ϟϟ-Polizei-Division and Soviet Volkhov Front: Casualties and losses

SS-Oberscharführer Rudolf Seitz

Battle of the Volkhov or the Soviet Lyuban Offensive Operation

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 prisoners of war inside the Volkhov sack, among the swamps and inhospitable forests in 1942. The photographer and author Georg Gundlach passed away in 2010. Fair use.

Under the St. Andrew's Cross: Russian Liberation Army ROA

Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya POA

Russian and Cossack volunteers in Wehrmacht

With the German counter-offensive in May 1942, the Soviet Lieutenant General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov, commander of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front, was taken prisoner by Wehrmacht troops. He claimed that during those days of battle he affirmed his anti-bolshevism and adopted a pro-Nazi German stance, believing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was the greatest enemy of the Russian people, and there is evidence that suggests Vlasov may have changed sides in a bid to give his countrymen a better life than the one they had under the communist rule of Stalin. Vlasov later founded the Russian Liberation Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, in hopes of creating the Russian Liberation Army - known as ROA (Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya). On May 10 1945, Vlasov and his men reached western Allied forces and surrendered to them. However, Vlasov – along with many of his men and other collaborators – was forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union by the Americans. Approximately 33,000 men were handed over between May and September 1945 to USSR forces. They were then executed or sent to the Gulag. Andrey Vlasov was hanged in Moscow on August 1 1946. Top image: Soviet Terek Cossacks of Kosaken-Regiment 6 under command of a Lieutenant Ponomarev as part of the ROA. Nazi Propaganda Kompanie photo. FU. Bottom image: Russian and Don Cossack turncoats enlisted into the Wehrmacht. Photo sometimes attributed to French photog. and collaborator André Zucca. Credit: Karl Mensburg. FU.

Soviet Demyansk Offensive Operation January 1942

Famous and feared German 8.8 cm FlaK

Waiting for the next Soviet onslaught in Staraya Russa 1942

German 16.Armee in the Demyansk Pocket 1942

The Red Army, although driven back to the very gates of Moscow itself, had established a reserve to the east of the Soviet capital. Its winter offensive 1942 with up to 400,000 troops in the area of Staraya Russa and Demyansk smashed into the German lines, tearing huge gaps in the front. In the north six German divisions, including the SS-Division Totenkopf, were cut off in the Demyansk Pocket. To the north, Soviet 11th and 34th Soviet Armies, and the 1st Shock Army forming one attack incent to advance along the southern shore of Lake Ilmen. The 16th Shock Army also advanced along to sweep around the lower edge of Lake Seliger to join the other thrust, encircle and annihilate the German 16th Army, and thus create a vast gap between German Heeresgruppe Nord and Heeresgruppe Mitte. During the night of January 8 1942, under cover of a fierce blizzard, the Red Army launched its attack along the whole of Heeresgruppe Nord's southern flank. Josef Stalin hoped that the German armies could be encircled and destroyed by lightning thrusts and rapid maneuvers. A combination of rigidity in command and lack of coordination of the Russian forces, coupled with Adolf Hitler's stand-fast order and stubborn German resistance, foiled the Soviet dictator's grandiose plan. Soviet commanders threw wave after wave of troops against the German defenders. The Demyansk salient proved a horrific Eastern Front battleground, due in part to the meddling of two dictators. Top clip: the legendary 8.8 cm FlaK was used in two main roles: as a mobile heavy anti-aircraft and as an anti-tank gun. The Allies and the Soviets had nothing as good, despite one of them designating itself the world's greatest industrial power. Footage from Die Deutsche Wochenschau. Fair use. Middle image: a German in a trench in Staraya Russa in January 1942. Photo by Kriegsberichter Richard Muck. Credit: Cassowary. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: German troops in the Demyansk cauldron on March 21 1942. Credit: Royston Leonard. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

The frozen fortress Demyansk February – May 1942

Demyansk Pocket

Demyansk Pocket

On February 8 1942, at the significant cost of losses the Soviet ring finally closed around the already depleted SS-Division Totenkopf and the German II and X Corps, trapping 12, 30, 32, 123 and 290.Infantry Divisions. The German command repeatedly requested permission to retreat, but Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler did not give it. The Germans managed to organize an excellent defense of the outer front of the pocket, and inside it they built a system of alternative fortifications and secured settlements and roads. The surrounded parts of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS successfully defended themselves, being surrounded for two months. When contested villages changed the occupants they usually turned into flames. The Totenkopf Division was split up, on orders of German 16th Army, with sub-units being despatched to various crises points. Its units fighting in snow well over one metre deep and in temperatures of minus 30 degrees °C, came under extreme pressure as they tried to hold the line of scattered villages. The desperate resistance by these isolated strongpoints helped to stabilize the front. The German defensive battles were fought with sufficient skill, tenacity, and resourcefulness to merit close scrutiny. Images: photos of a German and a presumably Latvian volunteer Jäger on the north-eastern front, both with determined expressions into the wide vista. The Jägers were usually crack shots used for ambushes and patrols. c. Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Division „Totenkopf“ and the Demyansk Pocket: Casualties and losses

