1935, Hitler announced a substantial expansion plan, and the national conscription system was implemented. The SS General Task Force (SSVT) will receive the highest level of training and become the fourth pillar of the German army, navy and air force. The arrival of a group of former professional soldiers such as Hausel and Steiner made Hitler's dream possible. Paul Hauser, a major general of the National Defence Force, retired and joined the Nazi stormtroopers. Hausel survived the "Long Knife Night" operation and immediately changed his family and joined the SS. From 65438 to 0935, Hausel became the head of the SS VT unit, and spared no effort in regularization. He reorganized the deformation fighter unit into three regiments, each with three battalions, and later added artillery and engineers one after another, so that the deformation fighter unit initially had the size of a division.
The concept of "elite force" was embodied in the SS from the beginning. The recruitment leaflet of the SS read: "The volunteer came happily because he knew that the Fuehrer would keep his promise and take good care of his family. He will not be driven to the battlefield as cannon fodder, because the life of the Fuehrer's soldiers is too precious to be sacrificed at will. This is why a volunteer will receive the best training that German soldiers can receive and use the best weapons that Germany can make. Germanic men don't need to teach the concept of heroism, because it is naturally engraved in their hearts. Volunteers are full of pride and eager to make contributions to the battlefield. " The SS also showed a completely different new atmosphere from the Wehrmacht. Here, Nazi belief has become the source of army cohesion, and officers and men call each other "Kamerad" instead of the other's rank and office. The concept of the SS, the strong position of the Nazi Party and the promise of generous treatment after retirement have made many young people compete to serve in a simple and enterprising elite force.
Steiner gave up the colonel treatment of the Wehrmacht and condescended to come to the SS to accept the rank of major, responsible for the formation and training of the 3 rd battalion of the "German" regiment. Steiner's choice is quite wise. The newly-built SS has no historical burden, and its soldiers are young, simple and energetic, and are very willing to learn new tactics. Steiner believes that the combat effectiveness of a soldier and an army depends on their morale in the face of enemy fire at the front. The morale of the army comes from the self-confidence of every soldier-believing that he is better trained than the enemy, has a sharper instinct and a faster response. This confidence must be gained through hard and effective training. Steiner greatly reduced the rigid formation drills and replaced them with physical intensive training, individual and team offensive tactics and frequent live-fire drills. The purpose of this training mode is to cultivate soldiers' "hunting" skills, that is, tactical literacy in a rapidly changing field environment. During the exercise, every soldier in a team has the opportunity to take over the command and lead everyone to complete the task. This kind of training enabled the SS troops to maintain their combat effectiveness after losing their commanders. Steiner asked the troops to have enough physical strength to attack immediately after a long and urgent March. In a military parade, Steiner's 450 officers and men were fully armed. After marching for 25 kilometers in three hours, they were still able to form a neat formation and walk through the viewing platform for inspection.
1936, Steiner was promoted to colonel and became the head of the German legion. In a field exercise, a company commander under Steiner asked his soldiers to wrap their helmets in camouflage cloth, which achieved good concealment effect and greatly encouraged Steiner. Steiner immediately had several sets of camouflage jackets, as well as matching camouflage helmets, marching bags and bullet bags for the use of the officers and men of the whole regiment. The officers and men of the German Legion dressed in camouflage uniforms were eye-catching in the SS show, and camouflage uniforms were quickly extended to other troops and became the symbol of the SS in World War II. Himmler specially applied for the patent right of camouflage for the SS, so it was forbidden for the Wehrmacht troops to use it.
Steiner's new training method was discriminated by Hausel and others, and has not been popularized so far. 1939 In May, Hitler heard about Steiner's innovation and came to watch a coordinated attack exercise of the "German" regiment. During the exercise, Hitler waited for a while and asked impatiently when the attack would start. Steiner replied that it had been going on for twenty minutes. At this time, Hitler saw through the telescope that soldiers dressed in camouflage uniforms were quietly advancing to the target highland in battle formation, and they could hardly be noticed without looking carefully. Soon the artillery fired at the target, the attacking troops marched to a distance of 0/00 meters from the artillery fire/KLOC-,charged with extended artillery fire, cleared the remaining obstacles with grenades, pulled out the defensive positions with flame launchers, and the soldiers jumped into the trenches with submachine guns for close combat. During the exercise, the officers and men of the German legion responded quickly, were heavily guarded and had first-class tactical literacy. Hitler was very satisfied and ordered other SS troops to learn Steiner's training methods.
