Reply To: Continued Explorations of Normandy Wargaming

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I’m never one to stand up for SS formations…

 

But 5th Panzer Divisin Wiking do not have anywhere near the war crimes record of other SS units.

It was the ‘Nordic’ formation and fought almost entirely on the Eastern Front, its ranks being ethnic Germans and Nordic volunteers, who often joined for various reasons from a deep seated hatred of Communism to adventure. They also recruited from the former Baltic States who certainly had no love for the Red Army.

Their three main war crimes, if you can settle on three, are the beating and execution of around 60 Jews in Lvov in 1941 after one of the divisions officer was shot and killed. It should be noted that members of 1st Gebirgsjager Division also took part in this event.

The other two events were both during prisoner marches in 1945, when 5 members of Wiking shot and killed two groups of Jewish prisoners, one a group of 80 and another of 18.

While still horrific, I’m not sure they qualify as far and away worse than any other Waffen SS division.

As for their casualty rate, well it’s pretty much the same as others. They had no stand out high rate, which considering their role as a Fire Brigade in the east is no mean feat. All SS divisions had high turnover as they were often tasked with hard assignments and early in the war acted with often recklessness. But Wiking was far down the list for manpower turnover. Certainly LAH and Das Reich topped them.

I’ve no love for any of the units of the Waffen-SS but Wiking certainly weren’t the worst or most fanatical. They did however fight a hard and brutal war in the East.