Hitler's Praetorians - The History of the Waffen-SS 1925-1945

354 Pages·2004·46.71 MB·English

by  Tim Ripley

HITLER'S
PRAETORIANS
THE HISTORY OF THE WAFFEN-SS 1925-1945
TIM RIPLEY
-
HITLER'S
PRAETORAI NS
THE HISTORY OF THE WAFFEN-SS 1925-1945
TIM RIPLEY
SPELLMOUNT
Staplehurst
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
A catalogue record for this book is available Dedication
from the British Library
This book is dedicated to the heroes of the Red Army's
XVIII and XXIX Tank Corps, which first engaged II SS
Copyright © 2004 The Brown Reference Croup pic Panzer Corps at Prokhorovka in the titanic tank battle
on 12 July 1943. For the next two years, brave Soviet
tank crews of these two fine units would be In the
First published in the UK in 2004 by vanguard of driving Hitler's Waffen-SS panzer élite
Spellmount Limited back into the heart of the Third Reich, so freeing
The Village Centre Europe of Nazi tyranny for good.
Staplehurst
Kent TN12 OBJ Acknowledgements
Tel: [phone] The author would like to thank the following people
Fax: [phone] for their help during the researching and writing of
E-mail: [email protected] this study: Neil Tweedie, of The Daily Telegraph, for
Website: www.spellmount.com his insights into the Nazi mentality gained during his
attendance at the David Irving libel trial; the records
ISBN 1-86227-248-4 staff at the Imperial War Museum, London, for their
help with research into German World War II records;
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be the British Army Staff College, Camberley, for allow­
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted ing me access to numerous German World War II
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, records in their possession; Steve Dempster for the
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior vital task of proofreading the text; Peter Darman of
permission in writing from Spellmount Limited, Publishers. the Brown Reference Group, for giving me the oppor­
tunity to fulfil my long-held ambition to write about
the Eastern Front; Mr McApline, my history teacher at
Editorial and Design: Forres Academy, for beginning my interest in World
The Brown Reference Group pic War II history; Micky Brooks and Ceri Hobbs for their
8 Chapel Place hospitality; and Major Hasse Ressenbro of the Danish
Rivington Street Guard Hussar Regiment for helping me to follow in
London Joachim Peiper's footsteps in the Ardennes. Finally, my
EC2A 3DQ wonderful wife Amanda, who boosted my morale at
UK vital moments during the writing of this book.
www.brownreference.com
Senior Editor: Peter Darman
Editor: John Davison
Proofreader: Alan Marshall
Picture Researcher: Andrew Webb
Designer: Steve Wilson
Production Director: Alastair Gourlay
Index: Indexing Specialists
Printed in China
Contents
Key to maps 7
Introduction 8
Part I: Origins
Bodyguards for Hitler 12
Part II: Winning a Reputation
Poland, 1939 - The First Blitzkrieg 30
Victory in the West, 1940 38
Part III: The Ideological Crusade
Expansion, 1940-41 50
Army Group North - Totenkopf Strikes 56
The Drive on Moscow 62
Into the Ukraine 68
Winter in Hell 74
Part IV: Blood Brothers
The Aryan Brotherhood 82
Part V: High Tide, 1942-1943
The Drive for Oil 92
Army Group South in Danger 96
Birth of the SS Panzer Divisions 102
First Blood of the SS Panzer Corps: Kharkov 116
The Battle of Kursk 132
Part VI: Retreat in the East, 1943-1944
The Mius Front 154
Retreat to the Dnieper 162
The Battle for the Ukraine 170
Kessel Battles 176
Retreat from Leningrad 184
Poland, 1944 192
The Waffen-SS and the Partisan War 196
Part VII: Defeat in the West, 1944
Rebuilding the Panzer Divisions 208
Invasion Front 216
The Battle for Caen 220
Villers-Bocage 230
Hill 112 238
Caen: Battle of Attrition 246
Operation Goodwood 250
Defeat in Western Normandy 258
August Storm for the Hitlerjugend 266
The Falaise Pocket 270
Arnhem 274
The Sixth Panzer Army 282
The Ardennes Offensive 286
Defeat of the Sixth Panzer Army 296
Part VIII: Annihilation, 1945
The Siege of Budapest 300
Spring Awakening 308
Last Stand in Berlin 318
Part IX: Consequences of an Ideology
Waffen-SS Atrocities 324
Conclusion 333
Appendices 335
Bibliography 345
Index 348
Key to Maps
Military Units - Sizes National Colours Army Movements
xxxxx
Army group/front I German Attack/advance
(in national colours)
xxxx
Army ^| Soviet
Retreat (in national colours)
xxx
Corps I United States
Frontline (in national colours)
xx
Division I I British &
Heavy defence line
(in national colours)
Brigade Commonwealth
in AAAA Defence line (in national colours)
I Romanian
Regiment
ii
Battalion I French Geographical Symbols
Italian River
Military Units - Types
Road
I Polish
Infantry
• 1 1 Railroad
Hungarian
« Armoured/panzer
General Military Symbols Urban area
Panzergrenadier
.". • / \ Minefield • Town
9 Parachute
• Capital city
Airfield
Cavalry
Marsh
Machine guns
*ffr
Trees
* Parachute landing
Bridge
XX\ Mountains
international border
7
Introduction
The Schutz Staffel (SS) - Protection Squad - was the physical
embodiment of National Socialist ideology. In the Nazi state the SS
enforced internal security, racist legislation and the organization of
conquered territories after 1939. The Waffen-SS (Armed SS) was
initially formed to provide Hitler with an ultra-loyal force for inter­
nal security. But it eventually became Germany's second army.
