Waffen-SS
Page 50
26. Hirschfeld, Nazi Rule and Dutch Collaboration, 287; Christensen et al., “Germanic Volunteers,” 42.
27. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 69.
CHAPTER 12. ADVANCE ON LENINGRAD: ARMY GROUP NORTH
1. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 28.
2. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 163n.
3. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 54.
4. Ibid., 73.
5. Ibid., 55.
6. Ibid., 90.
7. Ibid.
8. Manstein, Lost Victories, 113–114. See also Melvin, Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General, 215.
9. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 177.
10. Ibid., 187.
11. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 99. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 186, has Eicke return on 21 September.
12. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 192.
13. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 102.
14. Ibid., 119.
15. Blanford, Hitler’s Second Army, 105–106.
16. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 120.
17. Ziemke, German Northern Theater of Operations, 157–163; Stein, Waffen SS, 131.
CHAPTER 13. ACROSS THE UKRAINE: ARMY GROUP SOUTH
1. See Strassner, European Volunteers, 18. Strassner uses the term Gefechtsgruppe (fighting group) to describe the reinforced regimental unit; I have kept to the more usual, broadly synonymous Kampfgruppe.
2. Weingartner, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 60.
3. Strassner, European Volunteers, 23.
4. www.http://yahadmap.org/#village/tarashcha-kyiv-ukraine.675.
5. Stahl, Eyewitness to Hell, 56–59 (previously published as Dance of Death by Erich Kern). Stahl/Kern is Reitlinger’s source.
6. Reitlinger, The SS, 170–171. The normally reliable Stein, Waffen SS, 133, seems to confuse the supposed Kherson incident with the Taganrog killings. For a balanced summary of the controversy, see Messenger, Hitler’s Gladiator, 100–101.
7. Bartmann, Für Volk and Führer, 64; Maeger, Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty, 61; Christensen et al., “Germanic Volunteers,” 66.
8. Robert Kershaw, War Without Garlands (Hersham: Ian Allen, 2008), 364–368; Messenger, Hitler’s Gladiator, 102.
9. Strassner, European Volunteers, 32–33.
10. Ibid., 33.
11. Lucas and Cooper, Hitler’s Elite, 101.
12. K. Meyer, Grenadiers, 123.
13. Strassner, European Volunteers, 41. Weingartner, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 63, puts forward a higher figure of 100,000 prisoners.
14. Ibid., 42.
15. Ibid., 42–43.
16. Ibid., 47.
17. Lucas and Cooper, Hitler’s Elite, 109.
18. Messenger, Hitler’s Gladiator, 105.
CHAPTER 14. DRIVE ON MOSCOW: ARMY GROUP CENTER
1. Franz Halder, “War Journal” (prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for War Crimes, Office of Military Government, United States), 3 July 1941, 6:196.
2. Eddie Bauer, The History of World War II (London: Orbis, 1979), 174.
3. Weidinger, Das Reich, 2:290.
4. Ibid., 308.
5. Lucas, Das Reich, 61.
6. Weidinger, Das Reich, 2:349.
7. Halder, “War Journal,” 11 August 1941, 7:36.
8. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 82.
9. Pieper, Fegelein’s Horsemen, 88, 89, 120.
10. Lucas, Das Reich, 73.
11. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 93.
12. Goldsworthy, Valhalla’s Warriors, 64.
13. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 95.
14. Lucas, Das Reich, 70.
CHAPTER 15. HOLDING THE LINE: EASTERN FRONT, 1941–1942
1. Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion to the Second World War, 113.
2. Halder, “War Journal,” 17 March 1941, 6:27.
3. Messenger, Hitler’s Gladiator, 105.
4. Trevor-Roper, Hitler’s Table Talk, 168.
5. Richard Overy, Interrogations: Inside the Mind of the Nazi Elite (London: Penguin Books, 2002), 275.
6. Stein, Waffen SS, 135.
7. Strassner, European Volunteers, 20.
8. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 148.
9. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 108.
10. Weingartner, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 70.
11. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 217.
12. Verton, In the Fire of the Eastern Front, 95.
13. Military Improvisation During the Russian Campaign (Washington, DC: U.S. Army, CMH), 51.
14. Verton, In the Fire of the Eastern Front, 79.
15. Ibid., 74–75.
16. Bartmann, Für Volk and Fatherland, 70.
17. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 104–105.
