ϟϟ-Division „Wiking“ and Operation Edelweiß

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler before Edelweiß began in 1942

Convoy of StuG.IIIs of StuG.Apt.210 during Edelweiß

After successfully holding the line over the winter of 1941–1942, SS-Division Wiking was ordered to participate in the recapture of Rostov-on-Don and advance into the Caucasus, securing the region's vital oilfields. The German plan to launch another great summer offensive crystallized in the early months of 1942. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's decision was influenced by his economists, who told him that Germany could not continue the war unless it obtained petroleum supplies from the Caucasus. This attack was known as Operation Edelweiß, and formed a part of Heeresgruppe Süd's offensive Case Blue, aimed at capturing Stalingrad and the Baku oilfields. Launched at the height of summer, the offensive was unexpectedly successful. On July 1942, the first tank battalion of the Waffen-SS - SS-Panzer-Abteilung 5 of the Wiking Division - headed eastward towards Rostov on Don under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Johannes Mühlenkamp. Their overall enthusiasm and pride in belonging to an esteemed branch of service, which they were helping to create within the ranks of the Waffen-SS, was palpable. Each of the tank companies had three line platoons with five tanks each, as well as a company headquarters section with two tanks. As with all of the other division vehicles, the tanks also bore the Wiking divisional tactical sign, the so-called Sonnenrad, a swastika with rounded corners. The veteran of the Panzer battalion "Wiking" SS-Sturmbannführer Ewald Klapdor later wrote: With understandable tension, we awaited the order “Panzer marsch.” The hatches were closed. Just like exercises conducted in the past few weeks, we rolled over the rise in the familiar W formation. Within six weeks, Rostov and the entire Don region had been recaptured, and Wiking was advancing deep into the Caucasus. Credit: Viking Panzers. Top image: Adolf Hitler watching a demonstration of military hardware before Op. Edelweiß. Also seen in the picture is Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, SS-Oberführer der Allgemeinen SS Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ferdinand Porsche and Hitler's Ordonnanzoffizier the then SS-Hauptsturmführer Richard Schulze-Kossens. Photo by the Führer's private cameraman Oberleutnant Walter Frentz in the spring of 1942. FU. Bottom image: a convoy of StuG 3 assault guns of the Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 210 heading towards the Caucasus in 1942. The photo is credited to Kriegsberichter Hilmar Pabel and was published in Signal Magazine in Sept. 1942. After the war, the photographer Pabel became very active in the Bavarian Red Cross, photographing close to 2,000 children in the effort to locate their parents and relatives. Later on he covered the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and two photoessays he filed from the Vietnam War were widely praised. Credit: Facundo Filipe. Commons: Bundesarchiv.