Allied Carpet Bombardment of French Cities and Towns

381st Bombardment Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force in flight

Destruction of Saint-Lô – Saint-Lô after American bombing

Allied Bombing during the Normandy invasion destroyed 96% of Tilly-la-Campagne, 95% of Vire, 95% of Saint-Lô, 88% of Villers-Bocage, 82% of Le Havre, 76% of Falaise, 75% of Lisieux and 75% of Caen. The military value of these bombings was highly debatable. As for the destruction of Caen, known for its historical buildings built during the reign of William the Conqueror, it has long been admitted that it was militarily useless. According to the famous French historian and former member of the French Resistance Movement Henri Amouroux (awarded Croix de Guerre 1939-1945) 20,000 civilians were killed in Calvados department, 10,000 in Seine-Maritime, 14,800 in the Manche, 4,200 in the Orne and around 3,000 in the Eure. All together, that makes more than 50,000 French civilians killed by Allied bombings in Normandy alone, however, the Allies escaped all responsible for all of the death and destruction because they were 'represented as “liberators”. Top image: Boeing B-17 heavy bombers of the USAAF 381st Bombardment Group. The Group supported the Normandy invasion in June 1944 by bombing bridges and airfields and it bombed suspected positions in advance of ground forces at Saint-Lô in July 1944. USAFHRA. Public domain. Bottom image: American soldiers watch U.S. Army jeeps drive through the ruins of Saint-Lô. The heavy damage and the high number of casualties after the American bombing of Saint-Lô resulted in the city being called The Capital of Ruins. Photo by American photographer Frank Scherschel. LIFE photo archive. Fair use.

ϟϟ-Obersturmbannführer der Waffen-SS Mühlenkamp and his Panzermänner

Johannes Mühlenkamp as SS-Obersturmbannführer

Hans Flügel as SS-Hauptsturmführer d.R.

The Reich veteran the then SS-Sturmbannführer Johannes Rudolf Mühlenkamp was assigned to the first foreign division in the Waffen-SS in June 1942, the SS-Division Wiking. Its members hoped to eventually see all the Germanic nations united into one body. Tens of thousands of Europeans would follow these initial volunteers. Here Mühlenkamp was given command of the very first tank battalion of the Waffen-SS, the SS-Panzer-Abteilung 5 Wiking. Panzer commander Mühlenkamp's up-front leadership style was much appreciated by the European volunteers under his command. After active field service in Ukraine and the Caucasus, he received the command of the then newly formed SS-Panzer-Regiment 5 of the Wiking on March 5 1944 and shortly after, on Aug. 6 1944, he assumed command of the entire 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking. The qualities of the divison as a combat unit were testified by the number of Knight's Crosses awarded to its members. A total of 54 such gallantry awards were made, a figure surpassed only by 69 for the 2.SS-Panzerdivision Das Reich. General der Infanterie Friedrich Hoßbach submitted SS-Standartenführer and division leader of the Wiking Johannes Mühlenkamp for the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross on Sept. 21 1944. He was the 596th member of the German Armed Forces to receive this coveted award. It reflected not only his achievements but also those of his men. Mühlenkamp's last command was the 32.SS-Freiwilligen Grenadier-Division 30. Januar in 1945. Oakleaves holder Johannes Mühlenkamp died aged 76 on Sept. 23 1986 in Bredelem in Niedersachsen. Left image: Hannes Mühlenkamp with his fox terrier in Ukraine in the spring of 1943. Photo by SS-KB Helmut Möbius. Credit: Ghermán Mihály. c. Bundesarchiv. Right image: Mühlenkamp's company commander in SS-Panzer-Abteilung 5 Hans Flügel, like him a veteran of the Reich, was appointed the Adjutant of SS-Panzer-Regiment 5 in mid 1944. He was awarded the Knight's Cross on Oct. 16 1944 as battalion commander of that regiment based on a recommendation by SS-Ostubaf Fritz Darges, endorsed by Mühlenkamp and approved by corps commander Herbert Gille. He was also awarded the Wound Badge in Gold. Hans Flügel ended the war as a SS-Sturmbannführer d. R. der Waffen-SS and died aged 70 on March 1 1989 in Naila in Bayern. Photo taken the following year in Eastern Poland. c. Bundesarchiv.

