The Axix Forces 3

by Afiero, Massimiliano

  “Monterosa” Division unit deployments on the Western Alps.

  The headquarters of the group was established in Saluzzo, with its logistical bases at Pinerolo and Borgo San Dalmazzo, while the units were split up and parceled out to the provinces of Cuneo and Turin. The “Bassano” Battalion was deployed between the Valli Varaita and Maira, with its headquarters in Casteldelfino and three companies in Val Varaita, while the other two companies went to Acceglio in Val Maira.

  Troops of the “Monterosa” assembled at Torino during a ceremony in the winter of 1944/45.

  On September 20, the transfer was completed and the by the 25th, all the hills, between Maddalena and Monviso, colle dell’Agnello, S. Véran, Longet, Auratet, and Maurin, were in the hands of the alpini, which after some fighting, they had recaptured from the maquis and partisans. Along this line, with a height varying between 2,500 and 2,800 meters, shelters, defensive positions and winter accommodations were built that allowed the battalion to remain in possession of until the end of the war. Operational activity against the French was limited, due to the particularly harsh winter, to patrol actions and artillery exchanges, and it was only with the approach of spring that military activity increased.

  A 75/40 anti-tank gun deployed on the Western Alps front.

  This activity began with offensive actions by alpine patrols in the Tinea Valley and Ubaye Valley, followed by French company-level attacks against the hills of S.Véran and dell’Agnello, both beaten back with strong losses to the attackers. But by then it was mid-April and the conflict was rapidly coming to an end. In early September the pack-mounted “Vicenza” Artillery Group was transferred to Valle Stura, where it relieved German units.

  January 1945, Alpine Front: Maresciallo Rodolfo Graziani, commander of the ‘Armata Liguria’ talks to officers and soldiers of the Monterosa.

  The headquarters element was placed in Argentera and the batteries, in defense of the Colle della Maddalena, were emplaced in French territory: the 7th in Val Lanzargner, the 8th in the Rio du Pis Valley, and the 9th in Val Puriac, from where it had to relocate to Ferriere because the enemy batteries at Barcelonette had spotted it and taken it under fire. With the arrival of snow, the group was deployed to its winter quarters: the headquarters was established at Sambuco near Pietraporzio, the 7th and 8th Batteries were deployed to Colle della Maddalena and established positions in the valley, and the 9th went to S. Bernolfo. At the beginning of April 1945, “Vicenza” was ordered to move to Val Varaita and Val Maira, in support of the “Bassano” Battalion. Preparations had already begun and the billeting parties were already in place but the rapid turn of events prevented the transfer. The “Tirano” Battalion left Liguria on 9 September, arriving in Cesana (Torino Province) on September 11th. On September 13, it entered the line by relieving German units of the 85th Regiment of the 5.Gebirgs-Division ‘Gams’, to which it was tactically subordinated.

  January 1945, Western Front: an Alpine Patrol in action.

  It was deployed in an area that ran at altitudes above 2,000 meters, from Claviere passing through Rocca Clary and Punta Rascià to Mount Gimont, with the last combat position at Monte Chenaillet at 2,650 meters. The battalion headquarters was placed on the line at Punta Rascià, while the rear base remained in Pinerolo, Cesana became the advanced base and Bousson became the area for the company that in turn came down from the front line for its rest period. Towards mid-October, the French carried out a surprise raid and occupied the Chenaillet outpost, which was promptly re-occupied by a joint action of the “Tirano” alpine troops and the Germans, who, on the 21st, used a pincer movement to overcome the French defenders, a colonial unit. During that action, falling at the head of the attacking forces was an alpine trooper named Renato Assante, an Italian born in Turkey who had maintained Italian citizenship and who had come to Italy to enroll as a volunteer, joining the R.S.I. Army after the September 8 armistice and in whose memory the M.O.V.M. (Gold Medal for Military Valor) would be awarded. A new action took place on December 23, when a Tirano ski patrol along with German ski troops carried out a raid against the enemy lines and blew up the fortifications of M. Janus, from where the French patrols originated.

  Western Front, Winter 1944-45: Alpini of the Monterosa Division set in the snow.

  Until the coming of spring, activity was only carried out with patrols and counter-attacks, due to the heavy snowfall that prevented other actions. At the beginning of February 1945, it was decided to transfer other units of the “Monterosa” to Piedmont to reinforce the defense of the Western Alps, in anticipation of the likely final attack on the part of the French who were bent on revenge for the so-called “stab in the back” of 1940 and to seize territory to be used as a bargaining chip in subsequent peace negotiations at the end of the war. Between 6 and 7 February, the 2nd Alpine Regiment, with C.C.R., the 102nd Anti-Tank Company and the Light Column, and the “Morbegno” Battalion, were transferred to the Western Alps, defending the valleys of Viù, Ala and Val Grande, with the Command to Lanzo (Torino).

  Western Front, Winter 1944-45: a patrol of ‘Tirano’ starts for an operation.

