Foreign Waffen-SS Rushed to Join the Defense of Estonia and Latvia '44

Swedish SS Kdr. of Pz AAII Nordland interviewed in Narva

Estonian 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS

After having been conquered by the Danes, the Livonian Knights, the Teutonic Knights of Germany, the Poles, the Swedes and the Russians, the Baltic States declared themselves independent republics in 1918, but in June 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were all occupied by the Soviet Union and illegally annexed as Soviet Socialist Republics. State administrators were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres. The repressions followed with mass deportations carried out by the Soviets. Many of the country's political and intellectual leaders were killed or deported to remote areas of the USSR by the Soviet authorities in 1940-1941. Repressive actions were also taken against thousands of ordinary people. When the German Operation Barbarossa started against the Soviet Union, tens of thousands of Estonians and Balts were forcibly drafted into the Soviet Red Army. Political prisoners who could not be evacuated were murdered by the NKVD. The German Wehrmacht were perceived by most Baltic nationals as liberators from the USSR and its repression, and hopes were raised for the restoration of independence. The initial enthusiasm that accompanied the liberation from Soviet occupation quickly waned as the Baltics became part of the German-occupied Reichskommissariat Ostland. At the beginning of 1944, when the Soviets were approaching the borders of the Baltic States, the foreign Waffen-SS volunteers rushed to join the defense of Estonia and Western Latvia. After World War II mass deportations were concluded in the Baltic countries by the Soviet Union and the policy of encouraging Soviet immigration to the Baltic states continued and soon the ethnic Baltic population had fallen to 62-68 percent. More than 10 percent of the entire adult Baltic population was deported or sent to Soviet labor camps. Half of the deported perished, the other half were not allowed to return until the early 1960s. Top image: the Swede SS-Untersturmführer Hans-Gösta Pehrsson being interviewed in early winter of 1944 by a Norwegian SS-Kriegsberichter in Mummasaare in Estonia, known as Bunkerstrasse. The summer of 1944 saw the Battle of the European Waffen-SS on the Narva Front. Here, nationals from among others Denmark, Estonia, Flanders, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Wallonia shared the trenches and fought shoulder-to-shoulder to throw the Soviets back off Orphanage Hill and Grenadier Hill. National Archives of Norway. Bottom image: Estonian soldier of the 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS in 1944. Credit: Julius Backman Jääskeläinen. Erik Rundkvist Archives.

III.(germanisches) ϟϟ-Panzerkorps and other Foreign SS Formations

Waffen-SS Commander Felix Steiner

European SS Volunteers with 7,5 cm Panzerabwehrkanone 40

After the encirclement was broken at the front near Leningrad, the 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland, along with the rest of III (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps, fought it's way back to the city of Narva in Estonia where a new line of defence was being organised. The SS corps was subordinated to the German 18th Army under Generaloberst Georg Lindemann. The former Wiking commander SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner's SS-Panzerkorps, principally made up of Scandinavians and Dutch, comprising the Nordland and the 4.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Brigade Nederland, played a leading role during the Battle of Narva and the Battle of Tannenberg Line. Operating within the same sector (Sinimäe/Blue Hills) were the 15. and 19.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, both Latvian volunteer divisions, the Estonian 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, the Flemish volunteers of 6.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Langemark and SS-Sturmbannführer Leon Degrelle's Walloons in the 5.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Wallonien. Left image: a formal studio portrait of Felix Steiner, commanding general of III. (germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps, and holder of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords. Photo probably taken during the award of the Swords on August 10 1944. The Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive. Fair use. Right image: Waffen-SS volunteers with 75mm Pak-40 anti-tank gun. Credit: Karl Mensburg. c. Bundesarchiv.

