Nordic Warriors

In the great struggle against Stalinist Communism which broke out in 1941,'Germanic' volunteers from north-west Europe performed so creditably both in their national legions and in the multinational SS-Division WIKINGthat on the 30th March 1943 a new division - NORDLAND - was established to fight alongside WIKING in a Germanic SS-corps, the cadre being provided by one of WIKING'S three motorised infantry regiments (itself NORDLAND). Thus SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt.24 was set up,, Danish Veterans from the FREIKORPS DANMARK and the NORDLAND Rgr being supplemented with Romanians to make the personel up. Even so, Danes consistenely thereafter accounted for some 12% of the Division, constututing a still higher proportion of officers. Training was carried out at Grafenwohr in May-August 1943 befor the Division was sent to Crostia against Tito's partisans. On arrival on the Eastern Front the Danes were assigned a sector of the Oranienbaum Pocket west of Leningrad: from then on until the end of the war they were committed to a fightinng withdrawal in the face of the overwhelming masses of infantry, artillery armour and aircraft, finally passing into Soviet Captivity.