Download or read book Norwegian Volunteers of the Waffen SS written by Geir Brenden and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring 1,000 unpublished photographs, this is the first book about the 4,500 Norwegian volunteers in the Waffen SS. Written by Geir Brenden and Tommy Natedal - who has researched the Norwegian volunteers since the 1980s - the book is based on Geir and Tommy's large photo archive and covers the various fronts where most Norwegian volunteers fought: the Caucasus, Leningrad and Karelia. Also covered in detail are the formations in which the Norwegian volunteers fought: Division Wiking, Freiw. Legion Norwegen, 1, 2 and 3 Police Company, The Norwegian Ski Company, Skijegerbataljonen and Regiment Norge.
Download or read book Norwegian Waffen SS Legion 1941 43 written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the Nazi occupation of Norway in 1941, the Waffen-SS began recruiting volunteers to serve in their ranks. Initially formed into small volunteer units, these developed into large divisions by 1943, referred to as 'Legions' in Nazi propaganda. Early volunteers were promised that they would not leave Scandinavia and that they would serve under native Norwegian officers – but after the German invasion of the Soviet Union they were deployed to the Leningrad front alongside Dutch and Latvian units, in the 2nd SS Infantry Brigade. These units combined to form the nucleus of a whole regiment within the new 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division 'Nordland'. Fully illustrated with detailed artwork depicting the uniforms and equipment of the volunteer soldiers, this fascinating study tells the little-known story of the Norwegians who fought with the SS in World War II.
Download or read book Hitler s Swedes written by Lars T. Larsson and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2015-02-19 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “For those interested in the fighting on the Eastern Front in general . . . give[s] us some of the vast scale of the SS by the end of the war.” —HistoryOfWar.org Though Sweden was neutral during the Second World War, Swedish SS volunteers saw action on both the eastern front and NW Europe, and participated in some of the bloodiest clashes: the initial stages of Operation Barbarossa, the winter of 1941–42, the battles of Kursk, Arnhem, Normandy, Narva, the Warsaw uprising, the Cherkassy and Kurland pockets and, finally, the end in Berlin. There was never an official recruitment drive in Sweden, which is why only some 180–200 men enlisted. Those who wanted to recruit themselves often had to make their way to the occupied countries—a fact that makes those Swedes who joined the SS volunteers in the truest sense. This book lets us follow individuals such as Hans Lindén, who was the first named Swedish volunteer to fall in action aged barely nineteen years old; the unpopular Swedish SS officer Gunnar Eklöf; Elis Höglund, who after several years on the Eastern Front deserted and returned to Sweden; Gösta Borg, who volunteered for the SS a second time as he was denied the chance of becoming an officer in Sweden; and Karl-Axel Bodin, the only Swede to be included in the list of suspected criminals at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who joined the SD in March, 1945. The book includes over 150 photos and is thoroughly researched from primary sources, making it a valuable addition to the history of the SS, and the men who volunteered to serve in it.
Download or read book Danish Volunteers of the Waffen SS written by Jens Pank Bjerregaard and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduces a huge number of previously unpublished photographs of Danish SS volunteers on the Eastern Front.
Download or read book Hitler s Vikings written by Jonathan Trigg and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nazis' dream of a world dominated by legions of Aryan 'supermen', forged in battle and absolutely loyal to Hitler, was epitomised by the Waffen-SS. Created as a supreme military élite, it grew to become Nazi Germany's 'second army', an immense force totalling almost one million men by the end of the War. An astonishing fact about the SS is that thousands of its members were not German. Men stepped forward from almost every nation in Europe — for many, sometimes complex reasons — that included hatred of Bolshevism and nationalist sentiment or even straightforward anti-Semitism. Foremost amongst them were Scandinavians from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Thousands were recruited from 1940 onwards and fought with distinction on the Russian Front. They served at first in national legions but were then brought together in the Wiking Panzer Division and the Nordland Panzer-grenadier Division. In Hitler's Vikings, Jonathan Trigg details the battles these men fought and what inspired them to join the Waffen-SS, based wherever possible on interviews with surviving veterans. Many of the photographs reproduced here have never before been published. Hitler's 'Vikings' were amongst the last men still fighting in the ruins of Berlin in 1945 — their story is truly remarkable. Jonathan Trigg served in the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, reaching the rank of Captain and completing tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Middle East. He is an established writer on military history, with a particular interest in foreign volunteer formations in the Second World War. Hitler's Vikings is his fourth volume in Spellmount's Hitler's Legions series.
