Stabswache de Euros - Fermer le ciel

Welcome! This is a Non-Political and a Non-Profit site including its authors and contributors and does not subscribe to any revisionist organizations. This site aims only to explore the combat role and history of the multinational Waffen-SS in World War II. Enlistment rolls show that a total of 950,000 men served in its ranks between 1940 and 1945. It contains a collection of real events and information on these European volunteers and conscripts for historical research and documentation.

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Explore a detailed timeline of the multinational volunteer front organization Waffen-SS - its volunteers, divisions and battles. The Stabswache de Euros is constantly updated as new and substantial information is received. The website is very much a work in evolutionary progress. The website encourages user participation by allowing comments on the articles. In this way, the articles are regularly updated with vetted info by various experts in the field. Please read and understand the General house rules before proceeding. Our rules are here to encourage the participation of research historians, authors and World War II experts, who are willing to spend time and effort to share their knowledge. We emphasize that no political connections from the past or present are tied with this website, nor any connections with military organizations of any kind. The Stabswache de Euros condemn all forms of Nazism, Communism, and any other authoritarian systems that undermine individual freedoms and human rights. This website is for researching only! If you have other agendas, please leave. The screenshot above comes from a German propaganda film showing Waffen-SS troops at attention. Most likely the SS-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Source: Die Deutsche Wochenschau. The screenshot below comes from a captured SS-Kriegsberichter film taken late in the war. The unit has never been identified, although some sources identifies the men as Panzergrenadiers of the 17.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Götz von Berlichingen during Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. Source: U.S. National Archives. Both stills in the Public domain.

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Allied Operation Market Garden (I)

Cromwell tanks of British Guards AD at Nijmegen road bridge

SS officer in conversation with Wehrmacht troops in the Nijmegen region

Allied Paratroopers raining on Dutch soil – Operation Market Garden

Wilhelm Bittrich's II.SS-Panzerkorps targeting Allied Paras and gliders

Waffen-SS machine gun fire raked the sky west of Arnhem

The British 1st Airborne Division, Polish 1st Parachute Brigade, U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division was dropped along a line marked by Eindhoven in the south and Arnhem in the north in mid-September 1944, both cities in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The Market portion of the operation was made up of the airborne attacks. The Garden portion of the operation consisted of the British 2nd Army roaring north along highway 69 (Hell's Highway). The two attacks were known collectively as Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne drop in military history involving three Allied divisions, employing more than 16,000 paratroops. The report that Arnhem was free of serious resistance was incorrect. Several days before the Operation, the 9.SS-Panzer-Division Hohenstaufen and its sister formation 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg (II.SS-Panzerkorps) were moved into the Arnhem area to rest and refit, however they had both been so severely mauled during the Normandy fighting that they now mustered a combined force of approximately 6,000 men. No longer worthy of the title “division”, the Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg were dubbed divisional SS-Kampfgruppen. Although numerically weaker to the British 1st Airborne Division, their men were all excellently trained and battle-hardened. SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich's II.SS-Panzerkorps played a decisive role in the defeat of the Allied offensive. Elements of the Frundsberg were sent south to respond to the American landings at Nijmegen, while the Hohenstaufen would defend Arnhem. Also present were the German Luftwaffe's Luftflotte 3 and some 600 Dutch SS trainees in the heterogeneous Kampfgruppe Tettau. Credit: The Pegasus Archive. Top image: on September 17 1944, U.S. 82nd Airborne Division were stopped in their tracks by hastily-organised German reinforcements at the all-important road bridge at Nijmegen. After a combined attack from the 82nd and British Guards Armoured Division was halted by reinforcements from the Frundsberg it became clear that the bridge could not be stormed. Credit: Tom Marshall. Welsh Guards Archives. FU. Second image: Waffen-SS, Heer and Luftwaffe troops in the Market Garden battle area in September 1944. Some sources says the photo was taken in the Betuwe region between Arnhem and Nijmegen, whereas others say it was taken in Nijmegen in front of the Hunnerpark at the foot of the south approach to the road bridge over the Waal. The Waffen-SS officer is believed to be the commanding officer in that area SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl-Heinz Euling of the Frundsberg. The Knights Cross holder Karl-Heinz Euling died aged 94 on April 14 2014 in München. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Pospesch. Credit: Jakob Lagerweij. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom clips: the sky was filled with Allied aircraft and parachuting British troops when this was filmed west of Arnhem on Sept. 17 1944. As British paratroopers landed on their drop zone around Oosterbeek, combat hardened SS-Panzergrenadiers from the Hohenstaufen were waiting and made sure they did not receive a warm welcome. Bittrich's II SS Corps were at this stage divided into several smaller SS-Kampfgruppen acting as a blocking force. The Allies encountered a tough and determined resistance - far more than expected. Footage from Die Deutsche Wochenschau. Fair use.

