The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. Formed in July 1944 from the SS Volunteer Karstwehr Battalion, it was a division in name only, and was soon reduced to a brigade. Built around a company in existence since 1942, the unit consisted mainly of Yugoslav Volksdeutsche and recruits from South Tyrol. It was primarily involved in fighting partisans in the Karst Plateau on the frontiers of Yugoslavia, Italy, and Austria; the mountainous terrain required specialized mountain troops and equipment. It also saw action in the wake of the Italian surrender when it moved to disarm Italian troops and protect ethnic German communities in Italy. At the end of the war it successfully fought to keep passes into Austria open, allowing German units to escape the Balkans and surrender to British forces. The remnants of the unit became some of the last Germans to lay down their arms when they surrendered on 9 May 1945. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24th_Waffen_Mountain_Division_of_the_SS_Karstj%C3%A4ger> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 778: A Frankish army led by Roland was defeated by the Basques at Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees on the border between France and Spain. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass> 1261: Michael VIII Palaiologos was crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_VIII_Palaiologos> 1812: War of 1812: Potawatomi warriors destroyed the United States Army's Fort Dearborn in what is now Chicago, Illinois, and captured the survivors. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Dearborn> 1941: Corporal Josef Jakobs was executed by firing squad at the Tower of London for espionage, making him the last person to be executed at the Tower. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Jakobs> 2005: The Helsinki Agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia was signed, ending 28 years of fighting. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Aceh> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: sais: 1. (India) A groom, or servant with responsibility for the horses. 2. (Malaya, dated) usually syce: chauffeur, driver. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sais> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   All religions have some truth in them, but none has the whole truth; all are created in time and finally decline and perish. Mahomed himself never pretended that the Koran was the last message of God and there would be no other. God and Truth outlast these religions and manifest themselves anew in whatever way or form the Divine Wisdom chooses. You cannot shut up God in the limitations of your own narrow brain or dictate to the Divine Power and Consciousness how or where or through whom it shall manifest; you cannot put up your puny barriers against the divine Omnipotence. These again are simple truths which are now being recognised all over the world; only the childish in mind or those who vegetate in some formula of the past deny them.   --Sri Aurobindo <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sri_Aurobindo>