Commander:
Kolonel Walther Harzer




When the Hohenstaufen division went into action in the Normandy, it was a proud fighting unit.
The strenght of this famous division at that particular time was:

  • 170 tanks.
  • 21 self-propelled (SP) tank destroyers.
  • 287 armoured half-track personnel carriers.
  • 16 armoured cars.
  • 18 armoured artillery pieces,
  • 3670 other vehicles of varying types.
  • 18000 men.

    The Hohenstaufen division was put into action at Normandy employed as rear-guard unit at Chambrai.
    The unit had been in action from 29 June for more than two months, without a break or reinforcements.
    After that the Hohenstaufen had been retreating westwards for two weeks. It barely escaped encirclement at Falaise and was harassed by fighter bombers and the French resistance all the way.
    When they had arrived in The Netherlands, their strenght was reduced to aprox. 3500 men, with a handful of armoured vehicles of all descriptions. Finally they reached accommodation north-east of Arnhem on 6 September. Where all was quite......

    Because of reorganisations it was planned that Hohenstaufen would be resupplied in Germany. Therefore it had to hand over most of it's equipment to Frundsberg. Hohenstaufen would then be railed into Germany as soon as possible. On September 12 some units like technical personnel and quartermasters were put on train and left for Germany.
    By 17 September, Hohenstaufen was reduced to a weak brigade, split into 19 quick reaction groups, spread over 12 locations numbering an approximate total of 2500 men.


    This splitting into a number of reaction groups has a reason. The II pz Armee was originally formed to deal with an anticipated invasion of the west. Therefore both divisions were especially trained to deal with Airborne operations!
    While awaiting the delivery of it's heavy equipments during the summer of 1943, Hohenstaufen and it's sister division had been training to repel Airborne landings. Agressive reactions were instilled into commanders, one had to drive into the teeth of an airborne landing in order to defeat it. The commanders were instructed not to wait for orders but make their own decisions.
    The various quick reaction units were now posted outside a major city. Along good roads in smaller villages around that city. Expirience suggested the avoidance of large towns, like Arnhem itself, as uprisings by the Resistance, could pin down large number of troops.

    From now on, Hohenstaufen wich in fact wasn't existing anymore as a division, played a rol in Market Garden by it's various reaction units, called Kampfgruppen. These Kampfgruppen were named after their commanding officers.Some of these will be named below, with a short report on there action in Market Garden.

    SS-Lieutenant-Colonel Spindler. Age 34, commander of Hohenstaufen's Artillery Regiment.
    2x Iron Cross, German Cross in Gold.

    A hardened campaigner now leading the Kampfgruppe Spindler, wich played a decisive roll in the battle.
    His unit was involved in covering the gap between the railway station and the lower rhine at midnight on the first day. In the following days his unit was getting stronger with remnants of troops from all over. Kampfgruppe Spindler has prevented the Airborne troops from reaching the bridge. Spindlers actions therefore played a decisive roll.

    SS-Captain Klaus von Allworden.
    Leading the Kampfgruppe von Allworden.
    Infantry formed from the dismounted tank destroyer crews of Panzerjeager Abt.9 of the 9.SS Hohenstaufen.
    Strenght: 120 men, two SP guns, some 75mm towed PAK, and some remnants of naval personnel.
    The unit left from Apeldoorn. Reaching Arnhem from the north side, this unit first was active along the Dreyenseweg where they ambushed and blocked 1 and 3 PARA. A famous photo of this action is the one with several dead Para's at the six-kilometer Arnhem stone.(later this photo will be added to the project and marked with a number)

    SS-Captain Hans Moeller. Commander Pionier Battalion 9 Hohenstaufen.
    Moeller had been fighting in Arnhem and Oosterbeek in May 1940 during the invasion of The Netherlands. (Commanding an engineer platoon as a sergeant in the SS Regiment "Der Fuhrer") Therefore he was quit familliar with the territory. Moeller's unit advancing from the railway station was blocked just east of Den Brink park. For several days this unit together with Kampfgruppe Gropp was preoccupied in this area. Severe fighting from house to house and even man to man. But Moeller was still holding his defense line connected to Spindler's defense line.


    SS-Captain Eberhard Graebner. Commander of the 9.SS Reconnaissance Battalion.
    On the 17th of September! Graebner received the "Ritterkreuz" from his Commander Harzer at Hoenderloo, for his armoured counter-attacks against a British breakthrough at Noyers Bocage in Normandy.
    Graebner now commanded the heighest concentration of armoured vehicles in the 9.SS at Arnhem, a mixture of 22 armoured cars and half-tracks, some of wich mounted 75 mm guns. All at the minimum possessed a machine gun amount. Within 24 hours after the reception of his medal, Graebner died in his catastrophic attack on the bridge, where all his vehicles were destroyed and most of his man killed. By this action 9.SS had lost an important part of his combat strenght.