During the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Polizei-Division was initially part of the reserve with Army Group North. In August 1941, the division saw action near Luga in the Leningrad Oblast. During heavy fighting for the Luga bridgehead the division lost over 2,000 soldiers including the commander SS-Gruppenführer Artur Mülverstedt. After a series of failed attacks in swampy and wooded terrain, the division, along with army formations, fought its way into the northern part of Luga, encircling and destroying the Soviet defenders. In January 1942, the Polizei-Division was moved to the Volkhov Front - Novgorod Sector between Leningrad and Lake Ilmen. The Soviet Volkhov Front or the Lyuban Offensive Operation was formed as an expediency of an early attempt to halt the advance of Army Group North in its offensive thrust towards Leningrad. On February 24 1942 the Polizei was transferred to the Waffen-SS; its personnel changing their police insignia to that of the SS. The new Waffen-SS formation was involved in some heavy fighting during the Volkhov Battles
between January and March 1942. Fierce fighting took place as the Soviets sought to expand their corridor into the pocket and the Germans attempted to close it. On May 22 1942 the Germans launched a two-pronged pincer attack which resulted in the destruction of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army. The remainder of the year was spent on the Leningrad front where the Polizei was involved in a number of Soviet offensives. According to American military historian David M. Glantz and Russian military historian Grigori F. Krivosheev more than 327,700 Soviet troopers went into action against the German 18th Army, which boasted a strength of fewer than 200,000 men. The Soviet forces suffered heavy casualties in the Volkhov winter campaign: Out of 327,700 men deployed into battle from January 7 1942 - April 30 1942, the Soviet Volkhov Front lost 308,367, including 95,064 killed or missing and 213,303 wounded or sick. According to German statistics the Germans suffered 56,768 men overall casualties, including 12.899 killed or missing and 43,869 wounded or sick. Top image: a photo of Panzerjäger SS-Oberscharführer Rudolf Seitz of the SS-Polizei-Division, probably taken after the award of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in October 1942. He ended the war as an officer and SS-Untersturmführer. Rudolf Seitz died aged 75 on November 14 1994 in Stadlern in Schwandorf. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: a quite interesting picture taken by the war correspondent Feldwebel Georg Gundlach showing Wehrmacht troops of the 291.Infantry-Division, the
Elch Division, and an SS-man of the Polizei wearing mosquito netting armed with a Schmeisser MP28 SMG with Soviet POWs inside the Volkhov sack, among the swamps and inhospitable forests in 1942. The photographer and author Georg Gundlach passed away in 2010. Fair use.
Georg Gundlach stated in his book "At the gates of Leningrad” that the 121st Infantry Division’s commander said “the world’s asshole begins here,” when describing the muck and mud in the Volkhov. Not to be confused with the more famous book "At Leningrad’s Gates" by William Lubbeck. Both great reads!
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