It took SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich and Totenkopf only a few days to disengage from the
Prokhorovka region (Russia) after the end of
Operation Citadel, II.SS-Panzerkorps was loaded onto trains and sent off into a bloody frontal assault on the River Mius Front (southeastern Ukraine). The Waffen-SS were used as fire-brigades to plug gaps in the German line wherever they occurred. The SS panzers may have been masters of the battlefield at Prokhorovka but the “Fire Brigades” bled white on the Mius Front between July and August of 1943. They lost irreplaceable men and equipment at a crucial time when the fate of the Eastern Front hung in the balance. The SS-Panzergrenadiers eventually drove the Soviets from their bridgehead across the Mius and few Soviet tanks escaped after SS-Panzer Corps finally broke the back of Soviet resistance on the western bank of the river. Credit: author Tim Ripley. Left image: SS-Sturmbannführer
Christian Tychsen of SS-Panzer-Regiment 2
Das Reich was awarded the Oakleaves to his Knight's Cross after the many bloody battles fought in the southern sector during the summer and fall of 1943. This photo is probably taken in connection with the award of the Oakleaves on December 10 1943. After being wounded more than nine times in total, Tychsen was killed during the
Battle of Normandy on July 28 1944. He died, aged 33, of his wounds in American captivity.
Credit: Bekors. Commons Bundesarchiv.
Right image: SS-Untersturmführer and Zugführer Joachim-Günther Schöntaube, Tiger commander of SS-Panzer-Regiment 2
Das Reich. The Tank Destruction Badge is from his time in the Reconnaissance Battalion. Schöntaube made SS-Obersturmführer before the end of World War II. Credit: Vitaly Lopatin. Commons: Bundesarchiv.
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