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.
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.
A fully illustrated study of the Wehrmacht's French volunteer units and their actions on the Eastern Front and in North Africa during World War II. It is little known that, in late 1941, French volunteer units were among Wehrmacht troops defending Germany in the first bitter winter on the Eastern Front, and also among the last fighting for Berlin in April 1945. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, some 13,000 Frenchmen enlisted in the 'Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme' (LVF), which was reformed as the Wehrmacht's Infanterie-Regiment 638 and posted to Russia. This volume examines the involvement of French volunteers, not only on the Eastern Front, but also in the 'Phalange Africaine' in Tunisia and in the 'Légion Tricolore', a short-lived military organization under the control of the French Vichy government. Using archive photographs and specially commissioned artwork, it casts a new light on forces fighting for the Axis and studies the French personnel's equipment, insignia and uniforms while describing their involvement in some of the most gruelling battles of World War II.
Formed in 1942, the 8th SS Cavalry Division "Florian Geyer" was one of the most controversial units in the Waffen-SS. Created with the intention of making it an elite unit within the Waffen-SS, it instead saw its main employment from the beginning of the war in Russia as a rear area security force against partisans. The SS cavalrymen carried out these duties with terrible effectiveness, demonstrating the full capabilities of horse-mounted units in securing terrain that was militarily difficult. Late in the war, "Florian Geyer" was employed on the front lines against regular units of the Red Army. The unit was wiped out during final battle of Budapest in February 1945. Detailed operational history, rare combat images, maps, and personality profiles make this book the definitive history of "Florian Geyer.
In this issue: Letʹs start with the second part of the article dedicated to the Dutch Legion, richly illustrated. We continue with the biography of Zvonimir Bernwald, at first a volunteer in the Handschar Division and then in the 31st SS Division. It continues with the third part of the article dedicated to the Barbarigo battalion on the Anzio front, with a new excerpt from the new book by Tomasz Borowski on the last combat actions of the French volunteers of Charlemagne, the fourth and final part of the photographic report dedicated to the SS‐Hauptsturmführer Hans‐Jörg Hartmann and we close with a long and comprehensive article on Romanian armored formations.
We begin with with the article by P. Crippa, about the tanks of Mussolini, the armored division wanted by the Duce equipped with German vehicles. Following is the biography of Siegfried Brosow, one of the most famous and decorated officers of Waffen SS. We continue with an article about the employment of the Götz von Berlichingen division during the Mortain counteroffensive and another article on the employment of the Kampfgruppe Peiper on the Ukrainian front in 1943. Grégory Bouysse offers us a brief biography of the Walloon officer Henri Derriks. Our ever faithful Charles Trang speaks to us instead of the formation and employment of the 15th SS Latvian division. We close with the story of the Spanish volunteers integrated into the Waffen SS who fought in Berlin in 1945.
A fully illustrated account of the infamous 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, from their formation through to the fierce battles for Caen. The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was formed in 1943 from members of the Hitler Youth who had been born in 1926, primarily as an emergency response force in France to repel the expected Allied invasion from the sea. Training was initially haphazard due to lack of equipment, however in March 1944 it was attached to I SS Panzer Corps and transferred to Normandy. Based around Caen, it was intended to repel a possible and expected invasion from the sea. When the invasion came in June, it was one of the two closest panzer divisions to the landing beaches, engaging Allied paratroopers at dawn. Once the Allied bridgehead was established, Hitlerjugend deployed to Caen. The defensive battles that took place in Normandy, particularly the four battles around the city of Caen, saw the young soldiers of the Hitlerjugend demonstrate determined resistance, conceding only due to being greatly outnumbered. Packed with photographs, maps and profiles, this Casemate Illustrated follows the actions of the 12th SS Panzer Division through formation and training to the four battles for Caen.
Michael Wittmann (Vogelthal, 22 April 1914 – Caen, 8 August 1944) was a famous officer of the Waffen-SS, he is considered one of the most legendary and combative tank commanders of the Second World War. He achieved his tactical masterpiece immediately after the Allied landings in Normandy on 13 June 1944, when in just an hour he destroyed 21 tanks and 28 other armored vehicles of the British 7th Armored Division in the village of Villers-Bocage. Less than a month later, on August 8, during Operation Totalize, Wittmann died along with four other members of his crew, not before achieving the most victories in history for a tank crew, with the destruction of nearly 300 enemy vehicles. for a long time the remains of the mythical commander were not found, giving rise to a legend that lasted until 1983 when the mystery was revealed with the discovery of his remains. Wittmann is still considered a legend in Germany today and is sometimes known as the “Black Baron”, a clear reference to the Red Baron Manfred Von Richtofen.
