17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Goetz von Berlichingen was a Waffen-SS division that was active from October 1943 to May 1945 during World War II. The division was raised in Poitiers, France from Romanian Volksdeutsche Germans and French volunteers, and the division had supply and personnel issues; by June 1944, two of its six battalions were still on bicycles, the division had no panzers (instead having Sturmgeschuetz IV assault guns), and it was below strength in officers and soldiers. The division fought in the Battle of Normandy in June 1944, and it suffered heavy losses during the heavy fighting for bocage country near St. Lo and Coutances. It was nearly destroyed during Operation Cobra, during which the US 2nd Armored Division encircled it near Roncey and destroyed most of its armored equipment.
At the end of August 1944, the division was withdrawn from its state of constant combat to rest and refit at Metz, and its tank and assault gun replacements came much slower than its infantry replacements. The division suffered very heavy losses at the Battle of Metz and fought against US armies as they advanced towards the border of Alsace-Lorraine with Germany, and it retreated to defensive positions along the Blies River in Germany in December 1944, being refitted. The division had returned to the Siegfried Line with just 4,000 men and 20 armored vehicles, but its regiments were brought back up to full strength with the addition of volksdeutsche replacements. The division took part in Operation Nordwind before defending the Siegfried Line during Operation Undertone in March 1945. On 18 March 1945, the division withdrew from the Siegfried Line, and its commander Fritz Klingenberg was killed in action on 22 March; that day, the division abandoned all its vehicles and began to retreat. Only 500-600 men escaped encirclement in the Pfaelzer Forest and reached Wiesloch on the east bank of the Rhine, and the division was rebuilt to 7,000 men on 1 April 1945. The division took part in fighting in Baden-Wurttemberg, defending the Jagst and Tauber river valleys as well as Bad Mergentheim. Its last engagement was at Moosburg on 29 April 1945, during which the US 14th Armored Division captured 7,000 German prisoners-of-war (mostly SS). On 5 May 1945, the division attacked Itter Castle in an attempt to kill the prisoners there, but they were held back by American and anti-Nazi Wehrmacht soldiers, and the division surrendered to the US 101st Airborne Division at Rottach-Egern in Bavaria on 6 May 1945.