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WAFFEN SS IN ACTION: Rare, Unseen Pictures: Part 1 (LARGE IMAGES)

Waffen SS in action


waffen ss color image


soldiers trench 1944
Waffen SS soldiers crouch in a trench. Spring 1944

WHY HAS WAFFEN SS BECOME A CULT?

It was way back in 1945 that the last gun  of a Waffen SS soldier fell silent. One wonders why they still live in our collective consciousness. 

Some of the things that some of them did was downright evil. Following blindly the dictates of a man possessed with a mad but twisted love for Germany.

But surprisingly in an online poll nearly 48% of the respondents said that Waffen SS soldiers were great warriors. Of the rest only 22% said that they were mere fanatics. 30% said they were something between; an admixture of great fighting men and fanatics.

The question remains, why? Why this fascination for the men of the Waffen SS?

May be the answer lies in the fact that today we live in times bereft of any values and beliefs. Making money. And more money, seems to be only mantra of life. Owing to this a certain weariness, an emptiness has crept in. We are at times sick of this materialistic life.

Waffen SS. Driven men. Strongly bonded together. Led by capable, equally driven capable leaders in a structure that was less rigid, less formal and more comradely than the Wehrmacht. Men who thought nothing of their own lives. To fight. Fight for their country.

This appeal, I think, will remain timeless. It is not the appeal of Nazism. But of these men who fought many, many years ago.





waffen ss linesman
A soldier from the 8th Cavalry Division of 'Florian Geyer' Waffen SS Division lays a telephone cable

Untersturmfuhrer SS  of the SS brigade of "Langemarck". Untersturmfuhrer ( a rank in the Waffen SS) was the equivalent of second lieutenant in other armies. 


The 27th SS Volunteer Division Langemarck was a German Waffen-SS volunteer division comprising volunteers of Flemish background. It saw action on the Eastern Front during World War II. The formation started as the 6th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Langemarck and in September 1944 the Sturmbrigade was raised in status to a division, but its strength never reached more than a brigade.





Nordland shakes hand wounded finnish soldier
A soldiers from the Waffen SS Nord Division shakes hands witha wounded Finnish soldier.

THE 6TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION NORD

The 6th SS Mountain Division "Nord" was a German unit of the Waffen SS during World War II, formed in February 1941 as SS Kampfgruppe Nord (SS Battle Group North).The Division was the only Waffen SS unit to fight in the Arctic Circle when it was stationed in Finland and northern Russia between June and November 1941. It fought in Karelia until the Finnish armistice in September 1944 when it marched on foot 1,600 km through Finland and Norway. It arrived in Denmark in December and then transferred to western Germany. It fought in the Nordwind offensive in January 1945, where it suffered heavy losses and surrendered to the American forces in Austria at the end of the war.


motorcyclists
Motorcyclists from Waffen SS. The goggles hang around his neck

VIDEO: WAFFEN SS IN ACTION


calls for ambulance
 3rd SS Armored Division of the Totenkopf. A soldier signals to the motorcycle rider that an ambulance is needed for the injured.


The curtain of silence fell on the Waffen SS after the war but now more and more young people somehow know of its existence, of its achievements. The fame is growing and the young demand to know more. In one hundred years almost everything will be forgotten but the greatness and the heroism of the Waffen SS will be remembered. It is the reward of an epic. 

LEON DEGRELLE, FORMER BELGIAN WAFFEN SS OFFICER 
Source: ihr.org

7th Mountain Division prinz eugen
 Soldiers of the 7th Mountain Division of the Waffen SS "Prinz Eugen" wave to a  Luftwaffe plane flying above

normandy 1944
Normandy 1944. Soldiers of the 12th Armored Division of the Waffen SS "Hitler Youth" closely watch the sky, swarming with enemy aircraft.

THE HITLERJUGEND WAFFEN SS DIVISION

The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth") was a German Waffen SS armoured division during World War II. The Hitlerjugend was unique because the majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were generally veterans of the Eastern Front. 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. Following the invasion battles, the division was sent to Germany for refitting. 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.



 The SS soldiers are in a trench while their radio-man is trying to communicate

A SS officer gives instructions to his men


A picture that would have had Stalin fuming. A Russian peasant woman offers to darn the sock of a Waffen SS  soldier

SS soldiers calculate and aim their mortar

The men cross the river on a boat

Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Kharkov
A SS soldier plays the piano after the fight. The men belong to the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler". Kharkov, 1943

 Machine-gun crew from the 3rd Armored Division of the SS "Totenkopf"

Soldiers of 3rd Armored Division of the SS "Totenkopf" in the trenches.


 SS men fire away with a MG 42 machine gun

Firing a 8cm GrW 34 mortar


The 8 cm Granatwerfer 34 (8 cm GrW 34) was the standard German medium mortar throughout World War II. It gained a reputation for extreme accuracy and rapid rate of fire, although much of the credit should go to the training of the crews.


 A Waffen SS soldier in Russia during winter in a M42 pullover.


Waffen-SS winter combat clothing was developed independently for the army and resulted in a pullover fur-lined anorak.Improvements to this garment were made during the war, leading to several variants. The most common type was the M42 pullover type with its large hood to accommodate the steel helmet. Included with this anorak was a white removable shell. Although the fur-lined anorak was used until the end of the war, the Waffen-SS found the army reversible insulated winter suit to be superior in many aspects and copied its design. However they produced the printed camouflaged side in Waffen-SS patterns. In the winter of 1942-43, to supplement the shortage of fur-lined anoraks, Waffen-SS troops were also supplied with the new army field gray/white reversible insulated winter suit

From White Hell - The German Army Faces the Russian Winter by Gordon Rottman, Stephen Andrew

Soldiers from the 3rd SS Division 'Totenkopf' at the start of the war


 The men take a break. One of them holds a Soviet TT pistol
 A SS orderly gives a wounded soldier a drink of water

 This SS soldier darts to a forward position with a MG 42 machine gun

Firing at the enemy with a MG 42 machine gun

 SS men about to fire a MG 34 machine gun

 Two Waffen SS soldiers

 Carrying the wounded comrades. Men of the 7th Volunteer Mountian 'Prinz Eugen' Division

 SS soldiers stuck in the mud. They are riding a BMW R75 motorcycle


 Riding the Horch 901

 The famous soldier from the SS Hitlerjugend Division Otto Funk. He was 15 when he destroyed a Churchill tank with a MG 42 machine gun. He was awarded the Iron Cross class 2 for that.He was wounded on June 26, 1944 but continued fighting till May 8, 1945

Waffen SS soldiers in action in the Soviet Union

SEE ALSO....
WAFFEN SS IN ACTION: Rare, Unseen Pictures: Part 2

WAFFEN SS: Training Made Them The Best: Personal Narrative Of A Recruit

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