landfried in Romania, destroying road and railway bridges in an attempt to delay the Russian advance.

In September 1944, SS-Jäger-Bataillon 502 was dissolved and its personnel absorbed into a new battalion, Jagdverbande Mitte.

Links

The rescue of Mussolini (original footage) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu1lXFvq31U]

SS-Jagdverband Mitte [http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=1746]

Sources

*O'Reilly, Terence Hitler's Irishmen 2008 ISBN 1856355896


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