11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland"

11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland"
Troop registration
active	July 1943 to May 1945
Country	German Empire
Armed forces	Armed SS
Branch of service	Panzergrenadiers
Type	division
structure	See outline
Strength	15,000 men
Butcher	German-Soviet War Battle for the Narva beachhead Battle for Berlin
commander
list of	Commanders

The 11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland" was a Panzergrenadier division of the Waffen SS during the Second World War . The division was mainly used on the Eastern Front until it surrendered to the Allies on the Elbe in May 1945. It consisted partly of Danes , but also of ethnic Germans from Croatia .

history

Lineup

As early as May 1940, attempts were made to recruit German residents of Denmark and then also Danes for an SS standard for Nordland . By June 1941, only 216 Danes could be won. After the attack on the Soviet Union, the OKW tried to use a regiment of the Danish army on the eastern front, which the Danish government prevented. For example, on June 29, 1941, Danish professional soldiers formed the Frikorps Danmark , three-quarters of which had been wiped out on the Eastern Front by the summer of 1942. On May 6, 1943, the remnants were converted to the Danmark Regiment in the newly established SS division Nordland. At the beginning of 1943, the command of the Waffen SS decided to combine the Dutch and Scandinavian volunteers who did not serve in the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" in a separate association. As a name for the new unit dive u. a. Kampfverband Waräger , Germanische Freiwilligen-Division and SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 (Germanic) before it was finally assigned to 11th SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland .

Since the Dutch originally intended for the Nordland Division were transferred to the SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Brigade "Nederland" , the division was ultimately supplemented with so-called " Volksdeutsche " when it was deployed in Croatia in November 1943 .

commitment

In autumn 1943 the division was under III. (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps initially used to fight partisans in Croatia, where its SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment Danmark , according to the historian Rolf-Dieter Müller , took part in the burning of villages and shooting operations before it followed in the winter of 1943/44 North, moved to the Narva Front. From then on, the division was mainly deployed in the east as part of Army Group North, first on the front in Leningrad, in the battle for the Narva bridgehead and then on the retreat to the west.

Most recently she took part in the defense of Berlin, where she was worn out in the fighting around the government district . After Hitler's suicide, only a few groups managed to break out of Berlin. These surrendered to the Americans on the Elbe. A total of around 7,000 Danes served in the Waffen SS, of which 3,980 died.

structure

• SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 23 "Norge"
• SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 24 "Danmark"
• Kradschützen-Regiment SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 11
• SS Panzer Division 11 "Hermann von Salza"

• SS-Panzer-Regiment 11 (from 1945) consisting of
  • SS Panzer Department 11 " Hermann von Salza " as I. Department
  • s. SS Panzer Department 503 as 2nd Department

• • SS tank destroyer division 11
  • SS assault gun division 11
  • SS Flak Division 11

• 11th SS Artillery Regiment

• • SS Pioneer Battalion 11
  • SS News Department 11
  • SS Field Replacement Battalion 11
  • Commander of the SS division supply troops 11
  • SS repair department 11
  • SS medical department 11
  • SS Economic Battalion 11

Commanders

• March 22 to May 1, 1943 SS Brigade Leader Franz Augsberger
• May 1, 1943 to July 28, 1944 SS brigade leader and major general of the Waffen SS Fritz von Scholz
• July 28, 1944 to April 26, 1945 SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS Joachim Ziegler
• April 26 to May 8, 1945 SS brigade leader and major general of the Waffen-SS in the Gustav Krukenberg reserve

literature

• Rolf Michaelis : The Panzer Grenadier Divisions of the Waffen SS. 2nd Edition. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-930849-19-4 .
• id. The 11th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland". Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-930849-29-1 .
• Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller: On the side of the Wehrmacht. Hitler's foreign helpers in the “Crusade against Bolshevism” 1941–1945 . Ch. Links, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86153-448-8 , p. 147; also Steffen Werther: Danish volunteers in the Waffen SS . wvb, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86573-036-1 , pp. 101-106 (for the list and history of operations), p. 104 and 147 f. (to participate in war crimes).