History 28/01/20 SS Regiment “Nordland”: how many died of Scandinavians on the Eastern front
Among the nationalities of the prisoners taken by the red Army during the great Patriotic war, the number of 457 of the Danes, 101 72 Norwegian and Swede. How did they get here?
the Friendly occupation of Denmark and Norway.
on 9 April 1940, German troops began an operation to seize Denmark and Norway. Danish troops laid down their arms on the first day, and Norway, with the help of England and France, have resisted for two months. For their part, the Germans were doing everything to show the friendly nature of his occupation.
In the instructions to soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht on the behavior of Norway emphasized the openness, hospitality, peace, but freedom-loving character of the Normans, their racial and linguistic commonality with the Germans. Strictly instructed to respect the national consciousness of the Scandinavians, to protect their private property, not to expose the community to the arrests, particularly to prevent the degradation of Scandinavian women.
the Norwegian king and supported his policies established a government in exile. So the Germans created in Norway the collaborationist government headed by Quisling. He belonged to the civil power, the country had the most pre-war laws of Norway. In occupied Denmark, the Nazis left in the hands of the Royal government and Parliament most of their previous functions.
The Waffen-SS in Denmark and Norway.
during the Soviet-Finnish war in winter 1939/40 G. Scandinavian Nations was a great help to the Finns against the Soviet Union. As part of the Swedish volunteer corps on the side of Finland fought 8260 Swedes and 725 600 Norwegians and the Danes.
With the beginning of war of Germany against the Soviet Union in Norway and Denmark, began the formation of SS divisions. It occurs in different ways.
In Norway the recruitment of SS men engaged in officesyou open the collaborationist government. In Denmark, in addition to recording the volunteers, the Royal government in the form of an order transferred to the SS part of the Danish army, and the officers got the SS rank corresponding to their rank in the Royal service.
on 29 June 1941 announced the establishment of the Danish volunteer corps of the SS (number, in reality, at the level of one shelf). This “case” was in may 1942, included in the 3rd SS Panzer division “Totenkopf” and sent to the Eastern front. It is curious that his first commander was a nobleman of the Russian Baltic origin Konstantin Fedorovich Salburg. In the first battle in June 1942, he died.
the Danish “housing” all the summer and autumn of 1942, fought under damanskom where Soviet forces tried unsuccessfully to surround a large German group. In these battles the Danish SS lost 80% of their lineup and was sent to re-form and fitting.
In October 1942 on the Leningrad front arrived Norwegian Legion of the SS (approximately one reinforced battalion). There he took part in positional battles in the winter of 1942/43 G.
“Neutral” Sweden
Sweden was officially a neutral country. However, this “neutrality” was in favor of Germany. Germany freely smuggled through Sweden iron ore from Northern Norway. In the summer of 1941, Sweden gave Germany their railroads for the transit of troops to Finland and back. This right was used by Germany until 1944.
October 28, 1941, the Swedish king Gustav V sent Adolf Hitler a welcome letter. However, the Swedish government disavowed his involvement in it, declaring it an unofficial “personal letter”. The king expressed to the Fuehrer of Germany “gratitude” for the decision to destroy “all possible means… the plague… of Bolshevism,” and congratulated “achieved great success” in this case. As it turned out, premature.
Combined part of the “Nordland”
in Addition to the individual national parts of the SS in Denmark and NorwayAI, in 1941, was created mixed SS volunteer regiment “Nordland”, which was part of a motorized SS division “Viking”. Despite the name, the Scandinavians it was a minority of about 1,000 people. The division fought on the southern wing of the Eastern front in the Ukraine and North Caucasus.
In 1943, the Nazi leadership decided to expand the regiment “Nordland” division. Except for the Scandinavians, it included volunteers from the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, as well as Volksdeutsche from different countries. From January 1944, the division fought as part of army group “North” on the Eastern front near Leningrad and in the Baltic States. In the spring of 1945 she was evacuated from Courland bridgehead and thrown into the defense of Berlin, where he capitulated on 2 may 1945.
the participation of Scandinavians in the war on the side of the Reich and the loss of
in addition to volunteering in the SS, the part of the Scandinavians came to the Eastern front to mobilize. 25 Nov 1941 the Kingdom of Denmark officially joined the military Alliance of Germany and other fascist countries. In August 1943, the Quisling government in Norway announced the mobilization for the war with the Soviet Union. According to plan, she had to give the Wehrmacht 70 thousand Norwegians. However, the majority of recruits sabotaged it.
Foreign historians counted that during the Second world war in the SS and Wehrmacht were enrolled about 15 thousand Norwegians, of which about 5 thousand took part in the hostilities, and 6 thousand of the Danes. Of them died (almost exclusively on the Eastern front) 781 Norway and more than 500 of the Danes.
As the winter of 1939/40 G., many of the Swedish volunteers went in 1941-1944 in Finland to fight against the Soviet Union. This time they were 9760 people, of whom 116 died. The Wehrmacht and the SS fought the Swede 231, 28 of them died.
Yaroslav Butakov
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