Oberst Dr.rer.pol. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Mayer (Kommandeur Infanterie-Regiment 501 / 290. Infanterie-Division) on a sled traveling towards the front line to inspect his soldiers. The picture was taken by Kriegsberichter Wurst in the northern sector of the Eastern Front, February 1942.
Source :
https://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/dba/de/search/?yearfrom=&yearto=&query=johannes+mayer#
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Johannes "Hans" Theodor Mayer was a German general of the infantry in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II and a veteran of World War I who attained the rank of General der Infanterie and became one of the highly decorated officers of the conflict by receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Born on 6 September 1893 in the village of Stepenitz near Pritzwalk in the province of Brandenburg within the German Empire he was the son of the Protestant pastor Dr. phil. Lic. theol. Gottlob Mayer and grew up in a religious household that influenced his early path toward theology. His cousin was the later Generalarzt Dr. med. Hans Mayer and his brother-in-law was Gustav Schmidt though details of his own spouse and children remain undocumented in available records. Mayer excelled academically attending the elite Gymnasium Schulpforta where he graduated as the top student of his class with his Abitur in 1913 before beginning studies in theology at university.
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 Mayer volunteered for military service and joined the Infantry Regiment Prince Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau the 5th Pomeranian Infantry Regiment Number 42 initially serving as a regimental adjutant. He saw combat on multiple fronts including in France Russia Macedonia and Romania rising rapidly through the ranks to become a Leutnant on 5 November 1915 with a patent dated 23 March 1914 and later an Oberleutnant while earning both classes of the Iron Cross for personal bravery the second class on 24 August 1915 and the first class on 16 December 1916. After the armistice he transferred into the Reichswehr where he continued his career but deliberately interrupted troop duty in the 1920s to pursue advanced academic studies earning a doctorate in political economy as Dr. rer. pol. from the University of Greifswald and a second doctorate in engineering as Dr.-Ing. from the Technical University of Charlottenburg. During this period he gained practical experience working in various industrial enterprises and at the Waffenamt the army's weapons office before returning fully to active military service in 1932.
By the mid-1930s Mayer had advanced steadily through the interwar promotions becoming a Major on 1 February 1935 and serving as a tactics instructor at the Kriegsschule in Potsdam from October 1935 onward. He was promoted to Oberstleutnant on 1 October 1937 and took command of the first battalion of Infantry Regiment 65 based in Delmenhorst on 10 November 1938. With the beginning of World War II in 1939 he led his battalion into action and was soon promoted to Oberst on 1 October 1940 assuming command of the newly formed Infantry Regiment 501 within the 290th Infantry Division. During the Western Campaign of 1940 the regiment distinguished itself by breaking through the Weygand Line and capturing the city of Soissons after which it transferred with the division to Heeresgruppe Nord for the invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. On the night of 7 August 1941 Mayer personally led his regiment through dense trackless forest to seize a critical bridge over the Polisstj River near Garisha which Soviet forces had set ablaze; under heavy fire his troops extinguished the flames secured the crossing intact and enabled the entire division including artillery to advance without delay earning him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 13 September 1941 as the first recipient in his division.
In early 1942 Mayer briefly commanded a snowshoe-equipped combat group operating south of Staraja Russa before assuming leadership of the 329th Infantry Division on 27 March 1942 a formation that played a key role in reopening the Demjansk Pocket and conducting prolonged defensive operations south of Lake Ilmen. Promoted to Generalmajor on 1 April 1942 without initial RDA later adjusted and then to Generalleutnant on 1 February 1943 he demonstrated exceptional skill in holding fragmented lines with limited resources while maintaining close personal contact with his soldiers. The division's most critical test came on 10 March 1944 northwest of Newel when five Soviet rifle divisions supported by two tank brigades tore a deep penetration north of Putoschka threatening to split the German front; Mayer rapidly assembled an improvised battle group from alarm units construction troops and rear-echelon personnel forming a chain of strongpoints to seal the breach and launching an immediate counterattack after nighttime reinforcements arrived. When the assault stalled he moved forward under intense artillery and machine-gun fire to the foremost line personally directing assault teams and recapturing the vital village of Chudobelkena in close-quarters fighting which restored the integrity of the sector and led to his award of the Oak Leaves on 13 April 1944 as the 453rd recipient.