SS-Division Totenkopf

Kessel von Demjansk

                                                                                                                                   

By late February 1942, the SS-Division Totenkopf's sector had been so widely infiltrated by Soviet troops that all contact with nighbouring German units had been lost. The Totenkopf's positions were often penetrated and the Soviets driven out only after fierce fighting. The SS troops were cold, exhausted, lice-ridden and suffering from frostbite, but had driven off Soviet units greatly superior in numbers. By the time the Soviet attacks began to tail off in mid-March 1942, as the spring thaws set in, they had lost tens of thousands troops in their attempt to crush the Demyansk Pocket. The Totenkopf, in the same period, had lost around 7,000 men. According to Russian sources Soviet casualties around Demyansk during the period between February and May 1942 were 245,500 including 88,908 killed and missing. According to official German statistics and documents, Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units suffered 55,000 casualties, including 14,516 killed and missing. Credit: Wikipedia i.a. Left image: according to various scholars, a soldier of the Totenkopf during a break from the fierce battles. Neither heroes nor brave fighters step from the ranks of men made lonely by a hunger in their hearts for news from home. Credit: Toussaint Bonavita. Right image: German soldiers exhausted and worn out with fatigue. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

Encircled units supplied by German Luftwaffe and Frikorps Danmark

Hitler with officers of the SS Escort Command of the Führer

Junkers Ju 52 in the Demyansk Pocket

Festung Demjansk or Kessel von Demjansk

The German defense was throttled by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's standing orders against tactical retreat, leaving the forward divisions little choice but to hold on to their initial positions even when penetrated or overrun. The deft counterattacks by the Waffen-SS repeatedly exploited speed, surprise, and shock action to destroy or scatter numerically superior Soviet forces. The task of providing the surrounded soldiers at Demyansk and Kholm with everything necessary fell on the wings of Luftwaffe. Without the airport, on which, on the average 400,000 kg of supply were landed daily, the defenders of the cauldron could have hardly held on. The men of the Danish Volunteer-Corps Frikorps Danmark and the German Luftwaffe came into the cauldron, the wounded went out. The supplies were delivered through over 100 flights of Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft per day. Everything went in by air: Swedish tent quarters made of pressed millboards, ammunition, food, petrol, mail and recruits. The success of the Luftwaffe convinced both Reichsmarsall Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler that they could conduct effective airlift operations on the Eastern Front. However, the cost was significant. The Luftwaffe lost 265 aircraft, including 106 Junkers Ju 52, 17 Heinkel He 111 and two Junkers Ju 86 aircraft. After the siege was broken, the brutal and violent commander of the SS-Division Totenkopf Theodor Eicke secured a private audience with Hitler at the Wolfsschanze east of the Ostpreußen town of Rastenburg, in present-day Poland. Eicke bluntly described the situation to him. The Führer promised Eicke that he would withdraw the division in August if the situation south of Lake Ilmen remained stable. When he finally brought the remnants out of the salient in October, it had repulsed several more major Soviet attacks. By then the Totenkopf had been bled white holding Demyansk. Credit: author Patrick W. McTaggart. Top image: the Führer with members of his personal bodyguard unit, the Führerbegleitkommando, at the Wolfsschanze or the Wolf’s Lair. In the picture, from left to right, are: August Körber, Adolf Dirr, Erich Kempka, Adolf Hitler, Bruno Gesche and Franz Schädle. Credit: Marina Amaral. Fair use. Middle image: a Junkers transport aircraft bringing supplies to the German 16th Army, in Demyansk 1942. Bottom image: a German soldier tries to stay warm in the shelter of a demolished building somewhere in Demyansk in 1942 while keeping a eye out for Soviet attacks. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Division „Totenkopf“ – Wie ein Fels im Meer

Non-commissioned officer of the Totenkopf

Non-commissioned officer of the Totenkopf

By May 1942, the Red Army had once again gone over to the offensive and had begun attacking. The frequency of Soviet attacks gave the exhausted SS-Division Totenkopf no chance for any sort of rest, and constant attrition through these defensive actions weakened the division. On July 1942, massive Soviets assaults smashed into the Totenkopf units and were only held back by the fanatical determination of the exhausted SS-troops, and with considerable losses. By August 1942 all the Totenkopf non-combatant personnel – cooks, clerks, medics and military police – had taken their places in the trenches with their comrades. There were now no reserves left whatsoever. A total of around 96,000 German soldiers had been cut off in the Demyansk Pocket, and the fact that the pocket held and the survivors were eventually relieved was due in no small measure to the tenacity of the men of the Totenkopf Division. The Totenkopf was a mainstay in its defence between February and October 1942. Left image: fine study of a Totenkopf NCO in Demyansk, wearing appropriately coloured camouflage smock and helmet cover, standard 8 X 50 binoculars, leather map case and Luger P/08 holster. An MP 28/II submachine-gun is slung across his back. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: an SS-Sturmmann posing for the war correspondent Ernst Baumann when giving humanitarian aid to people affected by the battles on the north-eastern front. U.S. NARA. Fair use.

