1941 After the
invasion, occupation and dismantling of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the
Axis powers on 6 April 1941, the
Wehrmacht placed
Serbia proper, the
northern part of Kosovo (around
Kosovska Mitrovica) and the
Banat under a military government. The division was formed in late 1941 following the invasion initially from German-speaking
Danube Swabian Selbstschutz in the
Banat autonomous area within the
Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. The unit was given the title
Prinz Eugen after
Prince Eugene of Savoy, an outstanding military leader of the
Habsburg Empire who liberated the Banat and Belgrade from the
Ottoman Empire in the
Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18. A key figure in the organisation of the division was the
Higher SS and Police Leader in Serbia,
SS-Obergruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei (Police General)
August Meyszner. After the initial rush of
Volksdeutsche to join, voluntary enlistments tapered off, and the new formation did not reach division size. Therefore, in August 1941, the SS discarded the voluntary approach, and after a favorable judgement from the SS court in Belgrade, imposed a mandatory military obligation on all
Volksdeutsche in Banat, the first of its kind for non-
Reichsdeutsche. One of the reasons for the forced conscription of ethnic Germans was the disappointingly low number of volunteers for the division after the initial recruitments (no more than 5,000). While the division remained "volunteer" in name, few of the conscripted ethnic Germans actively sought entry into the unit.
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had announced that the wishes of the
Volksdeutsche were irrelevant, while in connection with the Balkan Germans the SS head of recruitment
Gottlob Berger remarked: "
kein Mensch [kümmert] [sich ja] darum, was wir unten mit unseren Volksdeutschen tun" ("no person cares what we do with our ethnic Germans in the South"). Ethnic Germans in the Balkans were therefore powerless and could not oppose conscription into the SS. The unwillingness of ethnic Germans to serve in the unit is illustrated by a mutiny of 173 Croatian Germans of the division in 1943 in
Bosnia when apparently the men of mixed ancestry did not speak German and were mistreated by their superiors as a result. Many of these men preferred service in the
Croatian Home Guard for a variety of reasons; Himmler intervened personally in the problem. and
Hotchkiss H39 tanks)
laagering on the outskirts of a Bosnian town in 1941 In 1942, the
Pančevo-based unit was declared a Mountain Division. Its troops were issued with a significant amount of non-standard German weapons and used captured equipment such as Czechoslovak machine guns like the
ZB-53 and French light tanks. They were provided with excellent German-made mountain artillery such as the
10.5 cm Gebirgshaubitze 40 howitzer and
7.5 cm Gebirgsgeschütz 36 mountain gun. When the division was formed, it was assigned to the
Balkans as an anti-Partisan mountain division.
1942 In October 1942, the division led a German-Bulgarian anti-guerrilla offensive by the name of
Operation Kopaonik against the
Chetniks in the
Kopaonik,
Goč and
Jastrebac mountains in Serbia. The operation was aimed at the destruction of the
Rasina Corps of the
Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland, commanded by Major
Dragutin Keserović, whose headquarters was located in the village of
Kriva Reka. In early October 1942, the division was deployed in southwestern Serbia, in
Kraljevo,
Užice,
Ivanjica,
Čačak,
Raška,
Kosovska Mitrovica, and
Novi Pazar. On 5 October 1942, the division commander
Artur Phleps ordered the German and Bulgarian forces to destroy the enemy. A comprehensive attack was planned: 20,000 well-armed and fully trained troops would encircle the 1,500 Serb guerrillas from four directions. Because of the perceived importance of this operation and to observe the first military operations of the newly established SS Division, Himmler himself travelled to
Kraljevo in the German occupation zone; Himmler was in Kraljevo from 15 to 18 October 1942 and toured the division. German and Bulgarian forces began their attack on the Chetnik territory at dawn on 12 October 1942, proceeding from four directions. However, Keserović ordered his units to regroup into smaller squads for easy maneuvering and penetration, and the Rasina Corps was able to escape from the Axis ring entrapment. The division's first major action thus ended in a failure, as the Germans and Bulgarians cleared the Chetnik free territory (and in the process committed war crimes against the Serbian civilian population), yet the Chetniks themselves successfully withdrew beyond the reach of the occupation forces. The
Prinz Eugen was next involved in counter-insurgency activities on the Serbian-Montenegro border in the mountains east of river
Ibar.