18. Lucas, Das Reich, 78.
19. See ibid., 79; and Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 115.
20. Lucas, Das Reich, 80.
21. Pieper, Fegelein’s Horsemen, 145.
22. Ibid., 144.
23. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 144.
24. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 208–226.
25. Padfield, Himmler Reichsführer-SS, 369; Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 239–230.
26. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 172.
27. Smith, Poulsen, and Christensen, “Danish Volunteers in the Waffen SS,” 80.
28. II Army Corps communiqué, in Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 172.
29. Estes, European Anabasis, 39.
30. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 244–245.
31. Ibid., 250.
32. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 173.
CHAPTER 16. AT THE EDGE: THE EASTERN FRONT, 1942–1943
1. For the SS legions on the Eastern Front, see Estes, European Anabasis, 38–52; Böhler and Gerwarth, Waffen-SS, 51–60; and Müller, Unknown Eastern Front.
2. Estes, European Anabasis, 51.
3. Blanford, Hitler’s Second Army, 112.
4. Ibid., 112–113.
5. Estes, European Anabasis, 42.
6. For the origins of Waffen-SS armored units, see Fey, Armor Battles of the Waffen SS; Tiemann, Chronicle of the 7. Panzer-Kompanie; Klapdor, Viking Panzers; and Agte, Wittmann and the Waffen SS Tiger Commanders, vol. 1.
7. Strassner, European Volunteers, 78, 70.
8. Ibid., 70.
9. Klapdor, Viking Panzers, 54.
10. Strassner, European Volunteers, 86.
11. Klapdor, Viking Panzers, 83.
12. For the Steiner-Ott dispute, see Strassner, European Volunteers, 87–94; and Klapdor, Viking Panzers, 78, 85–89, 96, 101.
13. Klapdor, Viking Panzers, 86–87.
14. Ibid., 96.
15. Ibid., 101.
16. Ibid., 141.
CHAPTER 17. KHARKOV COUNTERSTROKE
1. Stein, Waffen SS, 203.
2. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 258.
3. Kindler, Obedient unto Death, 23, 44.
4. For Tiger tanks in the Waffen-SS, see Agte, Wittmann and the Waffen SS Tiger Commanders, 1:1–26.
5. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 262–263.
6. Maeger, Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty, 81.
7. Lehmann, The Leibstandarte, 40 (this is a surprisingly high figure; Totenkopf managed with 120 trains for the same transit).
8. Ibid., 59.
9. Peiper has proved a magnet for biographers, among them Parker, Hitler’s Warrior; Bouwmeester, Beginning of the End; Jens Westemeier, Joachim Peiper: A Biography of Himmler’s SS Commander (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2007); Michael Reynolds, The Devil’s Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader (Staplehurst: Spellmount, 1995); and Patrick Agte, Jochen Peiper: Commander Panzer Regiment Leibstandarte (Winnipeg: Fedorowicz, 1999).
10. See, for example, remarks by Peiper’s then battalion commander, Albert Frey, in Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 354n.
11. Lehmann, The Leibstandarte, 64.
12. Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 94. See also NA WO 208/4295.
13.
Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 354. Peiper’s unit was nicknamed the “Blowtorch Battalion.”
14. Sydnor, Soldiers of Destruction, 267–268. Sydnor also suggests that this incident influenced Hitler to accept the Manstein plan (268).
15. Fey, Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 14.
16. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 130.
17. Meyer’s actions were confirmed in two separate Waffen-SS accounts (as well as postwar Ukrainian testimonies). See Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 96.
18. Maeger, Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty, 130.
19. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 138.
20. Manstein, Lost Victories, 435.
21. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 145.
22. Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 95.
23. Agte, Jochen Peiper, 56.
24. Weingartner, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 77.
25. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 144 (individual divisional losses comprised Leibstandarte, 167 officers and 4,373 NCOs and enlisted men; Das Reich, 102 and 4,396; Totenkopf, 94 and 2,170; corps units, 2 and 215).
CHAPTER 18. KURSK: CLASH OF ARMOR
1. Messenger, Hitler’s Gladiator, 117.
2. NA WO 205/1021, Wisch.
3. Gordon Williamson, Knight’s Cross, Oak-Leaves and Swords Recipients, 1941–45 (Oxford: Osprey, 2005), 30.
4. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 177.
5. Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion to the Second World War, 660.
