ϟϟ-Division „Wiking“

10.Kompanie of SS-Regiment Germania

Waffen-SS catching a Soviet sniper in a country landscape

Heavy Soviet counterattacks during the winter meant that Heeresgruppe Süd had to fall back from Rostov-on-Don to defensive lines on the river Mius. The SS-Division Wiking fought a delaying action east of the River Mius from Dec. 1941 to July 1942. During this time, several parts of the division were sent to defend critical points on the front of the Army Group South especially to the west and north of Stalino, now Donetsk. It regularly provided good results from short and long range reconnaissance and Soviet POWs were continuously brought back from these operations. The Wiking, which consisted, in part, of volunteers from western and northern Europe - mostly former soldiers and anti-Communists - proved to be a first-class division on the Eastern Front and lend credence to the elite status of the early Waffen-SS. The Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS was sent to the front at the beginning of Jan. 1942 where it was attached to SS-Regiment Nordland of the Wiking. About 1,400 men served in the Finnish Battalion. The officers of the Wiking demonstrated consistently good leadership and ensured that their artillerymen maintained a high level of proficiency, despite the challenges imposed by a campaign conducted at the end of a long supply line that forced batteries to ration the number of shells they fired each day. In spring 1942 the Wiking division received fresh recruits at its winter quarter along the Mius river in southern Ukraine. Top image: volunteers of SS-Regiment Germania of the Wiking departing on a train towards Soviet Union. Those young men - unbroken and ready to master whatever fate threw their way - faced a dark future. Each had to face it to the best of his ability and on his own. They were faithful and loyal, proud and brave. They were the volunteers of the Wiking. Credit: Julia Kotterias. FU. Bottom image: Waffen-SS soldiers capturing a well-hidden Russian sniper and drags him out of his hole while an officer stands ready with a German Stielhandgranate. The SS soldier on the left wears a Soviet padded telogreika or vatnik, a warm cotton wool-padded jacket. The feared sniper can only pray to come out of this alive. Photo was taken in 1942. Commons: Bundesarchiv.