division was ordered on the offensive as a part of Operation Sonnenwende, the operation to destroy a Soviet salient and to relieve the troops besieged in the town of Arnswalde. The offensive had been conceived by Generaloberst Heinz Guderian as a massed assault all along the front, but had then been reduced by Hitler to the level of a local counterattack. Despite initial gains, the attack soon bogged down after III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, with Nordland, Langemarck and Wallonie in the vanguard, reached Arnswalde. Heavy Soviet counterattacks threatened to encircle the corps, and so after evacuating all civilian survivors, Steiner canceled the operation and ordered the corps back to the area around Stargard and Stettin. The Soviet offensive of 1 March pushed Langemarck along with the rest of the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps before it. By 4 March, the division was falling back to the area around Altdamm, the last defensive position east of the Oder. On the 19th, the unit fell back behind the Oder. As a part of Steiner's XI SS Panzer Army, the Langemarck, now reduced to a Kampfgruppe, began falling back towards Mecklenburg where it surrendered to the Red Army on 8 May 1945. Commanders SS-Sturmbannführer Michael Lippert (24 September 1941 – 2 April 1942) SS-Sturmbannführer Conrad Schellong (11 July 1942 – October 1944) SS-Oberführer Thomas Müller (October 1944 – 2 May 1945) See also List of German divisions in World War II List of Waffen-SS divisions Ranks and insignia of the Waffen-SS Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts References Notes Citations Bibliography Further reading External links Légion Flamande (Vlaams Legioen) at Belgium-WWII (Cegesoma) 27 Foreign volunteer units of the Waffen-SS Infantry divisions of the Waffen-SS Belgian collaboration during World War II Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations established in 1940 Collaboration with the Axis Powers