Volunteers in Demyansk: ϟϟ-Sturmbannführer der Waffen-SS von Schalburg

SS-Sturmbannführer C.F. von Schalburg

SS-Freiwilligen-Verband Dänemark

Danish Christian Frederik von Schalburg was born in Zmeinogorsk, Tomskaja Gubernija in the Russian Empire on April 15 1906. Still a boy C.F. von Schalburg received a military education in the Tsar's cadet corps and lived in Russia until the October Revolution of 1917 when he fled with his family to Denmark. These dramatic events caused him to feel a burning hate of communists. In September 1940 with the consent of the Royal Danish Life Guards and the king, C.F. von Schalburg joined the Waffen-SS and served with SS-Division Wiking as a SS-Hauptsturmführer. He was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross while serving with the Wiking in Ukraine. On March 1 1942, now ranked SS-Sturmbannführer, he was given command of the Danish Volunteer Corps Frikorps Danmark and was soon flown by Junkers Ju 52 with parts of the corps into the Demyansk Pocket. On June 2 1942, C.F. von Schalburg initiated the first offensive operation of the Danish SS Corps. In an attempt to monitor the progress of the battle, he advanced towards the front line, but stepped on a mine and was moments later killed by shrapnel from a Soviet artillery shell. The subsequent rescue of his corpse where he fell at the age of 36 revealed extensive injuries including a leg torn off at the hip and a missing foot. Credit: The Unknown Eastern Front. Left image: SS-Sturmbannführer Christian Frederik von Schalburg with his son Aleksander. The photo was taken a few months before he fell near Demyansk. It was taken by the then SS-Unterscharführer Søren Kam, later recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. C.F. von Schalburg was posthumously promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer. Right image: Danish Free Corps making an oath at the Waffen-SS barracks at Langenhorn in Hamburg in 1941. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter Weill. Credit: Jaris Almazani. Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (NAC), Warszawa, Poland. Both photos in the Public domain.

Knights at Demyansk: ϟϟ-Obersturmbannführer der Waffen-SS Richter

Waffen-SS Commander Wilfried Richter

Holding the Red Tide at Demyansk and Cholm

It is also worth noting that several Totenkopf soldiers were decorated with the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for gallantry during the battles at Demyansk. Study of some of the actions for which these decorations were awarded illustrates just how ferocious the fighting during these months could be. During the Demyansk battles, the then SS-Obersturmführer Wilfried Richter commanded a small combat group located at Kalitkino on the banks of the Robja river. The Waffen-SS occupants were all but exhausted by their defence of the area against attacks by fresh Soviet assault troops. Remarkably, in the view of the condition of his men and the overwhelming Soviet superiority in numbers, Richter's battle group repulsed attack after attack. On April 5 1942, a particularly powerful Soviet attack hit Kalitkino, threatening to overrun it. The Soviets, supported by around 16 T-43 tanks, struck without warning. They established a toehold, but only after losing six of their tanks. Then the Totenkopf troops immediately counterattacked, using Teller mines against the Soviet tanks and destroyed five more in this fashion. The Soviet infantry force was still substantial and the situation looked bad for the greatly-outnumbered Waffen-SS troops. Richter decided to call down German artillery fire on his own position. The enemy were caught in the open, suffering horrendous losses. As soon the barrage was over, Richter and his men engaged the Soviets in ferocious hand-to-hand combat. The battle raged until all the Soviet troops had been killed or had fled. Richter's dogged determination proved to be an example again and again to his weak group of men that were cut-off in this area. Richter was decorated with the Knight's Cross on April 21 1942. He ended his career as an SS-Obersturmbannführer and battalion commander in the 38.SS-Division Nibelungen. Wilfried Richter was born in Pforzheim on May 9 1916 and joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1937. He died aged 64 on April 18 1981 in Engehausen, Hannover. Credit: Gordon Williamson, SS - The Blood-Soaked Soil. Left image: Knight's Cross Holder Wilfried Richter. Fair use. Right image: German machine gunner and dead Russian soldier at Cholm/Demyansk in 1942. Photo by Kriegsberichter Richard Muck. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