Battle of the European ϟϟ (Battle for Narva Bridgehead)

Waffen-SS sentry of the III. (germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps

Danish SS tanker of SS-Pz.Abt.11 Hermann von Salza

Several Western scholars refer the Battle of Narva to as the Battle of the European SS because the majority of the defenders were European Waffen-SS volunteers. The battle took place between February 2 and August 10 1944. Joining the Scandinavian and Dutch 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland were formations from all over Europe. SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Felix Steiner's III. (germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps consisted of 24 volunteer battalions from Denmark, East Prussia, Flanders, Holland, Norway and Wallonia as well as the local Estonian conscripts motivated to resist the looming Soviet re-occupation. The Soviet operation were exhausted by the SS-Panzerkorps in ferocious battles. The first Soviet Narva Offensive, the Battle for Narva Bridgehead, was halted on February 20 1944. Altogether, the defenders of the Narva River line amounted to 50,000 men. Against them, the Soviets threw 200,000 men of Marshall Leonid A. Govorov's Leningrad Front. But the Waffen-SS corps held, and the stand of the Narva SS troops holding off eleven divisions and six tank units of the Soviet Second Shock and Eighth Armies received great publicity in war propaganda. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was personally interested in taking Estonia, viewing it as a precondition of forcing Finland out of the war. Left image: an unidentified SS volunteer of the III. Germanic SS Panzer Corps during the Battle for Narva Bridgehead in February 1944. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Right image: the Dane SS-Sturmmann Kurt Tebring inside a Panther commanded by SS-Oberscharführer Philipp Wild during the Battle of Narva in 1944. Tebring served as a tank driver in the SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 Hermann von Salza of the Nordland Division. The National Library of Denmark. Fair use.

20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der ϟϟ

Eesti relvagrenaderide SS-diviis

20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS

Estnische Nr. 1

Although many Estonians and Balts were recruited into the German Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS the majority did so only in 1944 when the threat of a new invasion by the Soviet Red Army had become imminent. According to the author Romuald J. Misiunas at least 70,000 Estonians joined the German armed forces. Many Estonian volunteers distinguished themselves fighting as part of the Nordic-recruited SS-Division Wiking and four Estonians received the Knight's Cross during the war. The Estonian 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS was officially activated on January 24 1944. Many of its soldiers had been members of the Estonian Legion, as part of the Waffen-SS, and the Estnische SS-Freiwilligen-Brigade, which had been fighting as part of German forces since August 1942 and October 1943 respectively. Seeing the Third Reich as the salvation of an independent Baltic, these sons of Estonia joined the ideological crusade against Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's communists regime. On February 8 1944, the division was attached to III. (germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps. After some brutal fighting against the Soviets in early 1944, these Estonians managed to force the Bolsheviks back to the east bank of the Narva River. Historian Rolf-Dieter Müller states that 30,000 volunteered in addition to those conscripted, and another source states that the division received 15,000 volunteers, which was enough for it to reach full strength. By August 1944 some 10,400 were killed or missing. In September 1944, the remaining troops were evacuated from Estonia to Neuhammer in Niederschlesien and in February 1945 the division was relocated to central Europe. After the German surrender on May 7 1945 the remnants of the division attempted to break out to the west in order to surrender to the western Allies. Czech communist partisans had them surrounded and demanded that they surrendered their arms, which the Estonians did. The Czechs resumed their hostilities on their Estonian war prisoners regardless of their intentions, the partisans tortured and humiliated them in masse. The number of Estonians murdered has been estimated as 500−1000, but the actual number is unknown. Some of the volunteers who had reached the western allies were handed back to the Soviets. Credit: Wikipedia i.a. Images: young Estonians of the 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS recieve food packages from locals in 1944. They are wearing the distinctive SS Eichenlaubmuster camouflage parkas designed to be reversible, providing camouflage for two seasons. Credit: Za Rodinu. All photos in the Public domain.

Soviet Repression and Estonian Forest Brothers

Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 assault bombers over the Baltics

