The Himmler's SS (42 page)

Alfred Wünnenberg wearing the police litzen collar patches used by the Polizei-Division between 1939 and 1942. This photograph is also interesting for its portrayal of the common wartime press ploy of ‘touching up' old pictures to update them for propaganda reasons. Wünnenberg won the Knight's Cross on 15 November 1941 as a police Oberst at Leningrad, and that is when this photograph was originally taken. On 23 April 1942 he was awarded the Oakleaves as an SS-Brigadeführer, and for the purpose of an immediate press announcement the old photo was dragged out of the files and had the Oakleaves painted on. This type of alteration can often be seen on surviving press pictures, and extends to rank badges as well as decorations.

A motorised column of the Leibstandarte entering Kharkov, 14 March 1943.

On the same day as the SS-Panzer-Korps retook Kharkov, ‘Sepp' Dietrich became the first SS recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords. The decoration was accompanied by this elaborate citation, signed by Hitler.

In the spring of 1944, the battered Leibstandarte and ‘Das Reich' battle groups were sent westwards to refit and prepare for the expected Anglo-American invasion. The former went to Belgium while the latter went to southern France. They were joined by ‘Hitlerjugend' and the ‘Götz von Berlichingen' division, which had been formed in France a few months earlier. ‘Hohenstaufen' and ‘Frundsberg' were relocated in Poland in anticipation of another Soviet attack, along with the emaciated ‘Wiking', while the long-suffering ‘Totenkopf' remained in front-line service in the east.

A motorcyclist of the 5th Reconnaissance Company, ‘Das Reich', on the Mius front in August 1943. The twin bar emblem on the front of the sidecar was used as a divisional emblem by ‘Das Reich' during the Battle of Kursk, while the Leibstandarte used a single bar and ‘Totenkopf' a triple bar. Hausser had devised these temporary formation signs with the intention of confusing Russian intelligence in the lead-up to Kursk.

Totenkopf personnel watching Russian positions on the southern sector of the eastern front, October 1943. The man with the binoculars wears the recently introduced Einheitsfeldmütze, while the panzer officer still sports his black version of the M40 Schiffchen with aluminium piping. Note also the unofficial sheepskin overjacket and fur cap used by the soldier on the right.

When the Normandy landings took place on 6 June, ‘Hitlerjugend' was the first SS formation to engage the enemy. The ferocity of the SS assault, combining the youthful enthusiasm of the troops with the battle-hardened experience of their officers, shocked the Allies. However, the latter's command of the air prevented proper deployment of the SS division and the attack ground to a halt. Two months of bloody fighting ensued. The Leibstandarte and ‘Hitlerjugend' were grouped together to form a new corps, the 1st SS-Panzer-Korps under ‘Sepp' Dietrich, and were immediately assigned the task of defending key positions around Caen. ‘Götz von Berlichingen' was hindered by constant air attacks on its journey north from its base in the Loire Valley, and did not reach the invasion front until 11 June. ‘Das Reich', travelling from Gascony, took even longer, being subjected to a series of ambushes carried out by the French Resistance. Frustrated at the consequent delays and loss of life, the division wreaked havoc upon the local population, whom it suspected of sheltering the partisans. The village of Oradour-sur-Glane was systematically destroyed and 640 of its inhabitants were shot, and the little town of Tulle was also devastated. ‘Das Reich' eventually reached its positions north of St Lô at the end of June, to join up with Willi Bittrich's 2nd SS-Panzer-Korps, comprising ‘Hohenstaufen' and ‘Frundsberg', which had been hurriedly transferred from the east.

Throughout July, the six SS divisions struggled ceaselessly to contain the Allies in their beachhead, taking a heavy toll of British and American armour. In one notable engagement, SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann and his Leibstandarte ‘Tiger' crew destroyed twenty-one British tanks and twenty-eight other armoured vehicles in a single hour. However, the Germans were overpowered by the sheer weight of Allied numbers and were frequently reduced to operating as ad hoc battle groups. By the middle of August, nineteen German army divisions had become trapped around Falaise, and only determined efforts by ‘Das Reich', ‘Hitlerjugend' and ‘Hohenstaufen' kept open a gap long enough for them to escape. Increasingly, while ordinary German soldiers were prepared to surrender to the Allies, it was left to the Waffen-SS to fight on.

The PzKpfw III command tank of 1st battalion, 3rd SS-Panzer Regiment, ‘Totenkopf' Division, in southern Russia during November 1943. The officer on the left is Hauptsturmführer Erwin Meierdrees, holder of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, who was killed in action near Dunaalmas, Hungary, on 4 January 1945.

A soldier of the Belgian SS Assault Brigade ‘Wallonien' under shellfire at Cherkassy, December 1943. Of the 2,000 Walloons trapped in the Korsun-Cherkassy pocket, only 600 survived unscathed.

In a scene reminiscent of the First World War, an SS-Schütze shelters in his trench dugout on the eastern front, spring 1944.

Meanwhile, in the east, the Red Army had struck again on 13 July and ripped Army Group Centre apart. Once more, the SS panzer divisions were thrown into the breach. ‘Wiking' and ‘Totenkopf', grouped together as the 4th SS-Panzer-Korps under Herbert Gille, repulsed the Soviet attack on Warsaw during August, while in the Balkans the backbone of the German defence was provided by ‘Prinz Eugen', ‘Handschar' and other nominally second-grade formations of SS-Obergruppenführer Artur Phleps' 5th SS-Gebirgs-Korps, which had been diverted from their usual anti-partisan duties.

In September, the British airborne assault at Arnhem was countered and defeated by ‘Hohenstaufen' and ‘Frundsberg' in a battle noted for the mutual respect held by each side for the fighting abilities and fair play of the other. This victory, and the general slowing down of the Allied advance across France due to over-extended supply and communications lines, persuaded Hitler to launch a major offensive in the west, in an attempt to repeat the successes of 1940. Two panzer armies were assembled to spearhead the attack, the 5th Panzer Army under General Hasso von Manteuffel, and the 6th SS-Panzer Army, the larger of the two forces, under ‘Sepp' Dietrich. The nucleus of the latter army comprised the Leibstandarte, ‘Das Reich', ‘Hohenstaufen' and ‘Hitlerjugend', now equipped with some of the latest ‘King Tiger' tanks. On 16 December the offensive began in the Ardennes, but the hilly and wooded terrain naturally favoured defensive action and after only five days the German advance ground to a halt. SS frustration again translated itself into the committing of atrocities, this time the massacre of seventy American prisoners by men of Joachim Peiper's battle group at Malmédy. A subsidiary offensive in Alsace, led by ‘Götz von Berlichingen', also came to nothing and the division ended up trapped in Metz. With a virtual stalemate in the west, Hitler pulled his SS divisions out and sent them eastwards, where the situation had once more become desperate.