The Himmler's SS (41 page)

The Leibstandarte-SS ‘Adolf Hitler' took part in the Berlin victory parade on 19 July 1940. Some participating soldiers were already wearing collar patches without the black/aluminium twisted cord piping, which was officially abolished the following month.

At the end of 1941, the great German offensive came to a halt, totally exhausted. Blitzkrieg techniques had met their match in the vast expanse of the Soviet Union and the stamina and apparently endless manpower reserves of the Red Army. The force of the Russian counter-offensive during the winter of 1941–2 shocked the German Army High Command, which argued for full-scale withdrawals. Hitler overruled the generals, however, taking personal command of the army, and the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS had their first opportunity to exhibit their steadfastness in defence. German troops began to find themselves cut off in isolated pockets, the most notable being that at Demjansk which contained six divisions, including ‘Totenkopf'. The winter campaign was so harsh, with temperatures regularly falling below -40°C, that a special medal was later authorised for participants. The honour of designing it fell to SS-Unterscharführer Ernst Krause, an artist serving as a war correspondent with the Leibstandarte.

In the spring of 1942, the Germans opened a new offensive in the south, to reach the oil-rich Caucasus region. During the course of the year the Waffen-SS divisions, still suffering from the battles of the previous winter, were withdrawn in turn and refitted with a strong tank component plus assault guns and armoured personnel carriers. In May, the upgraded SS-Division ‘Reich' was renamed ‘Das Reich', and in September the SS-Kavallerie-Division was activated for anti-partisan duties behind the lines. November saw ‘Das Reich', ‘Totenkopf' and ‘Wiking' officially redesignated as SS-Panzergrenadier Divisions, now equal in terms of equipment to many full panzer divisions of the army. The Leibstandarte achieved similar status, with the new division being entitled ‘Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler' in commemoration of Hitler's bodyguard, which was its nucleus. The Führer was increasingly impressed with the combat performance of the SS, and in December ordered the formation of two completely new Waffen-SS divisions, named ‘Hohenstaufen' and ‘Frundsberg'. By the end of the year, Waffen-SS troops in the field numbered around 200,000.

Himmler and SS-Brigadeführer Knoblauch reviewing Totenkopf cavalrymen in Russia, July 1941. At this stage of their development, the Waffen-SS Reiterstandarten were mounted on bicycles as often as they were on horses! The officer behind Himmler, wearing a steel helmet, is Hermann Fegelein, later commander of the cavalry division ‘Florian Geyer'.

Himmler greeting Waffen-SS cavalry officers on the eastern front, 24 July 1941.

The face of the SS at war: troops of the 6th SS-Totenkopf Infantry Regiment operating a captured Czechoslovakian ZB53 machine-gun in Russia during the autumn of 1941, when German spirits were still high.

The Soviet offensive of December 1942 proved disastrous for the Germans. All attempts to capture Stalingrad failed and by early 1943 General Paulus' 6th Army was totally isolated and forced to surrender. Other German forces in the Caucasus also faced the grim possibility of being cut off by the speed and depth of the Soviet penetration. Field Marshal von Manstein, commander of Army Group South, managed to withdraw his forces from the Russian trap, however, and sensing that the Soviet thrust had become dangerously over-extended he launched a rapid counter-attack in the Kharkov region. Kharkov was a prestige target, a prewar showcase for communism, and to spearhead the assault to retake the city an SS-Panzer-Korps comprising the Leibstandarte, ‘Das Reich' and ‘Totenkopf' was formed under the overall command of Paul Hausser, who had now gained something of a celebrity status on the eastern front as ‘the SS general with the eye-patch'. For the first time, a substantial body of Waffen-SS troops fought together under their own generals and the result was a resounding victory. The Soviets were thrown into disarray, their 1st Guards Army was destroyed, Kharkov was recaptured and the Germans were able to restore order in the south. The SS suffered 12,000 casualties in the process. To Hitler, who was becoming increasingly disillusioned with army failures, it was proof of the capabilities of the Waffen-SS. Decorations were showered upon the victors of Kharkov, and no less than twenty-six Knight's Crosses, four Knight's Crosses with Oakleaves, and one Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords went to the men of the SS-Panzer-Korps. The city's Red Square was renamed ‘Platz der Leibstandarte' in honour of Hitler's guards. Moreover, the Führer arranged for his old favourite, Theodor Eicke, who had been killed during the early stages of the offensive, to be buried in the style of the ancient Germanic kings, with all the attendant pagan ritual.

Heavily armed Totenkopf troops take a meal break during the invasion of the Soviet Union.

The period after the German recapture of Kharkov was relatively quiet, as both sides prepared to resume hostilities in the summer. The Soviet salient around Kursk became the focus of events, and when battle commenced on 5 July Hausser's SS-Panzer-Korps, with 340 tanks including ‘Tigers' and 195 assault guns, was deployed on the southern flank. The Germans made reasonable progress in the first few days, but the nature of the war had changed and greatly improved Red Army forces held the enemy at bay before successfully counter-attacking. The SS-Panzer-Korps, ultimately reduced to 200 tanks, again fought well, despite being weakened by the removal of the Leibstandarte which was transferred to bolster the German army in Italy following the Allied invasion of Sicily on 10 July. Kursk was a strategic failure for the Germans. They lost their chance to gain the initiative and from then on were forced to react to Soviet moves. For the rest of 1943, the Germans fell back westwards across the Soviet Union. The three élite SS divisions, now redesignated as full panzer divisions, spent these hard months acting as Hitler's ‘fire brigade', being sent from one flashpoint to another as the situation demanded. The decisiveness with which both ‘Das Reich' and ‘Totenkopf' threw back Russian assaults earned them repeated praise from those army generals who were fortunate enough to have them under their command. In November, the Leibstandarte returned to the eastern front re-equipped with large numbers of the latest ‘Panther' tanks, and together with army panzer divisions it crushed a Soviet armoured corps in the Ukraine and retook Zhitomir.

A Leibstandarte motorcycle combination moves through a burning Russian town, July 1941. The divisional emblem of a skeleton key or ‘Dietrich', clearly a pun on the name of the LAH commander, was introduced at the suggestion of Wilhelm Keilhaus and can be seen on the rear of the sidecar.

SS soldiers lie where they fell, killed in the Soviet counter-offensive which took place during the horrendous winter of 1941–2. It is likely that the Russians staged this shot to show as many SS insignia as possible, thereby indicating that the Waffen-SS was not the invincible force which Nazi propaganda had portrayed.

While the Waffen-SS was locked in battle on the eastern front, Hitler continued to authorise the formation of new SS divisions, including ‘Hitlerjugend'. The German position in Russia underwent a drastic deterioration on 14 December 1943, when the Soviets launched another massive offensive in the Ukraine. The battle lasted for four months and culminated in the expulsion of the German forces from the south. The speed of the Russian advance led to the encirclement of large numbers of Wehrmacht troops. ‘Wiking', now under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Herbert Gille, and Léon Degrelle's Belgian SS Brigade ‘Wallonien' were caught in the Korsun-Cherkassy pocket in a scene reminiscent of Stalingrad, but managed to smash their way out suffering 60 per cent casualties in the process. Degrelle received the Knight's Cross, and Gille the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords, for this action. In a similar engagement, the Leibstandarte and elements of ‘Das Reich' were trapped around Kamenets Podolsky and had to be rescued by ‘Hohenstaufen' and ‘Frundsberg'. Worn down and exhausted, the Waffen-SS formations were now increasingly unable to stem the advancing Russian tide.