Chenogne Massacre in the Ardennes - a Covered-up American War Crime

Adolescent soldiers of the Waffen-SS captured by the Americans

German POWs herded at gunpoint by their American captors

Chenogne Massacre: a Covered-up U.S. War Crime

The Ardennes offensive, or the Battle of the Bulge, in December 1944 is best known for the killing of around 80 American soldiers at the Baugnez crossroads near the town of Malmedy. However, the full story should include, too, the killings of German soldiers by American soldiers. ‘I hope we can conceal this,’ General George Patton wrote about murders of German prisoners that have been airbrushed out of U.S. accounts of the ‘Battle of the Bulge’. The massacre of approx. 80 unarmed German POWs in Chenogne on January 1 1945 was carried out by perpetrators from Company B, U.S. 21st Armored Infantry Battalion of the U.S. 11th Armored Division. The German victims were members of the Führerbegleitbrigade and 3.Panzergrenadier-Division. This massacre is often explained as a retaliation for the Malmedy massacre committed by elements of SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper on Dec. 17 1944. What seriously undermines this argument is that U.S. soldiers Max Cohen, Steve Bugden, Frank Hartzell and Staff sergeant John W. Fague, who were, by all accounts, bystanders to the incident, also pointed out they had no knowledge of the Malmedy massacre at that time. The massacre site outside of Malmedy was behind German lines until Jan. 14 1945. Unlike what happened in Malmedy, the massacre at Chenogne was planned. A German medic who attempted to surrender is said to have been the first victim. He carried a white flag and American soldiers were positioned in a semi circle around him when they shot him dead. All of the soldiers who witnessed the incident remembered the order not to take any prisoners. They even described how the Americans herded their German prisoners down a hill to avoid potential witnesses. There were still German scouts outside of town. The facts indicate that the American mass murder in Chenogne was well organized and carried out in cold blood, while the German massacre in Malmedy occurred in the heat of the moment. In difference to the American victims in Malmedy, the German victims in Chenogne knew what would soon befall them. The events were covered up at the time and the American soldiers who committed the massacre at Chenogne were never held accountable. There were no trials for the Americans, no prosecutions, and certainly no death sentences. The former Prosecutor at the Nürnberg trials Ben Ferencz told the reporter Chris Harland-Dunaway in 2018 when asked why the Americans escaped justice: I would never investigate American war crimes, I was hired to investigate German war crimes. Upon acquainting himself with the declassified reports about the killings in Chenogne, he said: Well, it smells to me like a cover up, of course. Okay, does that surprise you? It doesn't surprise me. Scores of German soldiers were executed according to American combat reports. Some surrendering Germans came within metres of American patrols before they opened fire. Others were taken into the forest, out of sight of locals, and killed. These reports are not trying to hide anything. It was the official historians later who left out what happened. One painful reality is how long a political lie can survive, even after having been disproved. Since the 1940s and still today, many historians and scholars continue to justify Allied war crimes as mistakes or retaliations. Credit: American reporter Christopher Harland-Dunaway, Irish journalist Mark Hennessy and British military historian Antony Beevor. For further reading, see what justice looked like for the Malmedy massacre. The photos are not related to the context of the article. Top image: SS youngsters surrenders to the U.S. 7th Army at Schillersdorf on Jan. 1 1945. Credit: Mateusz Pietruszkiewicz. USASC. Middle image: German POWs herded at gunpoint in the Ardennes around New Year 1945. U.S. photog. John Florea. LIFE photo archive. FU. Bottom image: Private First Class Frank Vukasin of the U.S. 331st IR of the 83rd ID near Houffalize north-east of Chenogne on Jan. 15 1945. Credit: Facundo Filipe. U.S. NARA.

