11th SS Panzer Army

of 3rd Panzer Army which had retreated into East Prussia but had no troops left, so its personnel were going to be moved into Pomerania to create the core of this headquarters group.

But then Himmler decided that it should be called an SS Panzer Army because that sounds more dramatic.

The tragedy was that the Soviets got bits and pieces of this intelligence from a variety of areas and were worried that actually these were three different armies.

There was Third Panzer Army, there was this new SS Panzer Army, and then there was the original army name that had been given to this group.

So they completely overestimated the forces that were building up in western Pomerania.

We've been left with a very bitter account by the army officer who was his operations officer, who was one of the few professionals in his headquarters, who also found himself basically having to nursemaid Himmler's chief of staff, who was also incompetent and way out of his depth.