ϟϟ-Division „Wiking“ in the North Caucasus

Patrik Mineur as SS-Sturmmann

SS-Regiment Germania

The German invasion of the Caucasus was intended to be an all-out effort to inflict a crippling blow upon the Soviet Union before the Western Allies could mount any large-scale operations in the West: a main effort into the Caucasus to seize the oil and cut Lend Lease routes. The SS-Division Wiking was at the forefront of the German drive toward the Caucasus Mountains. In the coming month, the division was to operate in this terrain, a terrain that was so completely different to the European volunteers. Many of the Wiking photos in this thread are photographed by SS-Kriegsberichter Willi Altstadt. He served with SS-Kampfgruppe Dieckmann of the Germania Regiment from the days leading up to the attack on Rostov, through the fighting for the city, and then for the advance into the Caucasus. Willi Altstadt then started photographing the Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS in the high country of the West Caucasus. Left image: SS-Rottenführer Patrik Mineur from Haparanda in North Sweden volunteered for the Waffen-SS in 1942 and served with SS-Regiment Germania of the Wiking in the Caucasus. Mineur was killed in action aged 26 on October 13 1944 in Nieporęt north of Warszawa. His brother had died four years before in the Russo-Finnish Winter War while fighting in the Swedish Volunteer Corps. PD. Right image: an SS-Hauptscharführer and SS-Unterscharführer from SS-Regiment Germania proudly posing with their catch. Note the unregimental use of the SS aluminum cap skull on the SS-Unterscharführer's M41 field cap. FU.