We begin with a long and interesting work on the use of the Totenkopf division during the Zitadelle operation launched by the Germans to eliminate the dangerous Kursk salient. Then follows the biography of Fritz von Scholz, an officer who first served in the Wiking division and then commanded the Nordland division. We continue with the formation and use of the Italian Army on the Eastern front, a topic that we will also deal with in the upcoming issues. Speaking of Axis volunteer formations, we begin with this issue an in-depth study of the history of Swedish volunteers enlisted in the Waffen-SS. We close with the formation of the Hitlerjugend division.
One of the most infamous of all Waffen-SS formations, the 3rd SS-Panzer Division "Totenkopf" has always been identified as the very essence of the notorious "Black Order." Associated with war crimes in official historiography, formed initially with personnel coming from guard units from concentration camps, the unit was nevertheless able to prove itself on the battlefield, distinguishing itself in all of the main campaigns in which it fought, from France to the Russian front. This first of two volumes tells the story of the "Totenkopf" from 1939 to 1943: from the campaign in Poland in 1939; its employment on the Western Front in 1940; to the early campaigns on the Russian Front. Volume one culminates in the bitter fighting on the Demjansk front and to the Kharkov counteroffensive in 1943, finally ending with Operation Zitadelle. As with all of the volumes in this series, the detailed history of the division is accompanied by many first-hand accounts, documents, extracts from official reports, and from the division's war diary, and by over 860 photographs and maps.
The contents of this new issue: the Totenkopf-Division on the Western Front (May-June 1940), General der Waffen-SS Matthias Kleinheisterkamp, Hitler’s Cossacks (part 3), Hans Siegel, Knight’s Cross Holder of the 12. SS-Panzer Division, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking on the Manytsch Front and the Panzerschreck.
In this issue: we begin with the deployment of the Wiking Division in the Caucasus regions in the summer of 1942. Following is the biography of Bruno Hinz, an SS officer, who served first in the Wiking Division and then in the Götz von Berlichingen. We continue with the employment of the Italian volunteers who served in the Waffen SS on the Nettuno front in the spring of 1944. We then return to talk about the Polizei Division, dealing with its operational employment on the Leningrad front between the summer of 1942 and January 1943. We conclude with an article dedicated to the Legionary War Cross, intended for French volunteers who fought on the Eastern Front alongside the German armed forces.
This is the complete history of one of the most famous and well-known divisions of the Waffen-SS. Created as a mountain unit to be employed exclusively on the Balkan Front against partisan units, the unit fought with valor and fierceness on the battlefield. After numerous anti-guerrilla operations in Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, towards the end of the war it was employed against units of the Bulgarian Army and Red Army forces in the difficult mission of covering the withdrawal of German forces retreating from Greece and Albania. It was one of the few Waffen-SS formations to be used in offensive actions during the final phases of the war, all of which were carried out successfully. Accused of having committed numerous crimes against civilians, its members met with a tragic fate, especially those who ended up in the hands of communist partisans.
In this issue we start with an article dedicated to the use of the SS Totenkopf division on the Western Front in the spring of 1940. This is followed by the history of the bersaglieri (light infantry) units of the Italian Social Republic, in particular of the “Italia Division” with many unpublished photos. The biography of this issue is dedicated to one of the most important characters in the history of Waffen SS, Paul Hasser. We continue with the second part of the article dedicated to the recruitment of the Cossacks into the German armed forces and finally we close with an interesting article dedicated to the Panzerfaust, the deadly German anti-tank weapon.
Let's now analyze the contents of this new issue of the magazine. We begin with a long and exhaustive article on the employment of Totenkopf Division on the Ukrainian front in the summer of 1943, rich as always with numerous photos, following the biography of Otto Kumm, one of the most known and decorated officers of Waffen-SS. It continues with the fourth and last part of the article dedicated to the Barbarigo battalion on the Anzio front and with a new excerpt from the new book by Tomasz Borowski on the final combat actions of the French volunteers of the Charlemagne. We close with the first part of a new study dedicated to the campaign in North Africa, a work that will later be integrated into a book (which will be published both in Italian and in English), which we hope will soon see the light.
