26th Panzer-Division

Author: Carlo Gentile

In the summer of 1942, the 26th Panzer-Division was formed from veterans of the Eastern Front and young recruits. Initially, the division was commanded by a conservative officer who showed little enthusiasm for Nazi ideology. By the summer of 1944, however, younger soldiers and officers, heavily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology, constituted a significant portion of the division’s ranks. During this period, Oberst Eduard Crasemann assumed command. Under his leadership, the division carried out numerous atrocities against the civilian population in Italy, including the massacre in the Fucecchio marshes, where 174 civilians were killed.

Back to overview of perpetrators

Nationality: German
Arny Branch: Panzer-Division
Armed Force: Wehrmacht
Commanders: Generalleutnant Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz (1943-July 1944)
Generalmajor Eduard Crasemann (July 1944-March 1945)
Generalleutnant Viktor Leopold Linnarz (March-May 1945)
Years of Service: 1942-1945
Campaign: Deployment in the West (1942-1943)
Campaign in Italy (1943-1945)
Confirmed Massacres: Montecatini
Padule di Fucecchio
Santa Giustina in Colle

Origins and war experience

Eastern Front veterans and young recruits

The 26^th Panzer-Division was formed in the summer of 1942 in Belgium and France from elements of the 23rd Infantry Division and other units withdrawn from the Eastern Front. It was composed of experienced soldiers from previous campaigns and young recruits. By the summer of 1944, it was the only Panzer division operating in the Italian theater, a role it maintained until the capitulation in 1945.

Italian Front deployment

From Calabria to Tuscany – Defensive Battles in 1943–1944

In July 1943, the 26^th Panzer-Division was transferred from France to southern Italy and initially stationed in Calabria. After the Italian armistice on 8 September 1943, it was positioned near Salerno to counter Allied landings. It fought in the Campania and Latium regions, with notable engagements in Eboli, Battipaglia, and along the Calore and Volturno rivers. Additional operations occurred in Abruzzi and the Anzio-Nettuno area.

In the early Summer of 1944, the division delayed Allied advances while retreating through the Tiber Valley into Tuscany.
Anti-partisan action and the Padule di Fucecchio massacre

In August 1944, units of the 26^th Panzer-Division carried out anti-partisan operations in Tuscany and the Apennines. The division’s most severe war crime occurred on 23 August 1944 in the Fucecchio Marshes, where 174 civilians were massacred. From late August 1944, the division fought along the Adriatic coast, engaging in intense combat against advancing Allied forces. In the autumn of 1944, it defended key positions around Cesena and Faenza during the Allied offensive.
The Division’s Final Battles: Retreat, reprisals, and surrender in Northern Italy, April–May 1945

Between 9 and 24 April 1945, the 26th Panzer-Division fought along the Senio and Sillaro fronts before retreating toward Ferrara, suffering heavy losses while attempting to cross the Po River. Surviving soldiers, along with elements of the 29th Panzergrenadier Division, withdrew through Veneto as part of Kampfgruppe Linnarz. Near Padua, retreating columns encountered partisan forces multiple times, leading to blockades and skirmishes. To evade capture, troops diverted onto side roads, where clashes escalated into violent reprisals against civilians.

On 27 April 1945, partisans captured two soldiers from the Panzer Artillery Regiment 93. In response, a reprisal operation was carried out in Santa Giustina in Colle, near Padua, resulting in the execution of 21 men, including partisans, two clerics, and several teenagers.

By late April, the remnants of the 26th Panzer-Division reached Neumarkt, south of Bolzano. Following Germany’s surrender in Italy on 2 May 1945, the division was disarmed, and its troops were interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Ghedi, where they remained until September 1945.

By the summer of 1944, however, the division’s ranks increasingly consisted of younger soldiers and officers who had been heavily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology. During this period, Oberst Eduard Crasemann assumed command. Under his leadership, the division intensified its anti-partisan operations, including a sweep of the Fucecchio marshes, during which 174 civilians were killed.

Traditions of nobility and violence against civilians

In the summer of 1942, the 26th Panzer-Division was formed from veterans of the Eastern Front and young recruits. Initially, it was commanded by Generalmajor Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz, a conservative officer with little enthusiasm for Nazi ideology. He sought to establish an elite conservative officer corps within the division, which included a notably high number of officers from noble families. During his tenure, which lasted until July 1944, there were no documented cases of crimes or acts of violence against Italian civilians.

By the summer of 1944, however, the division’s ranks increasingly consisted of younger soldiers and officers who had been heavily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology. During this period, Oberst Eduard Crasemann assumed command. Under his leadership, the division intensified its anti-partisan operations, including a sweep of the Fucecchio marshes, during which 174 civilians were killed.

