![]() After training, this unit was attached to the SS Regiment Nordland in January 1942. In June 1941 the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS was formed from Finnish volunteers. It was ordered east in June 1941, to take part with Army Group South's advance into the Ukraine during Operation Barbarossa. Command of the newly formed division was given to Brigadeführer Felix Steiner, the former commander of the Verfügungstruppe SS Regiment Deutschland.Īfter formation the division was sent to Heuberg in Germany for training and by April 1941, SS Division Wiking was deemed ready for combat. The division was formed around three motorised infantry regiments: Germania, formed mostly from ethnic Germans Westland, consisting mainly of Dutch and Flemish volunteers and Nordland, composed mostly of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians. ![]() but during its formative period, the name was changed, to SS-Division (mot.) Wiking. In December 1940, the new SS motorised formation, was to be designated SS-Division (mot.) Germania. To this end, the SS Infantry Regiment Germania in the SS Verfügungstruppe Division was transferred in late 1940 and used as the cadre for a new division. This unit, originally organised as the Nordische Division (Nr.5), was to be made up of Nordic volunteers mixed with ethnic German Waffen SS veterans. Due to the influx of foreign volunteers, particularly from Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, a decision was made to form a volunteer division of the Waffen SS under the command of German officers. ![]() ![]() SS-Panzer-Division „Wiking“Īfter the success of the Infanterie-Regiment (mot.) Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, SS-Verfügungstruppen-Division and the SS-Division Totenkopf during the early war campaigns in Poland and the West, it was decided to expand the number of Waffen SS divisions. Kompanie/SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 10 „Westland“/5. Volunteer from Finland Mikko Korpijaakko, 9. ![]()
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