13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)
| 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) | |
|---|---|
Insignia of 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)
|
|
| Active | 1943–45 |
| Country |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Allegiance |
Nazi Germany Independent State of Croatia
|
| Branch | Waffen-SS |
| Type | Gebirgsjäger (Mountain infantry) |
| Role | Anti-Partisan operations |
| Size | Division (maximum of 17,000) |
| Part of |
V SS Mountain Corps IX ''Waffen'' Mountain Corps of the SS (Croatian) LXVIII Army Corps |
| Nickname(s) | Handschar |
| Motto(s) | Handžaru udaraj! (Handschar – Strike!) |
| Engagements |
|
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig Desiderius Hampel |
The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. From March to December 1944, it fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state of Nazi Germany that encompassed almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as parts of Serbia. It was given the title Handschar after a local fighting knife or sword carried by Turkish policemen during the centuries that the region was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was the first non-Germanic Waffen-SS division, and its formation marked the expansion of the Waffen-SS into a multi-ethnic military force. Composed of Bosnian Muslims (ethnic Bosniaks) with some Catholic Croat soldiers and mostly German and Yugoslav Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) officers and non-commissioned officers, it took an oath of allegiance to both Adolf Hitler and the Croatian leader Ante Pavelić.
...
Wikipedia