The Axis forces 2

by Massimiliano Afiero

  Felix Steiner in Poland, September 1939.

  Another officer who had a very similar opinion on training techniques and tactics was Cassius Freiherr von Montigny with whom – among others – he established the indeed legendary SS-Junkerschule in Bad Tölz.

  Steiner pass the SS-Regiment ‘Deutschland’ in review, Autumn 1940.

  When World War II broke out he was leading the VT unit SS-Standarte “Deutschland” as SS-Oberführer. He had taken command of the unit in summer 1936 as SS-Standartenführer. He led his unit in all the upcoming campaigns: after having participated in the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 this by the outbreak of the war meant the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 and the Battle of France in 1940 which also included the invasion of the Netherlands.

  Autumn 1941: SS-Brigdf. Steiner in Russia, with two officers of Wiking, Köller and von Schalburg (Giorgio Bussano Collection).

  His regiment had fought outstandingly wherever it had engaged the foe in combat. For the battles in France and the successful conquest of the Walcheren peninsula in the Low Countries Steiner was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross on August 15, 1940. Only a few months later, in December 1940, and after being promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer, he assumed command and oversaw the shaping of the newly created Waffen-SS-Division “Wiking” which was a division made up of mostly non-German volunteers who came from countries like the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Belgium.

  L’SS-Brigdf. Steiner in Russia 1941, with other officers of the Wiking Division.

  But there were even volunteers from Switzerland in the ranks of the new unit which formed a brotherhood beyond borders and was so to speak the spearhead of the anti-Bolshevist youth. For the merits of the fine Waffen-SS-Division “Wiking” during Operation Barbarossa, Steiner was presented with the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross in December 1942.

  Steiner with Finnish Volunteers.

  In April 1943, he was to become the commander of the III.(Germ.)SS-Panzer-Korps and for leading this unit outstandingly Felix Steiner – by then SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS – received the Swords to the Knight’s Cross on August 10, 1944. Steiner’s III (Germanic) Panzer Corps had played a major role in the defensive battles at Narva – and during the Battle of the Tannenberg Line, also known as the Battle of the European SS, withstood a great Soviet force with only seven tanks left. In the Battle of the Tanneberg Line 136,830 Soviet troops were held off by 22,250 men.

  Steiner with Danish volunteers, 1943.

  Felix Steiner who by the end of the war had become an SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS was released from incarceration in 1948. Before, at the Nuremberg Trials all charges against him had been dropped. 1958 he then published a book which was entitled “Die Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS. Idee und Opfergang” (The Volunteers of the Waffen-SS. Idea and Sacrifice) and discussed the foundations on which the European movement of volunteers had been built in its first chapters and documented the incredible achievements and examples of loyalty and camaraderie in its second part. The sacrifice of the European volunteers culminated in the defence of Kolberg by French soldiers and the defence of theReichshauptstadt Berlin by Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Latvians and again French volunteers.

  Left, SS-Gruf. Steiner with Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub. Right, the commander of the III.(Germ.)SS-Panzerkorps, SS-Ogruf. Steiner presents the Knight’s Cross Estonian SS-Ostubf. Harald Riipalu, 1944.

  As the Soviet troops advanced on Kolberg, the majority of its inhabitants as well as approximately 70,000 German refugees who had been trapped in the Kolberg Pocket were evacuated by the Kriegsmarine in the last days of the war. Also the remaining 40,000 German soldiers were evacuated from the besieged city and only around 2,000 soldiers were left to cover the last sea transport on March 17, 1945. Due to a lack of anti-tank weapons, the German naval forces used the guns of their battleships to support the defenders of Kolberg.

  Hitler with Steiner and SS-Stubaf. Degrelle at award ceremony after the Battle of Cherkassy, February 1944.

  Yet I want to focus on the second part of Steiner’s book in this article: Were the volunteers of the Waffen-SS a European avant-garde? The former commander of the so called “Vikings” in his afore mentioned book talks about a fundamental transformation of the men which occurred – regardless of what rank they may have held – after they had seen the horrors of Bolshevism and the suffering of the Ukrainian peasants with their own eyes.

  Steiner speaks with Norwegian Prime Minister Vidkun Quisling during the review of the Norwegian SS Legion in the Novgorod region, 1942.

  While most of them had seen themselves as Dutch, Danish or Norwegian nationalists before this experience they now had become truly European idealists. They now indeed regarded themselves as knights of the west who fought a common enemy – just like in 1529 and 1683 when Vienna was twice saved by a combined European force from getting conquered and pillaged by the Turks. “All of a sudden”, writes Steiner, “the volunteer in vast Russia realized that Dutchmen, Danes, Norwegians and Germans here fought for their common native land. In his comrade next to him he perceived a person who had a similar way of life and the same historical background – and in view of the enormous masses of the foe realized the imperative of the common front.” Disagreements which had i.e. existed in Belgium between Flemings and Walloons were now obsolete. And what “had been forgotten in Europe in the one and a half centuries of separation now awoke in him [the volunteer] as overwhelming experience of war. In the midst of the fratricidal war of the European peoples the idea of a common European destiny was born on the frontlines against […] Bolshevism, mentally comprehended and executed in the struggle.” While within the ranks of the Western Allies nationalism was still virulent and the masses of people without rights on the Soviet side were driven to more and more blood sacrifice by the thought of world revolution, the European idea had a wonderful renaissance “in the hearts of the volunteers”.

