IV.ϟϟ-Panzerkorps executed a fighting withdrawal into Austria

Waffen-SS Panzergrenadiers of IV.SS-Pz.Korps in Hungary

Soviet soldiers of the 3rd Ukrainian Front in Austria

Platoon commander Alfred Großrock of SS-Panzer-Regiment 5 ‘Wiking’

On March 24 1945, a Soviet offensive tore a gap between SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Gille's elite IV.SS-Panzerkorps and the neighboring Hungarian Third Army. The panzer corps was born in battle and had spent the last 10 month of the war in combat. It was renowned for its tenacity, high morale, and, above all, its lethality, whether conducting a hard-hitting counterattack or a stubborn defense in situations where its divisions were hopelessly outnumbered. By this time the 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, together with 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking, was fighting increasingly defensive operations and had to be mobile to fill the breeches. The Soviet encirclement of the corps was almost complete. The highly capable Austrian SS-Oberführer Sylvester Stadler's 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen played a decisive role in the successful breakthrough. It held open a route which could be used to withdraw. The Hohenstaufen bled itself white holding the corridor open while the corps escaped the encirclement by executing a fighting withdrawal, even though some elements were forced to surrender to the Soviets in Czechoslovakia. Remnants of the Totenkopf and Wiking then retreated towards Wien, where they, alongside the I.SS and II.SS-Panzerkorps, fought to the bitter end to defend the Austrian capital until mid-April 1945. The exhausted survivors of the Totenkopf then marched westwards to the demarcation line between the Soviets and the Americans. Only after U.S. troops had refused to accept them, they forced themselves into the American zone and surrendered to American forces on May 9 1945, only to be handed over forthwith to the Soviets north of Linz. The Wiking continued their march to Mauterndorf, where the first American advance guards were encountered the night of May 8-9 1945. What was left of the division surrendered to American forces near Fürstenfeld on May 9 1945. Top image: SS-Panzergrenadiers of IV.SS-Panzerkorps engage in conversation during a break in late-war Hungary 1945. Credit: Karl Mensburg. FU. Middle image: Soviets of the 3rd Ukrainian Front under the cover of an American lend-lease M3 Scout Car in Wien in April 1945. Note the German Schützenpanzer Sd.Kfz.251 in the right foreground. Photo by Jewish Russian war photographer Olga Lander. Credit: Olga Shirnina. SU stock photo. PD. Bottom image: Knight's Cross holder SS-Obersturmführer Alfred Großrock in the cupola of his late-war Panther. It was coated in Zimmerit and had received one of the wide array of different three colour camouflage patterns adopted by the Wiking. The 27-year-old Wiking veteran Alfred Großrock never made it out of Hungary alive. He was taken POW by the Soviets in the beginning of April 1945 and is reported to have been executed in custody in Kecskemet either during the period of interrogation or shortly thereafter. Credit: M.G. Commons: Bundesarchiv.