1September 939, the Germans attacked Poland. The SS regiment was incorporated into various battle sequences of the Wehrmacht, and Steiner's German regiment belonged to the "Kampf" armored division of the Wehrmacht. The following year, the Germans attacked the Netherlands and Belgium, and the SS was incorporated into the SSVT division to participate in the war. On May 14, the Netherlands surrendered, and the SSVT division was transferred out of southern Belgium in an attempt to outflank the British Expeditionary Force. On May 28th, the German army met the British army for the first time, defeated them and captured more than 100 people. After the siege of the British army in Dunkirk, the SSVT division took a short break, then moved south and marched into Paris. After the French defense line on the Somme River was breached, the whole line collapsed and the Germans marched in. The Germans advanced 60 kilometers in one day and captured an armored regiment and several infantry regiments of the French army.
After the Western Front War, Steiner's German regiment was stationed in Holland. During this period, the SS began to expand on a large scale, and many backbones of the German legion were transferred to form new troops. 1940 12. Steiner was ordered to be the commander of the newly-built 5 th SS division. Although Hitler repeatedly declared that he wanted to build the SS into the fourth pillar of Germany, the top leaders of the Wehrmacht didn't buy it. Because the Ministry of National Defense presided over conscription and monopolized German military resources, the National Defence Force was greatly restricted by the SS expansion plan. By 1940, the SS had only one division. Germany's conquest of western Europe and northern Europe provided a new source of troops for the SS. After the War on the Western Front, Himmler quickly established Nazi Party grass-roots organizations in conquered Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries to support local pro-Nazi forces. Himmler used a powerful Nazi propaganda machine to call on young people from these countries to join the SS voluntarily.
The first reaction was vidkun quisling, the leader of the Norwegian fascist party. After Norway surrendered, Queslin formed a puppet government and called on the Norwegians to join the "war to overthrow British world hegemony and win freedom and independence". About 3000 Norwegians and 600 Danes volunteered to join the SS. /kloc-in the spring of 0/940, SS Standat Nordland, composed of volunteers from Norway and Denmark, officially became an army. It is worth mentioning that the Danish government regards Danes who volunteered to join the SS as traitors and deprived them of their pensions. Later, Himmler personally put pressure on the Danish royal family, and these people's pensions were restored.
Himmler placed high hopes on the Netherlands and Belgium, believing that their nationals were pure Aryans and should contribute to the Nazi cause. Because the Netherlands and Belgium were vulnerable in the war, many people lost confidence in the country and turned to Nazi Germany. Himmler's propaganda in these two countries spared no effort to distribute leaflets entitled "SS is greeting-you should also defend your home". /kloc-in the summer of 0/940, SS Standarte Westland was formally established, consisting of Dutch and Dutch-speaking Belgian Flemish volunteers. During World War II, 50,000 people from the Netherlands and 40,000 people from Belgium joined the SS. Finland lost the Sufen War in 1939, and lost 40,000 square kilometers of territory. Major General Berg, the recruiting director of the SS, flew to Helsinki several times to use Finland's anti-Soviet sentiment to recruit for the SS. By the summer of 194 1, about 1 10,000 Finnish volunteers had formed a battalion belonging to the Nordic Group.
1940 September, Himmler announced the formation of the 5th SS Division, which consisted of the Germania regiment of the former VT Division and the newly formed Nordic and Western European regiments. In the same year, in 65438+February, the 5th SS Division was officially named Viking Division, with Steiner as its teacher. At this time, Steiner's biggest task is to quickly knead this complex army into a whole with strong combat effectiveness. Foreign soldiers of Viking Normal University will go to night school to learn German after their daily training. Soldiers in different countries have different abilities to receive harsh training from the SS. Especially the Dutch and Belgians, they don't adapt to Prussian discipline and practice. The quality of military training in Denmark is quite high, so Danish soldiers are relatively familiar with it. Norwegian soldiers are generally introverted, sensitive and taciturn, but they are hard-working and forgetful on the battlefield. Steiner specially invited the instructors of Weijing Normal College to understand the difficulties of foreign troops and teach students in accordance with their aptitude.
