Men-at-Arms • 415
11. to 23. Divisions
Gordon Williamson • Illustrated by Stephen Andrew
Series editor Martin Windrow
INTRODUCTION
THE DIVISIONS: 11. SS-FREIWILLIGEN PANZER GRENADIER DIVISION NORDLAND
12. SS-PANZER DIVISION HITLERJUGEND
13. WAFFEN GEBIRGS DIVISION DER SS HANDSCHAR (kroatische Nr.1)
14. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (ukrainische Nr.1)
15. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (lettische Nr.1)
16. SS-PANZER GRENADIER DIVISION REICHSFÜHRER-SS
17. SS-PANZERGRENADIER DIVISION GÖTZ VON BERLICHINGEN
18. SS-FREIWILLIGEN PANZERGRENADIER DIVISION HORST WESSEL
19. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (lettische Nr.2)
20. WAFFEN GRENADIER DIVISION DER SS (estnische Nr.1)
21. WAFFEN GEBIRGS DIVISION DER SS SKANDERBEG (albanische Nr.1)
22. SS-FREIWILLIGEN KAVALLERIE DIVISION MARIA THERESIA
23. WAFFEN GEBIRGS DIVISION DER SS KAMA (kroatische Nr.2)
23. SS-FREIWILLIGEN PANZERGRENADIER DIVISION NEDERLAND
THE PLATES
IN 1941 THE BATTLEFIELD PROWESS of the original SS divisions on the Russian Front prompted their expansion. Limited in his ability to compete with the other three armed services for German (‘Reichsdeutsche’) conscripts, the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler, at first redesignated and retrained security personnel of the Totenkopfstandarte (‘Death’s Head Regiments’) as combat troops. The constant need for recruits, both to replace battle casualties and to police the enormous areas coming under German occupation, then led Himmler and his recruitment chief, SS-Ogruf Gottlob Berger, to explore two main sources of manpower outside the borders of the Reich.
The first were non-German but acceptably ‘Germanic’ volunteers from the occupied countries of North-West Europe, who initially proved themselves in the ranks of the Wiking Division in 1941 (see MAA 401). The Waffen-SS continued to recruit there; the survivors of the original regimental-size volunteer ‘legions’ of 1941–42 were later rebuilt into brigades in 1943; and finally into (at least nominal) divisions in 1944, although this involved adding recruits from various other more or less arbitrary sources.
Distinct from the Waffen-SS divisions, which served at the front under the command of Army higher formations, Himmler retained under his own control SS combat units designated Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS. Deployed behind the front lines in Russia in 1941–42 on ‘anti-partisan’ duties, this force consisted of one cavalry and two motorized infantry brigades; the former later evolved into the 8. SS-Kavallerie Division Florian Geyer (see MAA 404). The infantry brigades initially consisted of former Totenkopfstandarten redesignated as ‘SS infantry regiments’: 1. SS-Inf Bde (mot.) with SS-Inf Regts 8 & 10, and 2. SS-Inf Bde (mot.) with SS-Inf Regts 4 & 14. These brigades were used as a pool of replacements for the front line divisions; and it was under their control that the first foreign SS volunteer legions were introduced to active service.
In April 1941 some 2,500 Dutch and Flemish-Belgian volunteers were formed into Freiwilligen Standarte Nord-West (‘Volunteer Regiment North-West’). By early autumn the Freikorps Danmark and Freiwilligen Legion Norwegen were raised in Scandinavia. The ‘Nord-West’ regiment was divided into the Frw Legion Flandern and Frw Legion Niederlande in September. After training, the Flandern and Niederlande legions joined the 2. SS-Inf Bde (mot.) behind the Leningrad front in midwinter 1941/42, followed in February 1942 by the Norwegian Legion. In May 1942 the Freikorps Danmark arrived at the front and was temporarily attached to the 3. SS-Division Totenkopf; subsequently the 1. SS-Inf Bde (mot.) took over the Norwegian and Danish legions.
When the Wehrmacht drove the Soviet Red Army from the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1941, these also offered a particularly promising recruiting ground.
The second source of manpower after racially ‘Germanic’ volunteers was a range of ‘Volksdeutsche’ – men of distant German descent, from communities in the border provinces of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Units raised both from Germanic and Volksdeutsche recruits were normally designated SS-Freiwilligen (‘SS Volunteer’), and in many cases they were given national emblems on the right hand collar patch – although in practice many wore the standard SS-runes. To these ‘ethnic Germans’ were later added blatantly non-Germanic recruits from the Balkans and occupied Soviet Union. Such formations were designated Waffen Divisionen der SS (‘Armed Divisions of the SS’) in 1944, to distance them from the original Reichsdeutsche of the plain ‘SS Divisions’ and the racially acceptable ‘SS Volunteers’; apart from their German cadres, these units were forbidden to display the SS-runes. Of uneven combat value, some of them were limited to ‘anti-partisan’ duties in the rear areas.
Thirdly, 1943 saw a second series of armoured divisions (9., 10. & 12.) raised from ever younger Reichsdeutsche conscripts, led by cadres of veteran officers and NCOs posted from the senior divisions. All three of these classes of formation are represented in this third title in our sequence. The Waffen-SS as a whole earned a dual reputation, both for remarkable aggression and stamina in combat, and for murderous atrocity against civilians and prisoners. As throughout these Men-at-Arms titles, this book is concerned solely with brief, factual organization and campaign histories of the separate divisions, and the evolving uniforms, insignia and equipment of their officers and men.
