Last Battalion

}The Letzte Bataillon, translated in English from German as the "Last Battalion" is a Millennium unit that seems to be made up entirely of Waffen SS volunteers transformed into vampires. Being both highly-trained soldiers and surgically-enhanced vampires, they are a proficient, versatile, and dangerous fighting force. It is implied at one point in the series that Letze Battalion had first seen action at D-Day on the beaches of Normandy, nearly single handedly halting the entire Allied invasion of mainland Europe completely.

History
After the event of Hellsing: The Dawn, most of the remaining Nazi officials escaped to South America some time after the end of the war in Europe, taking with them a battalion of 1,000 Waffen-SS volunteers. They eventually formed the "Letzte Bataillon" a secret unit for the eventual execution of Hitlers Special Order #666.

In 1999, during the events of Hellsing's main storyline, they are shown to be more loyal to The Major than to the higher ranking Nazi officers. During the Major's return to Millennium's secret base in Jaburo, a Colonel became furious with the Major, frantically asking why the top echelons had never been converted into vampires, and tried to beat him into submission. To this, the Major reveals two things: every single other member had already been converted, and the old generals themselves were the leaders only nominally. He then proceeded to assert his authority by ordering the soldiers to turn against their own superiors. Not long after, the Major had them executed on a live broadcast to the London summit between Iscariot and the Table, formally declaring war upon England.

Within three armored zeppelins, a thousand loyal soldiers armed with huge amounts of weaponry, marched on London. Once they arrived in the skies of London, they launched waves of V-1 flying bombs, devastating the city in mere moments and carving a massive, burning swastika created by the flaming destruction to mark the tremendous massacre. For the assault's second phase, Millennium soldiers descended from the zeppelins, being launched from catapult-like devices.

After massacring everyone in sight, the British police and scattered military units fortified positions and hunkered down behind barricades, but were no match against the SS Vampires, having no specialized anti-vampire munitions. The Letzte Battalion were also able to replenish their numbers considerably by resurrecting their murdered victims as ghouls. However, their forces were quickly depleted by both the frustrated Hellsing HQ assault attempt and the intervention of Iscariot forces in a fierce clash. By the time of Alucard's return, only 572 troops remained. Most of them were wiped out by Alucard and his undead army, along with the Grand Army of the Reconquista, and the few that remained on board the zeppelins were presumably destroyed when the airships exploded.

Equipment
Millennium soldiers are overall hardly different from their Second World War counterparts, equipped with World War 2-era German weapons including Kar98 bolt-action rifles, MP40s, MG42s, STG-44s, stick grenades, Panzerfausts and Panzerschreks. It appears however, that their WW2-era weaponry have been upgraded as their MP40s have an extraordinarily high rate of fire and ammo capacity, stick grenades and Panzerfausts possessing more destructive explosive power. Melee weapons include bayonets and trench shovels. Despite possessing such an arsenal, the battalion had little to no dedicated anti-air weaponry to combat against Iscariot's airborne forces.

Their most common uniform consists of a common Stalhelm, a WW2-era Trenchcoat and a facecloth, as well as UV-protection gas masks to prevent damage from the Ultraviolet lamps used by the airborne Iscariot forces. Some specialists, such as Rip Van Winkle's Taskforce, instead wear German Fallschirmjager uniforms with Paratrooper helmets and Patrol caps, with largely the same weaponry as their more common brethren.

Main Assault Force
The primary combat group assigned to attack London, mainly attacking civilians and military strongholds (such as Penwood's command center) to cleanse the city of the enemy. By the time of Alucard's arrival their numbers had been depleted to 572 troops left active - after Alucard unleashed his army of familiars, they were almost entirely wiped out.

Zorin Blitz's Taskforce
Roughly 1/3 of the main group, Zorin's Taskforce consisted of the soldiers aboard the smaller zeppelin Alfred Rosenberg, with the mission of destroying Seras Victoria and Hellsing's hired force of Mercenaries, the Wild Geese. While in the second task they largely succeeded (with only three members left standing when the taskforce was defeated with Zorin killed) they failed to neutralize the fledgling Draculina, who proceeded to annihilate them with deadly efficiency after bonding her soul with that of the late Pip Bernadotte. They were entirely destroyed at the battle for Hellsing Manor - half gunned down or blown to bits in the defensive minefields set up by the Wild Geese, the other half killed by Seras while either still aboard the blimp or inside the Manors corridors.

Rip van Winkle's Specialists
A small squadron of volunteers supposedly from the Fallschirmjager (since they wear German paratrooper gear) or rather, the paratrooper battalions in the Waffen-SS, sent along to help secure aircraft carrier HMS Eagle alongside Rip van Winkle. Unlike their leader, they are unable to go out into the sunlight, and mainly remain aboard the bridge during their short occupation of the ship. Against Alucard, they were no match, and were utterly slaughtered when they attempted to gun him down. They also had possession of FG-42 automatic rifles, issued to only paratroops during WW2.

Creation
Although the exact creation method of the members of the Last Battalion is unknown, it is heavily implied that some sort of surgery is involved. It is revealed that their entire essence is the result of tireless research conducted on the body of Mina Harker, who was bitten by Dracula, yet never fully became human after he was defeated, having retained part of his essence inside her - to that end, it can be said that every one of the vampires created by this method is just another carbon copy of Alucard. The members of the Last Battalion are likely veterans of WW2, restored to their youth by the surgery, although it is possible that they are simply conscripts, abducted, brainwashed and empowered by the vampiric transformation. Whatever the method of their creation, they were indeed a fighting force to be reckoned with.