Operation Rösselsprung
The 500th [SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500] was led by
Hauptsturmführer Kurt Rybka during its daring but unsuccessful parachute and glider-borne
assault on Tito's headquarters outside
Drvar on 25 May 1944. The raid was called
Operation Rösselsprung (
Knight's move). Two companies were dropped directly on Tito's supposed headquarters location while the other two were landed by
DFS 230 glider.
The first wave of paratroopers, following a heavy bombardment by the
Luftwaffe, landed in between the area of the cave, (Tito's hideout) and the town of Drvar on open ground and many were gunned down by members of the
Tito Escort Battalion, a company numbering fewer than 100 soldiers. The second wave of paratroopers missed their target altogether and landed a few miles outside the town. Tito was long gone when the paratroopers captured the cave. Tito had been forewarned and evaded capture while the numerically superior
Yugoslav Partisans drove off the SS paratroopers. Over 800 of the 1,000 personnel who participated in the operation were killed or wounded.
The survivors were at first sent to Petrovac then
Ljubljana, where they remained until the end of June. They were then transferred to
Gotenhafen (Gdynia), West Prussia to take part in the planned occupation of the Finnish-controlled
Åland Islands in the
Baltic Sea, but this was cancelled. They were then sent to join
III. SS-Panzerkorps at
Narva, but were ordered to be flown to
Kaunas, Lithuania on 9 July. There they formed a
kampfgruppe with
I./Panzerregiment GD to relieve the trapped German forces at Vilnius. Subsequently, they often acted as
3rd Panzer Army's 'fire brigade' in its defense of the Baltic States. By 20 August 1944, they were down to a strength of 90 men,
[3] but remained in combat for the next several months as the Germans were desperate for any and all combat troops to stave off the Soviet offensives.
The paras were finally relieved in late October and flown to
Deutsch-Wagram,
Austria where they were incorporated into/ renumbered the
SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 600 after a week's rest.
600th SS-Parachute Battalion
The second Budapest mission,
Operation Panzerfaust, can be said to have been, officially, the 600's first mission although the new battalion was not formally mustered until 9 November 1944 in
Neu-Strelitz, their garrison town. The soldiers of the 500th who survived long enough to see the formation of the 600 were also given back their previous ranks and the right to wear the
sig rune on 9 November 1944.
Two companies of the newly forming
SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600 were then attached to Otto Skorzeny's
Panzerbrigade 150 in December 1944 for the
Ardennes offensive. It was the only occasion in which SS paratroopers faced the Western Allies until, fleeing the Soviets, they surrendered to US forces early in May 1945. After the Ardennes, the 600th fought on the Oder Front in the Schwedt and Zehden bridgeheads.
