10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg


caption=Insignia of 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
dates= 2 January 1943 - 8 May 1945
country= Nazi Germany
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branch=Waffen-SS
type=Armoured
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battles= Operation Epsom
Operation Market Garden
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battle_honours=The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10.SS-Panzer-Division "Frundsberg" was a German Waffen SS panzer division that saw action on both the Western and Eastern Fronts during World War II.

Originally, the name "Karl der Große (Charlemagne)" was used for some time in 1943, but French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS used Charlemagne (33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)), so the honor title "Frundsberg" was chosen, which refers to 16th Century German landsknecht commander Georg von Frundsberg.

It, and its "twin" Division, the 9th SS Panzer-Division "Hohenstaufen", played an important part in holding the British Forces back in Normandy, particularly during Operation Epsom. Later, the Division was instrumental in stemming the Allied onslaught during Operation Market Garden at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, at which time it, along with the 9th SS Panzer, constituted the II SS Panzer Corps.

In August 2006, German writer and Nobel laureate Günter Grass admitted to having been an assistant tank gunner with the division after having been conscripted into the Waffen-SS at the age of 17 in November 1944. As Grass had always been an outspoken critic of Germany's treatment of its Nazi past, his surprise admission caused a great stir in the press.

Commanders

*SS-Standartenführer - Michael Lippert: (March, 1943 - February 15, 1943)
*SS-Gruppenführer - Lothar Debes: (February 15, 1943 - November 15, 1943)
*SS-Gruppenführer - Karl Fischer von Treuenfeld: (November 15, 1943 - April 27, 1944)
*SS-Brigadeführer - Heinz Harmel: (27 April 1944 - April 28, 1945)
*SS-Obersturmbannführer - Franz Roestel: (April 28, 1945 - 8 May 1945)

See also

* List of German divisions in WWII

External links

* [http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/PanzerdivisionenSS/Gliederung.htm lexikon der wehrmacht] in German.