ϟϟ-Oberscharführer der Waffen-SS Olsson (Kamenets-Podolsky pocket)

Sven-Erik Olsson as SS-Unterscharführer

Tigers after the outbreak from Hube's Pocket

Sven-Erik Olsson was born in Pärnu in Estonia and belonged to the Swedish ethnic minority, the so-called Coastal Swedes. He volunteered for the SS as early as in November 1939, the first Swedish citizen to do so. He experienced his first battles in September 1940 in the Battle of the Netherlands. Olsson fought on the Eastern front at Tarnopol in Galizien in March 1944 when Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube's 1.Panzer Army was to break out from the Kamenets-Podolsky toward Tarnopol, where relief forces led by SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser's II.SS-Panzerkorps were to meet them. The Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, also known as Hube's Pocket, is still studied in military academies today as an example of how to avoid annihilation when forces are trapped in a pocket. Sven-Erik Olsson was promoted to SS-Oberscharführer in May 1944 and served as a personal signaler for SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Harmel, Commander of 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg. He took part in the fighting in Normandy where he was injured during the German breakout from the Falaise pocket in August 1944 but soon returned to his unit. He continued fighting in Pommerania, Stettin-Altdamm, Stargard and Raum Cottbus before ending the war at Komotau where he destroyed his SPW after an attempt to reach Dresden failed. According to Division Commander Heinz Harmel, Sven-Erik Olsson was awarded the German Cross in Gold on April 20 1945 while serving as commander of an communications tank of the Frundsberg division. At the time Olsson handled the communications for the divisional HQ which enabled the division to escape total destruction by the Soviets and eventually break out of the Spremberg pocket. He was taken prisoner by the Americans and relocated to Sweden in 1947. Sven-Erik Olsson died aged 62 on March 7 1985 of a heart attack during a skiing vacation in Arosa in Switzerland. Awards among others: German Cross in Gold, Iron Cross First and Second Class, Close Combat Clasp in Bronze and Infantry Assault Badge in Silver. Credit: the authors Patrick Agte and Richard Landwehr. Left image: the Swedish SS Volunteer Sven-Erik Olsson. Public domain. Right image: Panzer VI 'Tigers after the successful break-out from Hube's moving Pocket. The photo is taken in the area of Tarnopol in Galizien on April 22 1944 by PK-Kriegsberichter Valtingojer. Commons: Bundesarchiv.