Panzer Division Tatra

Panzer Division Tatra
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army
Type	Panzer
Role	Armoured warfare
Size	Division

Panzer Division Tatra (Panzer Training Division Tatra) was an armored division of the German Heer formed in Moravia in August 1944. The division was hastily formed during the Slovak National Uprising of 1944 when the Germans feared that Slovakia might break away from the Axis powers and open the way for the advancing Red Army. After a brief punitive expedition against the Slovaks, the division was converted into a training formation. In March 1945, it was reorganized into the 232nd Panzer Division and was lost fighting in western Hungary.

The division was formed as an emergency battle group (German: Alarmkampfgruppe) around a core of 1st Panzer Division veterans, the units from the 178th Panzer Division, and the staff of the Kleine Karpaten training facility in Malacky. Other personnel, according to Samuel Mitcham, "came from all over the map". The division's only tank battalion had 28 obsolete Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks and three Tiger Is. The division began by suppressing resistance in southern Moravia, and on 29 August 1944, moved to Žilina in north-western Slovakia.

The improvised division performed well against the Slovak uprising. It crushed the Slovaks, who were being aided by Soviet advisers, and recaptured Bratislava (German: Pressburg). After this initial success, the division was reorganized into a training division (German: Panzer-Feldausbildungs-Division Tatra). The division incorporated the XVII Panzer Corps command and its mechanized infantry and units of inland military districts; the men of the 1st Panzer eventually left Tatra. The division remained in Slovakia until the end of 1944. In March 1945 (or, according to different sources, on 21 February 1945), the division was reorganized into the 232nd Reserve Panzer Division.

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