6. Volkner, Many Rivers I Crossed, 37–38.
7. Lucas and Cooper, Hitler’s Elite, 213.
8. Lucas, Das Reich, 105.
9. Fey, Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 20.
10. Agte, Wittmann and the Waffen SS Tiger Commanders, 103, 105.
11. Lucas, Das Reich, 108.
12. See Nipe, Decision in the Ukraine; and Glantz and House, The Battle of Kursk.
13. Kindler, Obedient unto Death, 85.
14. Nipe, Decision in the Ukraine, 49–50.
15. Ibid., 52; George M. Nipe Jr., “Battle of Kursk: Germany’s Lost Victory in World War II,” World War II (February 1998).
16. Stein, Waffen SS, 214.
17. Skorzeny, Skorzeny’s Special Missions, 45–46.
CHAPTER 19. AN ARMY OF EUROPEANS
1. Estes, European Anabasis, 113.
2. Christensen et al., “Germanic Volunteers,” 64.
3. Estes, European Anabasis, 119.
4. Ibid., 112n.
5. For the Walloon Brigade, see Bruyne and Rikmenspoel, For Rex and for Belgium.
6. For the Frankreich Brigade, see Forbes, For Europe.
7. For the British Free Corps, see Weale, Renegades: Hitler’s Englishmen.
8. Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 17.
9. Wittmann, Balkan Nightmare, 71.
10. Casagrande et al., “Volksdeutsche,” 232.
11. Figures from Stein, Waffen SS, 173.
12. Ibid., 172.
13. Blanford, Hitler’s Second Army, 120.
14. Woltersdorf, Gods of War, 26–27.
15. Christensen et al., “Germanic Volunteers,” 74.
16. Wittmann, Balkan Nightmare, 80.
17. Lepre, Himmler’s Bosnian Division, 17—a detailed account of the Handschar Division. See also Bougarel et al., “Muslim SS Units,” 252–283; and Hale, Hitler’s Foreign Executioners, 262–292.
18. Lepre, Himmler’s Bosnian Division, 42.
19. Bougarel, “Muslim SS Units,” 256–257.
20. Lepre, Himmler’s Bosnian Division, 52.
21. Hale, Hitler’s Foreign Executioners, 300–302.
22. Melnyk, To Battle, 31.
23. Młynarczyk et al., “Eastern Europe,” 200–201.
24. Heike, Ukrainian Division “Galicia,” 6.
25. For the involvement of the Baltic States within the Waffen-SS, see Müller, Unknown Eastern Front, 158–183; and Kott et al., “Baltic States,” 120–164.
26. For Latvian SS formations, see www.latvianlegion.org; and Svencs, “Latvian Legion,” 58–78.
27. For Estonian SS formations, see www.eestileegion.com.
CHAPTER 20. DEFENDING THE UKRAINE
1. Fey, Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 40.
2. Ibid., 43.
3. Mellenthin, Panzer Battles, 308.
4. Fey, Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 52.
5. Agte, Wittmann and the Waffen SS Tiger Commanders, 177.
6. See Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 104–105.
7. Kindler, Obedient unto Death, 104.
8. Parker, Hitler’s Warrior, 106.
9. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 241.
10. Zetterling and Frankson, Korsun Pocket. See also Bruyne and Rikmenspoel, For Rex and Belgium, 119–125; and Strassner, European Volunteers, 135–153.
11. Kaisergruber, We Will Not Go to Tuapse, 204. For similar Soviet atrocities during the breakout, see also Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, 178.
12. Zetterling and Frankson, Korsun Pocket, 277. Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad, 179, using only Soviet sources, suggests a figure of around 55,000 killed and wounded and 18,200 taken prisoner from an original force in the pocket of more than 75,000—surely too high in all respects.
13. See Degrelle’s colorful memoir, Eastern Front.
14. Grass, Peeling the Onion, 110.
15. For II SS Panzer Corps, see Tieke, In the Firestorm; and Reynolds, Sons of the Reich.
16. Lehmann and Tiemann, The Leibstandarte, 75.
17. Weidinger, Comrades to the End, 241.
18. Estes, European Anabasis, 126.
19. Longerich, Heinrich Himmler, 341. See also Messenger, Hitler’s Gladiator, 118.
20. Höhne, Order of the Death’s Head, 480–481; Maeger, Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty, 127.
21. Wegner, Waffen-SS, 127.
22. Ibid., 215.
23. Ibid., 213.
24. Höhne, Order of the Death’s Head, 480.
25. Wegner, Waffen-SS, 206–207.
CHAPTER 21. BATTLE IN THE NORTH
1. For details of III SS Panzer Corps’ organization and operations, see Wilhelm Tieke, The Tragedy of the Faithful (Fedorowicz, 2001).