Cossacks in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS

Soviet Cossack Volunteers

The Kuban Cossacks suffered heavy losses during the Holodomor and the subsequent Soviet extermination of Ukrainians and their culture in the Kuban region. The Holodomor was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. It is also known as the Ukrainian Genocide. According to higher estimates, up to 12 million ethnic Ukrainians were said to have perished as a result of the famine. A U.N. joint statement signed by 25 countries in 2003 declared that 7–10 million perished. It has been proposed that the Soviet leadership used the man-made famine to attack Ukrainian nationalism, and thus it could fall under the legal definition of genocide. Between 1917 and 1941, more than half of the Don Cossacks population were killed or deported. The heirs of those deported during the Soviet Terror can still not return to their homeland. This is because the law of Restitution does not recognize them as victims of communism. During World War II, the Don Cossacks mustered the largest single concentration of Cossacks within the German Army, the XV.SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps. A great part of the Cossacks were former Soviet citizens who elected to fight not so much for the German Reich as against the Soviet Union. Credit: Wikipedia. Image: Cossack volunteers with Wehrmacht officer in Ukraine 1943. By the war's end, the Cossack units had come under the command of the Waffen-SS. Many Cossacks retreated into Austria and surrendered to British troops in May 1945. They were promised safety by the British but were subsequently forcibly transferred back to the USSR. PC. Fair use.

11.ϟϟ-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division „Nordland“

Hitler ordered the creation a new Nordic Waffen-SS Division

Swedish Volunteers in SS-Freiw.Pz.Gren.Div. Nordland

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.

Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS; disbanded

SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner with Finnish Wiking Volunteers

Finnish SS Volunteers in Farewell parade in Ruhpolding

The first contingent of Finns was organized as the SS-Freiwilligen Bataillon Nordost in 1941 but was later renamed Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS. The Finnish volunteers left SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking in March 1943, and were replaced with the Estonian SS-Frewilligen-Bataillon Narwa. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler decided that the ethnic Swedish community had positively influenced all of Finland, and therefore the entire Finnish Waffen-SS contingent was given "honorary-Germanic" status. The Finnish volunteers had fought well, and were accepted as full comrades within SS-Wiking. Up to that time, the Finnish battalion was involved in all of Wiking's battles, fighting in the Kalmuck Steppe, in the retreat through Rostov, and finally, along the Donets during the campaign which saw the recapture of Kharkov. Individual Finns remained with the Waffen-SS until the end of World War II. Credit: Marc Rikmenspoel, Waffen-SS Encyclopedia. Top image: the East Prussian former Wiking Commander Felix Steiner meets members of the Finnish Waffen-SS battalion in 1943. He is wearing both his Knight's Cross and the Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty, which was given to him back in 1942. Finnish Wartime Photo Archive. Fair use. Bottom image: the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS march past their former Commander SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner and Battalion Commander SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Collani in Ruhpolding in southeastern Bavaria on May 23 1943 before leaving for Finland. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS; homecoming

Men of the Finnish Waffen-SS have returned home

Major General Raappana and son SS-Rottenführer Raappana

The Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS returned to Finland in June 1943 to be incorporated into the Finnish Army. The commander of the III (Finnish) Battalion of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Nordland of SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Collani was transferred to command the SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 2 of the Dutch SS-Freiwilligen-Legion-Niederlande. According to unconfirmed statements he shot himself when his command post was overrun by the Soviets in the Battle of Tannenberg Line on July 29 1944. Hans Collani was awarded the Knight's Cross posthumously and promoted SS-Standartenführer for bravery in leadership in the Narva battles. He was buried next to the Nordland Division's commander SS-Gruppenführer Fritz von Scholz in Tallinn Cathedral. As a result of the tough defence of the European SS volunteer forces the Soviet war effort in the Baltic Sea region was hampered for seven and a half months. Top image: members of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS on the German freighter Warthe during their homecoming on June 1 1943. Photographer Esko Suomela. Credit: Julius Backman Jääskeläinen. Bottom image: Major General Erkki Johannes Raappana, wearing the most distinguished military award in Finland, the Mannerheim Cross, celebrates his 50th anniversary with his homecoming son SS-Rottenführer Ermo Juhani Raappana near Lake Novinkajärvi on June 2 1943. Erkki Raappana had served in the 27th Jäger Battalion of the Imperial German Army between 1916 to 1918. His son Ermo Raappana fought in the Winter War and enlisted with the Finnish Waffen-SS after graduation from the Reserve Officers School in 1941. Credit: Jussi Luostarinen. Both photos: The Finnish Wartime Photo Archive.

Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS; incorporated

Suomalaisen Waffen-SS-vapaaehtoispataljoonan

Homecoming ceremonies of the Finnish Waffen-SS

Parade and homecoming ceremonies of the Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS were held on June 2 1943 in Hanko in Finland. Present among others were former Wiking Commander SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner and the Commander of SS-Gebirgs-Division Nord SS-Gruppenführer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp. Celebrations were held the day after in Tampere. On July 11 1943 the battalion was officially disbanded and released from SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking and the Waffen-SS. Battalion Commander SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Collani awarded 45 Iron Crosses and shook hand with every single man in the battalion. Many members of the disbanded Finnish Volunteer Battalion wanted to continue serving in the Waffen-SS, but were unable to do so because of their assignment to various Finnish Army units, which were often in heavy combat. They proved their high quality in the summer of 1944 when Soviet Union's massive attack to Finland began. 282 former Waffen-SS volunteers later become Finnish Army officers. One of these men, SS-Untersturmführer Sulo Suorttanen graduated from SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz, eventually rose to become Defense Minister in the Finnish government. Left image: Finns of the Wiking at attention before being incorporated into the Finnish Army. Credit: Jussi Luostarinen. Right image: a Finnish Major talks to a volunteer who returned blinded from the front. Credit: Julius Backman. Photos by military official Esko Suomela in Hanko on June 2 1943. Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive.

ϟϟ-Standartenführer d. R. der Waffen-SS Degrelle

Léon Degrelle after receiving the Knight's Cross

Adolf Hitler awards the Oakleaves to Léon Degrelle

Léon Degrelle was born in 1906 in Bouillon, a small town in the Belgian Ardennes. He was a devout Catholic and his family was of French origin. Degrelle joined the Walloon legion of the Wehrmacht, which was raised in 1941, to combat against the Soviet Union. Initially, the group was meant to represent a continuation of the Belgian Army, and fought as such during Operation Barbarossa. Degrelle's knowledge of tactics were somewhat dubious but his ability to lead and his unflinching courage were beyond question. He proved this time and time again during the fierce mountain warfare at Gromovaya-Balka. During the summer and autumn of 1942 Degrelle was involved in numerous battles with considerable success capturing one objective after another and it was not long before his Walloon brigade caught the attention of the officers of the Waffen-SS. The Walloons were transferred to the control of the Waffen-SS in 1943. Degrelle was awarded the Knight's Cross for his part in the breakout of the Cherkassy Pocket in January 1944 where he was severely wounded. Adolf Hitler commended him on his bravery saying "if I had a son, I wish he'd resemble you". He was later awarded the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross, a distinction only earned by two other foreigners, the Estonian Waffen-Standartenführer der SS Alfons Rebane and the Spanish commander of División Azul and later vice-president General Agustín Muñoz Grandes. Against Hitler's wishes Degrelle returned to combat on the Eastern Front, fighting all the way back to Berlin in the face of the Russian onslaught. The Wallonien Sturmbrigade was upgraded to become 28.SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Wallonien in October 1944. Degrelle steadily climbed in the SS hierarchy being made an Obersturmbannführer in the early months of 1945. By the end of the war, Degrelle had risen to the rank of Standartenführer within the SS, was involved in 75 direct combat actions, and was wounded 34 times. After Germany's defeat, Degrelle fled to Denmark and eventually Norway, where he commandeered a Heinkel aircraft, allegedly provided by former Reichsminister Albert Speer. He was severely wounded in a crash-landing on the beach at San Sebastian in Northern Spain. The government of Franco in Spain refused to hand him over to the Allies, Francisco Franco permitted his escape from hospital, while handing over a look-alike. In 1954, Spain granted Degrelle Spanish citizenship under the name José León Ramírez Reina. He continued to live undisturbed when Spain became democratic after the death of Franco. Asked if he had any regrets about World War II, his reply was - Only that we lost! Léon Degrelle, one of only 98 winners of both the Knight's Cross and the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, died aged 87 in Málaga on March 31 1994. Awards among others: Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, German Cross in Gold, Close Combat Clasp in Gold, Infantry Assault Badge in Silver and Wound Badge in Gold. External link: German Newsreel Excerpt: The homecoming of Léon Degrelle and the Walloon volunteers (Bruxelles, Belgium 1944) after the breakout from the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket. Source: Campaign in Russia - The Waffen SS on the Eastern Front. Top image: Léon Degrelle pictured as an SS-Hauptsturmführer at the time of his presentation of the Knight's Cross on Feb. 20 1944. He wears the sleeve insignia of the Walloons below the SS arm eagle. Fair use. Bottom image: Adolf Hitler congratulates the then SS-Sturmbannführer Léon Degrelle after presenting him with the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross on Aug. 25 1944. Next to Degrelle stands SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. Still from Die Deutsche Wochenschau.

