Its personnel was initially recruited from volunteers from Nazi organizations such as the Hitler Youth, later receiving intakes from the Heer (especially panzer troops) and conscripts of the Luftwaffe.

In cooperation with the Gestapo, which was also under Göring's control, the Special Duties Police Battalion was involved in many attacks against Communists and Social Democrats and was responsible for the arrest of opponents of the regime.

[4] The Regiment General Göring intended for its ranks to be filled with selected personnel to square off with its competitors, the Army's élite Infanterie-Regiment "Großdeutschland" and the Waffen-SS Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler.

With high caliber recruits, the regiment occupied a brand new purpose-built barracks complex at Berlin-Reinickendorf, which was constructed to the highest standards and with the most modern of facilities.

The smartly dressed General Göring soldiers, in their distinctive uniforms with white collar patches and special unit cuffband (Ärmelstreifen), became a regular sight on the streets of Berlin.

[5] Composed of a company of the Wachbataillon, a 2cm self-propelled Flak-Batterie and a Kradschützen-Kompanie, it took part in the seizure of the airfield and radio station at Esbjerg and the securing of the coastline of Jutland.

After the surrender of the Netherlands, the regiment was divided into several small combat groups (Kampfgruppen), which were assigned to the panzer divisions that spearheaded the attack on France.

The Regiment General Göring was rewarded for its excellent performance by forming part of the honour guard of the Führer-Begleit-Kompanie (Führer's Escort Company) for the formal armistice at Compiègne on 21 June 1940.

When Germany joined hostilities in the Balkans in April 1941, the motorized regiment was sent to Romania for intended attachment to Generaloberst Wilhelm List's 12.Armee; instead it was held in reserve and placed in the air defense of the strategic oil fields at Ploesti.

[9][10] Back in Germany, the Flak elements in the Reich took positions in Munich where they contributed to the city's air defence for a short period, before being moved near Paris, remaining there into the spring of 1942.

Göring arranged for experienced army tank crews to be assigned to his division and reinforced the infantry with up to 5,000 paratroopers - including remnants of the Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 5 (FJ-Regt 5), decimated in the airborne Battle of Crete.

The bulk of the Hermann Göring Division, still not fully organized, was despatched piecemeal to Tunisia in February–March 1943 forming a combat group numbering 7,000-11,000 thousand men under command of Colonel Joseph Schmid; who was promoted to Generalmajor shortly after.

This Kampfgruppe Schmid was committed into battle dispersed and attached to various Army units, and they quickly earned a reputation for aggression in the attack and reliability under fire.

[14] Under the title of Division Hermann Göring, the combat group was commended in official Wehrmacht communiqués in April 1943 for their "exemplary fighting spirit and intrepid valour".

[14] The divisional order of battle in Sicily was: Operation Husky was initiated on 10 July 1943, and saw the Hermann Göring and the 15th Panzergrenadier divisions surrounded by mostly third-rate Italian units, geared to coastal defense and equipped with 38 obsolete Fiat 3000 light tanks.

The only Italian mobile division was the 4th Mountain Infantry Division Livorno, supported by the Italian Mobile Group E equipped with 12 Renault R 35 light tanks under Captain Giuseppe Granieri; they were joined on the afternoon of the first day by 9,000 troops of the Panzer-Division Hermann Göring with 46 Panzer III and 32 Panzer IV medium tanks coming from Caltagirone, and reinforced with a battalion of the 15th Panzergrenadiers (III.

The HG pulled back into Naples, where it held on tenaciously until finally giving up the devastated port on 1 October, withdrawing to positions on the Volturno-Termoli line.

[16] This defensive network ran from Gaeta on the west coast to Ortona on the east, with its western end blocking the Liri Valley - the gateway to Rome.

[16] With the Allies pushing further north, the ancient Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino was facing almost certain destruction of countless priceless treasures; its strategically dominating position as the western anchor of the Gustav Line would necessarily place the abbey amid the heavy fighting for the possession of the terrain.

The commander of the division's repair workshop battalion, Oberstleutnant Julius Schlegel, approached the abbot to offer his assistance in transporting the treasures to safety in the Vatican.

After much persuasion and with the sounds of battle drawing ever nearer, the monks agreed to Schlegel's offer, and the division's vehicles were used to secure the works of art, including paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Titian and Raphael, and the remains of Benedict of Nursia, in Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome.

Also, Schlegel had not informed his commander, Generalleutenant Paul Conrath, of the operation and the colonel's unauthorised use of military assets (vehicles and men) on a non-military matter, without direct relation to the war effort, could have resulted in his court martial and even execution.

A detachment of Waffen-SS Feldgendarmerie (field police) was dispatched to the abbey with the intention of arresting the "looters", and had to be persuaded by the monks that Schlegel was helping them - not robbing them.

In gratitude, the monks of Monte Cassino held a special mass and awarded Julius Schlegel an illuminated scroll certificate in Latin which reads: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Cassinians thank the illustrious and beloved officer Julius Schlegel, who saved the monks and property of the holy monastery of Cassino, with all their hearts and ask God for his continued well-being.

Nevertheless, he was arrested by the Allies after the war on charges of looting, and held in prison for over seven months before the personal intervention of British Field Marshal Harold Alexander.

As the Allies kept pushing against the mountainous defences of the Gustav Line, the HG left the reserve and moved south against the British 8th Army on the Garigliano River.

[18][19] In May 1944, the Allies managed the break-out of the Anzio-Nettuno bridgehead and captured Monte Cassino after its outflanking by the French Expeditionary Corps, and started advancing up the Liri Valley.

[20] Although the division was initially able to hold the Allied advance, it was eventually forced into retreat, pulling back to positions on the Aniene River, east of Rome, in early June; being mentioned again in the official Wehrmacht communiqués by exemplary conduct in the face of overwhelming odds.

[30][2] Around 800 soldiers from the division took part in fighting during the August–October 1944 Warsaw Uprising in the Wola district, where mass executions of civilians occurred in connection with Hitler's orders to destroy the city.