European Events Leading up to World War II 1938–1939

Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with GenMaj Erwin Rommel - Sept 1939

German and Soviet Pavilions oppose each other - Paris Exposition 1937

Annexation of Austria - March 1938

Annexation of Sudetenland - October 1938

Poland campaign - September 1939

Invasion and partitioning of Poland - September 1939

By 1937 Europe was beset by political crises and the Paris International Exposition is recalled for its political connotations. Two of the most notable pavilions were those of the National Socialist Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. The organization of the world exhibition had placed the German and the Soviet pavilions directly across from each other. Nothing in any previous universal exhibition had ever matched this dramatic architectural confrontation. Adolf Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer later revealed that he had designed the German pavilion to represent a bulwark against Communism. The conquering exhibitors of forty-four nations politely applauded each other during the closing ceremonies on Nov. 2 1937. The ritual of Peace and Progress was over and the ultimate confrontation was at hand. Image: Credit: Olga Shirnina. PD. Annexation of Austria: Following the end of World War I, the newly formed Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain explicitly prohibited the political inclusion of Austria in the German state, both treaties signed in 1919. Prior to the Anschluss, there had been strong support from people of all backgrounds – not just Nazis – in both Austria and Germany for a union of the two countries and to bring ethnic Germans outside Germany into Greater Germany. On the morning of March 12 1938, the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. That afternoon, Adolf Hitler crossed the border at his birthplace, Braunau am Inn. In the evening, he arrived at Linz and was given an enthusiastic almost hysterical welcome. Two days later Hitler gave a speech at the Vienna Hofburg in front of a jubilant crowd of 250,000 people. For decades after the war Austria regarded itself as the first victim of Nazism, despite its complicity in war crimes and the jubilation with which Hitler was received some 80 years ago. Image: Austrians welcoming German troops during Anschluss Österreichs. Photo by Hitler's personal color photog. Hugo Jäger. LIFE photo archive. Annexation of Sudetenland: The German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the annexation of Sudetenland on Oct. 1 1938 as outlined by the Munich Agreement. This region had long been settled by ethnic Germans. These Sudeten Germans lived as their German neighbors across the border and spoke German. Hitler said in his speech at the NSDAP Congress 1938: I am asking neither that Germany be allowed to oppress three and a half million Frenchmen, nor am I asking that three and a half million Englishmen be placed at our mercy. Rather I am simply demanding that the oppression of three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia cease and that the inalienable right to self-determination take its place. In early Nov. 1938, under the First Vienna Award, which was a result of the Munich agreement, Czechoslovakia was forced by Germany and Italy to cede southern Slovakia to Hungary, while Poland invaded Zaolzie territory shortly after. As a result, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia lost about 38 percent of their combined area to Germany, with some 3.2 million German and 750,000 Czech inhabitants. Image: German staff cars entering Sudetenland to receive an enthusiastic reception on Oct. 9 1938. People of the Sudetenland saw the German forces as liberators. LIFE photo archive. Invasion and partitioning of Poland: The creation of the Polish Corridor after World War I aroused great resentment in Germany, and all post-war German Weimar governments refused to recognize the eastern borders agreed at Versailles with respect to its eastern borders. Institutions in Weimar Germany supported and encouraged German minority organizations in Poland, in part radicalized by the Polish policy towards them. Poland in 1931 declared her commitment to peace, but pointed out that any attempt to revise its borders would mean war. Polish delegate Tytus Filipowicz noted that any continued provocations by Germany could tempt the Polish side to invade, in order to settle the issue once and for all. By 1937, Germany began to increase its demands for the primarily German-speaking seaport of Danzig, while proposing that an extraterritorial roadway, part of the Reichsautobahn system, be built in order to connect East Prussia with Germany proper, running through the Polish Corridor. Poland rejected this proposal. In 1939, Germany made another attempt to renegotiate the status of Danzig; Poland was to retain a permanent right to use the seaport if the route through the Polish Corridor was to be constructed. During this period, the Germans learned that France and Britain had failed to secure an alliance with the Soviet Union against Germany, and that Soviet was interested in an alliance with Germany against Poland. On Sept. 1 1939, one week after Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact, German troops along with 50,000 Slovakian soldiers invaded Poland. Two weeks later, Russian troops attacked Poland from the east. After years of vague rumblings and explicit threats in Europe, the World War II had begun. Credit: Wikipedia inter alia. Bottom image: German and Soviet soldiers fraternizing east of Brześć Litewski after a visit by Soviet Commander Semyon Krivoshein to German Commander Heinz Guderian during the joint invasion of Poland. Photo by German press photog. Max Ehlert on Sept. 22 1939. Credit: Mikołaj Kaczmarek and Mirek Szponar. c. Bundesarchiv.

