APPENDIX B
SS Section – (Gruppe)
Commanded by a junior NCO, such as an SS-Rottenführer or an SS-Unterscharführer. Made up of anywhere between 6–12 men, depending on casualties, the section was the foundation and the building block of the Waffen-SS fighting formations, as in all armies. When a man passed his Waffen-SS recruit training, he would be posted to a division, which would then send him internally to a regiment and a named battalion. In the battalion he would be detailed to one of the companies and a specific platoon within that company. He would then finally be allocated to a section in the platoon and that Gruppe would become his home and sanctuary until killed, wounded, captured or told otherwise. If Sections in a unit don’t work then nothing else does either. All unit cohesion and performance rested on them within the Waffen-SS.
SS Platoon – (Zug)
Commanded either by a junior officer such as an SS-Untersturmführer, an officer candidate such as an SS-Oberjunker or a senior NCO such as an SS-Oberscharführer. The platoon had its component sections, usually 3–4 depending on casualties, with a young officer commander and a veteran platoon sergeant who would act as second-in-command. The platoon sergeant would also control the platoon’s supplies (ammunition, food, water etc) and provide a steady hand and voice of experience to his young officer. In SS panzer formations a platoon would comprise five tanks. A soldier’s closest friends were his section, but his home was his platoon.
SS Company – (Kompanie)
Commanded by a more senior and experienced, though usually still young, officer such as an SS-Obersturmführer or an SS-Hauptsturmführer. In the British Army a company is commanded by a Major, around early thirties in age and no less. Normally consisting of three platoons, the company was the lowest tactical unit that external attachments were made to, including forward artillery fire observers and forward air controllers. In panzer formations the company would comprise four tank platoons, and two command and control tanks.
SS Battalion – (Abteilung)
Commanded by an older and more experienced officer such as an SS-Sturmbannführer. An average battalion would be made up of four companies and could have sections of specialist troops such as assault engineers attached as necessary for a particular operation. A battalion would be numbered with a Roman numeral in front of its parent regiment’s designation, such as II/SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 6 Theodor Eicke, which denoted the 2nd Battalion of the Theodor Eicke Panzergrenadier Regiment number 6.
SS Regiment – (Standarte)
Commanded by a senior and very experienced officer such as an SS-Oberführer or SS-Standartenführer. Equivalent to a brigade in British Army parlance, the regiments were a division’s major sub-units and as such would have their own integral staff as well as supporting elements including at the very least a heavy gun company, an anti-aircraft defence company, a combat engineer company and its teeth arms of either three foot-borne infantry, armoured infantry battalions or two panzer battalions, depending on its designation as an infantry, panzer grenadier or panzer regiment respectively. This was a major difference between Army and Waffen-SS regiments with Army formations having the same number of panzer battalions but crucially only two infantry battalions in each panzer grenadier or infantry regiment. This heavily reduced the unit’s combat power and meant that Army units tended to burn out far more rapidly in the battles of attrition so prevalent on the Russian Front. However, due to manpower shortages later on in the war many Waffen-SS regiments raised in late 1944 and 1945, including those in the Flemish Langemarck and the French Charlemagne, mirrored Army formations and only consisted of two-battalion regiments. This reduction in strength meant the unit’s combat effectiveness could be quickly eroded in periods of intense fighting. The regiment would be described by type, Roman numeral if it had one, and then honour name if given one, so for example in the Das Reich there was SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 3 Deutschland. If composed of Germanic volunteers the term ‘Freiwilligen’ i.e. ‘volunteer’, would be added. So in the Dutch SS-Nederland Division there were two regiments – SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Regiment 48 General Seyffardt, and SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Regiment 49 De Ruyter. Non-Germanic volunteer units were designated as ‘Waffen-Grenadier der SS’, i.e. ‘Armed Grenadier of the SS’, such as the Latvian Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS 42 Voldemars Veiss.
SS Division – (Division)
Next up the chain came the mainstay of the Waffen-SS formation. The division was entirely different from the British Army system where the much smaller regimental formation was the building block of the field army and a soldier’s spiritual home. A British soldier in the Second World War would feel loyalty to the Royal Norfolk’s, the Cameronians or the Irish Guards – famous regiments all, but in the Waffen-SS it was to the Das Reich or Hitlerjugend Divisions. This ‘division as home’ concept was a great help in maintaining morale and combat effectiveness during the frequent decimations of the Waffen-SS divisions.
There were three main types of Waffen-SS division, each with its own structure: the Panzer (tank) division, the Panzergrenadier (mixed tanks and infantry) division and the non-mechanized division (infantry, cavalry or mountain infantry).
All three types were commanded by either an SS-Gruppenführer or SS-Brigadeführer. Just as with regiments, the division would have a structure of support units and these would typically comprise a headquarters staff, military police, transport, medical support, logistics, a signals battalion, an engineer battalion, an artillery regiment and an anti-aircraft battalion (almost all entirely mechanized in panzer and panzer grenadier divisions). The teeth of the different types of divisions were as follows:
Panzer division
These were the armoured fists of the Waffen-SS and each had two panzer grenadier regiments of three battalions each and a panzer regiment of two battalions. There were seven full panzer divisions in the Waffen-SS and they comprised the crème de la crème of the Waffen-SS fighting strength, such as the 1st SS-Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Of the non-German Waffen-SS formations only the famous 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking attained this celebrated status, and of course is described in this book.