At the beginning of World War II, the German Wehrmacht looked down on the SS. Brauchtz, the German commander-in-chief in the Polish campaign, ridiculed the SS as "uniformed police". Therefore, the SS troops could not get the best equipment and had to use the weapons of the former Czech army. For example, the equipment of the SS troops at that time was inferior: the Finnish battalion of the Viking Division was all former Finnish Defence Force soldiers, and they had a Finnish-made Somi M 193 1 submachine gun, which actually became the best equipped unit of the Viking Division. Until the spring of 194 1, the Wehrmacht still refused to equip the SS troops with heavy artillery, and this matter was solved only with Hitler's personal intervention.
On the eve of the German attack on the Soviet Union, the Viking Division had three infantry battalions and one artillery battalion, namely, Germania Regiment, Nordic Regiment and Western European Regiment. The infantry battalion consists of three rifle companies, 1 machine gun company (equipped with Czech ZB-30 and German MG-34 light machine guns) and an artillery company (equipped with 1 platoon of 37mm and 50mm anti-tank guns and 1 platoon of 80mm mortars). The regiment artillery battalion includes 1 company's 75mm light infantry gun, 1 company's 1 50mm heavy howitzer, 1 company's 47mm self-propelled anti-tank gun, 1 company's 75mm self-propelled field gun and1company's. In the subsequent bloody battle on the Eastern Front, the performance of the SS troops impressed the Wehrmacht generals, and soon each division was equipped with a tank battalion. /kloc-in the summer of 0/943, SS Hitler's Guards Division, Imperial Division, Skull Division and Viking Division were successively changed into armored divisions. At this point, the combat effectiveness of the SS troops was finally recognized by the Wehrmacht. 1941At the end of June, Viking Division was part of the army group in southern Germany and marched into Ukraine. At the beginning of July, the battle of Kiev officially started. In order to wipe out the Soviet Southwest Army in Ukraine, the German Southern Army Group formed several assault groups with armored troops as the arrow and pushed deep into the Soviet defense line. Among them, the First Armored Army commanded by General von Kleist launched an assault on Uman in the south of Kiev, and the left wing was covered by the Viking Division. 18 In August, 25 divisions of the 6th, 12 and 18 Army of the Soviet Union were surrounded in Uman. After six days of hard fighting, about 65,438+10,000 disabled soldiers surrendered. Later, the commander of the Viking Division drove hundreds of kilometers and conquered the important town of Dnepro Petroff on the Dnieper River on September 7, while the Nordic delegation crossed the Dnieper River and established a bridgehead in Kamenkov on the east coast. Here, the Viking capital has withstood the most severe test after the war.
Because the gain and loss of Kamenkov is related to the fate of the Soviet southwest army, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet army ordered that Kamenka must be recaptured. The 38th Army of the Soviet Union, which is assembled nearby, is the base camp reserve, and has just been transferred to reinforce the Ukrainian front. On September 8th, eight infantry divisions of the Group Army launched a fierce attack on Kamenkov. Under the supervision of the internal affairs forces, the Soviet army constantly mobilized crowds at the regiment level, and the Viking division was under great pressure. To make matters worse, there was an artillery school in Roske, Dnepro, where Soviet artillery practiced for many years, knowing the coordinates of every place like the back of their hand, and frequently attacked German positions with unusually accurate artillery fire in the battle. The officers and men of the Viking division were calm and calm in the defensive war, accurately arranged the firepower network and killed a large number of Soviet soldiers. After three days of fierce fighting, the Soviet 38th Army lost its offensive ability and had to withdraw from the battlefield. On September 12, the German First Armored Army outflanked north through Kamenkov, completely cutting off the retreat of the Soviet Southwest Army. 19, Stalin finally agreed to the southwest army to break through, but it was too late. By the end of the battle of Kiev on 26th, only1.5000 troops of the Soviet Southwest Army had successfully broken through. General Kolppo North, commander of the army, was killed in the breakout, and 665,000 Soviet officers and men were captured. Dale, a famous British military historian? Hart called the battle of Kiev "an unprecedented masterpiece".