Soviet East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive Operation (I)

Soviet Red Army steamrolling west in 1945

Ostpreußen refugees fleeing before the advancing Red Army

German refugees from Ostpreußen moving westward

Luftwaffe and Heer soldiers yield themselves prisoners in Ostpreußen

The massive Soviet East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive took place in the eastern Pommern and Danzig-Westpreußen region from February 10 to April 4 1945 before the Berlin offensive could proceed. The need to secure the flanks of the primary thrust delayed into April 1945 the Soviets' final push toward Berlin, which had originally been planned for February 1945. The Soviets had an extremely impressive array of forces confronting the Germans. The 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts in the north, with 12 armies, faced Heeresgruppe Mitte's three armies. On the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts the Soviets had 2,200,000 troops, 6,400 tanks and self-propelled assault guns, and 46,000 indirect-fire weapons. Against these two fronts Heeresgruppe A could muster 400,000 troops, 1,150 tanks, and 4,100 indirect-fire weapons. However, the Soviet forces took heavy casualties while penetrating westward, their greatest obstacle became the renewed fury of the German soldiers who were now fighting to defend their own homeland. Tens of thousands of German troops were sacrificed in trying to hold places that had little tactical or strategic significance. The Wehrmacht was driven westward in the relentless tide of the Soviet offensive and along with the German Army was a mass of refugees fleeing in terror from the Soviet Red Army, fully aware that the Soviets were raping and crucifying women and young girls on their advance westward. East European women were not spared either. Nazi propaganda - originally meant to stiffen civil resistance by describing in gory and embellished detail Russian atrocities such as the Nemmersdorf and Metgethen massacres - often backfired and created panic. Large numbers of the inhabitants of the German provinces of East Prussia, Silesia, and Pomerania died during the evacuations. A significant percentage of this death toll occurred when evacuation columns encountered units of the Red Army. Civilians were run over by tanks, shot, or otherwise murdered. In addition, fighter bombers of the Soviet Red Air Force, whose presence was now unchallenged in the sky, flew bombing and strafing missions that targeted columns of refugees. Credit: Military historian Ian Baxter and Wikipedia inter alia. Top image: a Soviet T-34-85 tank crossing a chilly river in Silesia during the Pomeranian and Silesian offensives in 1945. USSR propaganda photo. Public domain. Middle images: German refugees from the East Prussian capital Königsberg fleeing massacres in their homeland in February 1945. The West German search service reported that 31,940 civilians from East Prussia alone, were confirmed as killed during the evacuation. Photos by Vinzenz Engel. Credit: Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Fair use. Bottom image: German soldiers surrendering to the Soviets in eastern Prussia in early 1945. Julius Backman Jääskeläinen. Soviet Union stock photos.

Soviet East Pomeranian Strategic Offensive Operation (II)

Soviet fighter pilots strafed and bombed civilians and refugees en masse

SS-Obersturmbannführer d. R Otto Skorzeny in Ostpommern

SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel with fellow officers in Ostpommern

