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

SS-Sturmmann Andreas Mortensen

SS-Unterscharführer Knud Per Dahl-Nielsen

In 1943 all signs pointed to a Soviet offensive to relieve Leningrad, the German command was forced to strengthen the Oranienbaum front and transferred the newly formed 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland to that sector. It was billeted in the Sisak-Glina-Bosnich-Nowi area of Yugoslavia on Nov. 20 1943 when the communist partisans attacked Glina with about 5,000 men. The Danish battalion had 300 men in position and 150 in reserve, they repulsed all the daytime attacks and one nighttime assault with heavy losses to the enemy. The SS-Pionier-Battaillon 11 and SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 23 Norge and 24 Danmark arrived the Leningrad sector in advance of the other units of the division in early Dec. 1943. At the time the Nordland had a strength of 11,393 officers and men. Images: Danish Freikorps Danmark veterans Andreas Mortensen and Knud Per Dahl-Nielsen, both decorated for bravery with the Iron Cross during the battles of the Demyansk Pocket in 1942, had joined Nordland's Regiment 24 Danmark in 1943. Most Danish SS volunteers were sentenced to long prison terms after 1945, despite having had permission to serve in the Waffen-SS granted by the Danish government. Even the Danish Royal Guard encouraged soldiers and officers to step out of rank and sign up in Waffen-SS during the war. After the war a back dated law was signed and what at the time was legal was now illegal. Mortensen survived the war but was sentenced to five years in prison and loss of all civilian rights. Dahl-Nielsen was part of a reconnaissance unit when he was killed in action on Feb. 13 1944 north of Narva. His body has never been found. Credit: authors Jens Pank Bjerregaard and Lars Larsen; Danish Volunteers of the Waffen-SS. Private Collections: Poul Christensen and Rigborg Dahl-Nielsen. FU.