  In March, it was joined by the “Brescia” Battalion that was deployed in the Locana Valley to the right of the “Morbegno“. With the arrival of “Brescia“, the regiment extended over a hundred kilometers between the Locana Valley and the Val Chisone, on a defensive line where German units were also located at an altitude of over 2000 meters and with positions and observers between 2,500 and 3,000 meters, with high mountain ranges that made connections between the valleys impossible. The “Morbegno” Battalion, in the Valli di Lanzo, deployed its companies between the two valleys that stretch from Lanzo: the Val d’Ala, from which the Val Grande, and the Val di Viù emanate, relieving some German units and the paratroopers of the “Folgore” Regiment. The “Morbegno” deployed its headquarters to Ceres and deployed its companies to the heads of the valleys with advanced posts along the line of the passes: Regiment Usseglio, the 8th Company, the 7th Company in Balme, the 6th Company in Forno Alpi Graie, the 10th Company in Ceres, and the 9th Company to Viu.

  Winter 1944-45: Alpini of the Monterosa.

  The 8th Company dispatched a platoon to Malciausia and a detachment to Lago della Rossa, places where hydroelectric plants of strategic importance were present; The 7th Company dispatched a platoon to the border with France at the Rifugio Gastaldi. During that period no offensive action was taken by French troops, apart from a single attempt crossing the border at Lago della Rossa, which was quickly beaten back with losses on both sides.

  In mid-March 1945 the “Brescia” Battalion completed its transfer to the Canavese, deploying in the Locana and Orco valleys, at Pont Canavese, with the companies located at the Galisia Pass, Ceresole Reale and Locana. The main task of the battalion was to defend the Alps from any French infiltrations mainly through the Galisia pass, which entered the Isère Valley. There was little partisan activity in the rear area.

  In March 1945, the “Aosta” Battalion, after its 1st Company had come back from the Garfagnana area, was transferred to Piedmont, along on the Western Alps, deploying its companies in defense of Valle Stura, with its headquarters at the Terme di Vinadio and its companies deployed between Mount Ténibres and Collalunga.

  In February 1945 the “Mantova” horse-drawn artillery group left the Garfagnana front to be transferred to Piedmont, in the Western Alps. From Garfagnana, the group reached Liguria and then Turin, from where they headed for the Val Susa in early February. It remained in the area for a few weeks, and then on March 30, the headquarters, 10th and 11th Batteries headed for Monginevro, where they took up positions. On the 29th of March, in the Aosta Valley, the 12th Battery was sent to La Thuile, in defense of the Piccolo San Bernardo pass, tactically attached to the 4th Alpine Regiment of the “Littorio” Division which was responsible for the defense of the sector.

  From the second half of March, the units of the “Monterosa” Division, between Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta, fro
m the Colle della Maddalena to Piccolo San Bernardo (over 5,000 men), were the following:

  - In Valle Stura: “Aosta” Battalion and the 3rd Artillery Group “Vicenza”

  - In Valle Varaita and Valle Maira: the “Bassano” Battalion

  - At Monginevro (Torino): “Tirano” Battalion and two batteries of the 4th Artillery Group “Mantova”

  - In the Lanzo Valleys (Torino): the Command of the 2nd Alpine Regiment, with the 102nd Company ‘cacciatori di carro’ and the Light Column, and the “Morbegno” Battalion

  - In the Locana Valley (Torino): the “Brescia” Battalion

  - Piccolo San Bernardo: the 12th Battery of 4th Artillery Group “Mantova”

  Acknowledgments

  The author wishes to give a sincere and warm thanks to the “Monterosa” Alpine Division, without its priceless contribution, it would not have been possible to write this article in such detail.

  Photographic references

  ASFMR - Archivio Storico Fotografico Associazione Monterosa

  Spanish in the Waffen SS

  By Eduardo M. Gil Martínez

  Translated by José Antonio Muñoz Molero

  Recruitment

  After the withdrawal of the more or less “official” intervention of the Spaniards in the war, first with the Blue Division (September-October 1943) and later with the Blue Legion (March-April 1944), as a result of the Allied pressures on the Spanish government, there were several hundred of Spanish citizens who remained in the service of the Reich in very diverse units despite the risk of loss of Spanish nationality that existed to collaborate with the German armed forces. This group was made up of ex-divisionaries (people that belonged to the Blue Division) and ex-legionaries in large part, united with other men who crossed the Spanish border to join at their own risk to the German armed forces as well as many Spanish civilians that worked inside of the Reich. After the withdrawal and dissolution of the Blue Legion the Spanish intervention with the Axis was illegal, which did not avoid so that some volunteers refused to return to Spain and other Spaniards crossed the border to France.

  Spanish volunteer of the Division Azul.

  Many of them ended up integrated after many ups and downs in units belonging to the Waffen SS (like the “Wallonien” or “Nordland“), others were assigned to the 3rd Mountain Division or to the 357th Infantry Division. In the same way, other Spaniards fought against the partisan guerrilla in Yugoslavia (August 1944) being part of the 8th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the Brandenburg Division, as well as against the partisan guerrilla in Italy. And as an epic climax, within this group of Spaniards that according to different sources reached about 1000 men, during the last months of the war a small Spanish unit will take part in the defensive combats in the capital of the Reich. The causes that moved these men to support the German troops were various. Some men directly did not return with the Blue Legion to Spain after being “invited” by German officers to remain in the conflict on their side, enlisting in some units of the Wehrmacht.