Download or read book Frontfighters written by Richard Landwehr and published by Merriam Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Belgian Waffen SS Legions Brigades 1941 1944 written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-27 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the German occupation of Belgium in May 1940, Flemish recruits from northern Belgium – considered by the Nazis to be 'Germanic' – were accepted individually into Waffen-SS units. From Hitler's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, additional recruits from the French-speaking south (Wallonia) were drafted. Both communities formed volunteer 'Legions', to fight (according to Goebbels' propaganda machine) 'for European civilization against the Bolshevik threat'; these were a Flemish Legion in the Waffen-SS and a Walloon Legion in the German Army. Both served on the Russian Front in 1942-43; the Walloon Legion was then also transferred into the Waffen-SS, and the decorated Walloon officer Leon Degrelle became a publicized 'poster boy' for foreign SS volunteers. Both Legions were then redesignated as SS Assault Brigades, and thereafter saw extremely hard fighting in the Ukraine and on the Baltic front. In autumn 1944, their survivors were withdrawn from the front and incorporated into two new understrength SS Divisions, 27. 'Langemarck' and 28. 'Wallonien'. This new account, featuring detailed colour plates of uniform and insignia, recounts the battle history of the French and Flemish-speaking Belgian SS, up to their final transformation into full divisions in the winter of 1944/45.
Download or read book Joining Hitler s Crusade written by David Stahel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ground-breaking study that looks at why European nations sent troops to take part in Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.
Download or read book SS Schij ger Batallion Norge written by Geir Brenden and published by Leandoer and Eckholm. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Come with us northwards. Norwegian volunteers in Finland 1941-1944."
Download or read book Germany and the Second World War written by Horst Boog and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1998-11-19 with total page 1444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the fourth in the comprehensive and authoritative series, Germany and the Second World War. It deals with the attack on the Soviet Union, the turning-point of the war. The detailed analysis is underpinned by an extensive apparatus of maps, diagrams, and tables.
Download or read book Dutch Waffen SS Legion Brigade 1941 44 written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-28 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Goebbels' 1941 propaganda campaign to present Germany's invasion of the USSR as a battle for European civilization against Asian barbarism convinced many men in occupied 'Germanic' European countries, such as Scandinavia and the Low Countries, to volunteer to fight on the Russian Front. One of the strongest national legions of such a kind was raised in the Netherlands, where it was supported by a large pro-Nazi movement led by Anton Mussert. The 3,000-man Netherlands Volunteer Legion fought on the Leningrad front in regimental strength, from the Red Army's winter 1941/42 counter-offensive until April 1943. The survivors were then reinforced to form a 5,500-strong Panzergrenadier Brigade, and after anti-partisan service in Croatia, they returned to Army Group North as part of Steiner's III SS Panzer Korps, fighting in the most arduous battles of 1943–44 until driven back into Pomerania. In the final months of the war the division formed the nucleus of the new 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division 'Nederland'. In this illustrated study of the Dutch Waffen-SS Legion and Brigade, specialist Massimiliano Afiero explores the full history of this important formation from its establishment in 1941 until it was incorporated into the 'Nederland' Division in 1944. Contemporary photographs and full-colour illustrations support the text and reveal key details including aspects of uniform and insignia.
Download or read book A European Anabasis written by Kenneth Estes and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kenneth Estes studies the 100,000 West Europeans who fought against Russia as volunteers for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Estes shows tremendous knowledge of combat and writes gripping battlefield prose. Two-thirds of the West European volunteers came from Spain and the Netherlands, yet Estes demonstrates wide range and covers also Flemish, Walloon, French, Danish, and Norwegian combat units. Avoiding over-generalization, the author distinguishes carefully among the Danes and Flemings who fought competently with the SS-Wiking Division and later with Nordland, the courageous but poorly-armed Spanish, the ill-trained Dutch and French in Landstorm Nederland and SS-Charlemagne, and the Norwegians who after a first wave of enthusiasm held back altogether. Estes pulverizes the Nazi propaganda notion of a multinational European army defending 'Western civilization' against 'Bolshevism'. He shows that West Europeans, mainly of the urban working classes, volunteered from a mix of motives -adventure-seeking, ideology, hopes of personal advantage or material gain, a desire for better food, or a wish to escape a criminal record at home. He demonstrates that the best-performing foreign legions were trained and led by German officers and formed parts of larger SS units, and also that the Wehrmacht placed little value on foreign formations until its other manpower reserves ran out in 1944-45. This is a landmark work on a subject which has been much written about, but rarely understood or described as perceptively as in the pages of this book.
