Waffen-SS Encyclopedia
Marc Rikmenspoel
Language: English
Pages: 307
ISBN: 0971765081
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
World War II spawned some of the most famous - and infamous - fighting organizations the world has ever known. None was more feared by its battlefield foes or more hated by political enemies of the Nazi regime than the Waffen-SS. Six decades after the last SS unit capitulated or was annihilated, the facts about many aspects of this organization are still shrouded in legend and half-truth. Loathed by many as a criminal organization, yet admired by some for the esprit, resolve, and valor of its component units and individuals, the Waffen-SS was unarguably a highly-complex, multi-faceted phenomenon, unique among the military organizations of the world. Marc Rikmenspoel, author of Soldiers of the Waffen-SS: Many Nations, One Motto, has crafted the ultimate reference for those trying to understand the intensely controversial and complicated nature of the Waffen-SS. A comprehensive overview that will be useful to historians, buffs, wargamers, and re-enactors alike, no matter what your predisposition to the Waffen-SS, you will learn a great deal from this book. The book includes a concise history of every one of the major fighting formations of the Waffen-SS (those designated as "divisions"). Sections include: * Formations * Structure of Divisions * Germans * Germanics * Non-Germans and Non-Germanics * Leading Personalities * Weapons * Misconceptions and Controversies * Weapons Tables
The Women Who Spied for Britain: Female Secret Agents of the Second World War
Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945: The Years of Extermination
Spitfire Girl: My Life in the Sky
After Every War: Twentieth-Century Women Poets
British Armour in the Normandy Campaign (Military History and Policy)
1944, Totenkopf, in greatly weakened form, retreated through Ukraine to Romania, joining Heer PanzerGrenadier Division Grossdeutschland in the successful defense of the Targul Frumos sector during the spring. During June and early July 1944, the division rested and rebuilt, and then joined the 5th SS-Panzer Division Wiking in the IV SS-Panzer Corps for action east and north of Warsaw. Totenkopf again suffered heavy losses defending the "Wet Triangle" between Warsaw and Modlin in the autumn of.
Norwegian SS-Ski Battalion Norge almost destroyed. After the Finnish/Soviet armistice in September 1944, withdrew north in October and November, conducting a 1,600-kilometer foot march through Finland and Norway including a withdrawal through Rovaniemi, Finland, which was burned when Finnish commandos attacked an ammunition train on a siding there. The division reached Norway in November 1944, and Denmark in December. The division then began arriving in the Palatinate at the end of December 1944,.
Case for the Flemings. By combining NSKK and OT veterans with political and para-military men and workers from German industry, 8,000 Walloons could be found, although many wanted no part of Waffen-SS service. Only about 4,000 men could be readied for combat, even with several hundred French and Spanish volunteers added. A regimental-sized combat group was prepared for service in Wallonia in December 1944, had the Ardennes offensive succeeded. It was sent to Pomerania late January 1945, and saw.
Danes and 1,200 North Schleswiger ethnic Germans had volunteered for the Waffen-SS, and more than 3,500 of them were killed in action. The survivors faced prison sentences and losses of rights, and those involved in anti-resistance activities with the Schalburg Corps were sometimes executed. This was the fate of Knud Borge Martinsen, though his execution was literally repudiated decades later by the Danish parliament. Also executed was the anti-Nazi Tage Petersen, who had served against his will.
Camps in return for joining the Wallonien. Factory workers were also asked to volunteer for the new unit, and many did, particularly to escape escalating Allied air attacks on German industry. The AGRA volunteers still in Wiking were also sent to the Walloon brigade, and a handful of Soviet PWs were added to White Russian emigres still serving with the Walloons. Through these various efforts, the Wallonien reached its intended strength, and with Lippert still in command, the unit spent the summer.