20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS

Former SS-Schütze Ülo Altermann of the Estonian Forest Brothers

The Red Air Force conducted an air raid, leveling the historic town of Narva on March 6 1944. Soviet air assaults against civilians in Estonian towns were a part of the offensive, aimed at forcing the Estonians away from supporting the German side. Nevertheless, the European Waffen-SS volunteers succeeded in holding the western bank of the Narva River throughout the spring of 1944. Hundreds of thousands Baltic nationals took refuge from the Soviet army by fleeing to Germany and Sweden. For the next fifty years the people of Estonia would pay for their complicity with the Reich, a debt paid by their inclusion in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans, known colloquially as the Forest Brothers, waged unsuccessful guerrilla warfare against the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II in a bid to regain their nations' independence (1944-1953). Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's authorization of a full withdrawal from Estonia in mid-September 1944 allowed any soldiers of his Estonian forces, who wished to stay and defend their homes to do so. Many Estonian Waffen-SS men evaded capture and fought as Forest Brothers in the countryside for years after the war. Captured freedom fighters often faced torture and summary execution while their relatives faced deportation to Russian Siberia. Top image: Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack aircrafts, also called Sturmovik, of the 6th Assault Aviation Corps in flight over the Baltics in 1944. Credit: Olga Shirnina. USSR photo. Middle image: Estonian SS volunteers getting ready to be sent to the northern parts of the Eastern Front to fight off the Soviets in 1944. PD. Bottom image: Estonian Forest Brothers cleaning their German guns in Järva County in Estonia in 1953. At front is SS veteran and leader of the squad Ülo Altermann 1923-54 and behind him is Erich Aleksander Teor 1924-54, Voldemar Juga/Johanson 1928-53 and Elmar Martins 1929-54. By the late 1940s and early 1950s the Forest Brothers were provided with supplies, liaison officers and logistical coordination by the British MI6, American and Swedish secret intelligence services. Credit: Julius Backman. PD.

The Backbone – Maschinengewehr 42

Sd.Kfz. 250 of SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 Nordland

MG-42 of SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 49 De Ruyter

The Maschinengewehr 42, commonly abbreviated MG 42, was designed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II. It has a proven record of reliability, durability, simplicity, and ease of operation, but is most notable for being able to produce a stunning volume of suppressive fire. The MG 42 has one of the highest average rates of fire of any single-barreled man-portable machine gun, between 1,200 and 1,500 rpm, resulting in a distinctive muzzle report. The quality of design and workmanship meant long and extremely precise manufacturing processes, and eventually five factories were doing nothing but turn out MG 34s/MG 42s as hard as they could. This, the finest general-purpose machine-gun ever produced, is still in service with the German Bundeswehr in only slightly modified form as the 7.62 mm MG 3. Top image: photo taken in the north outskirts of Narva in early 1944. According to various sources, the photo is showing the Dutch SS-Untersturmführer Hermann van der Walle of Panzergruppe Saalbach armed with a MG 42 mounted on a Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track. Van der Walle was promoted to the rank of SS-Ostuf. on January 30 1945. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: MG 42 gunner of the Dutch 23.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nederland during the Battle of Narva Bridgehead 1944. c. Bundesarchiv.

Battle of Narva: Casualties and losses

Hoheren Panzerführer Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz in Narva

III. (germanisches) SS-Panzerkorps in Narva

Battle-fatigued Waffen-SS troops in a trench line

German casualties during the Battle of Narva, including a number of West-European volunteers and local Estonian conscripts, is estimated at 14,000 dead or missing and 54,000 wounded. As the Soviet forces were constantly reinforced, the casualties of the battle were 150,000 – 200,000 wounded and dead Soviet troops. Soviet losses in the offensive at Estonia are estimated to 480,000 overall casualties (the number of Soviet casualties can only be estimated indirectly). According to the German War Graves Association, 35,000 German soldiers were killed on Estonian territory, and a further 10,000 or so prisoners of war subsequently died in forced-labour camps. A large number of graves are unmarked or were obliterated by the Soviet regime. The bitterly-fought battles waged on Estonian territory are today remembered by many partly restored military cemeteries. Credit: Estonica. Top image: Prussian SS-Brigadeführer und General der SS and Oberst d. R. Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz in conversation with a Wehrmacht Oberleutnant while commanding a battle group on the Narva front in early 1944. Der Panzergraf Strachwitz was known for his daring raids behind Soviet lines and led panzer forces in fierce counterattacks to eliminate the expansive Soviet bridgehead over the Narva River at Krivasso. He was wounded 13 times during the war and was one of only 27 recipients of the Knight's Cross with oakleaves, swords and diamonds. Generalleutnant d. R. Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz von Groß-Zauche und Camminetz died aged 74 on April 25 1968 in Bayern, where he was buried with full military honours in Grabenstätt. Photo by Kriegsberichter Ütrecht. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Middle image: a Waffen-SS man, possible a Dutch volunteer, observing the Soviet-Estonian front line from the west side of the Narva river. The bridge in picture is the Bunse-Brücke, named after SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Bunse, commander of SS-Panzer-Pionier-Bataillon 11 of the SS-Division Nordland. The photo is taken by the former Wiking war correspondent SS-Kriegsberichter Hans Truöl who covered the Nordland division from early 1944. U.S. NARA. Bottom image: according to some accounts, battle-fatigued Waffen-SS men pictured in an advanced trench during the ferocious battles of Narva in 1944. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Panzer-Abteilung 11 „Hermann von Salza“