After the battle of Kiev, the Germans marched in, captured the important town of Kharkov on1October 24th, and arrived at the gates of Rostov on165438+1October 24th. Rostov, located near the mouth of the Don River, is the gateway to the Caucasus. The SS Hitler Guard Division and the Viking Division became a spent force in Rostov. Rostov Garrison is the Soviet version of SS-Soviet Internal Affairs Force (Soviet NKVD Force). Although these troops lack heavy weapons, they are high-spirited and will never retreat. They fought against the Germans from house to house, stubbornly resisted with rifles, submachine guns, grenades and Molotov Molotov flasks, and organized death squads to launch counter-charges from time to time. The Germans who attacked the city were driven out in a few days and had to retreat for more than ten kilometers.
The winter of 194 1 is the winter that Russia has never seen in a century. The invading Germans retreated under the severe cold and the strong counterattack of the Soviet Union. By the spring of 1942, only 8 of the 162 divisions on the German East were still capable of attacking. Faced with this situation, Hitler changed the all-round attack to the key attack and concentrated the summer offensive of 1942 in the Caucasus. The German offensive has two arrows. Admiral paulus led the 6th Army to attack Stalingrad, while Kleist's 1st 1 Panzer Army marched into Caucasian oil fields. The purpose of this campaign is very clear. Hitler said to paulus, "If I don't get the oil fields in the Caucasus, this war will not go on." 1in July, 942, the Germans attacked Rostov again. This time, Rostov's defenders lost their morale and abandoned the city, and the door to the Caucasus finally opened. Afterwards, Stalin was furious and shot 100 officers and generals who retreated without authorization. At the beginning of August, the German army invaded Kuban Oilfield, and the German high command sent a group of oil experts to follow the troops, with the task of inspecting and maintaining the oilfield facilities. The motorcade of these people was ambushed by Soviet troops on the road and all of them were killed. In fact, the Soviet army completely destroyed the oil field before retreating, and during the occupation of Kuban, the German army did not draw a drop of oil.
At the end of September, the Viking Division received an order from Kleist to March on Grozny as the attack arrow of the First Armored Army. From the guard force a year ago to the current assault arrow, the powerful combat effectiveness of the Wei Jing division has finally been recognized by the National Defence Force. Although the Viking Division progressed smoothly at first, with the continuous arrival of Soviet reinforcements from the Far East in the Caucasus, the German troops were obviously insufficient and began to make progress. At this time, the Soviet Union produced 1200 main battle tanks every month, and the Soviet firepower became stronger and stronger. The Viking Division was crushed by the resistance of Soviet infantry divisions and internal affairs forces equipped with a large number of T-34 tanks and Katyusha rockets. Although the Viking Division quickly became an armored grenadier division and received a battalion of Mark IV tanks, it was only a drop in the ocean. Stalemate until 65438+February, the landscape architect had to retreat to Kuban area. During this period, paulus's Sixth Army was completely annihilated in Stalingrad, which led to the complete defeat of the German army. On February 1943, the Germans abandoned Rostov and retreated to the Dnieper River. Lieutenant General Khrushchev, a member of the Soviet Military Commission, reported to the high command: "Over the quiet Rostov fortress on the Don River, the Soviet red flag fluttered proudly again." 1943 in March, the 3rd Panzer Corps of SS was formally established. The troops are composed of Viking Division and Nordic Division (1 1 SS Flemingian Panzergrenadier Division' Nordic'), with Steiner as the commander and herbert otto gille as the commander of Viking Division. As the Nordic Division is all recruits from Germany and the Netherlands, and has not yet formed combat effectiveness, Steiner requested that it be transferred to Yugoslavia to undertake the task of clearing guerrillas in order to accumulate combat experience. The Viking Division was stripped of the Nordic Group and a number of backbones, and its strength was greatly reduced. At this time, the joining of the SS brigade' Walloon N' is like a timely help.
