SS-Panzergrenadier-Division "Götz von Berlichingen")[1] was a German Waffen-SS division that saw action on the Western Front during World War II.

It was formed from scratch, with the majority of its original cadre coming from replacement units and conscripts, many of whom were Romanian Germans and French volunteers.

[nb 2] Obersturmbannführer Otto Binge oversaw the formation of the division, with the newly promoted Brigadeführer Werner Ostendorff taking command in January 1944.

During the same year, on the orders of LXXX Army Corps, the division began to round up French vehicles in an attempt to complete its mobilization.

This small group of paratroopers had been dropped mistakenly by the U.S. 9th Army Air Force Troop Carrier Command and had decided to try to hold their positions.

In what the Americans dubbed the Battle of Bloody Gulch, their attack was stopped by the arrival of Combat Command A of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division.

These small units managed to escape encirclement in the Falaise Pocket, but suffered heavy losses and remained in almost constant combat against the advancing Americans until the end of the month, when the division was transferred to Metz for a much-needed rest and refit.

After heavy fighting for the American bridgeheads at Dornot and Arnaville, the division fell back and began to prepare to defend Metz itself.

With the Götz von Berlichingen's combat units in tatters (the 38th SS Regiment had been reduced to a strength of about 800 men by November 15, 1944[4]) and with no command structure, Hitler authorized the division to withdraw from Metz.

In the same defensive maneuver, the 38th Regiment succeeded in cutting up two American rifle companies that made an ill-advised attack against stronger German forces.

[7] Seriously weakened, the SS division fell back to Sarreguemines, which it defended for five days before the town's occupation by US forces on December 11, 1944.

Attacks by the US 35th Infantry Division against this line started December 12, resulting in heavy fighting for the control of Habkirchen, (southeast of Frauenberg) and the high ground overlooking the valley of the Blies.

[9] When the division pulled back to the Maginot Line in mid November, its strength had been reduced to around 4,000 men (of which about 1,700 were infantry) and 20 armored vehicles.

As a part of Simon's XIII SS Corps, the division participated in Operation Nordwind, the ill-fated last German offensive in the West.

That day, the division abandoned all its vehicles and began to retreat, but only some 500 to 600 men escaped US encirclement in the Pfaelzer Forest and reached Wiesloch on the east bank of the Rhine.

It was there that the division's commander attempted to use Stalag VII-A, the largest POW camp in Germany, as a sort of hostage to buy time to escape across the Isar River.

The American infantry and tank force advanced to Moosburg, and without delay attacked the defensive positions of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division in front of the town.

Castle Itter (administratively a part of the Dachau concentration camp complex) was a prison for high-ranking French VIPs, the so-called Ehrenhäftlinge ("honor prisoners"), including politicians Paul Reynaud and Édouard Daladier, labor leader Léon Jouhaux, and former commanders-in-chief Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin.

[5] The following are individuals of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen who were accused and convicted of war crimes Erwin Schienkiewitz Case Nr.