ϟϟ-Obersturmbannführer d. R. der Waffen-SS Skorzeny

Otto Skorzeny as SS-Hauptsturmführer

SS-Division Reich: Waffen-SS Armoured Elite

Otto Skorzeny joined the Austrian National Socialism Party in 1931. He played a minor role in the Anschluss on March 12 1938, when he saved the Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas from being shot by Austrian National Socialists. Skorzeny then joined the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler as an officer-cadet in 1939. In 1940 he was promoted to Obersturmführer in the Waffen-SS and went to war in the Soviet Union with SS-Division Reich and subsequently fought in several battles on the Eastern Front. Otto Skorzeny, Adolf Hitler's Austrian commando leader in WWII, became known to the world in Sept. 1943, for his key role in the daring airborne raid to rescue the ousted Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. It was Skorzeny's first success as a commando leader. The exploit earned Skorzeny fame, promotion to SS-Sturmbannführer and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. With the successes that followed, allied media began calling Skorzeny "The most dangerous man in Europe". Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement and the ODESSA network but surrendered on May 16 1945, feeling that he could be useful to the Americans in the forthcoming Cold War. In 1948 he escaped from the camp with the help of three former SS officers dressed in U.S. Military Police uniforms. Skorzeny afterwards maintained that the U.S. authorities had aided his escape, and had supplied the uniforms. Using the cover names of Robert Steinbacher and Otto Steinbauer, and supported by either National Socialists funds (or according to some sources Austrian Intelligence), he set up a secret organization named Die Spinne which helped as many as 600 former Waffen-SS officers escape Europe. In 1953 Skorzeny was sent to Egypt by former Wehrmacht General Reinhard Gehlen, who was now working for the CIA, to act as General Mohammed Naguib's military advisor. Skorzeny recruited a staff made up of former Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht officers to train the Egyptian army. Several Palestinian refugees also received commando training. One of these Palestinians was Yasser Arafat. As the years went by, Skorzeny and his network gained enormous influence in Europe and Latin America, Skorzeny travelled between Franquist Spain and Argentina, where he acted as an advisor to President Juan Perón. In the 1960s Skorzeny set up the Paladin Group, based near Alicante in Spain, the Paladin Group specialized in arming and training guerrillas, and their clients included the South African Bureau of State Security and Muammar al-Gaddafi. They also carried out work for the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 and some of their operatives were recruited by the Spanish Interior Ministry to wage clandestine war against Basque separatists. The Soviet news agency TASS alleged that Paladin was involved in training U.S. Green Berets for Vietnam missions during the 1960s. Not surprisingly, this claim has been denied by the U.S. Army. The Oakleaves holder SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny finally succumbed to cancer at age 67 on July 5 1975 in Madrid. He was cremated and his ashes were later brought to Wien to be interred in the Skorzeny family plot at Döblinger Friedhof. Operations, among others: Operation Francois - Co-ordination of Partisan operations in Iran, Operation Oak (Unternehmen Eiche) - The rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Operation Armoured Fist (Unternehmen Panzerfaust) - The kidnapping of Miklós Horthy, Jr., son of Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, Operation Griffin (Unternehmen Greif) - A false flag operation to spread disinformation during the Battle of the Bulge. External link: Interrogation of Otto Skorzeny on Aug. 2 1945. Credit: For Germany: The Otto Skorzeny Memoirs and My Commando Operations. Top mage: portrait of the then SS-Hauptsturmführer Otto Skorzeny by photographer Walter Frentz, probably made in connection with the award of the Knight's Cross on Sept. 13 1943. FU. Bottom image: troops of the Reich stopped to consult a map during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Skorzeny fought with this division until he got wounded in Jan. 1942. c. Bundesarchiv.