1943 Afterwards, the division took part in the
Fourth anti-Partisan Offensive (Operation Weiss) in Croatia's
Zagreb-
Karlovac area. There, together with Italian forces, the Germans attempted to defeat the
Yugoslav Partisans commanded by
Josip Broz Tito, but the operation failed as most of the Partisans managed to evade the main attack. In Operation Weiss I, the division advanced from
Karlovac area against the
Yugoslav National Liberation Army (NOVJ) resistance and on January 29 captured informal partisan capital
Bihać. In Operation Weiss II, it forced its way from
western Bosnia to
Mostar area in Hercegovina and also deployed units northwest of
Sarajevo. prior to Operation Schwarz, May 1943 From 15 May – 15 June, the
Prinz Eugen took a part in the subsequent
Fifth anti-Partisan Offensive (Operation Schwarz) aiming to pin Tito's main force of about 20,000 Partisans against the
Zelengora mountain, in south-eastern Bosnia. During the battle, the division received a task to move through the
Italian occupation zone in order to block the possible advance of Partisans towards the
Adriatic Sea and the Italian-occupied Albania, to close the south-east part of the encirclement and then advance north over mountainous terrain to crush the Partisan forces. In eleven-day fightings from May 20, division captured
Šavnik. For this success,
Sturmbannführer Dietsche as well as commander Phleps both received first two
Knight's Crosses for the division. In the following days, the focal point of the battle shifted westward. After the main group of the Partisans headed by the
1st Proletarian Division broke out of the encirclement, two battalions of the division that were moved to cover the left bank of the
Sutjeska river and block the Partisans' escape route were surprised by the attack of three battalions of the NOVJ 1st Dalmatian Strike Brigade and one from 5th Montenegro Brigade at
Tjentište pushing them back. They recovered their positions during a night battle and defeated the Partisan units. In the operation Schwarz the division suffered total losses of 613 men. position on the Dalmatian coast, 1943 In August 1943, the division became a part of the
XV Mountain Corps and was sent to the
Dalmatian coast, to disarm the local Italian forces in September 1943 after the Italian government had surrendered to the
Allies. In exploiting
Italian capitulation, Tito's forces succeeded in seizing control of the most part of the Dalmatian coast. In sixteen-days long battle the division pushed back NOVJ units and on September 29 reoccupied
Split, forcing the resisting Italians to surrender. In October, division participated in
Operation Landsturm, another anti-Partisan operation in
Omiš,
Ploče and
Biokovo. In battles for Split and Biokovo coastline, the
Prinz Eugen suffered losses of 1,582 killed, wounded and missing in action. The division was reorganized on 22 October 1943 and was renamed the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division
Prinz Eugen. In November, the unit was attached to the
V SS Mountain Corps and took part in anti-Partisan Operations
Kugelblitz and
Schneesturm in eastern Bosnia during the next month.
1944 In January 1944, the division was involved in more anti-Partisan actions in
Operation Waldrausch. It then took part in
Seventh anti-Partisan Offensive (Operation Rösselsprung) which began on 25 May 1944. This operation had the task of killing or capturing Tito, and the operation was spearheaded by the
500th SS Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon and supported by the
Brandenburg Regiment. In this timespan many other ethnic groups joined the division, such as ethnic Croats, ethnic Hungarians, and over 1,000 ethnic Serbs who volunteered for the division at General Phelps' office, most of whom were either ideologically or otherwise motivated to fight against the Partisans. and the
17th division of the Yugoslav Partisans, 10 May 1944 In May, June and July, the
Prinz Eugen saw further action in
Operation Freie Jagd,
Operation Rose and
Operation Feuerwehr, where it saw actions against, among other units, the
16th Muslim Brigade. Between 12 and 30 August, the division was engaged in
Operation Rübezahl, aimed to prevent offensive of NOVJ forces from Montenegro into
western Serbia. In September, the Soviet
Red Army had advanced to the Balkans and the division suffered heavy casualties in defensive battles against the combined Bulgarian, Soviet and NOVJ forces in the
Nish region. On 21 September,
Obergruppenführer Phleps—the division's first commander—was believed to have been killed when en route from Montenegro to
Transylvania. The division's next action was the defence of the
Kraljevo bridgehead against the Soviet-led
Belgrade Offensive as a part of
XXXIV Army Corps (Army Corps Müller). This defence was essential for the success of
Army Group E efforts to open a corridor which would allow the retreat of 350,000 German soldiers from Greece and the
Aegean Sea. In the beginning of November, the very understrength and underperforming
21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg was disbanded, following widespread demoralisation and mass desertions within its ranks. It was nominally
ethnic Albanian but in reality staffed mostly with the
Reichsdeutsche and
Volksdeutsche Germans, including ex-
Kriegsmarine conscripts. Its remnants were incorporated into the 14th Regiment of
Prinz Eugen, which received its honor title
Skanderbeg. Most were executed wholesale, without trial, disposed of through a variety of methods immediately following their surrender. The killings, which were never punished, were ordered by local Yugoslav commanders, apparently acting directly against Tito's strict instructions to detain the captives in prison camps and screen them for war criminals. Many of the soldiers' family members were amongst the tens of thousands of local civilians who perished at the hands of Yugoslav forces during
the ethnic cleansing of German-speaking populations throughout eastern Europe. The loss of the division's
war diary, likely through intentional destruction, has caused significant gaps in the historiography of both the division itself and the broader Yugoslav campaign. ==War crimes==