Hitler's Vikings: The History of the Scandinavian Waffen-SS: The Legions, the SS-Wiking and the SS-Nordland

by Jonathan Trigg

Overview

The first book to cover all the Scandinavians who served in Hitler's feared Waffen-SS right until the end in Berlin

Based in part on interviews with surviving veterans, this history details the battles the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish men of the Waffen-SS fought, and what inspired them to join. The Nazis' dream of a world dominated by legions of Aryan "supermen," forged in battle and absolutely loyal to Adolf Hitler, was epitomized by the Waffen-SS. Created as a supreme military elite, it grew to become an immense force totaling almost one million men by the end of the war. An astonishing fact about the SS is that thousands of its members were not German. Men stepped forward from almost every nation in Europe, for many complex reasons that included hatred of Bolshevism and nationalist sentiment or even straightforward anti-Semitism. Thousands of Scandinanians were recruited from 1940 onwards and fought with distinction on the Russian Front. They served at first in national legions but were then brought together in the elite Wiking Panzer Division and the Nordland Panzer-grenadier Division. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780752467290
Publisher:	Spellmount, Limited Publishers
Publication date:	10/25/2012
Series:	Hitler's Legions
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Trigg is the author of Hitler's Flemish Lions, Hitler's Gauls, and Hitler's Vikings.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 6

Notes on the Text 9

Preface 11

Introduction 13

I 1940 - Occupation, the SS-Wiking and the beginning of the Scandinavian Waffen-SS 25

II 1941: First Blood - the Den Norske Legion, the Frikorps Danmark and the Wiking in Barbarossa 59

III 1942: Nazi Germany's High Water Mark - Leningrad, Demyansk and the Caucasus 88

IV 1943: The End of the Legions, the SS-Nordland is Born 143

V 1944: Bled White in the East -the Wiking at Cherkassy and the Nordland at Narva 174

VI 1945: The End of the Scandinavian Waffen-SS - the Wiking in Hungary and the Nordland in Berlin 225

VII Homecoming - Retribution and Legacy 259

Appendix A Wehrmacht Bravery Awards 270

Appendix B Waffen-SS Formation Organisation 273

Appendix C Waffen-SS Ranks 278

Bibliography 280

Index 283