Greek Army Surrendering to the Leibstandarte ϟϟ and Battle of Crete

Sepp Dietrich during the capitulation of the Greek Army at Lárisa in Thessalía

Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6s of JG 27 escorting a Heinkel He 111 bomber over Crete

Fallschirmjägers of the 7.Flieger-Division in Crete

On April 20 1941, the commander of the Greek First Army surrendered the entire Hellenic Army to the Leibstandarte SS commander SS-Obergruppenführer Josef Sepp Dietrich. British Commonwealth troops were now the only Allied forces remaining in Greece, and they were falling back across the Corinth Canal to the Peloponnesos. By April 26 1941 the Leibsatandarte SS had reached the Gulf of Patras. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler remained concerned about attacks on his Romanian fuel supply. British bombers based on the island of Crete were within range of the Ploiești oil fields in Romania. On April 25 1941, he ordering the invasion of the island by air. About 43,000 Greek and other Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, defended the island against 22,000 German paratroopers and mountain troops. It was the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. The Cretan Resistance was particularly savage, torturing and mutilating any German who fell into their hands. Nevertheless, the fierce battle of Crete continued until May 29 1941 when the evacuation of Crete began by British forces from the small port of Sphakia. Immediately after Crete fell, a series of collective punishments against civilians began. Top image: Sepp Dietrich and General Franz Böhme with Greek officers during the surrender conference of the Greek Army at Larissa airport on April 21 1941. Credit: Christos Kaplanis. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Middle image: LW fighter ace Staffelkapitän Emil Josef Clade and Unteroffizier Rudolf Moycis of Jagdgeschwader 27 escorting a Heinkel He 111 transporting Luftwaffe Generals Alexander Holle and Martin Fiebig to Crete. Photo taken on a later occasion. Credit: Richard James Molloy. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: a group of elite Fallschirmjägers of the 7.Flieger-Division after landing on Crete in May 1941. The division would later became known as the 1.Fallschirmjäger-Division. Picture Alliance.

Axis Control of Yugoslavia and the Triple Occupation of Greece

MG Gunner of the Waffen-SS 1941

SS-Kradschützen of the Leibstandarte SS 1941

It was during the Greek campaign where the Waffen-SS first was to display a chivalry that stood out against the general atmosphere of World War II. The Waffen-SS occupied a position of honor in the victory parade through Athens. The role of the SS-Division Leibstandarte-SS at the end of the Greek campaign was effectively one of protecting the retreating Greek Army from the cowardly and vengeful Italian Army. The Bulgarian Army occupied most of Western Thrace and the Greek province of Eastern Macedonia, which had been already conquered by Germany. Bulgarian troops also occupied much of eastern Serbia, where the so-called Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and the Italians. During the summer and fall of 1941, in reprisal for guerrilla attacks, the Austrian Wehrmacht general Franz Friedrich Böhme rigorously enforced the rule that for every German killed, 100 Serbs or Jews would be shot. Throughout the remainder of the war, active Yugoslav, Greek, and Albanian resistance movements forced Germany and its allies to garrison hundreds of thousands of soldiers permanently in the three countries, denying them to the other fronts. The Balkans campaign resulted in the Barbarossa campaign being delayed by five weeks, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. A campaign justified by Adolf Hitler on the basis that the Soviets was about to attack Germany from the rear. The importance of the delay is still debated. Left image: a Balkans veteran of the Waffen-SS pictured after the outbreak of the Barbarossa in 1941. Photo by Hitler's official photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Credit: Karl Mensburg. The Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive. Fair use. Right image: Leibstandarte SS Kradschützen turns eastwards in the summer of 1941. Credit: Cassowary. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

German Response to the War-Declarations: Blitzkrieg in Western Europe

Heinkel He 111 bombers of the German Luftwaffe in flight

Paras of Sturmabteilung Koch after the assault on the Belgian fortress Eben-Emael

Rotterdam Blitz mistakenly carried out by the Luftwaffe

Sd.Kfz.231 of Der Führer parked in front of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam

In October 1939 the SS-Standarte Der Führer, Deutschland and Germania were organized into the SS-Verfügungs-Division. Both the SS-V-Division and the full independent motorized infantry regiment Leibstandarte SS would take part in the upcoming Western campaign. On Friday May 10 1940, Nazi Germany launched its offensive into the Netherlands and Belgium. The breaking of Rights of Neutrality were not considered by Germany, in the view of the far from neutral behavior, not only of Belgium, of Holland as well. The German offensive took its course from the North Sea to the southern border of Luxembourg. The Leibstandarte SS formed the vanguard of the ground advance into the Netherlands and the SS-V-Division saw action in the main drive for the Dutch central front and Rotterdam. Germany's Blitzkrieg conducted with great speed and force by massed mechanized ground forces and air forces in close cooperation rapidly overpowered the defences of the Netherlands and Belgium. After the surrender of the Netherlands on May 15 1940, the Waffen-SS was transferred to France. At the end of the campaign, the SS-V-Division had advanced all the way to the Spanish frontier. Top image: a squadron of German Heinkel He 111 bombers in flight in 1940. Photo by Kriegsberichter Dahm. Credit: Richard James Molloy. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Second image: German Fallschirmjägers of the Luftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1 known as Sturmabteilung Koch shown here after the extraordinary success in the capture of the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael on the Belgian-Dutch border between May 10 and May 11 1940. Photo by Kriegsberichter Oberleutnant Büttner. Credit: Julius Backman. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Third image: German soldiers examine damage after the Rotterdam Blitz on May 14 1940. The air attack on Rotterdam, mistakenly carried out by the German Luftwaffe because tragically, for reasons of communication, it could not be halted. Wehrmacht General Rudolf Schmidt used the threat of bombing Rotterdam to attempt to force the Dutch Colonel P. W. Scharroo to surrender the city. Rotterdam was the largest industrial centre in the Netherlands and of major strategic importance to the Germans. Scharroo refused and stretched out negotiations. The start of the air raid had been set for 13:20. Schmidt relented and issued a second ultimatum of 16:20 and radioed to postpone the planned attack. However, it was already too late and three aircraft of the southern formation did not receive the order to abort, the remaining 24 bombers of the southern bomber formation aborted their attack. The north-east formation were unable to spot the red flares launched by the Germans from the southern area of the city and proceeded with their attack. Schmidt sent a conciliatory message to the Dutch commander General Henri Winkelman, who surrendered shortly afterwards. Although the exact number of casualties is not known, nearly 1,000 people were killed. Credit: Wikipedia i.a. Photo by Adolf Hitler's personal colour photographer Hugo Jäger. Fair use. Bottom image: SS Panzer men of the German-Austrian SS-Standarte Der Führer have parked their Sd.Kfz.231 Schwerer Panzerspähwagen on the Dam Square in front of the famous Royal Palace in Amsterdam on May 15 1940. Credit: Jakob Lagerweij. Fair use.

ϟϟ-Untersturmführer und Kriegsberichter der Waffen-SS Roth

SS-Kriegsberichter Franz Roth

SS-Division Leibstandarte SS

         

The Austrian press photographer Franz Seraphicus Roth worked for the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and as a photo editor for the American news agency Associated Press. The Associated Press photo department entered a formal cooperation with the Nazi regime in the 1930s and worked under the auspices of the German Ministry of Propaganda. Franz Roth joined the Kriegsberichterstatter-Zug of the Leibstandarte SS under SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Meyer in 1940. The prominent Waffen-SS photographer Franz Roth was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class in 1941 and promoted SS-Untersturmführer in September 1942. Although he got killed during the Third Battle of Kharkov in early 1943, Roth left more than 120 rolls of film that give historians and history lovers a precious account of the war. His contact sheets are kept by the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. Franz Roth was posthumously awarded the Iron Cross First Class and buried at Heldenfriedhof Askold's Grave on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kiev in Ukraine. His images can be found in a variety of European World War II propaganda publications and in American newspapers. Credit: French author Charles Trang. Left image: the 30-year-old SS-Kriegsberichter Franz Roth wearing a SS-Palmenmuster camouflage smock at the Eastern front in the summer of 1941. Priv.coll. Fair use. Right image: nice close up study of the Palmenmuster camouflage introduced in 1941. The photo shows a soldier of the Leibstandarte SS scanning the Ukrainian horizon. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Paul Augustin. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