SS-Ustuf. Karl Brommann of s.SS-Pz.Abt.503 in Westpreußen

The Red Air Force took part in the mass killing of civilians by strafing refugees. German military and civilians retreating towards Berlin were hounded by the presence of low flying aircraft strafing and bombing them. Soviet fighter-bombers did range over much of the eastern provinces of the Reich at a low level during the last months of the war, shooting up anything that moved. The Soviet Red Army blew up ancient cities all over Pomerania, set alight churches and randomly executed groups of soldiers that had fought on until they ran out of ammunition. The Wehrmacht had neither the manpower nor the weapons to hold the Soviet onslaught. When the final attack began on the River Oder on April 16 1945 the German soldier was overwhelmed and slowly beaten back to the gates of Berlin. The road to the German capital - the heart of the Nazi empire - was now open from both the south and east. Top image: Soviet pilot Vladimir Kokkinaki pictured in the cockpit of an Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircraft. SU stock photos. Second image: Austrian SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny visiting SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 600 on the Oder Front in February 1945. Skorzeny spent January and February 1945 commanding regular troops in the defence of the German provinces of East Prussia and Pommern. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: Commander of the 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel with his regimental commanders in eastern Pommern in February 1945. To his left is SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Paetsch, and on his right is SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl-Heinz Euling, both Knight's Cross winners. The Wiking veteran Paetsch was fatally wounded aged 35 on March 16 1945 at Altdamm. He was posthumously awarded the Oakleaves. Euling survived the war and died aged 94 on April 14 2014 in München. Photo by SS-KB Peter Adendorf. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: the Nord and Nordland veteran SS-Untersturmführer Karl Brommann of the schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503 and his tank crew posing for a photo in the Danzig area of West Prussia in early-March 1945. Standing in front of his Tiger II, often referred to as the Königstiger, is an unidentified member of the workshop company, radio operator SS-Unterscharführer Rüdi Bier, the Panzer commander Karl Brommann himself, loader SS-Sturmmann Josef Teitsch, gunner SS-Unterscharführer Emil Reichel and driver SS-Oberscharführer Martin Hoffmann. During the fighing in Danzig and Sopot, Brommann destroyed 66 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns along with 44 artillery pieces and 15 trucks. Following this action he was awarded the Knight's Cross. The schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503 lost 39 tanks and destroyed 500 enemy tanks during its relatively short period of operation, a kill ratio of 12.82. Brommann was captured by the British on May 21 1945 and remained in captivity until Nov. 1947. In civilian life, he worked as a dental technician and passed away at age 90 on June 30 2011 in Dithmarschen in Schleswig-Holstein. Credit: Ryan N81. c. Bundesarchiv.

Declaration of War on Germany by France and the United Kingdom

Schnellbomber Junker Ju-88 escorted by Jäger Messerschmitt Me-109's

Gen.Maj. Erwin Rommel's troops crossing the River Meuse in Belgium

Dutch civilians cheer arrival of SS troops at Dam Square in Amsterdam

Volunteers of SS-Standarte Der Führer in front of the Haarlem Stadhuis

September 3 of 1939 was a lovely Sunday. It was the day that France and Britain declared war on the German Reich. They created world tension from a central European quarrel into which they drew forces from their colonies. On September 7 1939, France began the Saar Offensive with an advance from the Maginot Line 5 km into the Saar. France had mobilised 98 divisions and 2,500 tanks against a German force consisting of 43 divisions and no tanks. The French advanced until they met the then thin and undermanned Siegfried Line. Following the Saar Offensive, a period of inaction called the Phoney War, or the German Sitzkrieg, sitting war set in between the belligerents. Holland fought for their official neutrality, in hope of being spared this war, and at the same time played with fire. The Dutch General Staff sought military contact with the Allies and foreign Secret Service agents romped around Holland. This did not escape Germany's notice and they objected. They declared that France and Britain intended a military thrust to the Ruhr, using reconnoitered positions, not only in “neutral” Belgium, but in Holland as well. Not only that, French regiments had already received provisional operation orders, in April 1940, for their advance through Belgium and Holland. The open flank at the Siegfried Line offered itself as the area of concentration for the Allied Armed Forces. It was Duff Cooper, later Minister for information in Winston Churchill's cabinet, who said: We take any step necessary, and without consideration of the neutrality of the land. Neville Chamberlain declared: We British can distribute our attacks as and when we wish. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler decided not to give his enemies the chance of any initiative. Top image: Luftwaffe's Junker Ju-88 heading towards its target escorted by fighter aircraft Messerschmitt Me-109's. The twin-engined multirole combat aircraft Ju 88 was the most modern of Germany's bombers in 1940. Credit: Alan Lathan. Propaganda-Postkarte of Carl Werner Reichenbach. Second image: Generalmajor and commander of the 7.Panzer-Division Erwin Rommel paddles across the river Meuse in Belgium on May 13 1940. The 7th Panzer Division would become known as the Ghost Division because its whereabouts sometimes remained unknown to friend and foe alike during the Western campaign. Credit: Rui Manuel Candeias. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: Waffen-SS troops have arrived in the Netherlands as the result of the French and British war declarations against the German Reich. Hitler's personal photog. Hugo Jäger photographed the first German troops arriving in Amsterdam in May 1940. The people of Amsterdam poured out into the streets to welcome the victors. The troops belongs to the German-Austrian SS-Standarte Der Führer. Tens of thousands of men from the Low Countries would soon volunteer to become Waffen-SS soldiers themselves, while many more of its citizens would support the occupation and volunteer to serve the Nazi cause. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: units of Der Führer in front of the Haarlem Stadhuis after the capitulation of Dutch forces on May 15 1940. Photo by the Amsterdamer Adrianus Peperkamp. Credit: Richard James Molloy. Noord-Hollands Archief.

