ϟϟ-Division „Wiking“ Gained a Combat Reputation Second to None

SS-Sturmbannführer Hajo von Hadeln

Volunteers of the Wiking Division

The Wikinger were fast attaining an elite status to equal the best of the original Waffen-SS Divisions. Not only did SS-Division Wiking earn an esteemed combat reputation but it also served as a spearhead for major operations and later in the war it served as a defensive 'fire brigade'. In the Caucasus and during the long and difficult fighting retreat, the European volunteers had lost three battle-proven commanders with promising futures; SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Steinert, SS-Obersturmführer Harry Polewacz and SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. phil., Freiherr Hans Joachim von Hadeln, all young commanders of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Westland. All three had established their battalions and stamped them with their personalities. Polewacz and von Hadeln were both killed at the same location in the Rostov Oblast on January 12 1943. They were buried at the division's military Ehrenfriedhof in Uspenskaya, a well-known 'landmark' for the men of the Wiking. Hajo von Hadeln was born in 1910 in Berlin and graduated at SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in 1935. He was one of the first to receive the Deutsche Kreuz in Gold in the Wiking in 1941. Source: former SS-Obersturmbannführer Franz Hack: Der Panzerdivision Wiking im Bild. Left image: Wiking commander SS-Sturmbannführer Hajo von Hadeln in 1942. Credit: Matthias Ruf. FU. Right image: according to various sources, Dutch Wiking replacements for the combat losses at target practice with their P.08 Luger pistols in 1942, possibly in the Khevenhüller-Kaserne in Klagenfurt-Lendorf in Austria. They had to be integrated into the division while it was engaged in combat, a division that had earned a tough but fair reputation, or as fair a reputation as any unit on the Eastern Front could have. Credit: Jakob Lagerweij. Commons: Bundesarchiv.