The 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf was a panzer division of the Wehrmacht that existed from 1939 to 1945. The division was one of 38 Waffen-SS divisions that fought alongside the regular Wehrmacht during World War II, and Theodor Eicke was its first commander. Eicke led the division during the invasion of the Soviet Union before his death at the Third Battle of Kharkov in February 1943, and the division would later be forced to retreat after Kharkov. The division would also fight in Romania before retreating into Poland, and it lost several tanks during the Warsaw Uprising. In March 1945, much of the division was lost while fighting against the Soviet Red Army in Hungary, and the Vienna Offensive all but destroyed the division. The last remnants surrendered to the US Army on 9 May 1945.