ϟϟ-Panzergrenadier-Division „Wiking“ pulled back from Caucasus

Exhausted Waffen-SS Volunteer in the Hell of the Eastern Front

Battery of Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers  

The encirclement of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad meant that the Caucasus was relegated to a secondary theatre, and when the attempt to relieve Stalingrad failed in the face of further Soviet advances, the entire Caucasian position itself began to come under threat. German dictator Adolf Hitler had sacrificed one of his largest and finest armies through his command to hold out at Stalingrad. The Soviet defensive power had now suddenly become offensive. It was not possible to rule out a second, even greater catastrophe after the loss of the 6th Army. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking was ordered to fall back to bolster the retreating 4.Panzer-Armee. On Dec. 30 1942 part of Wiking's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Westland was brought to Zimovniki area by train in order to organize a defensive line. The SS volunteers caused the Soviet mass attacks, which took place two to three times daily, to collapse directly in front of the main battle line. The thermometer showed minus 30 °C on New Year's Eve 1943. Westland held Zimovniki for seven days, fully aware that surrender to the Soviets meant summary execution at best and brutal interrogation and torture to death at worst. In a series of strongpoints the Wiking battlegroups operated near the far southern flank of 4.Panzer-Armee. Top clip: Die Deutsche Wochenschau. Bottom still: a battery of Soviet M-30 Katyusha launchers fires at German positions in the winter of 1942-43. The Germans nicknamed them Stalinorgels, since the weapon itself resembled a pipe organ. Credit: Facundo Filipe. RIA Novosti archive.