Norwegian tankers of SS.Pz.Abt.11 Hermann von Salza

Panther S25 of SS.Pz.Abt.11 Hermann von Salza

The left photo shows the Norwegian volunteers SS-Untersturmführer Per Kjølner and SS-Untersturmführer Thomas Hvistendahl in Narva in 1944. They both served in 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland's SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 Hermann von Salza. Per Kjølner first served with SS-Infanterie-Regiment Germania of the SS-Division Wiking. After graduating from SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in 1943, he became platoon leader in Hermann von Salza and received the Iron Cross First Class and the Close Combat Clasp in Bronze for his actions in Narva. After World War II, Per Kjølner was tried by Olso Byrett and sentenced to five years in prison for treason. He later took over as director of the family company in Norway. Per Kjølner is born in 1921 and is still alive in 2012. FU. Right image: Panther S25 from the Herman von Salza taking on ammunition in Narva in 1944. Seen in this photo is the both Das Reich veterans the Austrian SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf Rott, wearing a black Panzerjacke, and to his right the Swede, SS-Untersturmführer Per-Sigurd Baecklund. Rudolf Rott won the German Cross in Gold on December 18 1944 and the Knight's Cross on February 28 1945, 18 days after his death in Pomerania. Per-Sigurd Baecklund, former adjutant of the Swedish SS-Obersturmführer Sven Rydén, graduated from SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in 1944. He earned the Iron Cross First Class the same year and became Ordonnansoffizier in SS-Feldersatz-Bataillon 11 of the Nordland in January 1945. He surrendered to the Americans near Ludwigsburg on May 2 1945 but managed to escape and make his way back to Sweden. Per-Sigurd Baecklund died aged 71 in Malmö in Sweden on April 19 1987. Photo taken by SS-Kriegsberichter Hans Truöl. Commons: Bundesarchiv.

ϟϟ-Untersturmführer d. R. und Kriegsberichter der Waffen-SS Kreuger

SS-Standartenoberjunker Hans-Caspar Kreuger in bombed-out Narva

Original SS-Kriegsberichter Cuff Title

This photo shows the Swedish linguist SS-Standartenoberjunker of the SS-Kriegsberichter-Zug 11 and later SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers war correspondent Hans-Caspar Kreuger with his driver in Narva after the Soviet bombing raid of March 1944. Kreuger's pan-European articles and writings frequently appeared in the Scandinavian press and was widely published in newspapers throughout Europe. He is reported to have been fluent in six languages (Swedish, German, English, French, Spanish and Russian). Kreuger volunteered in the Russo-Finnish Winter War and enlisted with the Waffen-SS in July 1941, where he is said to have become a Tapferkeitsoffizier. He is known to have served with the Allgemeine SS during 1941-42. Following training at the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in 1943-44, Kreuger served with SS-Panzer-Regiment 5 of the multinational 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking in Ukraine. The Swede participated in the breakout from Korsun-Cherkassy after denying orders to leave with the last plane out of the pocket. Following the bloody breakout in Feb. 1944, he joined SS-KB-Zug 11 of the 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland in the Battle of Narva Bridgehead. He was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer on June 21 1944. Kreuger had a large unit file stamped “Geheim” (86 pages of documents) in the SS-Kriegsberichter Abteilung. There is a very detailed investigation for homosexuality against him while he was assigned to the Nordland division. Allegations of misconduct behavior during a Kameradschaftsabend is often a common thread in disciplinary actions against Waffen-SS officers. Kreuger was finally acquitted. According to various sources, he ended the war serving with the newly formed French SS-Sturmbataillon Charlemagne during the Battle for Berlin in April 1945. Kreuger survived the war and with the help of a U.S. Army Captain he was able to leave captivity. He immigrated to Argentina in 1948 with some other Scandinavian Waffen-SS comrades. Kreuger works as a military instructor with the Argentine Army before he opens the travel agency Via Nord at Suipacha 156 in Buenos Aires with main focus on helping former SS men escape from Europe. It's on the same street as the Swedish Embassy. After 1953, he operated the agency as a partnership with the Leibstandarte SS veteran Thorolf Hillblad, another Swedish Nazi. Kreuger later returned frequently to Europe to attend Waffen-SS veteran's reunions. The son of a landlord and veteran of some of the most savage fighting on the eastern front, Hans-Caspar Kreuger died aged 74 on Nov. 15 1977 in a car accident at an railroad crossing in Buenos Aires under unclear circumstances. Credit: Feldgrau inter alia. Photo courtesy of Joakim Munter. Public domain. Bottom image: the SS-Kriegsberichter cufftitle was worn by individual correspondents assigned to a Waffen-SS unit, as opposed to correspondents who served in the actual SS War Correspondents unit Kurt Eggers. The cufftitle was first introduced with Gothic script but was soon altered to the Latin style. Public domain.