At the height of the Nazi Blitzkrieg across Europe in As his plans for this "state within a state" were taking
World War II, the Nordic runes of the SS spread shape in the mid-1930s, Hitler also began to envisage
terror and fear among the enemies of Adolf Hitler's the SS as having an élite combat force to ensure no
Germany. From the west coast of France to the Russian group in Germany could challenge his rule (the SS
steppes, the SS was in the vanguard of Hitler's effort to provided the guards for the concentration camps, where
create a racially "pure" zone, where all other races would "state enemies" were incarcerated). This force would
be the slaves of the German people. From the early days eventually be known as the Waffen-SS. Hitler devoted
of Hitler's self-proclaimed "Thousand Year Reich", the increasing resources on what in effect was the Nazi
SS had a special place in his plans for global conquest. Party's private army. By the start of World War II in 1939,
At first it was seen as the guardian of Hitler's rule within the SS was able to put a division's worth of troops into
Germany, acting as a brutal enforcer against his political the field to fight alongside the soldiers of the German
opponents. The SS rapidly took control of many police Wehrmacht (armed forces).
and internal security organizations in Germany in the As the fortunes of war turned against Germany, Hitler
1930s. It also had responsibility for ensuring the racial began to lose faith in his "defeatist" generals and their
purity of the German people and, bizarrely, boasted an demoralized armies. He turned to the Waffen-SS in the
élite corps of genealogists to trace family "blood-lines" hope that it would keep fighting against impossible
to purge those tainted with non-German blood. Once odds. By the end of the war more than a million men had
Hitler's rule was secure in Germany, he began to view his been recruited into the Waffen-SS, and over a third of
élite group of ultra-loyal henchmen as a key instrument them had been killed in action.
to enforce German rule over Europe. SS men were even­ In the aftermath of World War II, the SS as a whole
tually used to hunt down any resistance to German rule was judged to be a criminal organization by the
in occupied countries, massacre racial minorities and International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg war
ensure the loyalty to Hitler of other German military units. crimes trials. All members of the SS were declared to be
8
Introduction
war criminals who had participated in war crimes, or in attracted to the glamour of the SS, which was at the
the planning of crimes against humanity. This ruling heart of Nazi propaganda during the 1930s.
covered all branches of the huge SS organization, As the SS expanded and the Waffen-SS was born,
including the Waffen-SS, much to the consternation of the members of the new force were put through intensive
its veterans. They claimed to be "simple" soldiers, just military training to prepare them for the challenges to
doing their duty like other soldiers. come when Hitler launched them on the offensive. The
Controversy raged during the 1950s and 1960s as intensity of their training and Nazi ideological indoctrina­
Waffen-SS veteran groups fought high-profile legal tion made these men self-confident to the point of
battles in the newly founded West Germany to overturn arrogance. Nazi propaganda told them that they were
the Nuremberg ruling, and win pension rights for their "super-human" Germans who were destined to rule over
members. The judgement of Nuremberg could not be lesser races. Once it began its war of conquest in 1939,
overturned, but in the ensuing refighting of history, many the prejudices of the Waffen-SS were reinforced as army
of the former enemies of the Waffen-SS appeared to after army collapsed in the face of the German Blitzkrieg.
question the old black-and-white assessment of Hitler's At this early stage of the war, the small Waffen-SS
élite troops. units were led by a group of determined and charismatic
officers who moulded them into an élite force. Men like
A UNIQUE FIGHTING FORCE "Sepp" Dietrich, Paul Hausser, Joachim Peiper and Kurt
While their despicable cause and bloody massacres Meyer would win their spurs in these Blitzkrieg battles,
were universally held in contempt, the combat record of and then go on to lead the Waffen-SS in the desperate
the Waffen-SS was recognized as being unsurpassed. It final battles of the war. These men became infamous as
played a key role in many of the German Blitzkrieg victo­ they led the Waffen-SS through battles in France, the
ries in Russia in 1941-42, and then fought determined Balkans and Russia. Often their leadership was the only
rearguard actions during the final years of Hitler's empire. thing that held their units together in circumstances that
It was during the years of defeat that the Waffen-SS would have forced other units to collapse. They led by
earned the respect of its opponents, time and again example rather than brutal discipline. When the fighting
fighting against overwhelming odds. Kharkov, Kursk, was at its worst, they would be leading from the front,
Normandy, Arnhem and the Ardennes are synonymous rather than skulking in the safety of a headquarters far to
with the Waffen-SS. In these battles and in scores of the rear.
