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| Hans Juchem as SS-Obersturmführer |
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| SS-Division Wiking |
Hans Juchem had just turned 17 when he entered the ranks of the SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1934 and was posted to the SS-Standarte Deutschland. He became an officer cadidate and graduated from SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in 1938. After the Western campaign in 1940 were he proved himself, he was given command of the 5.Kompanie of Wiking's regiment Germania and took part in Operation Barbarossa. SS-Obersturmführer Hans Juchem gained a reputation as a good commander and a man to turn to for difficult missions and his company was selected more and more to lead the Wiking Division's advance, or as a counterattacking force. Germania assaulted trench lines in close combat that was fought using handgrenades, submachine guns and even entrenching tools, turned back attacks by numerically superior enemy forces and launched innumerable immediate counterattacks. Juchem was awarded the German Cross in Gold in September 1942 for his achievements in the Caucasus, and the Close Combat Clasp in Gold on August 10 1943, only three days before he fell in battle aged 26 near the Izium River in Ukraine. SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Juchem was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross for his action in
1943. He was one of only 98 German soldiers that received both the Knight's Cross and the Close Combat Clasp in Gold. Top image: Juchem wearing a Heer splinter camouflage jacket during the Caucasus Campaign in Sept. 1942. Bottom image: Wiking volunteers relaxing in a Sunflower field. Commons Bundesarchiv.
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