Knights at Demyansk: ϟϟ-Oberführer der Waffen-SS Ullrich

Waffen-SS Commander Karl Ullrich

Holding the Red Tide at Demyansk and Cholm

One of the most prominent figures of the Totenkopf Division, and a Knight's Cross recipient for actions around Demyansk, was Karl Ullrich, then an SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the division's engineer battalion. Ullrich was born in Saargemünd in Elsaß-Lothringen in 1910 and was an engineering graduate when he joined the SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1934. He was awarded the Knight's Cross for his leadership and bravery during the battles of the Demyansk pocket in February 1942. In October 1944, Ullrich was given command of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 6 Theodor Eicke and was awarded the Oakleaves while in command. Promoted SS-Standartenführer he was given command of the 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking for the final battles of the war in Hungary. A short time before the end of the war he was promoted to Oberführer. After the war, Ullrich wrote the book: Like a Cliff in the Ocean: A History of the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf. Karl Ullrich died aged 85 on May 8 1996 in Bad Reichenhall in Bayern. Other Totenkopf men who received the Knight's Cross for their exploits in the Demyansk Pocket were: SS-Obersturmführer Hubert-Erwin Meierdress, SS-Sturmbannführer Franz Kleffner, SS-Oberscharführer Ernst Staudle, SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Eduard Eddi Deisenhofer, SS-Hauptsturmführer Georg „Schorsch“ Bochmann, SS-Oberscharführer Ludwig Köchle, SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Baum and SS-Hauptsturmführer Max Seela. Left image: Knight's Cross Holder Karl Ullrich. Fair use. Right image: German troops and dead Russian soldier at Cholm/Demyansk in 1942. Photo by Kriegsberichter Richard Muck. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

Knight's Cross Recipients of ϟϟ-Division „Totenkopf“ at Demyansk

SS-Oberscharführer Ludwig Köchle

SS-Hauptsturmführer Max Seela

A few short words about two of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients of SS-Division Totenkopf at Demyansk. Right image: Austrian Waffen-SS volunteer SS-Oberscharführer Ludwig Köchle served as an Stoßtrupp- and Zugführer with the Totenkopf in the Demyansk Pocket. Köchle, also known as Bunkerknacker, was awarded the Knight's Cross on February 28 1942 for destroying enemy bunkers and MG positions in the pocket. Ludwig Köchle was killed in action on June 9 1942 aged 21 near Polizo southwest of Lake Ilmen. FU. Left image: SS-Hauptsturmführer Max Seela from Schöneiche near Berlin was awarded the Knight's Cross on May 3 1942, while in command of 3rd Company of SS-Pionier-Bataillon Totenkopf. Despite severe losses and meager supplies, his unit occupied the Russian village of Korowitsch in Demyansk for one month. Seela and his men prevented the village from being recaptured, denying the Soviets access to the crucial bridge over the Lovat River. The Totenkopf veteran SS-Obersturmbannführer Max Seela died aged 88 on July 31 1999 in Ratingen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Photo by the Close Combat Clasp in Silver holder SS-KB Peter Adendorf. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Division „Totenkopf“ Redesignated

NCO of SS-Division Totenkopf

Medic Kradschutzen of SS-Division Totenkopf

From May 1942, elements of the SS-Division Totenkopf were withdrawn to rebuild in France, and new subunits were formed, so that a new Totenkopf Division organized even as the last of the old version bled to death in the Demyansk Pocket. Its survivors were finally withdrawn in Oct. 1942, after German counter-attacks had finally driven the Soviets far enough back for the salient to be considered secure. At Demyansk, about 80 percent of its members were killed, wounded or missing in action. Only 6,400 Totenkopf soldiers remained alive. The Totenkopf now received replacements from the general élite pool of Waffen-SS thoroughly trained recruits and was redesignated SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf in Nov. 1942, but the division's affiliation with the SS-Totenkopfverbände in its early years even today stain the reputation of the later-formed élite division 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf. The Totenkopf's manpower strength was 21,186 men in Dec. 1942. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler authorised the institution of a special campaign decoration in commemoration of the defensive battles around Demyansk in 1942. It took the form of a silver-washed zinc shield, topped by an eagle and swastika over a field bearing crossed swords and an aircraft over the date 1942, with the legend Demyansk above and was to be worn on the upper sleeve of the left shoulder of uniform. It is estimated that over 100,000 Demyansk shields were presented. Left image: an NCO of the Totenkopf wearing a Platanenmuster camouflage smock poses for SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann during the first part of the campaign against the Soviets. Credit: Benoit Vienne. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: a medical orderly of the Totenkopf' arrives to the battlefield to transport the wounded back to the rear. We can see the early war period camouflage pattern Palmenmuster in the fore-ground. Photo by Ernst Baumann. Credit: Karl Mensburg. U.S. NARA.