Download or read book Sunwheels and Siegrunen written by Marc Rikmenspoel and published by . This book was released on 2019-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western European collaboration with the Germans is still misunderstood, nearly 70 years after the end of World War II. On the one hand, the countries involved have usually played down the number of volunteers they provided, while on the other, German propaganda often overstated the participation of foreigners, especially in the Waffen-SS. The reality was that tens of thousands of volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland served in the Waffen-SS and the Legions it sponsored. They fought alongside other volunteers and conscripts from Estonia and Latvia in battles that are rarely mentioned in English-language literature, yet were often of decisive importance and vast scale. Following on from his previous work on the Germanic Waffen-SS, respected Waffen-SS historian Marc Rikmenspoel now gives the subject his full attention in the first of two lavish volumes of photographs. The unprecedented coverage begins in this volume with the founding of the Germania Regiment in 1935, and continues with the forming of the famous Wiking Division in late 1940. Wiking is followed across Ukraine in 1941, and to the Caucasus the next year. The Dutch and Flemish Legions are shown in the hellish fighting along the Volkhov River, and the coverage extends to the Norwegian Legion that took part in the siege of Leningrad, and the Danish volunteers that were flown into the notorious Demyansk pocket. Even the little-known Norwegian ski company is portrayed during its time near the Arctic Circle in northern Russia. The photos include personalities, rare insignia, uniform details, and many vehicle shots, along with highly-detailed captions.
Download or read book SS Hitler s Foreign Divisions written by Chris Bishop and published by Amber Books Ltd. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Waffen-SS were the elite of Hitler’s armies in World War II, but the most fanatical were not even German. This is a comprehensive examination of every foreign Waffen-SS formation, including infamous divisions such as Wiking and Prinz Eugen, units such as the Kaminski Brigade and the British-recruited Britisches Freikorps.
Download or read book Soldiers of Destruction written by Charles Sydnor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1990-05-21 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys the emergence of the Nazi SS and its Death's Head Division, noting the impact of this elite and powerful army upon military history.
Download or read book Hitler s Gauls written by Jonathan Trigg and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2009-11-20 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The divisions of the Waffen-SS were among the elite of Hitler’s armies in the Second World War. But alongside the Germans in the Waffen-SS fought an astonishingly high number of volunteers from other countries. By the end of the Second World War these foreign volunteers comprised half of all Hitler’s Waffen-SS, and filled the ranks of over twenty-four of the nominal thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions. So during the most brutal war that mankind has ever known, hundreds of thousands of men flocked to fight for a country that was not theirs, and for a cause that was one of the most monstrous and barbaric in history. Who were these men, and why did they fight? Hitler’s Gauls is an in-depth examination of one of these legions of foreign volunteers, the Charlemagne division, who were recruited entirely from conquered France. The men in Charlemagne, often motivated by an extreme anti-communist zeal, fought hard on the Eastern Front including battles of near annihilation in the snows of Pomerania and the final stand in the ruins of Berlin. This definitive history, illustrated with rare photographs, explores the background, training, key figures and full combat record of one of Hitler’s lesser known foreign units of the Second World War.
Download or read book Hitler s Jewish Soldiers written by Bryan Mark Rigg and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the murderous road to "racial purity" Hitler encountered unexpected detours, largely due to his own crazed views and inconsistent policies regarding Jewish identity. After centuries of Jewish assimilation and intermarriage in German society, he discovered that eliminating Jews from the rest of the population was more difficult than he'd anticipated. As Bryan Rigg shows in this provocative new study, nowhere was that heinous process more fraught with contradiction and confusion than in the German military. Contrary to conventional views, Rigg reveals that a startlingly large number of German military men were classified by the Nazis as Jews or "partial-Jews" (Mischlinge), in the wake of racial laws first enacted in the mid-1930s. Rigg demonstrates that the actual number was much higher than previously thought-perhaps as many as 150,000 men, including decorated veterans and high-ranking officers, even generals and admirals. As Rigg fully documents for the first time, a great many of these men did not even consider themselves Jewish and had embraced the military as a way of life and as devoted patriots eager to serve a revived German nation. In turn, they had been embraced by the Wehrmacht, which prior to Hitler had given little thought to the "race" of these men but which was now forced to look deeply into the ancestry of its soldiers. The process of investigation and removal, however, was marred by a highly inconsistent application of Nazi law. Numerous "exemptions" were made in order to allow a soldier to stay within the ranks or to spare a soldier's parent, spouse, or other relative from incarceration or far worse. (Hitler's own signature can be found on many of these "exemption" orders.) But as the war dragged on, Nazi politics came to trump military logic, even in the face of the Wehrmacht's growing manpower needs, closing legal loopholes and making it virtually impossible for these soldiers to escape the fate of millions of other victims of the Third Reich. Based on a deep and wide-ranging research in archival and secondary sources, as well as extensive interviews with more than four hundred Mischlinge and their relatives, Rigg's study breaks truly new ground in a crowded field and shows from yet another angle the extremely flawed, dishonest, demeaning, and tragic essence of Hitler's rule.
