To increase the effectiveness of military operations on the Soviet-German front, fascist generals formed some divisions from among SS soldiers, whose main task was to carry out repressions.
Formation and renaming of a division
One of the most bloody and cruel parts of the Fuhrer during the Great Patriotic War is the 5th SS Viking Panzer Division . The formation of the division began on November 20, 1940. Initially, the military and technical component was modeled on the motorized infantry division. The 5th SS Viking Panzer Division was originally called Germany. In January 1941, this military unit received a name that brought him notoriety. But the division was not yet a tank, but was called a volunteer motorized infantry division.
Throughout 1941, the formation of the tank division continued. For example, in April, Westland and Nordland regiments were introduced into the unit structure. Another renaming was made on November 9, 1942. By the way, not the name has changed, but the essence of the division. She became a pan-grenadier.
The 5th SS Viking Panzer Division (description below) was finally formed in 1943. October 22 this year, by decree of Hitler, the division was renamed the tank.
5th SS Viking Panzer Division: Commanders
Note that all the commanders of the “Viking” were personnel SS men who perfectly knew the wisdom of military affairs. As already mentioned, in this division there was a symbiosis of security officers and military.
So, from December 1, 1940 to May 1, 1943, the division was commanded by Felix Steiner. From May 1, 1943 to August 6, 1944 the command was entrusted to Herbert Otto. Then the leaders of the tank division changed more often. Oberfuhrer Deisenhoffer did not hold a post for a month. Standartenfuhrer Molenkamp commanded until October 9, 1944. The last commander of the Viking division was Karl Ulrich. He vacated his post three days before the actual day of victory - May 5, 1945.
Division Structure (1941-1943)
The 5th SS Viking SS Division was quite strong in technical and organizational terms. The composition of the military unit, as well as the number of soldiers, were constantly changing. Consider the picture over the years. In 1941, the division had three motorized infantry regiments, a Finnish volunteer association, and an artillery regiment. In addition, there were anti-tank units, intelligence services, communications and business units.
In 1942, the division already included more units. We are talking about three panzergrenadier regiments (actually the same as in 1941), a tank, anti-tank, volunteer ("Nord-Ost") regiments, anti-aircraft and combat engineer battalions, spare parts and business units. After analyzing, you can understand that the “Viking” was reinforced during the fighting.
In November 1943, the 5th SS Viking Panzer Division became even more multifaceted in structure:
- 1 tank regiment, which included 2 battalions;
- 2 panzergrenadier regiments;
- assault, anti-aircraft and artillery brigades;
- motorized infantry battalions;
- volunteer units of Estonians and Finns;
- self-propelled reconnaissance, combat engineer, repair and communications battalions;
- gendarmes;
- field hospital and other support forces.
Compared to 1942, the division was strengthened, apparently, even more. What is the reason for this, if we take into account all the problems of the fascist troops of that period? With increasing aggression of the Red Army, the successful offensive of the Soviet forces on the territories occupied by the Nazis, the Nazis destroyed the entire infrastructure on the ground and intensified repression against the local population. Parts of the SS were great experts in exterminating people.
The structure of the forces of the SS "Viking" in 1944-1945
But in 1944, when the war was already smoothly moving from the territory of the USSR to other European countries, the 5th SS Viking tank division was gradually weakened. The development of the unit structure due to the inevitable defeat in the war became unpromising, therefore, at the time of August 1944, the following units remained in the division:
- 1 tank regiment;
- 2 panzergrenadier regiments;
- reconnaissance, artillery, assault, anti-tank and anti-aircraft units;
- repair battalion;
- field hospital;
- gendarmes and war correspondents ;
- support units and a sanitary battalion.
Division battlefield
Throughout the war, units of the Viking fought at various points on the front. The command transferred the division to the most important at one time or another place of military clashes with the army of the USSR. The Viking division participated in the Great Patriotic War from June 29, 1941 to May 5, 1945. Accurate data on losses in manpower for the entire period of the war does not exist, or they are still stored in archives under the heading "secret."
This force began in Western Ukraine. Then she fought in the central part of Ukraine, in the North Caucasus and in the Donbass. She took part in Hitler’s operation “Citadel” (Dnepropetrovsk-Kharkov line) and in opposing the Red Army’s Korsun-Shevchenkovsky offensive operation.
Armament "Viking"
I would like to focus on the technical arsenal of the division. For example, in the arsenal of the tank regiments were a lot of tanks PZ Kpfw III. Such a model with various modifications was mass-produced from 1938 to 1943. The combat weight ranged from 21.8 to 23 tons. The length of the models was also different: from 541 cm to 641 cm. The standard width is 2.95 meters. The height ranged from 2.44 to 2.5 meters.
KZF Kpfw III vehicles had armor quite strong. For example, the thickness of the frontal part is not less than 50-70 mm. The sides and stern, as well as the forehead of the tower, were cast in a thickness of 30 to 50 mm. The roof and bottom were quite thin - from 10 to 17 mm, which made it possible for Soviet aviation to often knock out these tanks from the air. On all versions, the designers installed one gun with a caliber of 50 mm and two machine guns with a caliber of 7.92 mm. These tanks were quite mobile. The average speed on a country road was 18 km / h.
Psychology of the SS Soldier "Viking"
The 5th SS Viking Panzer Division was special in the Wehrmacht army. The fact is that most of the military formations were formed exclusively from the Germans. Here, on the contrary, there were practically no Germans. Soldiers from countries already conquered by the Nazis, from the Baltic states and Scandinavia served in the soldiers’s tank corps. The important point was that no one drove people into this division by force. In tank forces, people entered the service voluntarily. These were traitors to their homeland, who bought themselves to propagate the Nazis. Also, volunteers joined people who did not fit the political system that existed in their states, and criminals who did not want to answer before the law. In the literature about the division, dialogues are given for soldiers who understand the inevitability of defeat in a war. Most of them emphasize that no one is waiting for them in their homeland. The doom and lack of faith in the future without Hitler's rule over the whole world made the Viking soldiers fearless warriors who sacrificed their lives for the victory of Nazism.