  Latvian volunteers, Summer 1943. On the left, SS-Stubaf. Veiss.

  A new breed of soldiers had been shaped which henceforth thought European. Steiner nevertheless stresses that in his opinion the European volunteers of World War II were just one link in a chain and he forges a bridge from Lützow’s Free Corps over Lord Bryon’s and Giuseppe Garibaldi’s volunteers, Josef Pilsudski’s Polish Legion and the volunteers of World War I to those who served in the Waffen-SS. Felix Steiner is annoyed about the ignorance of some higher-ups concerning the recruitment of Eastern Europeans at the outbreak of the war against the Soviet Union, for Estonia, Latvia and Western Ukraine had always regarded their heritage as European. “According to their way of life and their historical development they were the frontier bastions of Europe”, he writes.

  Dutch Volunteers in training, 1941.

  All essential preconditions for a very strong movement of volunteers if not for a people’s uprising hat been met in the Baltic countries and perhaps less so in the western part of Ukraine. Instead of enforcing and strengthening the voluntary formations and self-protection units and incorporating them into the Wehrmacht as companions in arms they were in fact disarmed very soon due to orders of the German civil administration. In spite of that there was an incredible number of Estonians, Latvians and Western Ukrainians who at a time when the Soviets were regaining lost ground and the Germans were in peril joined the ranks of the Waffen-SS and tried to stop the red flood.

  Reichsführer-SS Himmler inspects soldiers of 14.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, 1944.

  They all shared the hardships of their German comrades until the bitter end without hesitation. In steadfast loyalty they stood their ground regardless of their nationality: Scandinavians, Belgians, French, Swiss, Spaniards, Italians, Latvians, Estonians and many more. They didn’t break their oath and fought in order to liberate Eastern Europe from the evils of Bolshevism and to protect those countries which had not yet fallen into the hands of the Soviets from the red plague.

  Frenc
h volunteers at Sennheim camp, 1943.

  The awareness of European solidarity had awoken in their hearts and minds, the awareness also of the fact that “the characteristic achievements of European culture had come into existence through collaboration of the European peoples and stemmed from a common root.”

  SS-Ogruf. Steiner with Danish Volunteers.

  To the contrary the youth of every country had been raised in the belief that the history, literature and art of their particular people was a whole – a thing complete in itself – and not the result “and a part of a greater intellectual unity.”

  In the preface of Die Freiwilligen, Felix Steiner expressed the hope that now (1958) the public opinion had perhaps shifted and the heat of the debate which had been dominated by post-war propaganda had somewhat cooled down so people could carefully look at the facts presented in the book and come to an own opinion. Unfortunately at the beginning of the 21st century we must state that however vox populi hasn’t only stayed the same as immediately after the war but has changed a lot to the worse indeed. Following generations haven’t come to their senses and it seems like the – sometimes ridiculous – lies which were and are inflicted upon the new generations by school teachers, politicians and Hollywood film directors regarding the brave men of the Waffen-SS and the German soldiers who fought in World War II in general have in fact made them that way. Who will speak up for the brave volunteers once the last of them will have been consigned to the grave? Lest we forget their sacrifice! “If all become unfaithful, we remain loyal / So that there will always be a Fähnlein for you on earth.”

  The Wiking and the battles in the Izyum area, July 1943

  By Marc Rikmenspoel

  The Soviet plan for defeating the German Kursk offensive involved launching counteroffensives north and south of the main battle zone. The Soviets usually disguised their intentions with Maskirovka techniques, but in this case, they openly carried out preparations to attack the German Orel salient, to the north of Kursk, and the Donets and Mius River lines to the south. They correctly believed this would draw German armor reserves away from the Kursk area, and would keep those reserves dispersed. Wiking had ended the 1943 winter campaign in positions along the Donets, near Izyum. There, it reorganized and partially refitted during the lull from April through June.

  The situation in Summer 1943 on the Eastern Front.

  The division had suffered heavy casualties in the fighting since the advance to the Caucasus that began in late July, 1942. It was further weakened by giving up the Finnish Volunteer Battalion, whose contract was expiring, and the Nordland Regiment, which was becoming a cadre for the III.(Germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps. With Nordland went many officers and NCOs from other elements of Wiking, along with hundreds of Germanic volunteers. Some of the latter also had expiring service contracts, others were joining the in-formation Nederland, Langemarck, and Wallonien Brigades. The third battalion of Germania had left Wiking temporarily, to reequip as a SPW (armored halftrack) battalion. In return,Wiking received the first combat-ready battalion of the Estonian Legion.

  Narwa Panzergrenadiers, Summer 1943.