Mayer continued to lead the 329th Infantry Division through unrelenting defensive battles in mid-1944 holding a thin line south of Ssebesh through Malkowo Sawarnja railway station Lewnowo and Borki starting on 13 July. Over the following four days the division repelled no fewer than thirty-seven major Soviet attacks involving infantry tanks and massive artillery barrages turning the sector into a continuous inferno of shellfire and hand-to-hand combat. Throughout the fighting Mayer remained constantly at the most threatened forward positions appearing among the troops during multiple crises to direct counterattacks rally faltering units and restore order through his personal example and tactical oversight until he himself suffered severe wounds on the final day which finally eased the pressure. The division's stubborn resistance was explicitly praised in the Wehrmachtbericht on 18 July 1944 and for this outstanding frontline leadership Mayer received the Swords to the Knight's Cross on 23 August 1944 as the 89th recipient while also earning additional honors including the Infantry Assault Badge in Silver the Eastern Front Medal the Wound Badge in Black and later the Kurland cuff title.
After partial recovery from his wounds Mayer was promoted to General der Infanterie on 1 April 1945 and briefly served as acting commander of the II Army Corps being flown into the Courland Pocket on 29 January 1945 despite incomplete healing to stabilize the besieged position until deteriorating health forced his evacuation to a rear hospital in April 1945 and transfer to the Führerreserve of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. He ended the war in various reserve assignments and survived the conflict to resume civilian life working postwar as an engineer in an industrial enterprise until his death on 7 August 1963 in Hamburg West Germany at the age of sixty-nine. In addition to his combat awards he held the full range of Wehrmacht long-service decorations from fourth to first class the 1939 clasps to both Iron Cross classes and the Honour Cross of the World War 1914-18 with swords reflecting a career that spanned more than three decades of dedicated service across two world wars.
Sources:
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Mayer
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Mayer_(General)
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/34550/Mayer-Dr-rer-pol-Dr-Ing-Johannes.htm
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/
https://generals.dk/general/Mayer/Johannes/Germany.html
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
Books:
Walther-Peer Fellgiebel - Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939-1945
Various Wehrmacht personnel files and award rolls (Bundesarchiv)
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Kurt Bühligen was a Luftwaffe wing commander and fighter ace of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was credited with 112 enemy aircraft shot down in over 700 combat missions. His victories were all claimed over the Western Front and included 24 four-engine bombers and 47 Supermarine Spitfire fighters. He rose from an aircraft mechanic to Geschwaderkommodore of the elite Jagdgeschwader 2 Richthofen, earning the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords while leading intense defensive operations against the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces in the skies over France, the English Channel, and North Africa.
Born on 13 December 1917 in Granschütz in the Province of Saxony of the German Empire, Bühligen was the son of a pipefitter. After completing an apprenticeship as a locksmith he volunteered for military service in the Luftwaffe on 13 March 1936 with the Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilung in Oschatz. He first served as an aircraft mechanic with Kampfgeschwader 153 from September 1937 until February 1938 and then with Kampfgeschwader 4 until April 1939. When World War II broke out he began pilot training and was posted on 15 June 1940 as an Unteroffizier to the 2. Staffel of I. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 2 Richthofen, flying the Messerschmitt Bf 109. His first aerial victory came on 4 September 1940 when he shot down a Hawker Hurricane over Dover during the Battle of Britain. He was soon transferred to 6. Staffel of II. Gruppe where he often flew as wingman and claimed additional Hurricanes and Spitfires in September and October.
In the summer of 1941 II. Gruppe moved to Abbeville-Drucat and faced the RAF Fighter Command's relentless Circus operations over northern France. On 21 June 1941 alone Bühligen claimed three Spitfires in a single afternoon of furious combat over Boulogne and Hardelot, diving through British formations at high speed and using precise cannon bursts to send the fighters spinning down in flames or trailing smoke. He added seven more Spitfires in July and August while flying with 4. Staffel and then six further victories with the Geschwaderstab, including a Hurricane and five Spitfires. These successes, together with fifteen tethered balloons destroyed, brought his total to twenty-one confirmed aerial victories and earned him the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 September 1941 while still an Oberfeldwebel. He was also awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on 10 September 1940, the Iron Cross 1st Class on 29 October 1940, and the Luftwaffe Honour Goblet on 1 August 1941.
