2nd Celere Division

7/28/2019 2nd Celere Division

1/4

2nd CelereDivision

This unit was chosen to be brought back to Italy after the campaign in Yugoslavia, to be

transformed into the 134th Armored Division "Arrow". Though the division was

formally activated in the summer of 1942, the transformation was never completed,

because the Italian industry was not capable of building sufficient armoured vehicles tokeep efficient units in North Africa and, at the same time, create new units. Instead, it

was decided to employ divisional element to reinforce other units, so the 6th Bersaglieri

Regiment and the horse batteries were sent to Russia to the Italian Expeditionary

Corps, to transform the 3rd Celere into a motorised division Bersaglieri. Finally, in

the fall of 1942, it was decided to rebuild the division to a full-strength swift division. It

was sent to Southern France for garrison duties. The new OB of the division was asfollows: For a whiletime, the division also included the 18th RECO Bersaglieri

Regiment. The division evaporated at the armistice in early September 1943.

1st "Nice Cavalry" Regiment

2nd "Piedmont Royal Cavalry" Regiment4th "Genova Cavalry" Regiment

1st Bicycle Bersaglieri Regiment

134th Motorised Artillery Regiment

DIVISION CORAZZATA POZZUOLO FRIULI

Reggimenti: 4 cav Genoa: Blindata 1 Bersaglieri (I-VII-IX)

Since 1919 the cavalry is reduced to the first sixteen regiments on two groups of which the second

preserves name and Stendardo one of the regiments disbanded.Next contractions lead in 1920 the numberof regiments to 12; remain the four regiments of cavalry line - Nice, Piedmont, Savoy and Genoa - and

eight regiments cavalleggeri: Novara, Aosta, Florence, Vittorio Emanuele II, Saluzzo, Monferrato,Alexandria and Guides

2 HQ, 8 CAVALRY, 1 RECON, 1 SELF PROPELLED GUN ( ARTILERRY) 2

MOTORISED FOOT.


2/4

The Tiger II nbr. 222 ofSS Unterscharfhrer Kurt Sowa ofs.SS.PzAbt.501 advances during the

Battle of the Bulge, and gives the fallschirmjgerof the 1. Fallschirmjger Abt./9.Fallschirmjger Rgt. a lift. The 1. Fallschirmjger Abt. was temporarily attached to

Kampfgruppe Peiper. The identification of the Tiger II, its commander, and the units in the photowas kindly provided to us by Ernesto Yubi Mendoza and Juan Carlos Castilla Seba.

Schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 101

By an order on 19 July 1943, a schwere Panzer Abteilung was formed for

I.SS-Panzer Korps. Two new heavy companies were to be created and 13.Kompanie

of SS-Panzer Regiment 1 was to be incorporated as the third company.

This Tiger of 3rd Kompanie of sSS-PzAbt.101 is a mid production vehicle that has its singleheadlight moved to the hull top position, and is equipped with older style roadwheels and a
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


3/4

binocular gunner's sight.

Having been pulled out of Russia in response to the landings in Sicily in July

1943, Panzer Grenadier Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was refitted

and sent to Italy in August 1943. Attached to the division were elements of the newly

formed schwere SS Panzer Abteilung of the I.SS Panzer Korps with 27 Tigers thathad been issued in July 1943. As a result of Italy's defection, LSSAH remained in

northern Italy until mid-October.

The unit was then transferred back to the Eastern Front where it was

renamed schwere SS-Panzer Abteilung 101.

The 1. and 2. Kompanien went east with LSSAH but the rest of the battalion

remained behind at a training ground. Eleven Tigers were received in February 1944

and on 4 April 1944, the remnants of Panzer Division LSSAH were ordered to return

to the West to refit.

In the interim, the rest of sSS-PzAbt.101 had received 19 Tigers, shipped

between October 1943 and January 1944. After the return of the rest of the battalion

from the Eastern Front, a further 26 Tigers were received during April 1944.

The leading elements of the 101st reached the front in Normandy on 12 June

1944, six days after the Allied landings. By the end of June, the 101st had lost 15 of

its 45 Tigers, and was pulled out in July to refit with the Tiger II. The 101 st still had

25 Tigers of which 21 were operational on 7 August 1944, but these were all lostduring the retreat in August, the remnants of the 101st being ordered back to the

training grounds to rest and refit, in Sennelger, with the Tiger II on September

1944.

All Tigers of sSS-PzAbt.101 were destroyed in Normandy, 1944.

At first it was planned to outfit the battalion with two companies of Tiger Isand one company of Jagdtigers. On 4 November, Hitler ordered that none of the

Jagdtigers were to be issued to Tiger battalions. Therefore, the SS 101 was renamed


4/4

SS 501 Tiger Abteilung and was ordered to outfit the third company with Tiger Is.

This order was later rescinded and the third company was also outfitted with Tiger

IIs.

Due to severe production problems, only six Tiger IIs had been sent to the

SS 501st from the ordnance depot on 17 and 18 October. A further eight were

shipped in November, for a total of 14 Tiger IIs, enough to outfit one company.Finally 20 more were shipped between 26 November and 3 December. These 34

Tigers IIs were all that were available for issue from the ordnance depot before the

SS 501st was loaded on trains and sent to the Western Front on 5 December. To

these were added 11 Tiger IIs confiscated from sPzAbt 509 replacement shipping,

that was then redirected to the sSS-PzAbt.501.

The SS 501st was sent to the Western Front as a key unit for the Ardennes

Offensive, unloaded the last of ten trains at Liblau-Euskirchen on 9 December. The

SS 501st reported loss of 13 Tiger IIs during fighting in December before a status

report revealed a total of 31 Tiger IIs (18 operational). As ordered on 24 January

1945, the SS 501st was transferred to the Eastern Front with the I.SS Panzer Korps

24. Panzer RegimentStaffSignals PlatoonRegimental Band2 x Battalion

StaffStaff Company4 x Panzer Company

Panzer Maintenance CompanyBattalion

StaffStaff Company3 x Panzer CompanyPanzer Maintenance Company

2nd Celere Division

Documents

Transcript of 2nd Celere Division