Schwedenzug of ϟϟ-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 „Nordland“

SS-Untersturmführer Pehrsson with fellow Waffen-SS officers

This photo, taken in late May or early June 1944, shows the company commander of SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 Hans-Gösta Pehrsson with fellow Swedes at his command post on the Estonian front. The volunteers, from left to right: SS-Untersturmführer Gösta Borg; served with 5.Wiking and 11.Nordland 1941-45. Ukraine 1941, Breslau and Tölz 1943-44, Ostpreußen, Viborg, Narva, Warszawa and the Ardennes 1944. Returned to Sweden 1945. SS-Standartenoberjunker Hans-Caspar Kreuger; served with 5.Wiking and 11.Nordland (33.Charlemagne not conf.) 1942-45. Klagenfurt and Tölz 1943-44. Ukraine and Narva 1944 and Pommern and Berlin 1945. Promoted SS-Untersturmführer 1944. Exiled in Argentina 1948. SS-Untersturmführer Hans-Gösta Pehrsson; served with Freikorps Danmark and 11.Nordland 1941-45. Novgorod 1941-42, Leningrad and Demyansk 1942, Tölz 1942-43, Narva and Latvia 1944 and Pommern and Berlin 1945. Promoted SS-Hauptsturmführer and appointed Generalstabsoffizier in Nordland 1945. Returned to Sweden 1945. SS-Untersturmführer Gunnar Eklöf; served with 5.Wiking, Generalkommando III.SS-Panzerkorps and 11.Nordland 1941-45. Tölz and Croatia 1943, Narva and Dünaburg 1944 and Berlin 1945. Appointed company commander with SS-Jagdverband Nordwest 1945 under the command of the Austrian daredevil SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny. Returned to Sweden 1945. SS-Untersturmführer Carl Ferdinand Stodenberg Svensson; served with (4.Polizei not conf.), 11.Nordland and 12.Hitlerjugend 1941-45. Tölz 1942, Leningrad and Greece 1943, Narva, Normandy and Arnhem 1944 and Alsace and the Rhine front 1945. Promoted SS-Obersturmführer 1944. Emigrated to West Germany in the 1960s. SS-Sturmscharführer Thorkell Tillmann; served with 11.Nordland and 12.Hitlerjugend 1942-44. Sennheim 1942 and Tölz and Metz 1943-44. Narva and Normandy 1944. Promoted SS-Untersturmführer 1944. KIA on June 26 1944 in Normandy. Photo taken by the Swede SS-Untersturmführer Rune Ahlgren who served with 11.Nordland 1943-44. Tölz 1943, Narva and Latvia 1944. KIA as SS-Obersturmführer on October 30 1944 in Priekules Novads in Latvian Kurland. Lars T. Larsson Archives. Fair use.

Withdrawal of Armee-Abteilung „Narwa" from Narva to Tannenberg Line

Belgian-Walloon officer Léon Degrelle of SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien

SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 Nordland

SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 24 Danmark

The situation was chaotic as the line seemed ready to crumble under the hammer blows of Soviet armor and air strikes. The Russians were streaming through the region like a tidal wave. With the Estonian sector of the front buckling under Soviet pressure, the Germans needed men to fill the gaps in the line. Walloon SS-Stubaf. Léon Degrelle who was in Belgium on leave for his brother's funeral, was absolutely furious when he was informed that his barely-trained recruits of the 5.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Wallonien had been thrown into the line near Dorpat. Defying Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's orders that he not return to the fighting, he immediately left for Estonia in search of his training battalion. Unfortunately, only 32 of the original 300 inexperienced recruits survived to rejoin the brigade. On July 23 1944, SS-Ogruf. Felix Steiner ordered a withdrawal from Narva to the Tannenberg Line, a prepared position 16 km to the west. Dutch SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 48 General Seyffardt and the Brigade's artillery component was to provide a rearguard for the retreating troops. Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov launched the Narva Offensive on the German lines on July 24 1944, and in the afternoon, the 4.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Brigade Nederland's Artillery Battalion started withdrawing across the Narva bridge. The Dutchmen got involved in heavy fighting but managed to hold the Soviets while the last of the European volunteers got across the river. The Nordland's Pioneer Battalion blew up the bridge. However, due to a colossal mistake by its officers, the General Seyffardt Regiment would not survive the withdrawal. The Nederland Brigade had lost one of its two regiments, and many valuable veterans were lost forever. With the exception of the General Seyffardt, the withdrawal had been a success, and Steiner's men began to dig in on the Tannenberg Line. Degrelle, who had arrived the previous day, commanded an ad hoc force at Pskov with incredible vigor, skill, and courage. He rallied panicked German troops in his sector and forced them back into the line. In the ensuing Battle of Tannenberg Line, the German Army Detachment Narwa held its ground. Top image: Léon Degrelle is seen here with a commander of the French LVF and Nazi collaborator Joseph Darnand of the Milice française in Paris before his return to the front. Degrelle wears the insignia of the Walloons below the SS sleeve eagle. Photo by French photog. André Zucca in March 1944. Credit: Mateusz Pietruszkiewicz. Signal Mag. FU. Middle image: Nordland volunteers riding on a Sd.Kfz.250 during the fighting in Estonia. On the right is Swedish SS-Ustuf. Gunnar Eklöf, a Waffen-SS veteran since 1941. Eklöf was posted to SS-Pz.Aufkl.Abt.11 in 1944. PD. Bottom image: Danish Nordland volunteers prepare to counterattack after Soviet forces managed to break into their lines near Orphanage Hill on July 28 1944. Photo by SS-KB Erich Fabiger. Credit: Julius Backman. c. Bundesarchiv. 

III. (germanisches) ϟϟ-Panzerkorps: Battle of Tannenberg Line

SS-Obersturmführer Helmut Scholz

Sd.Kfz. 250 n°402 of 11.SS-Frw.Pz.Gren.Div.Nordland

The Tannenberg Line at Narva Front anchored on three strategic hills. Running west to east, these were known as Hill 69.9, Grenadier Hill and Orphanage Hill. From July 27 1944, 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland fought alongside the Estonian 20.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, the Walloon 5.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Wallonien, the Flemish 6.SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade Langemarck, the Dutch 4.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Brigade Nederland and Kampfgruppe Strachwitz from the Großdeutschland Division to keep control of Orphanage Hill. Despite the death of the Nordland Division's commander, SS-Gruppenführer Fritz von Scholz killed in action and the subsequent deaths of the commanders of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 23 Norge and 24 Danmark, the division helped to grimly hold onto the Orphanage Hill and destroyed 113 Soviet tanks on July 27 – 29 1944. Of the 136,830 Soviets initiating the Narva Offensive in July, a few thousand had survived. The Soviet tank regiments had been demolished. The delay of the Soviet advance allowed over 25,000 Estonians and 3,700 Swedes to flee to neutral Sweden. The total number of Estonian Swedes who left during the war was some 8,000. Left image: a formal studio portrait of the Wiking veteran SS-Obersturmführer Helmut Scholz. He was awarded the Knight's Cross on June 4 1944 while defending the Narva Bridgehead as company commander in SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 49 de Ruyter of the Nederland Brigade and the Oakleaves to the Knight's Cross on September 21 1944 for his Battalion's actions when fighting their way back from the Tannenberg Line. Helmut Scholz died aged 77 on November 12 1997 in Herne in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Credit: Matthias Ruf. Commons Bundesarchiv. Right image: a member of the 4th Company of SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11 hand over information to a motorcycle courier in July 1944. Note the sun wheel, a pre-Christian Nordic symbol adopted by the Nordland Division. Fair use.