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Lt.-Colonel of Guerillas
Jul 14, 2003
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With SS-division 'Wiking' trough Russia.


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The following story is based upon the 1943 book 'Wiking door Rusland' ('Wiking trough Russia') published by Storm in Amsterdam. It tells the tale of the first months of the SS-volunteer division 'Wiking' made up of Nordic Germans, Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, Flemish and even a few Swedes (Sweden was neutral during WWII) and Fins. As the original book was pure German propaganda I will not folow it alltogheter and leave out some of the offensive comments and propaganda. I will alos leave out the massacres and such which this division did not commit (at least not at a grand scale like 'Tothenkopf' and 'Jaghdschar'). This will thus be the story of a division, one of the elite division of Germanies elite force, the Waffen-SS.



 
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interesting idea, i am waiting for your next post.

just so you know you may want to check out the forum rules....there is one thing in the pic that is not allowed and you may be treading close to some other things the mods do not accept. so becareful...hope you laughed a lot at the nazi propoganda book (should have been hilarious).

interesting idea nonetheless.
 
pinkus-pils said:
interesting idea, i am waiting for your next post.

just so you know you may want to check out the forum rules....there is one thing in the pic that is not allowed and you may be treading close to some other things the mods do not accept. so becareful...hope you laughed a lot at the nazi propoganda book (should have been hilarious).

interesting idea nonetheless.

It was indeed an interesting book and it was so hilarious they blamed the Jewsfor practicaly everything.
I will remove the pic, did not see the Swastika :)
 
Jape said:
A general's overview?

A general overvieuw told by one of those whom participated. So sometimes he tells the story on a big scale, another time he tells his persponal story.
 
DUTCH

For honour and concious
ON! Against Bolshevism

The Waffen SS calls you
 
Looks good and very interesting. :)
 
Interesting concept, a non German national SS unit's exploits. I will look forward to any snippet of story that you might provide us.
 
Dude, where did you pull that "Swedish battaillon" from? There was a Finnish volunteer battaillon, but only a very small group of Swedes. Finland was still neutral when the Barbarossa begun, and those troops were beeing recruited and trained in Germany almost a year before the outbreak of the war, so your mistake is understandable. Still, I think you should be extra careful with this kind of details when you focus on only 1 single division don't you think? ;)
 
Kasakka said:
Dude, where did you pull that "Swedish battaillon" from? There was a Finnish volunteer battaillon, but only a very small group of Swedes. Finland was still neutral when the Barbarossa begun, and those troops were beeing recruited and trained in Germany almost a year before the outbreak of the war, so your mistake is understandable. Still, I think you should be extra careful with this kind of details when you focus on only 1 single division don't you think? ;)

perhaps it was in the book. :rolleyes:


subcribes
 
GhostWriter said:
perhaps it was in the book. :rolleyes:


subcribes

That can be, of course.... but in the division it certainly was not.
 
So, this AAR is just pure story and no game? Didn't know that was legal. If it is, then I'm gonna give that kind of AAR a shot...


Dutch, Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Flemish. Whoa. Bet they needed a lot translators. :)
 
Kasakka said:
Dude, where did you pull that "Swedish battallion" from? There was a Finnish volunteer battaillon, but only a very small group of Swedes. Finland was still neutral when the Barbarossa begun, and those troops were beeing recruited and trained in Germany almost a year before the outbreak of the war, so your mistake is understandable. Still, I think you should be extra careful with this kind of details when you focus on only 1 single division don't you think? ;)

Well you are a bit right. The 'abteilung' was no part of "wiking' but of SS-division Nordland. But, there where Swedes in the ranks of Wiking. I will alter the former text a bit.

http://www.feldgrau.com/sweden.html said:
Because Sweden was a strict neutral during WWII, other than during the short experience of the Winter War in 1939, it did not openly allow for recruitment into foreign armies. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 its sentiments changed very little, although the Finns were allowed to garner volunteers once again. Approximately 1,500 Swedes volunteers for service with Finland between 1941 and 1944.

Before Germany invaded the Soviet Union, very few if any Swedes served with the Germans, although at least one Swedish volunteer was listed as serving with the 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Swedish volunteers for the German Wehrmacht were gathered either through the German Legation in Stockholm or throught the Auslands Organization, both via Norway. Swedish approval of recruiment was still not offical after the invasion of the Soviet Union though, and the volunteer operations were very much clandestine affairs. In total between 130 and 300 Swedes are thought to have served in the German Wehrmacht. David Littlejohn lists the number of Swedish volunteers at 130 in volume 3 of "Foreign Legions of the Third Reich", 150 volunteers are listed according to Swiss Dr. Franz Riedweg - the head of Germanic Volunteer recruiting, 175 volunteers are listed by H. Picker in "Hitler's Table Talk", and 315 volunteers are listed by Gottlob Berger in an unpublished biography. 300 is the generally accepted number of volunteers in the German Wehrmacht, but approximately 30 to 45 Swedes were killed in WWII under Axis control with 130 Swedish volunteers surviving the war, according to Lennert Westberg, which would therefore place the actual number of volunteers at about 175. 11 Swedes are said to have gone to the SS Officers school at Bad-Tolz, and Swedes also are known to have fought in the Battle of Berlin in April of 1945 while serving in the Nordland Division. The vast majority of Swedes served in the ranks of the Waffen-SS, but never in a national unit or legion like many other ethnic groups. Most Swedes were scatterd within different Waffen-SS units and formations. The 5[.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking, 11.SS-Panzergrenadier-Freiwilligen-Division Nordland, and the 23.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nederland are all known to have had Swedes in their ranks.