  Oberst Garcia Navarro.

  To these men began to incorporate more men from Spain where, in the most pro-German circles, a fairly large number of men (mostly ex-combatants of the Blue Division), planned to return to German territory to join them at their own risk, because they didn´t consider his intervention against the Soviet enemy completed.

  Soldiers of the Blue Legion, already with the Spanish uniform, before leaving for Spain.

  At the same time and even before the Blue Legion was disbanded, in circles close to the Falange, the formation of a new unit of Spanish troops at the service of the Germans begins. The recruitment had to be secret, to avoid the intention of Francisco Franco, to stop all these activities. Other “volunteers” come from unemployed or Spanish workers in the Reich, as well as some Spanish exiles (former Republicans) who after having served in work battalions have been forced to wear the German uniform sometimes.

  The general Agustin Muñoz Grandes, welcomes the veterans of the Blue Division in Spain.

  But the Spanish authorities will not make it easy, for which the border crossings of the Pyrenees were “shielded” in direct contact with occupied France. The civil guard (guardia civil) was given strict orders to prevent these men from crossing, with the order to shoot them if necessary. Although many of them who attempted to cross the border were shot or killed under the border guard fire, others did manage to get to France.

  Summer 1944: spanish volunteers of the Freiwilligen Einheit Stablack, with Wehrmacht uniforms, in Romania (C.C.Jurado).

  To better organize the newcomers, the Germans established recruiting stations, where these men would be documented and integrated into the German Armed Forces through the Sonderstab F. The recruitment units belonging to Dr. Edwin Maxel’s Sonderstab F operated from January 1944 to August of the same year in southern France, with “offices” in the border regions near Andorra, Port Bou, Hendaye, Puigcerdá and its main headquarters located in the city of Lourdes. Once registered at the headquarters of Sonderstab F, the new recruits were sent to a receiving camp in the Quartier de la Reine in Versailles.

  Spanish volunteers in Germany, 1944.

  There they were received by Luis García Valdajos, a veteran of the Blue Division and Blue Legion who was in Versailles, destined from the training center of Stablack Süd (in East Prussia), with the mission of coordinating and escorting the contingents of Spaniards to Stablack. After being submitted to the corresponding medical check-up, almost all the admitted ones were transferred to Stablack, whereas a few were recruited by the SD for a new unit created in February of 1944, the Einsatzgruppe Pyrenären of the Sonderstab F, destined in antipartisans tasks through its infiltration in the Resistance. At the end of April or beginning of May of 1944 Spanisches-Freiwilligen-Einheit was created in Stablack, with initial troops near 250 men.

  Winter 1943-1944: Waffen SS Spanish volunteers at Sennheim camp. The volunteer at the center, carries the badge of the Falange. The other two, are veterans of the Blue Division (U.S. NARA).

  At least since June 1944, a group of Spaniards were quickly put into action serving in the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Their missions were realized mainly in southwest France including information tasks although they also participated in actions against the French resistance and against the allies in Normandy.

  Spanish volunteers on the Signal.

  Since dates as early as May of 1944, the Spanish Government knows the existence of Spaniards enlisted in the Waffen SS as shown by the two letters sent from the Embassy of Spain in Berlin to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain dealing with this subject are.

  Spanish volunteers at Stockerau, 1944.

  On May 11, 1944, the Spanish consul in Berlin sent the following letter to the Spanish foreign minister: “It has been reported that the border of the Pyrenees is now being smuggled by many ex-combatants of the Blue Division, with the assurance that they will be welcomed by the German authorities … several of these ex-combatants have hastened to enlist in the Flemish Legion of the SS to re-fight the Russian front “. In a letter dated 6 July 1944, the Spanish ambassador in Berlin reported to the Spanish Foreign Minister on the clandestine presence of Spaniards in the German armed forces, the following could be read: “Many of these Spaniards display national emblems in their uniforms (refers to Spanish emblems) apart from the distinctive SS … “.

  An armed guard of Todt organization.

  So the Spanish embassy in Berlin estimated that by the summer of 1944, there were about 1500 Spaniards working for the German security services in French territory; although possibly this figure was increased. The first group of Spaniards under the command of García Valdajos had to arrive in Stablack on April 15 where they underwent an endless training, although many of them had previously been combatants. The number of Spaniards welcomed in Versailles reached 250-300 by May 1944 and a figure close to 400 in June, where after the corresponding classification were sent to East Prussia to be enlisted in the Freiwi
lligen Einheit Stablack under the command of the Artillery Captain Gräfe and the second lieutenants Loinant and Panther. Once the Spaniards had settled there, García Valdajos was acquiring an administrative control role in the training of the new recruits until June (day 6), leaving the purely military tasks to be carried out by Ezquerra. An important fact to keep in mind is that it was decided that the Spanish soldiers would wear the Wehrmacht uniform.