Designations | |
March 1943 | 11. (germanische) SS-Panzergrenadier Division |
November 1943 | 11. SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division Nordland |
Mar–May 1943 SS-Brigadeführer Franz Augsberger; May 1943–July 1944 SS-Gruppenführer Fritz von Scholz; July 1944–Apr 1945 SS-Brigadeführer Joachim Ziegler; Apr–May 1945 SS-Brigadeführer Dr Gustav Krukenberg
SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 23 Norge (norwegisches Nr. 1); SS-Panzer-grenadier Regiment 24 Danmark (dänisches Nr. 1); SS-Panzer Abteilung (Sturmgeschütz) 11 Hermann von Salza; SS-Panzerjäger Abeilung 11; SS-Panzer Artillerie Regiment 11; SS-Flak Abteilung 11; SS-Panzer Aufklärungs Abteilung 11; SS-Panzer Pionier Bataillon 11 (unconfirmed sources also list an SS-Jäger Regiment 11, and SS-Werfer Bataillon 521)
The origins of the Nordland Division can be traced to January 1943, when Himmler and Gottlob Berger reshaped the Northern European element in the Waffen-SS. After the initial surge of volunteers, slower recruiting made it difficult to keep the individual national legions up to strength. It was planned to bring them together to create a division, and to twin it with 5. SS-Pz Div Wiking in a new ‘Germanic Armoured Corps’ – III (germanisches) SS-Panzer Korps. The formation of the new 11. Division was put in hand in March–July 1943 at the Gräfenwöhr training area; the nucleus was the existing Nordland Regiment transferred from the Wiking Division, and the Frw Legion Norwegen and Freikorps Danmark. Originally it was intended to include a third regiment based on the Frw Legion Niederlande, but later that the Dutch should form a separate Nederland Brigade within III (germ.) SS-Panzer Korps. The divisional commander, SS-Brigaf Fritz von Scholz, was the former commander of the Nordland Regiment.
Since many of the personnel were combat veterans, training was completed by August 1943. The Nordland Division was sent into action that September in northern Croatia, to help counter Tito’s Communist partisans. Following the Italian armistice of that month, it also helped to disarm the Italian 57th ‘Lombardia’ Division. In late November the division left Croatia for the northern Russian Front, assigned to 18. Armee; at this point it numbered just under 11,500 men.
On 14 January 1944 the Oranienbaum sector on the Gulf of Finland was struck by the Soviet 2nd Shock Army, outnumbering the defending German forces by four to one. The first German units to feel the brunt of the attack crumpled almost immediately, leaving Nordland in a precarious position. The division held on tenaciously, and elements of the Norge Regiment even launched counter-attacks; but after two days’ heavy fighting the division withdrew to new positions, to which they clung alongside the Nederland Brigade and remnants of two Luftwaffe divisions. On 25 January Soviet attacks almost destroyed I Bataillon of the Danmark Regiment; the division continued a fighting retreat westwards, reaching the River Luga. On the evening of 30 January, under continuing pressure, all German troops were pulled back and the bridges were blown; however, the Red Army had already crossed further south. After two days of heavy combat Nordland was forced to abandon its positions along the Luga and retreat to the Narva line.
Between February and August 1944 the units of III (germ.) SS-Pz Korps managed to hold the area around Narva despite repeated attempts to dislodge them. When the first assaults failed the Soviets unleashed a massed bombardment over several days before once again attempting to storm the German positions, the main weight now falling on the Nederland Brigade. After several days the Dutch were forced to withdraw from the foremost positions, but were then reinforced by elements of Nordland. Once again the line was held, and by now the enemy offensive had begun to lose momentum. During a period of static warfare the hardest-hit units of Nordland – I Btl of both the Norge and Danmark Regiments – returned to Germany for rebuilding.
On 22 June 1944 the Red Army launched its massive offensive against the German Army Group Centre – Operation ‘Bagration’ – which ripped a gap in the Eastern Front almost 250 miles wide, through which huge Soviet formations poured westwards. The Baltic front to the north was now in danger of being completely cut off, and in late July all German forces were withdrawn from the Narva bridgehead to the ‘Tannenberg’ defence line. There too heavy assaults were repulsed, but at huge cost, including the Nordland Division’s commander, SS-Brigaf von Scholz, killed during a bombardment.
In mid-September the German forces in Estonia were ordered to withdraw into Latvia in the face of yet another offensive; and by 23 September, Nordland had taken up posi tions south-east of Riga. For the next two weeks the division took part in defensive fighting against overwhelm ing odds. On 6 October Army Group North, including Nordland, were withdrawn into Kurland (Kurzeme), Latvia’s westernmost region; on the 12th, the division took up new positions in the south of the ‘pocket’; and on the 13th the last bridges over the River Daugaua were blown and Riga was abandoned to the Soviets. Throughout October determined attacks on the pocket were held off, at heavy cost, but the last two months of 1944 passed relatively quietly.
On 20 January 1945 the Red Army attacked once more, and Danmark was all but annihilated. It was decided to evacuate the greatly weakened division by sea for refitting in Germany. Embarking at Libau, Nordland sailed on 28 January; arriving in Pomerania, it was allocated to the new 11. Panzer Armee in Army Group Steiner. In mid-February III (germ.) SS-Pz Korps attempted an offensive to the north-west against the flank of Zhukov’s 1st White Russian Front near Arnswalde. Conceived by GFM Guderian, this Operation ‘Sonnenwende’ was originally planned on a much larger front, but was scaled down on Hitler’s orders into little more than a localized counter-attack. NordlandNordlandNorgeDanmarkWiking