At least one small unit, Panzergrenadier-Kompanie 3 - Panzer-Aufkläkrung-Abteilung 11 - 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland, (3rd Company of the Armored Recon Battalion of the 11th SS Volunteer Armored Infantry Division Nordland), was composed of a large number of Swedes. In fact, Panzergrenadier-Komapanie 3 was given the title Swedenzug as a result of the number of Swedes in its ranks. The Swedish volunteers served in the 4.Zug of Panzergrenadier-Kompanie 3. (SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment Nordland had been a regiment in Wiking till 1943 when it became a division of its own. So if this unit wads already in action before this this 'abteilung' was a part of Wiking.


Then on the story, it will be a story of the division troughout my own campaigns in HOI2. They will be active on the Southern front near Kiev in the summer of 1941 and from there...I don't know yet.
One thing, this will all not be very quick....My computer died two days ago and so I can not play for a week or so. Fortunately I have a backup of the savegame so I can continue then. For now I have writen down enough info to write the first three-five posts. Altough it is not so nice I lost a big piece I wrote.....you will see more from me :)
 
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Some additional info before I start on the composition of the Division.


Holland: 631 Dutchman were reported in the Westland Infantry Regiment in June, 1941.

Flanders (Flemish Speaking Belgium): Members of this area were found mainly in the Westland Infantry Regiment.

Norway: 294 Norwegians were reported in the Division on June 22, 1941, in the Nordland Infantry Regiment. According to some, another unit was made up of Norwegian members, the SS Freiwilligen Panzer Grenadier Abteilung, but others state that it was a part of Regiment Nordland, and not independent.

Denmark: 216 Danes were reported in the Nordland Infantry Regiment in June, 1941. Another Danish unit was reported to have been formed called Danmark which may have been a special unit.

Switzerland: Conflicting information gives the Swiss contribution to this Division as being either a single individual, while another records the level at 800.

Finland: 421 Finns were in the Division in 1941, and the Finish Volunteer Battalion was added in 1942.

Sweden: Varying numbers of Swedes are said to have served in the Division.

Estonia: Estonians served in the SS Panzer Grenadier Abteilung Narwa.

Wallonia: (French speaking Belgium)- Wallonian members served in the SS Strumbrigade Wallonien.

Volksdeutsche: Some divisional replacements were drawn from Volkdeutsche in the Balkans region, and a few other locations.
 
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The iron cross.


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I had made the choice somewhere in February 1941. I walked along the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam and passed the German army recruiting station. Large posters of proud and heroic soldiers looked upon me from above and other posters telling me of the heroic battles to come shouted towards me. I was convinced, I wanted to be a hero as well, just like them. I craved the adventure which enlistment would bring me. Adventure beyond my wildest dreams. And tough I was only 17 back then I was old and wise enough to decide for myself, at least I thought so. Inside the recruitment centre I was greeted by a friendly but robust sergeant. His face was scared, from the battles in France last summer, he told me. He had saved seven men from a burning bridge after the French blew it, and this way he earned himself an iron cross. Off course he showed me his medal with a broad smile on his face before continuing his story in his broken Dutch. But he did not have to make an effort anymore I knew this was just what I wanted, the shining metal made my eyes blink.
That evening I told it to my parents whom where dumbstruck, scolded at me and did not talk anymore for the remainder of the evening. ‘How stupid of them’, I though back then, ‘what do they know, I will be a hero, their son will become a national hero, they should be proud’. Nevertheless mother cried three days later when I was leaving for Germany and our training camp. We would write each other I promised.

Two weeks later, after having spend a week in barracks in Apeldoorn and another week near Xanthen we arrived at the Truppen-Ubungsplatz Heuberg. This was the place where we where trained to become disciplined and crack soldiers. When, in April the training was finished we thought we could take on the entire world, we couldn’t have been more wrong.
On the composition of the division the following, back then we did not know where we would be going when the training was finished. The war in France was won for a long time. And so the wars in the Balkan and Greece. All of Europe was ruled from Berlin and we, the Dutch where to become a part of the great German nation. Regiment ‘Westland’ a unit composed of Dutch and Flemish was trained to become a part of the SS-division ‘Wiking’. Some 20,000 men commanded by SS-Gruppenführe Felix Steiner.
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At Heuberg there where some 3,000 of us, commanded by German officers. A good part of us had signed up because of their ideologies, others, like me because of the drawing adventure. And then there where those whom signed because they would find a place to eat and cloth themselves, they did not thought much of this whole soldier thing and we detested them like those whom signed up for their ideologies detested the adventurers. There where even some whom where tricked into the division, or so they claimed as I did not believe them. They said they where promised to get a sport training or be able to study in Germany and return to the Netherlands as government officials. Some of them left us and returned to Holland. It was like that in the early days, I did not know what to think of it.

At the end of April we where trained to SS standards and by the first days of June 1941 we set out for the east. Large operations awaited us, we would move down upon the hated Bolsheviks.
And thus we left Heuberg, trained, equiped and with a sence of coming glory.


 
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A very novel subject for an AAR!