During World War II, the SS encountered many difficulties in recruiting soldiers in Belgium. There are two major ethnic groups in Belgium, namely Flemish who speak Dutch and believe in Protestantism and Walloon who speak French and believe in Catholicism. At first Himmler thought Flanders was pure Aryan, while Valuen was of Latin descent, so the door of SS was only open to Flanders. Flanders are only a Belgian minority, and their forces are limited. With the development of the war situation, the Germans are more and more stretched and have to lower their racial standards, as long as their political and ideological skills are excellent. In this way, the "Varoni En" Legion came into being.
The founder of "Varoni En" Corps is Degel, the leader of the Belgian fascist party "Christ Rex Movement". Degel is probably the most legendary figure in the foreign troops of the SS. This man is a reporter, handsome, well-read, eloquent and full of leadership temperament. 1936, Hitler met with Degel and admired him very much. He said, "If I have a son, I hope he is like you." After the German occupation of Belgium, the strength of fascist parties in Degel rose sharply. Degel wanted to join the German army, but he was repeatedly rejected. The reason is always "your political task is more important." After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Degel volunteered to join the army again, and was finally allowed to form the Varoni Volunteers. Although the officers and men of this unit are all followers of Degel, Degel refused to take office on the grounds of lack of military experience and insisted on starting from the private army. Since then, Degel has performed heroically on the battlefield, rising from private to colonel step by step, and was awarded the Knights Iron Cross and the Oak Leaf Medal. He is the only foreigner who has won this honor. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/943, the "Varoni En" Corps won the title of "Varoni En" attack brigade of the SS, led by Brigadier General Libert, and went to Colson to join forces with the Viking Division. Although Varoni Enlu has only four infantry battalions with about 2,000 troops, it is well-equipped, with many self-propelled artillery and tank destroyers. The Viking division warmly welcomed the troops.
After the Battle of Kursk, the Germans were badly weakened and had to turn to attack and defense. Feeling the lack of German armored forces, Hitler spared no expense to upgrade several elite SS troops to armored divisions. During the period of 1943 and 10, Viking Branch received a lot of new equipment. On the basis of the original Mark 4 tank of a battalion, a battalion of Leopard tanks and a battalion of Hertzer tank destroyers were added, and all the heavy guns above 100 mm were replaced by self-propelled guns. After the winter, the Soviet army assembled about 600,000 troops from three fronts of Coulson and launched a pincer-like offensive in an attempt to panic in the 6,543.8+0.5 million Germans here. 19441On October 5th, the 2nd Ukrainian Army led by General konev attacked from the south. After fierce fighting, on 1 October 28th, they joined forces with1Ukrainian army in Tuting, and 60,000 German troops, including the Viking Division, were surrounded in Coulson. It seems that the tragedy of Stalingrad will repeat itself.
Hitler, who was good at talking on paper, outlined a bold idea on the map. He once again ordered Coleson's German troops to stick to foreign aid, and at the same time ordered Manstein, commander of the southern army group, to organize elite armored forces to clear the way and annihilate the Soviet troops besieging Coleson from the inside. The task of demining was given to Lieutenant General Hans-Valentin Hube, the Third Armored Army. The Wehrmacht 1, 16, 17 Armored Divisions and the SS Hitler Guard Flag Armored Divisions are manstein's ace troops. Manstein vowed not to let Stalingrad's tragedy happen again. While ordering huber to break through the Soviet encirclement at all costs, he begged Hitler to allow Coleson's German troops to retreat, which Hitler ignored. Huber just sent a telegram to the besieged German commander: "I am coming." As expected, the 3rd Panzer Corps successfully opened a passage to Lisyanka, more than ten kilometers south of Coulson, on the Soviet defense line. At this time, the German high command has understood that defeating the Soviets in Coulson is tantamount to daydreaming, and it is very good to rescue the Germans trapped inside. Manstein disobeyed Hitler's orders and instructed Coulson's German army to break south and join the Third Armored Army. Hitler later reluctantly approved this instruction.