Ranks of the Waffen-SS

Pre-war officers of the Waffen-SS

Waffen-SS U.S. Army
SS-Oberstgruppenführer General
SS-Obergruppenführer Lieutenant General
SS-Gruppenführer Major General
SS-Brigadenführer Brigadier General
SS-Oberführer Senior Colonel
SS-Standartenführer Colonel
SS-Obersturmbannführer Lieutenant Colonel
SS-Sturmbannführer Major
SS-Hauptsturmführer Captain
SS-Obersturmführer First Lieutenant
SS-Untersturmführer Second Lieutenant
SS-Sturmscharführer Sergeant Major
SS-Hauptscharführer Master Sergeant
SS-Oberscharführer Technical Sergeant
SS-Scharführer Staff Sergeant
SS-Unterscharführer Sergeant
SS-Rottenführer Corporal
SS-Sturmmann Lance Corporal
SS-Oberschütze Private First Class
SS-Schütze Private
SS-Anwärter Candidate

After 1941, Anwärter was also used as a rank of the Waffen-SS, but to a much lesser degree than in the Allgemeine-SS. Once basic training began, the Waffen-SS applicant was unceremoniously promoted to the rank of SS-Schütze. Note that the prefix SS- was usually replaced with Waffen- or Legion- in the non-germanic units. Image: the Schulze brothers, SS-Obersturmführer Richard Schulze-Kossens (October 2 1914 - July 3 1988) and SS-Untersturmführer Hans-Georg Frettchen Schulze (September 11 1917 - July 27 1941) walking down the street during pre-war days. They are both wearing the well known black ensemble designed by Karl Diebitsch and Walter Heck produced by the luxury fashion house Hugo Boss. FU.

Soviet Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive: Casualties and losses

Tigers of Das Reich's 8.Panzer-Kompanie

Fallen Red Armists in the woods

Jäger infantry armed with Sturmgewehr 44 selective-fire rifles

The massive Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive fought from December 24 1943 – April 17 1944, was a strategic offensive executed by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, along with the 1st Belorussian Front, against the German Army Group South. The initial phase of the offensive was the Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive. According to the military historians Karl-Heinz Frieser and David M. Glantz the Soviet forces were made up of 2,406,100 men, 2,015 tanks and assault guns and 2,600 combat aircraft. In the course of the operation, 20 Wehrmacht divisions were destroyed, while another 68 divisions were reduced to below 50 percent of their establishment strength according to the military historian Hedley Paul Willmott. Equally huge were equipment losses, with hundreds of precious tanks, assault guns and trucks being lost, principally through their abandonment in the spring mud. In order to save its southern sector from complete collapse, the German high command was forced to transfer 26 German divisions as reinforcements from across France, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Balkans and Army Group Centre to Ukraine, which amounted to approximately 350,000 men according to the military historian Gregory Liedtke. As a result, the Soviet Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive played a key role in influencing the future successes of Allied D-Day landings and Soviet Operation Bagration. The Soviet forces suffered heavy casualties in the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive: according to Karl-Heinz Frieser and David M. Glantz an estimated 1,192,000, including 270,198 killed and missing. According to Karl-Heinz Frieser Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units suffered 250,956 overall casualties, including 41,907 killed and missing. After the end of World War II, some of the Soviet commanders involved were disgraced, and Stalin widely eliminated most references of the operation. Credit: Wikipedia i.a. Top image: Tigers of SS-Kampfgruppe Das Reich on the southern sector of the Eastern front. The last remnants of Kampfgruppe Das Reich or Kampfgruppe Weidinger was finally withdrawn from the east in April 1944. According to some accounts, Tigers S33 and S13. Note the unique company symbol, the Springender Teufel that is stenciled on the turret of the closest tank. Photo by KB Hans Georg Schnitzer. c. Bundesarchiv. Middle image: Heer soldiers walking past dead Soviets lying in the woods. No additional info on the photo. Fair use. Bottom image: Skijäger elite troops north of the Dnieper near the Pripyat river in February 1944. Credit: Royston Leonard. c. Bundesarchiv.

