| A heavy artillery unit from the SS-Division Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT; “Dispositional Troops”) carrying out maneuvers somewhere on the French coast in October 1940. More for the cameraman than for the benefit of anyone else, 1 of the SS-VT gunners chalks up an anti-British drawing on the side of a shell. The umbrella and top hat is a dig at Sir Neville Chamberlain (March 18, 1869 – November 9, 1940), the former British Prime Minister. These soldiers were part of a crew for a 105 millimeter (4.13 inch) leFH 18/40 leichte feldhaubitze (“light field howitzer”), the standard Nazi German divisional field howitzer used during World War II. The SS-VT was formed on September 24, 1934, from a merger of various Nazi and paramilitary formations, expressly to give the Nazi Party a combat organ. They served at the direct order of Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945). He announced the existence of the SS-VT in a speech at the Reichstag on March 16, 1935. It was limited in size by initially receiving last priority for recruits. The SS-VT artillery regiment formed in 1938, after Anschluss with Austria. SS-VT served in the occupation of the Sudetenland in October 1938 and Czechoslovakia in April 1939. In September 1939, a combined unit of SS-VT and Heer (“Army”) troops conducted operations jointly as Panzer Division Kempf during the invasion of Poland. The SS-Division Verfügungstruppe, or VT-Division, was formally formed on April 1, 1940, from the merger of parts of the SS-Verfügungstruppe with parts of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (“Death’s Head”), the units responsible for guarding the Konzentrationslager (KZ; “concentration camps”). On April 22, 1940, the daily order No. 1481 was issued by the SS Main Office to all offices of the reserve force: “By order of the RfSS, all SS units under arms are to be united in the Waffen-SS…The terms ‘SS-Verfügungstruppe’ and ‘SS-Totenkopfverbände’ Associations are no longer to be used. With this order, the providing troupe was finally absorbed into the Waffen-SS. On December 21, 1940, a reorganization to an Infantry Division (motorized) began, which was formally completed on February 25, 1941, with an official renaming to SS Division (Motorized) “Reich.” SS Division Reich suffered heavy losses in Operation Barbarossa and was reorganized in March 1942. Training the new cadre took place in April; by August 1942 the Division was depleted again and sent to France for reorganization in August 1942. On October 15, 1942, the name was changed from “Reich” to “Das Reich.” On November 9, 1942, it was converted into a Panzergrenadier Division. Relocated to the Eastern Front in the winter of 1942/43, the division fought with the SS Panzer Corps in the Battle of Kharkov and in the summer of 1943 in Operation Citadel and subsequently in the Battle of the Dnieper. During the 2nd World War, members of the division committed numerous war crimes in various battlefields on the Eastern and Western Fronts. This once again shows that the Waffen-SS units played a key role in the execution of Nazi terror. In October 1943, all Waffen-SS units were renamed and numbered. The division became the 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich.” The new Panzer Division was once again sent to Toulouse, France to rest and reorganize in February 1944. 2 days after the Allied Normandy landings, 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” attempted to move to the beachhead to engage the British sector. Resistance fighters attacked the division train. Units of the division committed the Tulle massacre and the Oradour-Sur-Glane massacre (declared to be a “retaliatory measure”), in which they murdered 750 civilians. During the subsequent retreat from France, the division again suffered heavy losses and had to be refreshed in Paderborn in October and November 1944. There 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” prepared to take part in the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. After the failure of this offensive and stalling resistance in the winter of 1944/45, the division was relocated to Hungary together with other SS divisions in March 1945 for the Lake Balaton offensive. After the failure of this offensive, the division fought its way back towards Austria, where it took part in the Battle of Vienna, among other actions. At the end of the war, the majority of the division was taken prisoner by the Americans in the Linz area ; other units laid down their arms near Rokycany and Dresden. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0522.jpg |
| Image Size | 270.28 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1500 x 987 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 1, 1940 |
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| Country | France |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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