17 At 4 o'clock in the morning of February, the besieged Germans gave up almost all their heavy weapons, and took the SS troops as the vanguard. Under the cover of night, they formed two columns to break through in the direction of Lesyanka. Soviet troops laid five sniper lines in the direction of German breakthrough, the first two were infantry, the third was artillery, and the fourth and fifth were tanks and cavalry respectively. When the Germans broke through the first three lines of defense of the Soviet Union, they only met with weak resistance. They all thought they were out of danger safely, and they all fired into the air and cheered. At 6 o'clock in the morning, Soviet tanks and cavalry who had been in ambush for a long time rushed into the unsuspecting German army and began the massacre. Soviet tanks lined up in dense formation, did not fire at all, and directly crushed the Germans, followed by cavalry, chasing and destroying the scattered Germans. Degel described the scene in his memoirs: "The ambulance truck overturned and the wounded inside were thrown into the snow. Soviet tanks swept the motorcade like waves, overturned trucks, ran over trailers and carriages, crushed matchboxes, and ground soldiers and horses into paste. At this time, the tracks of several Soviet tanks were stuck by the wreckage of the car and could not move. We took the opportunity to escape. " Twenty thousand Germans were killed in the breakout.
At this time, the officers and men of the Viking Division may be the only troops still fighting. The soldiers of Germania regiment blew up 24 Soviet tanks with grenades, but they fought their way out. However, the nightmare of the Germans is still not over. The rest of the troops were blocked by the swift Gnjillo Tikic River. On the other side of the river, four Soviet T-34 tanks and dozens of machine guns blocked the way, and bullets poured on the German officers and men who came and went in a hurry. Thousands of Germans died in this river. Finally, about 34,000 Germans broke through safely, including 4,500 officers and men of the Viking Division. Only 632 of the 2,000 officers and men of Varoni Enlv survived. Brigadier General Libert was killed and his body was carried back by soldiers wrapped in raincoats. Degel, who narrowly escaped death, succeeded the brigade commander. Coulson has become another tank graveyard after Kursk, with 800 Soviet tanks and 300 German tanks scattered in this area.
After this war, the Viking Division retreated to Poland to rest, received new recruits and equipment, and gradually recovered its vitality. During this period, Varoni Enlu left the Viking Division and became the 28th Panzergrenadier Division of the SS. In the summer of 1944, the Soviets assembled 160 divisions, 4,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery, and launched "Operation Bagration" under the cover of 6,000 planes. The 38 divisions of the German Central Army Group were wiped out by 28, with 400,000 casualties. The Viking division was sent to Warsaw to guard the important town of Biavestock. During this period, the 4 th Panzer Corps of SS was established, with Gilles as the commander and the Viking Division and Skeleton Division under its jurisdiction. Steiner's 3rd SS Panzer Corps (belonging to Nordic Division and Wehrmacht 14 Panzer Division) was transferred to the Baltic region to fight. At this stage of the war, the Soviet army has mastered the absolute initiative of the Eastern Front. Although some Germans can temporarily contain the Soviet offensive in some areas, the Soviet army with absolute advantage can find a breakthrough from the riddled German defense line as long as it changes its attack point. The Soviet Second Tank Corps was suddenly hit head-on by the Germans in a place more than ten kilometers away from Warsaw, killing 3,000 people, capturing 6,000 people and losing 100 tanks. The book "The Great Patriotic War" published by the Soviet Union after the war described this: "At the gates of Warsaw, our army's offensive suddenly stopped. The German high command put in a group of the best troops to stop our attack, and the enemy's defense was extremely tenacious. You know, our infantry and tank troops suffered heavy losses in previous battles. The troops were short of ammunition and gasoline, and the artillery was not well prepared ... "The Germans who repelled the Soviet Second Tank Army were the SS Viking Division. At this time, a group of the most elite Germans were concentrated near Warsaw, including the SS Viking Division and Skeleton Division equipped with the new "Tiger King" tanks. Goring "paratroopers division, and the 4th and 19 armored divisions of the National Defence Force.