After the Donets Campaign – known as the Third Battle of Kharkov

Adolf Hitler with Joseph Goebbels on the terrace of the Berghof in 1943

Pz.Kpfw. Tiger n°832 of SS-Pz.Gren.Div. Das Reich

Pz.Kpfw. Tiger n°911 of SS-Pz.Gren.Div. Totenkopf

Pz.Bef.Wg. III n°556 of SS-Pz.Gren.Div. Leibstandarte SS

After the fall of Kharkov the Soviet defense of the Donets had collapsed, but a combination of mud and exhaustion brought military operations to a halt on the Eastern Front in mid-March 1943. The successful counterattack on Kharkov had cemented Feldmarschall Erich von Manstein's reputation and that of the Waffen-SS. Both sides now needed to reorganize and re-equip for forthcoming campaign season, despite von Manstein's ambitions to also attack the Kursk salient which had been created as a result of the recapture of Kharkov and Belgorod. Following the German victory at Kharkov, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler became convinced that he needed a significant operational victory in the East in 1943 in order to retain the strategic initiative. He was presented with two options. The first, known as the backhand method was to wait for the inevitable renewal of the Soviet offensive and conduct another operation similar to that of Kharkov - allowing the Red Army to take ground, extend itself and then counterattack and surround it. The second, or the forehand method, encompassed a major German offensive by Heeresgruppe Süd and Mitte against the protruding Kursk salient. Ultimately, Hitler chose the forehand method, which led to the Battle of Kursk. Between April and July 1943, the Red Army took its time to rebuild its forces in the area and prepare for the German offensive. Credit: Wikipedia inter alia. Top image: Adolf Hitler with Reichsminister Dr. Joseph Goebbels on the terrace of Berghof in Berchtesgaden on June 24 1943. Photo by film producer Oberleutnant Walter Frentz. Frentz would stay with Hitler in the Führerbunker until April 24 1945. He died on July 6 2004 aged 96 in Überlingen. Credit: Pavel Golovkin. Walter Frentz Collection. FU. Second image: Tiger n°832 of SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich in the outskirts of Kharkov in early spring of 1943. The 88mm gun has its travel cover on and the turret is reversed. c. Bundesarchiv. Third image: a newly-arrived Tiger of the Totenkopf required for the upcoming offensive at Kursk. This is the Tiger of company commander SS-Ustuf. Walter Köhler. The photo was taken after its arrival in Budy southwest of Kharkov in May 1943. The tank still needs markings and camouflage paint; it would become Tiger n°911. Köhler himself was KIA in it on July 12 1943 near Kljutschi at the south bank of the Psel during Op. Citadel. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Pz.Bef.Wg. III n°556 of SS-Pz.Reg. 1 of the LSSAH. The photo is said to show Pz. commander Rudolf von Ribbentrop near Belgorod in late spring 1943. Photo by photog. Franz Grasser of the 376th Infantry Division. Grasser is reported to have died on Nov. 13 1944 aged 32 in Russian captivity in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. FU.

ϟϟ-Panzergrenadier-Division „Leibstandarte ϟϟ“

SS-Panzergrenadier of SS-Pz.Gren.Div. Leibstandarte SS

Pz.Kpfw. Tiger of SS-Pz.Gren.Div. Leibstandarte SS

Adopting a philosophical attitude toward the situation, this unidentified SS-Unterscharführer of the Leibstandarte SS reaches out to pluck a handful of flowers while awaiting the resumption of hostilities. Spring has arrived. Nature's rebirth reminded me of this photo, a unique moment of peace among the chaos of war, and proof that even the most battle hardened soldier can succumb to the most simple example of Nature's glory. The photo was taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Max Büschel in Ukraine in the spring of 1943. The fate of the pictured soldier is unknown. The talented photographer Büschel himself survived the war and managed to evade captivity when the 1.SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS surrendered to American forces in Austria in May 1945. He made his way back to his family in Berlin, but was apparently murdered when the Soviet occupational forces found him out as a member of the Leibstandarte SS. U.S. NARA. Bottom image: three SS-Panzer officers in front of their Tiger tank in Kharkov in the spring of 1943. Officers from left to right are SS-Untersturmführer Helmut “Bubi” Wendorff, KIA on Aug. 14 1944 west of Mézières in Normandy, at the time of his death he had been credited with 84 tank kills, SS-Obersturmführer Waldemar Schütz, survived the war and died on Sept. 9 1999 in Raubling in Bayern and the tank ace SS-Untersturmführer Michael Wittmann, KIA on Aug. 8 1944 in Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil in Normandy, at the time of his death he had been credited with 138 tank kills and 132 anti-tank gun kills. Wittmann became a cult figure after the war thanks to his accomplishments as a panzer ace as part of the portrayal of the Waffen-SS in popular culture. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