The postwar period

However, even this brief mention was exceptional in the context of postwar German veterans’ narratives, where atrocities were often omitted.

Memory of the veterans’ association

In 1955, several former officers of the 26th Panzer-Division joined the newly founded West German Bundeswehr. Among them, General Smilo von Lüttwitz became commander of an army corps in Koblenz in 1957 and retired in 1960. The veteran-founded Traditional Association of the 26th Panzer-Division was based in Bonn in its final years, with Bundeswehr Brigadier General Eberhard von Bock, a division veteran, serving as its last chairman.

In 1957, former division officer Georg Staiger published a history of the division under the auspices of the veterans’ association. Unlike many postwar veterans’ publications, his book briefly mentioned the Padule di Fucecchio massacre, describing it as a "confusing shadow" over the division’s otherwise "blemish-free soldierly conduct." While he acknowledged the victims as civilians, including women and children, his reference was limited and did not fully confront the crime. However, even this brief mention was exceptional in the context of postwar German veterans’ narratives, where atrocities were often omitted.
Postwar Trials and accountability for the Padule di Fucecchio Massacre

The first legal proceedings related to the Padule di Fucecchio massacre began in the immediate postwar period. Investigations focused on the order issued on 23 August 1944, which led to the massacre, particularly in the trials of Eduard Crasemann and Josef Strauch.

During the proceedings, Strauch testified that Crasemann had explicitly ordered him to kill all civilians in the marshes as partisans. He claimed to have unsuccessfully attempted to modify the order. Crasemann, in contrast, denied this account, attributing the massacre to unfortunate circumstances rather than a direct command.

In 1947, Crasemann was sentenced to ten years in prison. The following year, Strauch received a six-year sentence, later reduced to three years, and was released in 1949.

The Limburg an der Lahn prosecutor’s office later investigated a massacre in Ponte Buggianese on 6 July 1944, in which a German unit shot five civilians and burned several houses. During the investigation, it was determined that the 26th Panzer-Division was not involved in the events.

Separately, the Bielefeld prosecutor opened proceedings against a former officer of the division’s Reconnaissance battalion for the murder of four men in Grotta Maona near Montecatini on 11 August 1944. The case was later dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

In 2004, the La Spezia military prosecutor launched a new investigation into the Padule di Fucecchio massacre. In 2011, an Italian court sentenced three former German soldiers in absentia to life imprisonment. The following year, two of these sentences were upheld on appeal, while the third was annulled due to the defendant's death.

The presumed responsibility of the 26th Panzer-Division for the Santa Giustina in Colle (Padua) massacre was never legally established.

Sources:

Available documentation concerning the 26th Panzer-Division’s operations is fragmentary. The German Federal Archives hold original documents from early 1944 (RH 27-26). However, records for the following period are varied and incomplete, with much of the material consisting of veterans’ postwar correspondence. Notably, file RH 27-26/40 contains excerpts from the private diary of Leutnant Leopold von Buch, commanding officer of the 3rd Company of the reconnaissance battalion, which includes a reference to the Padule massacre. Additional relevant documents are found in files of higher headquarters, for example, such as XIV the Panzer Corps for the autumn of 1943 (RH 24-14) or the LXXVI Panzer Corps (RH 24.76) for the spring of 1944, and the 14th Army for the summer of 1944 (RH 20-14). The Moscow-located filed for the XIV Panzer Corps contains references to the division’s activities in the summer of 1944 (CAMO, inventory 500, search-aid 12475); this was published online in 2017.

Literature:

Kurt Baden, Feldpost-Nr. 00599 E. Die Geschichte einer Panzergrenadier-Kompanie an der Südfront, (Selbstverlag), Berlin, 1985.

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945, Paderborn, Schöningh, 2012, pp. 379-388.

Christian Hartmann, Wehrmacht im Ostkrieg. Front und militärisches Hinterland 1941/42, Munich, Oldenbourg, 2009.

Georg (Jörg) Staiger, 26. Panzer-Division – ihr Werden und Einsatz 1942-1945, Podzun Pallas Verlag, Bad Nauheim, 1957.

Translation

Translated from German by: Joel Golb

2025

Text: CC BY NC SA 4.0

26th Panzer-Division

Origins and war experience

Eastern Front veterans and young recruits

Italian Front deployment

From Calabria to Tuscany – Defensive Battles in 1943–1944

Anti-partisan action and the Padule di Fucecchio massacre

The Division’s Final Battles: Retreat, reprisals, and surrender in Northern Italy, April–May 1945

Traditions of nobility and violence against civilians

The postwar period

However, even this brief mention was exceptional in the context of postwar German veterans’ narratives, where atrocities were often omitted.

Memory of the veterans’ association

Postwar Trials and accountability for the Padule di Fucecchio Massacre

Information on data protection

Necessary cookies

External services