Panzergrenadier division
Comprising two panzer grenadier regiments of three battalions each and a single panzer battalion, these were not full panzer divisions but were still very powerful formations with their own integral armour. In the ‘combat pecking order’ these formations were still an élite within the Waffen-SS. There were seven panzer grenadier divisions including the only Waffen-SS division to fight exclusively on the Western Front, the ethnic German 17th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen. Five of the divisions that attained this status were non-Reichsdeutsche formations including the Nordic 11th SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland (again covered in this book) and the Hungarian volksdeutsche 18th SS- Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier Division Horst Wessel, the Götz and the Belgian Langemarck and Wallonien.
Non-mechanised divisions (infantry, cavalry or mountain infantry)
These formations formed the bulk of the Waffen-SS order of battle and the vast majority of foreign formations came under this designation. As non-mechanized units they were the least well-equipped of the Waffen-SS formations and were of widely differing quality, organisation, strength and combat effectiveness. Usually called ‘grenadier’ divisions, they normally comprised two grenadier regiments of three battalions each with supporting arms, but in practice this was chopped and changed to suit the availability, or not, of both equipment and manpower. In the French 33rd Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Charlemagne (französische Nr.1) for instance, there were only two grenadier battalions in each regiment (for more information see Book 1 in the Hitler’s Legions series, Hitler’s Gauls). Crucially, these formations lacked any integral armour and the necessary transport to give them the mobility on the battlefield that was increasingly essential as the nature of warfare, particularly on the Eastern Front, became one characterised by rapid movement. In total there were 26 grenadier divisions including two number 23s, two number 29s and two number 33s (the number being re-used when the original formation was disbanded). Thus the original 29th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS (russiche Nr.1) under Bronislav Kaminski, became the 29th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS (italienische Nr.1) under Heldmann when Kaminski’s men were absorbed into Vlasov’s ROA.
There were four SS cavalry (Kavallerie) divisions, including the short-lived 33rd Waffen-Kavallerie Division der SS (ungarische Nr.3), which was overrun before formation and its number reused for the French Charlemagne division.
There were also six mountain infantry (Gebirgs) divisions including the German 6th SS Mountain Division Nord, and the Yugoslav ethnic German 7th SS-Freiwilligen-Mountain Division Prinz Eugen.
A few of these formations were excellent combat formations, especially the three Baltic grenadier divisions, plus the Nord, the Prinz Eugen, the Langemarck and the Wallonien. The majority however, were of questionable quality and many were formed as defeat loomed and were of little value at the Front. Some of these latter were the lowest of the low and deserve to be remembered with nothing more than horror and contempt at their records, which were brutal beyond belief. Probably the most infamous was the 36th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS under Oskar Dirlewanger, whose record in Belorussia and especially Warsaw, will forever stain the reputation of the Waffen-SS order of battle.
SS Corps – (Korps)
Commanded by either an SS-Obergruppenführer or SS-Gruppenführer, the Corps was the next level up in organisational terms and consisted of a number of divisions, the minimum of which was two but could rise to three or even four. The Corps was a fully-functional field force in its own right with a full-time staff comprising complements of headquarters staff, transport, logistics, and military police, medical and signalling units of different strengths. Component divisions would then be placed under Corps command but did not ‘belong’ to that Corps, as it were, for any more than the specific campaign the Corps was involved in, or even for no longer than a single operation. The Wehrmacht’s ability to swiftly regroup formations under differing Corps commands during often complex phases of battle was one of the reasons that the German forces held out for so long towards the end of the war. During the latter defensive stages of the Russian campaign, formations would often rapidly switch Corps control to face and close off Russian offensive threats, and its true to say that few armies have ever mastered this incredibly difficult art. During the war a total of 18 Waffen-SS corps were formed including Felix Steiner’s famous III Germanic SS-Panzer Corps and the I SS and II SS-Panzer Corps of Kharkov, Normandy and Ardennes fame.
SS Army Group – (Armeegruppe)
Commanded by either an SS-Obergruppenführer or SS-Oberstgruppenführer – only Sepp Dietrich ever achieved this latter rank, (see Appendix C, Waffen-SS Ranks). These were the largest formations ever fielded by the Waffen-SS during the war, including Dietrich’s Sixth SS Panzer Army and Steiner’s Eleventh SS Panzer Army. This grouping would normally consist of several corps-sized units, but was extremely unwieldy to handle even for the well trained Wehrmacht General Staff corps. During the early stages of the war the separate Waffen-SS formations were distributed between the different Wehrmacht Army Groups, such as Army Group A, B or C for the invasion of Soviet Russia, and it was only when to all intents and purposes the war was lost that Waffen-SS formations were brought together in this way (in an interesting volte face often with Army formations integral to them).