Faced with the solid defense line established by the Germans along the Vistula River, the Soviet army stagnated and the situation remained deadlocked until the spring of 1945. During the period of 65438+ 10, the Polish Resistance Army launched an uprising in Warsaw, expecting the Soviet troops outside the city to cooperate from within. But Stalin ordered the Soviet Union to stay put and watch the Polish resistance collapse. After the failed uprising, about 20,000 Polish guerrillas were killed and 200,000 civilians were killed. Warsaw was in ruins, and the leadership of the Polish resistance movement was almost completely annihilated. When the Polish war situation reached a deadlock, the Soviet army turned its attack direction to the south. 1944 Soviet troops invaded Romania at the end of August, Bulgaria at the end of September, and the guerrillas of Titonan successfully entered Belgrade at the beginning of June 10. By Christmas, 70,000 German and Hungarian defenders in Budapest were surrounded by Soviet troops and were in danger. Hitler was obsessed with Hungary's oil fields and planned an attack on the map in an attempt to drive the Soviets out of Hungary. 1945 65438+ 10/0/day, Hitler skipped the commander of the war zone, guderian, and directly ordered the 4th SS Panzer Corps near Warsaw to March 700km south to rescue the defenders in Budapest.
Two battle groups (Kampfgruppe), the Germania Regiment and the Western European Regiment of the Viking Division, launched a frontal attack on the Soviet troops outside Budapest. In the face of several times its own Soviet troops, Viking Division once again demonstrated its superior combat effectiveness, launched exploratory attacks on different sections of the Soviet defense line again and again, and finally found a weak point to make a breakthrough. On June+10/October 1 1 day, 65438, the 4th SS Panzer Corps attacked Budapest Airport, which was only 2 1 km away from the city, and the Germans in the city were ecstatic. Just then, Hitler had a new plan. There are 65,438+00 Soviet divisions in Lake Balaton, 65,438+00 kilometers southwest of Budapest. Hitler immediately ordered the 4th Panzer Corps to turn southwest to cooperate with the 2nd Panzer Corps to surround these Soviet troops. This whimsy completely ruined the vitality of the defenders in Budapest. The Soviets immediately assembled a large number of armored troops in the Balaton Lake area, and the German panic plan soon aborted. The 4th Panzer Corps of the SS had to retreat to Austria after 7,000 casualties (including officers above 5 1 battlefield). On February 13, 70,000 defenders in Budapest were completely annihilated, and only 700 people escaped.
1945 On March 25th, Soviet troops invaded Austria. The Viking Division, the Hitler Guard Division and the Wehrmacht 17 Infantry Division undertook the task of defending Vienna. Although there are only a few thousand troops at this time, the officers and men of the Viking Division are still in high spirits. Blow up bridges, which laid mines, often ambushed Soviet armored forces with anti-tank rocket launchers. The tenacious resistance of the Viking division caused heavy losses to the Soviet Sixth Guards Tank Regiment, with less than 10 tanks left in each tank regiment. None of these partial victories helped, and the Third Reich was exhausted. The Nordic branch of the SS took part in the defence of Berlin. These foreign soldiers faithfully fulfilled their vows to Hitler and fought until the last moment of their lives, because they knew that falling into the hands of the Russians was also a dead end.
After Nazi Germany surrendered, ulrich, the last division commander of the Wei Jing division, lifted the oath of enlistment of foreign officers and soldiers and allowed them to fend for themselves. The vast majority of officers and men marched westward together, surrendered to the US military, and were treated with courtesy in the Bavarian prison camp. 1In September, 945, the Bavarian prison camp was dissolved, and the officers and men of the Viking Division returned to their respective hometowns. Varoni's mentor stuck to the Oder River and faithfully carried out Hitler's command of "fighting to the last man". Only 35 people in the whole division survived. Degel led these people to Copenhagen in an attempt to gather his Rex followers to organize an underground resistance movement. Shortly after the Allied Forces liberated Denmark, Degel flew to Spain and spent the rest of his life under Franco's protection. Belgium tried Degel's death sentence in absentia and tried several times to extradite him to China, but all failed. Degel died on 1994 at the age of 87. Degel was unrepentant and often wore the uniform of the SS colonel and the Iron Cross of the knight in public. Someone asked him what regrets he had in his life, and he replied, "It's a pity that we lost the war."