Tanková divize Tatra [1944-1944]

The Tatra Tank Division, despite its improvised way of formation and management, played a significant role in the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising.

Composition of the division

The construction of the division was carried out gradually during its combat deployment, using replacement and training units collected "across the map" in Moravia, Silesia and northern Austria, supplemented by two national defence battalions.
The - core of the division was the headquarters and a substantial part of Panzer Division No. 178, reinforced by veterans transferred from 1st Panzer Division.
The - was used to form Tatra Tank Detachment, Tank Replacement and Training Detachment 4, (garrisoned in Mödling, Austria, (Military District XVII)) and was armed with twenty-eight medium tanks Pz.Kpfw. III and Pz.Kpfw. IV and three heavy Pz.Kpfw. VI Tiger, and later received a light Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t) and several Soviet T-34/76 booty.
- tank infantry formed Tank Grenadier Replacement and Training Regiment 82 as a staff for Tank Grenadier Replacement and Training Battalion 2, Tank Grenadier Replacement and Training Battalion 10 and Tank Grenadier Replacement and Training Battalion 85 with Replacement and Training Battalion of Tank Grenadiers 13 and Replacement Grenadier Battalion (Motorised) 30/51.
- Tatra Tank Fighter Company was formed using Tank Fighter Replacement and Training Detachment 8
- artillery support was provided by Tatra Artillery Detachment of three batteries

Combat deployment

In the summer of 1944, the German armed forces began planning the military occupation of Slovakia. The reason for the occupation was the advance of the Red Army, the unstable political situation in the country and the growing partisan activity.
For this purpose, a total of eight battle groups (Kampfgruppen) were formed in the Protectorate and Poland. Two of these - Kampfgruppe von Ohlen and Kampfgruppe Junck - subsequently merged to form the basis of the Tatra Panzer Division.


The Kampfgruppe von Ohlen was the first to enter Slovak territory on 29 August at around 15:00 via the Vlárský Pass, with Replacement and Training Tank Grenadier Regiment 82 and a tank company with 15 tanks. It continued along the Váh valley through Púchov and Povážská Bystrica towards Bytča and from there to Žilina. It met resistance only before Žilina near Horný Hričovec.
In the meantime, Kampfgruppe Junck, consisting of the Tank Grenadier Regiment 85 Replacement and Training Regiment and a company of tank fighters with 14 assault guns) was moving towards Žilina from the north. It advanced through Mosty u Jablunkova and Svrčinovec towards Čadca and Kysucké Nové Mesto. Its advance was also halted before the town of Brodno.
On 30 August, the Žilina garrison retreated to Strečno and the von Ohlen and Junck battle groups with 3900 men captured the town, and after another four days of fighting near Strečno, they captured Vrútky.
A day later, on 5 September, the divisional headquarters arrived in Slovakia and the merger of the two Kampfgruppen created Panzer-Division Tatra. (Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilehlm von Löper did not take command of it until 9 October.)
Over the next two weeks, the advance of the German troops slowed. It was not until 21 September that the division, now reinforced by two more battalions, managed to break through the rebel lines and capture Turčiansky Svätý Martin.
Instead of taking advantage of its offensive potential, "Deutscher General in der Slowakei" - the commander of German forces in Slovakia - SS-Obergruppenführer and Waffen-SS General Hermann Höfle halted the division's advance and tasked it with "clearing" the Turčianska Basin of partisan groups. As the partisans retreated to the impassable Malá Fatra, this action was quite unsuccessful. By taking a break to "clean up", Höfle gave the Slovak rebel army ten days to build a new defensive line.
During the next phase of the German offensive, the Tatra Division captured Kremnica on 6 October, after which its advance was halted. During the next offensive, it captured Hronska Breznica and Dúbrava on 26 October, and was deployed in the following period to pursue retreating rebel units and counter-guerrilla operations.
After the suppression of the rebellion, the division moved to the Military Training Area of the Small Carpathians (Truppenübungsplatz Kleine Karpathen)[/i:Malacky near the town of Malacky, dedicated to training and conducting raids against partisan groups in South Moravia, from December 1944 under the new name Tatra Tank Training Division.
In February 1945 it was transformed and renamed 232nd Tank Division. It was destroyed in fighting against the advancing Red Army in northwestern Hungary in March 1945, with only a small number of its members ending up captured. It was formally disbanded on 1 April 1945.

Samuel W. Mitcham: The Panzer Legions: A Guide to the German Army Tank Divisions of World War II
Tessin, Georg: Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939-1945
en.wikipedia.org
de.wikipedia.org
www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de
www.axishistory.com
www.kvhcarpathia.sk
https://www.okh.it/units/4division/Pz/PDTatra.htm

Source:
www.kvhcarpathia.sk - Panzer-Division Tatra