Operation Nordwind After arriving in Denmark the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord was immediately sent to reinforce the
Western Front, where a German operation known as the
Ardennes offensive failed to break through American positions in France in late 1944. On 29 December 1944 the lead elements of the Nord Division arrived near the
French–German border by train from Denmark, marching to the villages of
Ludwigswinkel and
Eppenbrunn. There the SS troops came into contact with stragglers from other German units that fought in the recent battles of the Western Front. The division was to take part in
Operation Nordwind, an attack on the U.S.
7th Army of Lieutenant General
Alexander Patch in southeastern France, which held a relatively weak position in the Allied line. On 1 January 1945 the offensive commenced, and the lead elements of the Nord Division, known as
Kampfgruppe Schreiber after its commander, took part in the attack, subordinated to the
361st Volksgrenadier Division. The Nord Division troops were tasked with capturing the town of
Wingen-sur-Moder. The town was the headquarters of the
117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron from the
14th Armored Division, and the area was reinforced by Task Force from the
70th Infantry Division (United States) Task Force Herren under the command of Brigadier General
Thomas W. Herren Assistant Divisional Commander, and a regiment from the
45th Infantry Division. Troops from the 12th SS Mountain Infantry Regiment and the 361st Volksgrenadier Division were prepared to take Wingen-sur-Moder and other towns in the area, initially to break through a mountain pass and allow German forces to enter the
Rhine Valley. On 3 January, the SS troops advanced toward the town on their own after the
volksgrenadier units failed to capture their objective. The initial attack caught the American troops off guard, they were able to capture the town, taking 350 American prisoners at the 117th Cavalry headquarters. But by 6 January, the U.S. troops had captured positions behind them and cut off the Nord Division men still in Wingen-sur-Moder, who later received orders to abandon the town from the commander of the 361st Volksgrenadier Division. German attacks elsewhere also led to little progress, and offensive operations were temporarily called off. The 12th SS Mountain Infantry Regiment managed to break out of the American encirclement, facing troops from the U.S.
179th and
180th Infantry Regiments, but took heavy losses in the process. Even after taking losses, the 6th SS Mountain Division was still in a better condition than the 361st Volksgrenadier Division. The remaining divisional units also arrived at the front and rejoined what was left of the 12th Regiment. Fighting continued between the Germans and the Americans in this sector after 11 January, with no German breakthrough initially, and around this time the division was reassigned to the
XC Army Corps. But on 15 January the 11th SS Mountain Infantry Regiment counterattacked the advance forces of the 45th Infantry Division after they overran the
256th Volksgrenadier Division. The attack encircled and captured several companies from the U.S.
157th Infantry. After this success, Brenner was ordered to capture
Zinswiller on 23 January. This was the last offensive action by the Nord Division before the end of Operation Nordwind, and it failed despite making initial advances. By the end of the operation, the infantry regiments had taken 50% losses, although the other divisional units were intact. The losses were replaced by poorly trained conscripts and volunteers in February 1945.
Defense of Germany With the failure of the last German offensive in the West, the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord and the rest of
Army Group G was tasked with holding the
Rhineland in southwest Germany. At this point it was one of the most capable divisions remaining in Army Group G, though its losses in the offensive and the arrival of new replacements was changing the Nord Division from the experienced mountain infantry unit it had been in Finland. In early March 1945 the division was given new orders to retake the German city of
Trier, becoming part of the
LXXXII Army Corps. Brenner moved the division headquarters to
Holzerath in Rhineland. On 7 March 1945 the Nord infantry crossed the
Ruwer river and attacked positions held by the U.S.
94th Infantry Division. They cut off the highway south of Trier, the main American line of communication in the area. However, the Nord Division took significant losses and was ordered to withdraw. One infantry regiment, the 12th, stayed behind while the rest of the division made their way to the section of the
Moselle river between
Koblenz and
Cochem, where it was nominally assigned to the
LXXXIX Army Corps, which consisted of several infantry divisions. The U.S.
XX Corps and
XII Corps began attacking the positions held by the LXXXII and LXXXIX Army Corps, respectively, on 12 March. The American troops encountered fierce resistance, including from the regiment of the Nord Division that stayed behind with the LXXXII Army Corps, which launched a counterattack that slowed down the
80th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, the Nord reconnaissance battalion reached the Moselle river ahead of the rest of the division, where it fought against American troops on 14 March. The rest of the SS division minus the regiment that stayed behind arrived by 15 March to the Moselle. They were immediately sent into battle against the U.S.
90th Infantry Division, to hold a route eastward to the Rhine for the rest of the corps. The SS troops held out and cut off an American infantry company when they attempted to force their way into the area the Nord Division troops were holding. When the rest of the 6th SS Mountain Division caught up with the recon battalion, they continued to hold out and created a route towards the Rhine from
Waldesch as the Americans began taking the rest of the German positions in the Moselle area. On 16 March the LXXXIX Army Corps was ordered to withdraw, and they evacuated from the western side of the Rhine. Koblenz and Trier had both fallen by 17 March, creating a risk of collapse in the German defensive positions. The regiment that remained behind with the LXXXII Corps continued to fight separately from the rest of the Nord Division before dissolving in mid-April 1945. The rest of the Nord Division, which remained the most intact unit in the LXXXIX Corps, remained in the Rhine valley until it was ordered by Field Marshal
Albert Kesselring to move southeast to
Wiesbaden shortly before 24 March, in preparation for a counterattack against General
George Patton's troops crossing the Rhine near the city. Kesselring then changed his order, sending the 6,000 survivors of the Nord Division eastward to
Limburg an der Lahn to hold the river crossing there. The division reached the southern outskirts of Limburg on 26 March, having marched there after they ran out of fuel, but the U.S.
9th Armored Division was already there. On 27 March the American division broke through the line of defense that the Nord troops had established south of Limburg before advancing to the southeast. Having taken heavy losses from the American attack, the Nord Division was down to just 2,000 men, and remained west of Limburg before attempting to reach German lines further east as the Americans overran the surrounding area. By this point in late March 1945 American troops had broken through the German front along the Rhine, cutting off Army Group G in the south from
Army Group B to the north, and advanced deeper into Germany. The remnants of some German units were left behind as the American main force advanced, including the Nord Division. On 30 March, Brenner led those who were left in an attempt to break out of the American encirclement as units of the
5th and
71st Infantry Divisions were tasked with finishing them off. In the early days of April 1945, the SS Mountain Division Nord was in an area near
Büdingen, where there was fierce fighting against U.S. troops with the use of Sherman tanks and other captured American weapons. Organized resistance ceased with the surrender of the last divisional units on 3 April. The division was no longer an effective force by 4 April, and formally ceased to exist on 8 May 1945 with the dissolution of all German units. Some members of the division were able to escape eastward from Büdingen, including the commander, Karl-Heinrich Brenner. Later that month a significant number of the survivors were combined with SS officer cadets in
Bavaria to form the
38th SS Grenadier Division Nibelungen, though this unit did not finish forming before the defeat of Germany in early May. ==Commanders==