ϟϟ-Untersturmführer und Kriegsberichter der Waffen-SS Borg

SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg

Gösta Borg as SS-Kriegsberichter

 
SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg from Stockholm, Sweden fought with the Swedish Volunteer Corps against the Soviet invasion of Finland during the Winter War 1939-1940 were he was decorated for bravery. He was originally from the Swedish Royal Guards but volunteered for the Waffen-SS in 1941. Borg was attached to SS-Regiment Westland of SS-Division Wiking. After being wounded on the Eastern front he returned to Sweden, were he studied at the Swedish Military Academy. In 1943 Borg returned to Germany and graduated from SS Officer Candidate School SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz. He became a Kriegsberichter in SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers and covered various fronts with 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking and 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland. Gösta Borg interviewed various public figures during the war, including SS-Oberstgruppenführer der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich, Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model and Ferdinand Schröner. He also directed the emissions in Swedish from the Königsberg's radio Deutschen Europasender. In 1951, Borg published an account Det röda massanfallet (The Red Onslaught) where he describes his experiences in the Waffen-SS. It was meant to be a guide for the Swedish Army on how to deal with a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg died aged 85 on December 29 2000 in Stockholm. Images: note that the Swede Gösta Borg wears the cuff title Kurt Eggers and the early SS 'Danziger' skull that was worn in 1923-1934. Courtesy of Joakim Munter.

The Art of War: Staged War Photography

SS-Division Totenkopf

SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS

World War II came as a breaking point in photography as elsewhere. It was documented on a huge scale by thousands of photographers and artists who created millions of pictures. While some photographs are taken in the heat of battle, others are staged. One of the many powerful images of Waffen-SS in action during the Battle of Kursk showing a SS-Panzergrenadier climbing the banks of an anti-tank ditch. Contact sheets reveal that this photo was staged behind the lines where it was safe by the war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Johan King who covered the Leibstandarte SS at Kursk. Note the face-mask at his neck: meant to provide camouflage, it was seldom, if ever, used by soldiers in combat because it hampered visibility, especially when on the move. The photo is taken when the Waffen-SS were at its peak. Highly trained and equipped with the latest warfare technology, the elite Waffen-SS was to spearhead the expected German summer offensive of July 1943: Operation Zitadelle. Credit: Rui Manuel Candeias. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The photograph to the left shows a SS-Kradschütze happily posing for the talented photographer SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann in July 1941. Ernst Baumann was assigned to the Totenkopf during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Credit: Doug Banks. Commons: Bundesarchiv. War photography provides us with the opportunity to learn about war from the safety of our homes. It engenders knowledge, understanding, and empathy, but also desensitization.

Filmberichter der Waffen-SS im Einsatz

Kriegsberichter of the Leibstandarte SS

Leibstandarte SS troops after the battle

Photographing in the midst of battle

The Waffen-SS Kriegsberichters role was to; Report on the war through text, photographs, drawings, radio and films. They were soldiers first and war correspondents second and were never to far away from the combat zone during the war. They were expected to take part in assaults, offensive operations and fight next to their comrades as their positions were being overrun by the enemy rather than taking photographs. They gained respect very quickly as most Waffen-SS war correspondents demonstrated remarkable courage in the face of battle. The SS war reporters covered the actions of all the Waffen-SS formations in the field. They were able to operate independently of each other equipped with still and movie cameras to enable to visually document the actions of Waffen-SS men in combat. It is estimated that during the whole war the SS-Kriegsberichters produced over 80.000 written reports and more than a million photographs. Top image: according to some accounts, an SS-Kriegberichter of the Leibstandarte SS filming a swearing-in ceremony of new recruits to the division. However, other sources claims that the photo was taken during the Normandy invasion in France in 1944. The photographer has never been identified. Credit: Marwan Geitner. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Middle image: Leibstandarte SS troops in Ukraine in 1942. Photo taken by Paul Augustin who served as a SS-Kriegsberichter with the Leibstandarte SS from at least 1940 until March 1943. During that period, Augustin took many hundreds of photographs of his unit, and a collection of those photographs is maintained by U.S. National Archives. He was promoted to SS-Hauptscharführer on March 1 1943 and killed in action eight days later, on March 9 1943. Credit: Karl Mensburg. U.S. NARA. Bottom image: Soviet prisoners captured by men of the Waffen-SS being treated on the battlefield by an SS-Scharführer during the German Operation Zitadelle. Photo taken by the Totenkopf war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Hermann Grönert who served with the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich at Kursk in July 1943. He held the Infantry Assault Badge and the Wound Badge in Silver and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class the following year, 1944. Credit: Bekors. U.S. NARA.