The 6th SS Mountain Division Nord (German: 6. SS-Gebirgs-Division Nord) was a World War II mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the German Nazi Party, primarily consisting of ethnic Germans along with some Norwegian and Swiss volunteers. It was the only Waffen-SS division to operate in the Arctic Circle.
It was founded in early 1941 as the SS Battle Group Nord (German: SS-Kampfgruppe Nord) in southern Norway before being upgraded and renamed the SS Division Nord in preparation for Operation Barbarossa. Its original personnel came from Allgemeine-SS paramilitary units and had low combat effectiveness. In the second half of 1941 the division was effectively destroyed by the Red Army during Operation Arctic Fox, when it advanced into Soviet territory alongside the Finnish Army and the Wehrmacht. After taking massive losses in its first operation the Nord Division was entirely rebuilt starting from late 1941.
The SS Division Nord remained in Finland and northern Russia, where most of its personnel were replaced over the course of 1942 and 1943. From that point they consisted of combat veterans and graduates of the Waffen-SS mountain warfare school. With the improvement in its combat capability, the division fought off multiple Soviet attacks. It was also renamed again as the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord. After Finland signed an armistice with the Soviet Union in 1944, the Nord Division broke through lines of Soviet and Finnish troops in a fighting retreat back to Norway. It was then redeployed to the Western Front against the Western Allied invasion of Germany.
Elements of the 6th SS Mountain Division took part in Operation Nordwind in January 1945 along the French–German border, where they took heavy losses in several failed attempts to break through the U.S. Seventh Army in the Vosges mountains to reach Alsace. Afterwards the division was reinforced by poorly trained conscripts and new recruits, though it remained one of the most capable German divisions remaining in Army Group G, defending the Rhineland. In March 1945 it fought near Trier and Koblenz before retreating west of the Rhine, and was encircled by the U.S. 5th and 71st Infantry Divisions near Büdingen. After several days of fighting the Nord Division effectively ceased to exist on 4 April 1945.
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