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| Norwegians of DNL later transferred to the Nordland Division |
The SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking was composed of enlisted men who were predominantly Nordic volunteers, commanded by German officers. In February 1943, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler ordered the establishment of a new Waffen-SS volunteer division to duplicate the Wiking. The new division would be officered by foreign volunteers. In March 1943, Wiking's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Nordland was pulled out of the line to be used as a cadre for the new Waffen-SS division. Also, the Estonian SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Bataillon Narwa replaced the Finnish Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS who was disbanded in July 1943. It was decided that the division was to continue using the already-existing regiment's name Nordland. The Nordland's Panzer battalion, SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11, was given the honor title Hermann von Salza and its two Panzergrenadier regiments were also given honor titles, SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 23 Norge and SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 24 Danmark. The Norwegian SS-Freiwilligen-Legion Norwegen of the Waffen-SS was also disbanded in March 1943 and most survivors who wanted to continue fighting the Soviets were transferred to the newly formed 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland. The division's manpower strength was 11.393 officers and men in 1943. Despite most volunteers hailing from Scandinavia, the Nordland carried the widest range of nationalities found in any single division. By the end of the war, British, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, and Swiss volunteers and Estonian conscripts had either served in the division or been attached to it. Top image: photo taken by Hitler's personal photographer Hugo Jäger. Jäger was born in München and died aged 69 on January 1 1970. LIFE photo archive. Fair use. Middle image: the feared and disliked Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler inspecting Swedish volunteers in the newly formed Nordland Division in Sennheim 1943. Volunteers in the picture: SS-Oberscharführer Walther Nilsson, SS-Rottenführer Karl-Olof Holm, SS-Schütze Emil Lindström and SS-Unterscharführer Carl-Martin Ågrahn. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Reserve battalion Holmestrand of the Norwegian SS volunteer Legion at the Royal Palace in Oslo. Credit: Julius Jääskeläinen. National Archives of Norway. PD.
Jaeger began photographing Hitler in 1936. He was specialised in taking colour photographs, unlike Hitler's other personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. As the war was drawing to a close in 1945, Jaeger buried the photographs inside 12 glass jars outside Munich. He dug up all of the photographs ten years later in 1955, and stored them in a bank vault. In 1965, Jaeger sold them to Life magazine. Thanks for a really interesting site!
ReplyDeleteBrave men who fought against communism before the rest of the world could admit to themselves what Stalin was up to.
ReplyDeleteThese brave men should be forever honored. May their souls rest in peace.
DeleteНеплохая статья. Хотелось бы увидеть такую же про формирования СС из Восточной Европы (включая советских граждан).
ReplyDeleteA great many of the these Nordic volunteers were anti-Russian rather than anything else. The logic of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' is ancient.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather was with the Panzergrenadier Regiment Danmark 24 in II.Btl 5.Kompanie as Sturmann. Fortunately he survived the war and came home from British captivity in 1948.
ReplyDelete