2. Poller, Månsson, and Westberg, SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs–Abteilung 11 “Nordland,” 56.
3. Williamson, The Blood-Soaked Soil, 136.
4. Estes, European Anabasis, 121.
5. Blosfelds, Stormtrooper on the Eastern Front, 133–134.
6. Voss, Black Edelweiss, 128.
7. For overviews of the Nord Division in Finland, see Rusiecki, In Final Defense of the Reich, 1–20; and Ziemke, German Northern Theater of Operations, 292–310.
8. Voss, Black Edelweiss, 147.
9. Ibid., 165–166.
CHAPTER 22. SHORING UP THE LINE
1. Melnyk, To Battle, 151. Melnyk provides a full account of the Ukrainian Division. See also Heike, Ukrainian Division “Galicia.”
2. Melnyk, To Battle, 155.
3. Heike, Ukrainian Division “Galicia,” 46–47.
4. Ibid., 47.
5. Ibid., 48.
6. Ibid., 52.
7. Melnyk, To Battle, 181.
8. Strassner, European Volunteers, 156–160.
9. Klapdor, Viking Panzers, 277.
10. Strassner, European Volunteers, 167, 169.
11. Volkner, Many Rivers I Crossed, 140.
12. Klapdor, Viking Panzers, 349–352.
13. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 243–244.
14. Strassner, European Volunteers, 178.
15. Ullrich, Like a Cliff in the Ocean, 249.
16. Volkner, Many Rivers I Crossed, 154.
CHAPTER 23. PARTISAN WARS: THE EASTERN FRONT
1. Hale, Hitler’s Foreign Executioners, 160.
2. Matthew Cooper, The Phantom War (London: Macdonald & Jane’s), 57.
3. Bartmann, Für Volk and Führer, 64; Maeger, Lost Honour, Betrayed Loyalty, 61; Christensen et al., “Germanic Volunteers from Northern Europe,” 66.
4. Bartmann, Für Volk and Führer, 6
7.
5. Norman Davies, Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw (London: Macmillan, 2003), 397.
6. Trevor-Roper, Hitler’s War Directives, 144.
7. For a detailed examination of Bandenbekämpfung, see Blood, Hitler’s Bandit Hunters.
8. Trevor-Roper, Hitler’s War Directives, 197–202.
9. Blood, Hitler’s Bandit Hunters, 122.
10. See Melson, Kleinkrieg.
11. Charles D. Melson, “German Counterinsurgency Revisited,” Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 14, no. 1 (2011): 12.
12. Ibid., 17–24.
13. Bayer, Kavallerie Divisionen der Waffen SS, 12.
14. Dorondo, Riders of the Apocalypse, 191.
15. Ibid., 193, 198.
16. The “Stroop Report” (Jewish Virtual Library).
17. Ibid.
18. MacLean, Cruel Hunters, 177.
19. Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion to the Second World War, 1261.
20. Hale, Hitler’s Foreign Executioners, 336.
21. Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion to the Second World War, 1262.
22. Judge, Slovakia, 1944, 18–19.
23. Heike, Ukrainian Division “Galicia,” 94.
CHAPTER 24. PARTISAN WARS: THE BALKANS
1. Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 19–20.
2. Wittmann, Balkan Nightmare, 146.
3. Melson, “German Counterinsurgency Revisited,” 25–26; Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 30–40.
4. Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 40.
5. Casagrande et al., “Volksdeutsche,” 246.
6. Christensen et al., “Germanic Volunteers,” 66.
7. Melson, “German Counterinsurgency Revisited,” 28.
8. Hale, Hitler’s Foreign Executioners, 284.
9. Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 68.
10. Ibid., 70. See also Wittmann, Balkan Nightmare, 100.
11. Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 89.
12. Ibid., 107.
13. Lepre, Himmler’s Bosnian Division, 150, 152.
14. For the action, see Melson, Operation Knight’s Move; and Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 117–120, 142–149.
15. Melson, Operation Knight’s Move, 49.
16. Kumm, Prinz Eugen, 144.
17. Bougarel et al., “Muslim SS Units,” 266.
18. John Mulgan, Report on Experience (Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2010), 145.
19. Pontolillo, Murderous Elite, 68; Mark Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44 (London: Yale University Press, 2001), 180.
20. Mazower, Inside Hitler’s Greece, 212–215; Pontolillo, Murderous Elite, 41.
21. Mulgan, Report on Experience, 161, 164.