The Skeleton Division, one of Nazi Germany's three aces, had terrorized the Allies in World War II, and they were known as Hitler's most ferocious units. During World War II, the German army was not as disciplined as the Soviet army and the Japanese army, these Teutonic knights have always been disciplined, and most of the brutal and bloody evils of the German army were done by the skeleton division, so the unit was called the "Death Star".
The predecessor of the Skeleton Division was the Third Skeleton Headquarters of the Nazi Stormtroopers, who swore allegiance to Hitler. In 1933, the Austrian Hitler launched an operation in Germany aimed at eliminating the Nazi Party and his own opposition, carried out by the notorious Gestapo chief Himmler, who set up concentration camps in areas such as Dachau to imprison and kill opposition, criminals and Jews. In order to administer these camps, the Nazis set up the Camp Inspectorate Office, headed by Ike. Ike, with Himmler's support, established a unit under his full command, which he named the Skeleton Corps, and their cap badge was a reference to the pirate flag, which now looks a bit funny, but was a very infiltrative skeleton marker, with about 3200 members. Later, the notorious skeleton division on the battlefield was established.
The skeleton division's early members were mostly semi-illiterate peasants, unemployed laborers, and hooligans, and the overall quality was not high, but these people were basically recruited from concentration camps, mostly fanatical Nazis, who almost all committed inhumane crimes against humanity such as the abuse of prisoners and the torture of Jews in concentration camps. Anyone who has seen the horror movie "Human Skin Inn" knows that 99% of people who like to torture, abuse, and kill others are psychopaths. The members of the Skeleton Division are basically sadists, psychopaths, paranoias, murderers and criminals, and their commander, Ike, is also a mentally ill person who has been treated for mental illness for many years, so this strange group of strange troops is fierce, tenacious and cruel.
In 1938, as Hitler's preparations for the invasion of Poland approached, the skeleton division expanded in size, including the Special Mobile Unit and Ike's Skeleton Corps, with about 9,000 members, the total size of which was equivalent to an infantry division. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and the Special Mobile Unit and the Skeleton Corps also participated in the battle, and they showed particular fanaticism and belligerence on the battlefield, a group of neurotics that crushed the Polish troops. After occupying Poland, they not only continued to hunt down scattered Polish soldiers and Polish civilians who dared to resist, but also hunted down and killed local Jews, who committed inhumane crimes against humanity using all kinds of torture and torture methods they had learned in concentration camps.
The atrocities of the Skeleton Division made the Wehrmacht, who had fought together, feel contempt and indignation, and they reacted and complained to their superiors about this barbaric unit that violated the honor of the soldiers, but what they did not know was that the skeleton division's performance was appreciated by Hitler, and Hitler's support and connivance made the unit more and more bloody and ferocious. Unlike the Wehrmacht, which was sympathetic to the Jews, the Skeleton Division strictly followed Hitler's genocidal plan and exterminated the Jews on a large scale. Throughout World War II, more than 6 million Jews were slaughtered, hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered in Germany, and more than 3 million Jews were slaughtered in Poland, which shows how cruel and ruthless the Polish region was to the Jews. Hitler was a paranoid, Ike was a neurotic, and the skeleton division was a group of sadists, psychopaths, psychopaths, and murderers, and such a unit was a veritable tiger and wolf division, more ferocious and tyrannical than the tiger wolf.
With the support of Hitler and Himmler, the Skeleton Corps and the Einsatzgruppen were transformed into the Third Division, loyal to Hitler and the Nazi Party, the Skeleton Division of World War II. In 1941, before Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the Skeleton Division had a strength of 40,000 troops and was one of Hitler's proudest aces. They often faced the most tenacious enemies on the battlefield, but they were more tenacious than the enemy, and after the battle they went around killing and setting fire to all kinds of evil, and they were as terrible as death in front of the Soviets.
On January 8, 1942, the Soviet army launched the Spring Offensive, and in order to cooperate with the main forces, the Soviet Northwest Front decided to send 230,000 troops on the 9th to besiege the German 2nd Army and the 10th Army with a total of about 120,000 people in the Demyansk region. At that time, although the Soviet army was numerically superior and wanted to encircle and annihilate these two German troops, the two German armies were strong in battle, and they took advantage of the favorable terrain to desperately resist the Soviet offensive, and constantly looked for opportunities to prepare to break out. The Skeleton Division was then appointed as the vanguard of the breakout, and they fought with the Soviets inextricably, and the battle was extremely fierce and brutal. The German High Command developed a breakout plan code-named "Operation Dawn", which was carried out by the German Armored 11th Division and the Skeleton Division. The Skeleton Master throws away everything but weapons before breaking through, including water bottles, lunch boxes, first aid kits, and more. They launched an attack in the early hours of 15 January to break through, infiltrating the Soviet lines and rendezvousing with the rescued troops in the Nafviye area, where the Soviet lines were weakest. At this time, the Soviet army was very tired due to continuous combat, except for the sentry in the early morning, all fell to sleep on the ground, and after the officers and men of the skeleton division solved the sentry, they took the machine gun and frantically strafed the Soviet army, and the Soviet army that was caught off guard suffered heavy casualties. The officers and men of the Skeleton Division then rushed into soviet positions like crazy to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Soviets, and they killed the Soviets at close range with submachine guns. The Soviet army is known for its bravery and tenacity in combat, but the skeleton division is braver and more tenacious than them, they have pulled explosives and The Soviet soldiers have died together, some have rushed to the bottom of the Soviet tank to block the tank's progress, and some have been blown off the wrist and bit the Soviet army with their teeth to death. The Skeleton Division, with its desperate tactics, quickly tore a hole in the Soviet defense line, and the other Germans quickly broke through from this hole.
The Skeleton Division became famous from this battle, and the frightened Soviet Army said that it was impossible to fight the Skeleton Division without 5 times the strength, but the Skeleton Division was also badly damaged, and the 20,000-strong troops only had more than 6,500 people left. In recognition of the outstanding performance of the Skeleton Division, Hitler specially made the "Demjansk Battle Commemorative Armband" for them, which was awarded to each officer and soldier of the Skeleton Division. After the war, the Skeleton Division was allowed to withdraw to the French area for repairs, and was upgraded to an armored division in November 1942, greatly increasing its strength! Unfortunately, in February 1942, division commander Ike was shot down and killed by the Soviets while flying to the front line, and the morale of the troops was severely damaged. Since then, although the troops have fought bravely and tenaciously and performed prominently in the Battle of Kursk, the situation in the Soviet-German war has been reversed, the German army has been defeated step by step, and the Soviet army has attacked step by step. After that, the skeleton division withdrew to the Warsaw area of Poland, bloodily suppressed the local resistance, and cooperated with the Viking Division to severely damage the two Soviet army groups, forcing the Soviet army to withdraw to the other side of the Vistula River, achieving a rare victory in the late Soviet-German war. Later, the troops were sent to the south to participate in the Siege of Budapest, in order to solve the more than 45,000 German troops surrounded by the Soviet army, they fought from the Soviet outlying defense line to the Budapest airport, the Soviet army used several times the strength to defend them, and finally the plan to break the siege failed.
In 1945, as the Soviet army approached Germany step by step, the desperate skeleton division chose to surrender to the Austrian American army in order to avoid soviet retaliation, the Soviet army and the American army negotiated and traded, the skeleton division was handed over to the Soviet army, most of them were executed by the Soviet army, and this evil devil force finally paid the price in blood. However, the U.S. military was very dissatisfied with the Soviets' practice of holding prisoners of war, and since then, the U.S. army has refused to repatriate or hand over prisoners of war to the Soviet Union.