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| 9th Mountain Division | |
|---|---|
| 9. Gebirgs-Division | |
| Active | 1945 |
| Country |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch |  German Army |
| Type | Gebirgsjäger |
| Role | Mountain warfare |
| Size | Division |
| Engagements | World War II |
The 9th Mountain Division (German : 9. Gebirgs Division) was the name given to two separate German military divisions by accident in 1945.
Two simultaneous but independent attempts were made to raise the division in the waning days of the war; the resulting units are conventionally distinguished as Nord ("North") and Ost ("East"), after the respective theaters where they were being assembled. For all practical purposes the 9th Mountain Division never fully came into being.
In the spring of 1944, the 139th Mountain Regiment, which had been left in Lapland by the 3rd Mountain Division when it withdrew at the end of 1941, was reinforced to become Divisionsgruppe Kräutler. In September it received the additional designation of 140th Special Purposes Division, and as a result is mentioned once in late-war documentation as "Div.Gr.K (Div.z.b.V.140)". On May 6, 1945, the OKW issued an order re-designating it as the 9th Mountain Division, but the order came so late that it is not actually listed as such on any situation maps or other official records. The unit had withdrawn from Lappland into Norway as German fortunes in the Arctic waned, and surrendered to the British at the end of the war. Its commander was Mathias Kräutler. (Some documentation from the post-war period further confuses matters by referring to this unit as the 10th Mountain Division.)
In the spring of 1945, Shadow Division Steiermark controlled two RAD brigades, and these were mobilized for combat duty as an "Alarm" division under the name Mountain Division Steiermark. The division's two regiments were composed of a very diverse mix of personnel from the Army, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, police, and other organizations. It appears also to be related to Kampfgruppe Raithel and/or Kampfgruppe Semmering, though the late-war documentation is weak. Its elements surrendered to the Soviets at the end of the war.
Its commander was Colonel Heribert Raithel .
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The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Named Karstjäger, the formation was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS. Formed on 18 July 1944 from the SS Volunteer Karstwehr Battalion, its nominal strength was never more than theoretical and the division was soon reduced to the Waffen Mountain Brigade of the SS. Throughout its existence as a battalion, division and brigade, it was primarily involved in fighting partisans in the Karst Plateau on the frontiers of Yugoslavia, Italy, and Austria; the mountainous terrain required specialised mountain troops and equipment.
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Helmuth Raithel was a German officer who held the rank of SS-Standartenführer (colonel) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. While still at school, Raithel was swept up in the excitement of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 9 November 1923 led by Adolf Hitler, and was subsequently awarded the coveted Blood Order, even though he was not a member of the Nazi Party. He joined the Reichswehr in 1926. After World War II broke out, he fought in the invasion of Greece in summer 1941, then against the Soviet Red Army in northern Finland before transferring to the Waffen-SS in 1943.
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