We begin with the deployment of the Polizei Division on the Eastern Front, in the early summer of 1941. For the biographies, this time we address one of the best known and most famous officers of the Waffen SS, Gerd Bremer, who served first in the Leibstandarte Division and then in the Hitlerjugend. We continue with the third part of our study on Frikorps Danmark, as always accompanied by numerous and interesting photographs. The second part of the article dedicated to Walloon volunteers on the Eastern Front follows and we close with the story of Quisling’s personal guard.
April 1941: SS motorcyclists in Belgrad, SS cavalry units on the Eastern Front, Autumn-Winter 1941-42, Laurits Jensen - Free Corps Denmark, The French volunteers of the N.S.K.K. Motorgruppe Luftwaffe, The SS-Division Wiking in the Caucasus: Autumn 1942, Foreign volunteer legion stamp propaganda in the third reich.
In this issue: we start with the history of the Wallonie assault brigade, from its formation to its use on the Ukranian and Estonian fronts. Following that is the biography of a Latvian volunteer, Woldemars Veiss, one of the bravest officers, decorated with the Knight’s Cross. We continue with the employment of the Toteknkopf division in the Demyansk pocket, between January and March 1942. We conclude with a long, but hopefully interesting article by our friend Hugh Page Taylor on the recruitment centers for Italian SS volunteers, a great work of useful research for both historians and collectors.
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.
In this number: a long and interesting work on the use of the Hitler Youth Division on the Normandy front, in the initial phases of the bloody fighting that raged on French soil in the summer of 1944. An article follows on the Italian light tanks, much maligned by official historiography, but which were used on all war fronts, especially as reconnaissance vehicles. We continue with the history of the Totenkopf division, this time dealing with the period between October 1943 and January 1944. We continue the history of the Italian units on the Eastern front, talking about the first battle on the Don and we close with an interesting article on the battle of Monterotondo, which saw German paratroopers engaged after 8 September 1943.
In this issue we start with an article dedicated to the use of the SS Prinz Eugen division during the 'Schwarz' operation, conducted on the Balkan front in May 1943. This is followed by the biography of Philipp Theiss, extracted from the new book by our Peter Mooney. We continue with the first part of the article dedicated to the recruitment of the Cossacks into the German armed forces and with the second part of the monumental work dedicated to the Krüger brothers by our Mike Miller. Finally, we close with an equally voluminous work on foreign nurses who served in the German Red Cross, a topic little treated by official historiography.
This book is the complete history of the 6th SS Gebirgs (Mountain) Division "Nord" in WWII. Formed in 1941, "Nord" was employed along the Finnish-Lapland front against battle-tested Soviet forces from 1941-44. Following the signing of the armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union in the summer of 1944, the division was moved to the western front. "Nord" units took part in Operation "Nordwind," the final German offensive on the western front in late December 1944, where they fought against American units for the first time. Tough defensive fighting along the Moselle and Rhine fronts followed up to the armistice in May 1945. The units of the division fought to the last, always with courage and valor, distinguishing itself as one of the best German units employed on the western front. Detailed operational history, rare combat images, maps, and personality profiles make this book the definitive history of "Nord.
In this issue: The Flemish Legion, Felix Steiner and the European Volunteers, The Wiking and the battles in the Izyum area, July 1943, SS-Unterscharführer Max Rudolf Pesarra, The Italian SS Legion and the Foreign Volunteer Legion Military Award & Insignia.
In this issue we wanted to commemorate the 80th anniversary of both the German invasion of Poland and the Soviet invasion of Finland, two events that marked the beginning of World War II. In fact, analyzing the contents of this new issue, we initially find an article on the use of Totenkopf units in Poland in September 1939, a second article on the Soviet invasion of Finland. Then we find the biography of Karl Heinz-Boska by Peter Mooney, the history of the Italian smoke generating units on the Baltic, the use of the SS units during the battle of Kursk in July 1943, the first part of a long and detailed article on the biographies of the Krüger brothers and finally an article dedicated to the Close Combat Clasp.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.