Waffen-SS Encyclopedia Marc J.Rikmenspoel IP THE ABERJONA PRESS Bedford,PA Editor: Keith E. Bonn Production: Aegis Consulting Group, Inc. Printer: Mercersburg Printing The Aberjona Press is an imprint of Aegis Consulting Group, Inc., Bedford, Pennsylvania 15522 © 2004 Marc J. Rikmenspoel All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 6 5 4 3 2 ISBN: 0-9717650-8-1 Originally published by The Military Book Club as Waffen-SS: The Encyclopedia Visit us at www.militarybookclub.com This edition published in cooperation with BOOKSPAN The photographs in this book are predominantly from the author's private collection or are used with the permission and by the courtesy of those individuals recognized in the Introduction. Other photos are from the US National Archives, and are designated by "(NA)" in the caption. On the front cover: top row, left: Typical Waffen-SS soldier, summer 1942. (Author's collection) Top row, right: Soldiers of the SS-Estonian Legion, circa 1943 (Erik Rundkvist collection) Middle row, left: Volunteers of the Flemish Legion, spring 1942. (Geert De Vos collection) Middle row, right: Unterstuimführer Gerhard Stiller with a Panzer III at the training center at Bitsh (Bitche), 1942. (Martin Månsson collection) Bottom row, left: An SS-Totenkopf infantry regiment, 1941. (Author's collection) Bottom row, right: Soldier of SS-Nord, 1942. (Richard Warfîeld collection) To the memory of Terry C. Johnston, who taught me what it truly means to be an author. Ake wancinyankin ktelo, mitakola. Mitakuye oyasin. Contents Introduction x About the Author xii Rank Equivalence Chart xiii A Guide to Tactical Unit Symbols xiv Formations of the Waffen-SS 1 Armies 7 Corps 8 Divisions 16 Brigades 57 Regiments 57 Battalions 57 Never Formed 58 Structure of Waffen-SS Divisions 59 Early War 60 Panzer Divisions 60 Panzer-Grenadier Divisions 63 Mountain Divisions 64 Cavalry Divisions 66 Grenadier (Infantry) Divisions 68 Germans in the Waffen-SS 69 Germanics in the Waffen-SS 83 The "Wiking" Division 84 SS-Volunteer Regiment "Nordwest" 89 The SS-Nordland and SS-Nederland Divisions 90 viii CONTENTS The Germanic Nations 98 Denmark 98 Finland 110 Flanders 116 Great Britain 130 Iceland 134 The Netherlands 134 Norway 147 Sweden 160 Switzerland and Liechtenstein 166 Wallonia 169 Conclusions 179 Non-Germans and Non-Germanics in the Waffen-SS 181 Albania 181 Armenia 182 Azerbaijan 182 Bosnia 182 Bulgaria 183 Belorussia 183 Czechia 183 Estonia 184 France 185 Georgia 186 Hungary 187 India 187 Ireland 188 Italy 188 Latvia 188 Lithuania 189 North Caucasus 189 Poland 190 Romania 190 Russia 191 Slovakia 191 Spain 192 Turkics 192 Ukraine 193 Conclusion 194 CONTENTS ix Leading Personalities of the Waffen-SS 195 Paul Hausser 195 Felix Steiner 199 Sepp Dietrich 203 TheodorEicke 206 Herbert Otto Gille 210 Willi Bittrich 213 Matthias Kleinheisterkamp 215 Otto Kumm 217 Heinz Harmel 220 Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger 223 Otto Weidinger 226 Hans Dorr 228 Walter Schmidt 231 Weapons of the Waffen-SS 235 Infantry Weapons 235 Anti-Tank Weapons (Including Tank-Destroying Vehicles) 238 Armored Vehicles 240 Artillery 246 Misconceptions and Controversies About the Waffen-SS 251 The Waffen-SS Were the "Asphalt Soldiers" 251 The Waffen-SS Was Atheistic 252 The Waffen-SS Suffered Unnecessarily High Casualties in Battle 253 The Waffen-SS Had Inferior Leadership 256 The Waffen-SS Possessed Superior Weaponry to the Heer 257 The Waffen-SS, Einsatzgruppen, and Concentration Camp Guards 259 The Waffen-SS and War Crimes 260 Appendix: Weapons Tables 265 Annotated Bibliography 269 Introduction The list of published works about the Waffen-SS grows longer every year. New accounts and infonnation see publication in every language used by members of the Waffen-SS, meaning that many specialized details useful to historians are found in books not available in English or German. Meanwhile, the contents of various archives around the world have yet to be explored in full. These factors allow for the happy event that as a field of study, the topic of the Waffen-SS remains fresh; more remains to be said without simply rehashing what has come before. Unfortunately, many works exist, particularly in English, which are rehashes, cutting and pasting out of published books to create a "new" volume. The result is that much misinformation has been widely spread, with the Waffen-SS order of battle suffering greatly in this regard. Thus, this reason for being is laid out. My aim is to present readers and researchers with a handy reference on: the precise order of battle of its major formations; the manpower sources and nationalities that comprised the force, the "movers and shakers" of the Waffen-SS, and the weapons they used. As a bonus, extended detail is provided on the history of the "Germanic" Waffen-SS, that part of it formed from Scandinavians and West Europeans. This sub-topic has suffered from shallow and sloppy research more than any other, in the realm of Waffen-SS books pub- lished in English. Luckily, diligent researchers are investigating this aspect of the Waffen-SS, and many have kindly made their findings available to me. For this I need to particularly thank Tommy Natedal, Geir Brenden, Björn Jervas, Lennart Westberg, Martin Månsson, Erik Rundkvist, Holger Thor Nielsen, Allen Brandt, Erik Linnasmägi, Leo Tammiksaar, John P. Moore, Eddy De Bruyne, Max Cuypers, Yvo Janssens, and Peter van Holsteijn. With their help, I was able to present information never before published in such a comprehensive manner. It X xi INTRODUCTION is my hope that this section will prove useful even to those experienced researchers who find little new in the rest of the book. The book as a whole has benefited from the writing and publishing efforts of Roger James Bender and Hugh Page Taylor, Richard Land- wehr, Erik Norling, John Fedorowicz (with Michael Olive and Robert Edwards), Mark Yerger, Olli Wikberg, Munin Verlag, and the Sint Maartensfonds, among many additional researchers and publishers. Special thanks go to Kit and Patti Bonn for bringing me this project, and for their considerate editing. The mistakes are still mine, of course. I welcome questions and comments, and I apologize if I failed to thank anyone who assisted me. Thanks for reading my work. Marc Rikmenspoel Fort Collins, Colorado 17 January 2002