SS Divisional Histories [01] SS Wiking: The History of the 5th SS Division 1941 - 1945 by Rupert Butler

Author:Rupert Butler [Butler, Rupert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781932033045
Goodreads: 1832352
Publisher: Amber Books Ltd
Published: 2002-09-12T04:00:00+00:00

New recruits to the Legion Wallonien swear an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler during a ceremony in Brussels on 3 March 1943. With the tide of the war turning against Germany, fresh manpower was urgently needed.

The German 1943 summer offensive at Kursk took place without Wiking. The right-hand map shows a close-up of II SS Panzer Corps’ attack in the southern sector of the Kursk salient.

LACK OF TANKS

Crises for the Reich on all fronts increased with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and then, two months later, the capitulation of Italy. Hitler rushed a portion of the SS Panzer Corps to the west. The most drastic regrouping centred round the newly established SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland, whose three regiments were strengthened by transfers from Wiking and the inclusion of native Germans. In the east, there was an urgent need for increased steel. Seven Waffen-SS panzergrenadier divisions—including Wiking, which had originally been partly armoured motorized infantry—had become full SS panzer divisions. All were backed by the very latest that battle technology could provide in the way of tanks, self-propelled artillery and mechanized infantry.

In the wake of ‘Citadel’, a fresh Red Army counteroffensive was launched on 2 August after a massive artillery and air bombardment. The key centre of Belgorod, north of Kharkov, fell four days later. Around Kharkov itself, Wiking was back in the frame and, along with Das Reich and Totenkopf, was thrown into the cauldron to prevent the final loss of the city. Hitler’s mantra was predictable: ‘Kharkov must be held.’ In the scorching days of autumn, with thick dust clouds hanging over the roads, the advance rolled on. The vehicles of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Regiment reached the Feski collective farm about 24km (15 miles) northwest of Kharkov, where vast German supply dumps had been set up in happier times. There were huge amounts of alcohol, tobacco and tinned food, all of which were hastily commandeered, with the exception of vodka, shunned by the Wehrmacht in favour of cognac, port and Chianti. Paul Carrel, in Scorched Earth: The Russian–German War 1943–1944, wrote: ‘No one, of course suspected that this despised Russian vodka would turn into an effective secret weapon. No sooner had the Russians reached the dump than the fighting spirit of the regiments evaporated for the time being. It took them three days to empty all those carboys of vodka …’ Corporal Otto Tenning of 2nd Company, 3rd Grenadier Regiment, wrote in his diary: ‘While the comrades on the other side were sleeping off their vodka hangovers and forgetting all about this accursed war, the newly brought up SS-Wiking Panzer Division used the time for digging in undisturbed on the high ground behind Feski.’

DNIEPER RETREAT

It was a mere interlude. By 12 August, in an area of hills northwest of Kharkov, a powerful enemy force, whose manpower greatly exceeded that of Wiking, rammed into the division that had sped to the area behind Totenkopf and Das Reich. Wiking held its own for the next six days until the Russians,

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