other actions in the dying days of Hitler's Reich, the
Waffen-SS fought tenaciously to inflict heavy losses on MASTERS OF MECHANIZED WARFARE
their British, Russian and American opponents. Amid the When the Waffen-SS found itself locked into the bloody
ruins of the Third Reich, the Waffen-SS men left alive war of survival on the Eastern Front from late 1941, Hitler's
were marched into captivity and history. Some faced trials élite was soon fighting for its life. No mercy was shown by
for war crimes; others fled into exile to escape the victors' either side. The Waffen-SS now showed that it was more
justice. The vast majority suffered years of captivity than just a glorified murder squad. Its commanders and
before returning to Germany to rebuild their lives. soldiers showed they could master the art of mechanized
What kind of men swore their loyalty to Hitler and all warfare, and scored a number of highly impressive victo­
he stood for? The early recruits to the SS in the 1920s ries in tank battles against overwhelming odds. In these
were largely disillusioned former soldiers and policemen defensive battles, the early arrogance of the Waffen-SS
who fell under the Hitler's spell during his early efforts to was replaced by grim determination and hard, skilful
form the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or soldiering. Time and again, Waffen-SS units were
Nazi Party. These men acted as bodyguards and drivers defeated in battle but quickly regrouped and struck back
to Hitler and other Nazi leaders in the days after the when other armies would have given up the fight.
disastrous Beer Hall Putsch, a coup d'etat attempt in During the Blitzkrieg years, the mass of the Waffen-
Munich in 1923. SS was still inspired by Nazi ideology to win "living
After Hitler rose to ultimate power in Germany in space" for the German people. As the war degenerated
1933, the SS began to attract a very different type of into a bloody battle of attrition, less idealistic motives
recruit. Ambitious young men from all over Germany saw came to the fore as the hard-core Waffen-SS officers
the SS as a way to secure access to future careers at the found themselves being dispatched into battle repeat­
centre of their country's government as it appeared to edly against impossible odds. Casualties took their toll,
enter an exciting new phase. These men were also and the time to recuperate between campaigns became
9
Introduction
shorter. At this time the loyalty from shared experiences Waffen-SS, turning Nazi racial theory on its head. The
and battles came to the fore, as Waffen-SS men fought final irony was the recruitment of former Soviet soldiers
increasingly for the sake of their comrades rather than for from German prison camps into the Waffen-SS.
their Führer. Senior Waffen-SS officers also began to Foreign recruits eventually numbered hundreds of
take common cause with their Wehrmacht colleagues thousands and could, in the final year of the war, be
and question Hitler's orders to fight to the last man. found in the ranks of even the supposedly élite Waffen-
Nazi ideology saw non-Aryan races as inferior to SS panzer divisions. The recruits from Western Europe
Germans and consigned Europe's Slavs and Jews to often fought well and were fully integrated with main­
servitude or extermination. In the conquered countries of stream Waffen-SS units. Eastern volunteer units were
Western Europe, Hitler and his SS supremo, Heinrich less effective, and they were generally relegated to anti-
Himmler, were keen to recruit non-German Aryans to partisan or garrison roles. They developed notorious
their cause. Puppet pro-Nazi parties were used to help reputations for massacres and mistreatment of civilians
rule in occupied Norway, Denmark, Holland and France. in general. In addition, by using the cover of anti-partisan
After the invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941, the operations as an excuse, they could continue age-old
need for manpower to feed the Eastern Front led ethnic feuds.
Himmler to begin setting up so-called foreign legions in This book aims to provide an overview of the forma­
the Waffen-SS. These were manned by opportunists, tion, ideology and campaigns of the Waffen-SS. It will
adventurers and Nazi fellow travellers, who often did not look at the place of the Waffen-SS in the wider SS organ­
know what they had let themselves in for. ization, and its relationship with Hitler and other senior
High casualties in battles with the Red Army forced Nazi leaders. The selection and training of the early
Himmler to look to Eastern Europe to fill the ranks of the Waffen-SS units will be examined, as well as their role in
Waffen-SS. Germany was running out of manpower, and the first Blitzkrieg victories in Poland and France. The
the number of Western Europeans volunteering to serve in bloody battles that followed the move eastwards in June
the Waffen-SS was also dwindling. Increasingly, 1941 will then be detailed. The key role of the Waffen-SS
conscripts and unemployed Luftwaffe ground staff and in the swirling tank battles that determined the course of
Kriegsmarine sailors were also finding themselves drafted the war on the Eastern Front is covered in great detail.
into the Waffen-SS to replace those killed or wounded in Efforts by the Waffen-SS to counter the US and
battle. They were far from being highly motivated. British landings in Normandy and their advance across
At first, so-called Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) France in 1944 will then be considered, as will the fate of
living outside Germany were called upon to serve their the Waffen-SS in the final cataclysmic battles in the
new homeland, but these manpower pools were soon spring of 1945 as Hitler's Reich collapsed. Finally, the
bled dry. In an act of desperation, Himmler then turned legacy of the Waffen-SS will be assessed, looking at its
to Muslims from Yugoslavia and Albania, Catholic complicity in Nazi atrocities and its contribution to
Ukrainians and citizens of the Baltic states to serve in the Germany's defeat.
10