Operation Citadel or the Battle of Kursk July 5 – July (20) 1943

Gen.Oberst Hermann Hoth and Gen.Feldm. Erich v. Manstein

Unternehmen Zitadelle – Panzerschlacht um Kursk

Battle of Kursk in July 1943 remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka, and the costliest single day of aerial warfare. The Wehrmacht's goal during Operation Citadel was to pinch off a huge salient that bulged more than 80 km. A rapid panzer advance, punching inwards from either shoulder of the salient, would trap hundreds of thousands Soviet troops and, in turn, shorten the German front. In the build-up to the battle both sides massed their best troops. By early July 1943 the Wehrmacht had concentrated 43 divisions. Barring their way were 100 Soviet divisions and five tank armies. Soviet had a massive supply of men and hardware at this stage of the war and General and Marshal Georgy Zhukov wanted to trade their lives for German panzers. The Soviet strength in the Kursk salient was growing much faster than the Wehrmacht could muster forces to attack it. From reports and tactical intelligence, Georgy Zhukov knew almost the hour when the German assault would begin. The Soviets designed a system to slow and exhaust the powerful German panzer spearheads by forcing them to attack through a vast interconnected web of minefields, pre-sighted artillery fire zones, and concealed anti-tank strong-points comprising eight progressively spaced defense lines 250 km deep, it was by far the most extensive defensive works ever constructed. Behind the Soviet front were more than 3,000 tanks, the majority T-34/76s. Credit: Tim Ripley. Left image: Generaloberst Hermann Hoth and Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein analyze a map of operations on June 21 1943. Von Manstein was one of the primary commanders at the Battle of Kursk. Note the Krimschild on his left arm. His ongoing disagreements with German dictator Adolf Hitler over the conduct of the war led to his dismissal in March 1944. Von Manstein died aged 85 on June 9 1973 in Bayern. Hoth commanded the 4.Panzer-Armee in the Battle of Kursk reinforced by the II.SS-Panzerkorps under SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser. Hoth died aged 85 on January 25 1971 in Niedersachsen. Photo by KB Heinz Mittelstaedt. Credit: Facundo Filipe. c. Bundesarchiv. Op. map. PD.

Faces of War: Casualties and losses in the Battle of Kursk

The Forgotten Soldier

The photographs shows eight unidentified men who fought in the greatest clash of armoured forces in history; The Battle of Kursk. They were all Waffen-SS volunteers of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS. All photos are taken on the Kursk salient in July 1943 by the war correspondents Max Büschel and Johan King who served with the Leibstandarte SS during the battle of Prokhorovka. The photographs is maintained by U.S. National Archives. The whole Battle of Kursk refers to the period of the German offensive Zitadelle and the subsequent massive Soviet counterstrikes, named Kutuzov and Polkovodets Rumyantsev, that followed the German offensive in July and August in 1943. It involved more than 3 million men, 10,000 tanks, 55,000 guns and mortars and 5,500 aircraft. According to Russian military historian Grigoriy Krivosheyev, who based his figures on the Soviet archives, Soviet casualties in the counter-offensives that followed Citadel were ~710,000 in combat, including 254,470 killed or missing. German historian Roman Töppel writes that Krivosheyev's figures on Soviet losses at Kursk are underestimated. According to German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units suffered 111,132, including 34,448 killed and missing in these battles. A veteran of Kursk wrote: We fought man to man. All German superiority in communications, movement, and gunnery was lost in the chaos, noise, and smoke. The atmosphere was choking, I was gasping for breath, with perspiration running in streams down my face. The psychological stress was immense. We expected to be killed at any second. Those who were still alive and still fighting a couple of hours later were astonished. The concentrated area of the battlefield was filled with burned-out armoured vehicles, exuding columns of black, oily smoke. British Jewish historian Sir Martin Gilbert remarked: All wars end up being reduced to statistics, strategies, debates about their origins and results. These debates about war are important, but not more important than the human story of those who fought in them. Ordinary men conscripted into the Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine or enlisted men of the Waffen-SS did not fight for [the Nazi Party]. Neither did the hundreds of thousands of European volunteers. There were certainly other values and beliefs involved. Perspectives that may be easily forgotten.