  It was detached and retitled SS-Panzergrenadier Bataillon Narwa. The Westland Regiment had spent the preceding campaign organized as a two-battalion “light” regiment, but now reverted to a standard organization, with Narwa functioning as its third battalion. Limited personnel replacements also arrived, but Wiking was far from full strength as the summer of 1943 began, with only five infantry battalions and an understrength tank battalion. As such, it received a reserve role for the Kursk offensive, as part of the XXIV.Panzerkorps. In early July, it was moved north from the Izyum zone, to a staging area near Belgorod. Wiking was to be ready to reinforce the southern pincer of the German offensive, but the attack was halted before it could be committed.

  XXIV.Panzerkorps commander Walther Nehring stands between WikingDivision commander Herbert Otto Gille and I./Germania commander Hans Dorr, shortly before the Izyum fighting.

  On July 16, the Red Army showed signs that it was about to attack across the Donets. Wiking was alerted during the day, and started heading back to its former deployment area. Rainy weather turned the roads to mud and slowed Wiking’s arrival. The anticipated offensive began on July 17, as the 46. Infanterie Division was pushed out of its positions at Bol. Garashevka and Mal. Garashevka. If left uncontained, the offensive could have advanced to Barvenkovo, where it would have interdicted the main north-south rail line the Germans used for supplying units in the Stalino-Mius sector. However, simply by drawing Wiking away from the Kursk zone, the offensive had accomplished its primary purpose.Wiking began arriving in the Donets zone in the early hours of July 18. Hans Dorr and his I./Germania were the first unit to reach the area. The headquarters of theXXXX.Panzerkorps, responsible for the Donets front, demanded a quick assault, before the Soviet bridgehead across the river could be expanded. Dorr therefore prepared his men to assault through the village of Ssrednij, and then wheel to the west-northwest and roll up the Soviet positions by taking the two Garashevkas. The next battalion to arrive, Günther Sitter’s I./Westland, would follow and support Dorr’s attack. Dorr’s attack began at daybreak. He led his men in storming through Ssrednij, but as they emerged from the west end of the village, they were stopped by extremely heavy Soviet fire from across the Donets. Soviet tanks emerged from Bol. Garashevka, to make the situation worse. Caught in the open, there was nowhere to seek cover and the battalion was nearly destroyed. Dorr gathered several machine gun squads, and with them drove Soviet forces off a nearby hill, which relieved some of the pressure.

  Germania Regiment commander Jürgen Wagner has just received the Knight’s Cross he was awarded on July 24. Gille, at right, used his own piece for the ceremony, which is why he isn’t wearing it. Joining the celebration is Westland Regiment commander August Dieckmann. (NARA).

  Dorr was wounded in the upper arm, and passed command of the remnants of his battalion to German Cross in Gold holder Walter Iden, the 1.Kompanie commander. It was the eighth of sixteen wounds Dorr suffered during the war. Iden led the battalion south to the state farm (kholkoz), where it began to regroup. Sitter and the I./Westland followedI./Germania, as planned. They finished clearing Ssrednij, but then had to fend off repeated Soviet counterattacks. By the next day, the battalion was mostly surrounded, and defended itself in an all-around hedgehog fashion. The heavy weapons of 4.Kompanie played an important part, especially the guns of the antitank platoon, which was led by Albert “Pak” Müller.

  A map of the Izyum battlefield, taken from Peter Strassner’s European Volunteers.

  The 4.Kompanie commander, German Cross in Gold holder Werner “Bubi” Gruben, was killed-in-action during the fighting on the 19th, and it is likely that Müller assumed acting command in place of him. The I./Westland was also nearly destroyed while defending Ssrednij through July 21.

  Heinz Juchem wears a shirt made from Heer camouflage material, as he speaks into a field telephone. This photo was probably taken during the summer 1942 advance towards the Caucasus.

  As Dorr and Sitter attacked Ssrednij on July 18, German Cross in Gold holder Hans Juchem and his II./Germania arrived at the kholkoz (to which Iden would later retreat). Juchem could see Soviet attack forces pushing through Savodskoye, just east of Ssrednij, and moving to the high ground south of the village. He led his battalion in an attack which occupied the commanding Hill 186.9, and pushed the Soviets back towards Savodskoye. A few hours later, in the evening, after repulsing a counterattack against the hill, Juchem and his men stormed and occupied Savodskoye. They then moved south to screen and protect the village of Andrejevka, while German Cross in Gold holder Walter Schmidt and his II./Westland took over the defense of Savodskoye. At the same time, Georg Eberhardt and his Panzergrenadier Bataillon Narwa dug in on Hill 186.9. While Ssrednij remained under heavy attacks, the main Soviet effort seems to have been directed a bit to the east. Savodskoye itself was constantly attacked on the 19th-21st, but additio
nal Soviet forces, led by tank brigades, bypassed the village on either side, trying to get over Hill 186.9 and make a clean breakthrough.

  A newspaper photo from the spring of 1943, showing Georg Eberhardt on the left. In the foreground is German Governor-General for Estonia Karl Siegmund Litzmann. He was making an inspection of the Estonian Legion at the Debica/Heidelager troop training grounds.