Waffen-SS Dutch, Belgian, and Danish Volunteers


Book Description

“This book is a treasure trove of inspiration for models, vignettes, and dioramas.” — IPMS/USA Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, numerous Dutchmen, Belgians and Danes volunteered for the Waffen-SS. The largest division, SS Volunteer Legion Netherlands operated in Yugoslavia and then Northern Russia. It was later re-designated 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nederland. Fighting alongside the Nederland formation was the SS Volunteer Legion Flanders, manned mainly with Dutch speaking recruits from occupied Belgium. After being disbanded it was later reformed as the SS Assault Brigade Langemarck (SS-Sturmbrigade Langemarck). The SS Volunteer Legion Walloon, recruited from French-speaking volunteers from German occupied Belgium, was sent to Russia and later integrated with the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia (SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien). Finally some 6,000 Danes served in Free Corps Denmark which went to the Eastern Front in May 1942. Within a year the formation was disbanded into Division Nordland, known as `Regiment 24 Danemark` Drawing on a superb collection of rare and often unpublished photographs, this fine Images of War book describes the fighting history of each formation, notably the 1944 battle of Narva, which was known as the battle of the European SS. As its forces were pushed further back across a scarred and burning wasteland it describes how these Dutch, Belgian and Danish units became cut off in the Kurland Pocket until some were evacuated by sea. The remainder were killed or captured in front of Berlin in April 1945.







From Leningrad to Berlin


Book Description

When in June 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the SS appealed to young men in occupied areas to support the crusade against Bolshevism. At least 20.000 Dutchmen came forward to put their names down for this cause. The vast majority of them served in what was first called the legion, later the brigade and later still the 'Nederland' division. In From Leningrad to Berlin the history of the largest Dutch Waffen-SS unit on the eastern front is described for the first time. The main sources drawn on when writing this book were documents that survived the war, such as unit diaries and Berlin-generated paperwork on Dutch volunteers preserved in archives in Moscow and Prague, which can now be consulted in Dutch archives. By extensively studying the relevant literature the author has endeavoured to place the history of Dutch Waffen-SS volunteers in its rightful political and military context. The history of Dutch volunteers in the Waffen-SS forms a black and, until now, unwritten page in Dutch history. Bron: Flaptekst, uitgeversinformatie.




Joining Hitler's Crusade


Book Description

A ground-breaking study that looks at why European nations sent troops to take part in Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.




Danish Volunteers of the Waffen-SS


Book Description

Reproduces a huge number of previously unpublished photographs of Danish SS volunteers on the Eastern Front.




From Leningrad to Berlin


Book Description

In February 1945 the German front at Stettin made one final offensive. What make this extraordinary is the fact that the last desperate push was mounted by non-German volunteers serving in the Waffen-SS. The main body of the division was composed of Scandinavian volunteers, Belgians and Dutchmen. This text presents a history of the Dutch volunteers of the Waffen-SS from 1941 to 1945.







The European Volunteer 0


Book Description

In this book: Formation and Employment of the SS Langemarck Brigade - Unterscharführer Harald Nugiseks - Italian Volunteers in the Waffen SS - The 8.SS-Kavallerie-Division ‘Florian Geyer’ at Nyiregyhaza - Frikorps Danmark - 5.SS-Freiwillige Sturmbrigade Wallonien The French SS-Freiwilligen-Sturmbrigade




Building a Nazi Europe


Book Description

A compelling account of the men who worked and fought for Nazi terror organization, the SS, during the Second World War.




A European Anabasis


Book Description

Kenneth Estes studies the 100,000 West Europeans who fought against Russia as volunteers for the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. A retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Estes shows tremendous knowledge of combat and writes gripping battlefield prose. Two-thirds of the West European volunteers came from Spain and the Netherlands, yet Estes demonstrates wide range and covers Flemish, Walloon, French, Danish, and Norwegian combat units. Avoiding over-generalization, the author distinguishes carefully among the Danes and Flemings who fought competently with the SS-Wiking Division and later with Nordland, the courageous but poorly-armed Spanish, the ill-trained Dutch and French in Landstorm Nederland and SS-Charlemagne, and the Norwegians who after a first wave of enthusiasm held back altogether. Estes pulverizes the Nazi propaganda notion of a multinational European army defending 'Western civilization' against 'Bolshevism'. He shows that West Europeans, mainly of the urban working classes, volunteered from a mix of motives -adventure-seeking, ideology, hopes of personal advantage or material gain, a desire for better food, or a wish to escape a criminal record at home. He demonstrates that the best-performing foreign legions were trained and led by German officers and formed parts of larger SS units, and also that the Wehrmacht placed little value on foreign formations until its other manpower reserves ran out in 1944-45. This is a landmark work on a subject, which has been much written about, but rarely understood or described as perceptively as in the pages of this book.