Which WSS Division do you rank the best

[Datrus]

Great thread Mads Why not color it with some pics

I will go with Mads on Wiking but ROA is also interesting. I know you will say "but ROA is not SS". However......... i can provide a pic of Hugo von Senger (Swiss national fighting in ROA Cavalry) wearing SS camo. How/why he could wear it i have no idea.



My wife interviewed him short before his death and was allowed to photograph his WW2 photo albums



Lucky for me she is too interested in WW2 but most the historical part. Not collecting. Me and her in Germany last summer



Hugo and his horse and burying a fellow soldier



Regards, Lars

[Shadwellarmy]

Suprised to see so many go for HJ Division considering its relative short combat life.

Even more suprised to see that no one has mentioned Totenkopf.

Lars, do you know which regiment Von Senger belonged to? Many foreign units were transfered to WSS towards the end of the war.

[Datrus]

Maybe he was transferred to the SS. The writing on the pic with Hugo in WSS camo says "The last days, etc".

He was in the 15th Cossack Cavalry i will guess from the pic remembering old fellow ROA soldiers. I am not 100% sure but can find out of course.





Regards, Lars

[cricketchris1944]

SS Charlemagne division.
chris

[octavian]

I am going with the 3rd SS Totenkopf 1942-44.

[reneblacky]

none of them as they all didn't win! sorry I am simple minded

[Shadwellarmy]

Maybe he was transferred to the SS. The writing on the pic with Hugo in WSS camo says "The last days, etc".

He was in the 15th Cossack Cavalry i will guess from the pic remembering old fellow ROA soldiers. I am not 100% sure but can find out of course.

Lars, you're right, in February 1945 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division and 2. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division were formally transfered to WSS in order to form the XV-SS-Kavallerie-Korps.

[bigmacglenn]

My mother's employer in Germany was a veteran of the 2nd SS "Das Reich"...That's my personal favorite...!
I also once met an Estonian SS veteran who said that after witnessing Leibstandarte Soldiers in combat risk their lives to save wounded comrades, he considered them the best soldiers ever...
cheers, Glenn

[Woolgar]

Suprised to see so many go for HJ Division considering its relative short combat life.

Even more suprised to see that no one has mentioned Totenkopf.

Lars, do you know which regiment Von Senger belonged to? Many foreign units were transfered to WSS towards the end of the war.

Good point about the 12th HJ Mads but by did they fight and gave the Canadians a scare!


"They fought like lions on both sides, so that the dead lay corpse by corpse. We searched every house, every courtyard to avoid ambush. And here is the confirmation of how ferocious last night's battle must have been. The Commandos lie dead in rows beside the dead SS. Grenades are scattered all over the road and in the porches of houses. Here we see a Commando and an SS man, literally dead in each others arms, having slaughtered each other. There, a German and a Canadian tank have engaged each other to destruction, and are still smoldering, and from each blackened turret hangs the charred corpse of a machine gunner. Over here are a group who ran towards a wall for shelter and were shot down before they got there. And then near the church, as the advance guard of C Company and the carriers turn the corner, there are three Germans. Only three. But one of them instantly draws his pistol and hits one of our men. A Bren gunner kills two of the three SS men, but the survivor gets away. Now we understand with what kind of fanatic we have to deal with"

The division, with 20,540 personnel, first saw action on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defense of the Caen area during the Normandy campaign. The battle for Normandy took its toll on the division and it came out of the Falaise pocket with a divisional strength of 12,000 men.

On 16 December 1944, the division was committed against the US Army in the Battle of the Bulge. After the failure of the Ardennes offensive the division was sent east to fight the Red Army near Budapest. The 12th SS eventually withdrew into Austria; on 8 May 1945, the surviving 10,000 men surrendered to the US Army at Enns.

Not bad going for a young units short life imo

Nick

[octavian]

Howdy wool. Which book did that passage come from? I need to get it! Sounds like critical writing of one hell of an SS division.