ϟϟ-Division „Totenkopf“ in Heeresgruppe Nord

SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann

Motorized soldiers of the Totenkopf

SS-Kradschützen of the Totenkopf

After the older men were replaced in the Totenkopf with young wartime volunteers, and the division was thoroughly trained, it fought during Barbarossa with Army Group North under Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, plunged towards Leningrad. Russian forces in this sector were thinly spread and the panzers covered 800 km in three weeks. It's manpower strength was 18,754 men in June 1941. By mid-July they were only 95 km from their objective. The SS-Division Totenkopf had used its time wisely to train for the challenges of fighting in the Soviet Union. The main emphasis in the new training was on mobile warfare over much broader and more open expanses of territory. Special drills included assaulting fortified positions, fighting in villages and heavily wooded areas, and the practice in developing camouflage techniques for long distance moves through open country. The tank-destroyer battalion concentrated on the tactics for fighting large formations of tanks at close range. As part of Army Group North, the Totenkopf fought desperate engagements south of Leningrad in 1941 and was trapped in the Demyansk Pocket from January 1942. When they pulled out in October 1942 they had the combat strength of a battalion. Credit: Charles W. Sydnor. Top image: photo of the talented photographer and war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann, who was assigned to the Totenkopf during the opening days of the invasion of the Soviet Union. In the late autumn of 1941, Baumann was reassigned to the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. Here Baumann became friends with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun. At her request, Baumann became Eva's private photographer taking photos of her and her sister Gretl often modeling clothing outfits, including bathing suits. On October 1 1942, he found himself transferred back to the Eastern Front where he was assigned to the SS-Division Wiking in the Caucasus as a 36-year old infantryman. Credit: Richard James Molloy. U.S. NARA. Middle image: soldiers of the Totenkopf in a Volkswagen Kübelwagen near Lake Ilmen in the Novgorod Oblast 1941. Photo by Ernst Baumann. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: a motorcycle trooper of the Totenkopf mourns by the fresh graves of his fallen comrades during the first phase of Barbarossa. Photo by Ernst Baumann. U.S. NARA.