Promoted to Leutnant on 1 January 1942, Bühligen took command of 4. Staffel of II. Gruppe in April 1942 after the unit converted to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. During the Dieppe Raid on 19 August 1942 he claimed four Spitfires in one day as the Gruppe scored twenty-six victories overall, weaving through flak and fighter screens at low altitude over the French coast. In November 1942 II. Gruppe was rushed to the Mediterranean Theatre following Operation Torch. Operating from Sicily and Tunisia with the Fw 190 A-3 and A-4, Bühligen claimed his first victory there on 3 December 1942 south of Tebourba and two Lockheed P-38 Lightnings on 26 December during an interception of Boeing B-17 bombers attacking Bizerte. His acting Gruppenkommandeur recommended him for preferential promotion, and on 1 February 1943 he became Oberleutnant after approval by General der Flieger Bruno Loerzer and Field Marshal Albert Kesselring.
In the bitter fighting over Tunisia Bühligen achieved ace-in-a-day status on 2 February 1943 by downing four Curtiss P-40 Warhawks and one Bell P-39 Airacobra near Kairouan in rapid succession, followed by four more Spitfires on 3 February alone. By early February he reached his fiftieth victory amid swirling dogfights against Allied fighter-bombers protecting ground advances. He was awarded the German Cross in Gold on 25 June 1943 as Leutnant and promoted to Hauptmann on 1 May 1943. Returning to the Channel Front in March 1943 he was appointed Kommandeur of II. Gruppe in April 1943. Flying high-altitude intercepts against massive USAAF bomber streams protected by P-47 Thunderbolts, he claimed a series of Herausschuss victories including B-17s and B-24 Liberators, reaching ninety-six confirmed kills by 18 March 1944 when he destroyed a straggling B-24 south-southwest of Forges. This milestone brought him the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on 2 March 1944, the 413th such award.
On 28 April 1944 Bühligen succeeded Major Kurt Ubben as Geschwaderkommodore of JG 2, initially as Major and soon promoted to Oberstleutnant on 1 October 1944. The Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944 plunged the Geschwader into desperate low-level combat. At 11:57 that day he opened the unit's account by shooting down a P-47 Thunderbolt over the Orne Estuary. On 7 June he claimed two more P-47s north of Caen, the second marking his 100th victory. In the smoke-filled skies over the bocage he added three kills on 5 July near Bernay and Dreux, two Thunderbolts and a North American P-51 Mustang, pushing his score to 104. These actions in swirling, treetop-height dogfights against overwhelming Allied fighter-bombers earned him the Swords to the Knight's Cross on 14 August 1944, the 88th award overall. He was later transferred toward the Eastern Front where engine failure forced an emergency landing behind Soviet lines in May 1945. Taken prisoner, he remained in Soviet captivity until his release in 1950.
After the war Bühligen settled in Nidda, Hesse, where he worked in automotive sales until his death on 11 August 1985. Throughout his career he had been shot down three times and had flown more than 700 missions, ending as one of the last commanders of the legendary Richthofen Geschwader. His record of 112 victories, achieved entirely on the Western and Mediterranean fronts without any claims on the Eastern Front, stood as a testament to his skill in both the Bf 109 and Fw 190 against ever-improving Allied opposition.
Oberfeldwebel Kurt Bühligen.
Leutnant Kurt Bühligen.
Oberleutnant Kurt Bühligen.
Oberleutnant
Kurt Bühligen (Staffelkapitän 4.Staffel / II.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 2
"Richthofen") at the Kairouan airfield in Tunisia, 12 February 1943. The
2nd Group was based there between
January 11, 1943, and March 15, 1943. Other pictures from this occasion can be seen HERE.
The
pilots of II.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" (II./JG 2) at the
Kairouan airfield in Tunisia, 12 February 1943. From left to right:
Leutnant Bruno Siekmann (Flugzeugführer in 4. Staffel), Oberfeldwebel
Kurt Goltzsch (Flugzeugführer in 4. Staffel), Oberleutnant Kurt Bühligen
(Staffelkapitän 4. Staffel), Hauptmann Erich Rudorffer (Gruppenführer
II. Gruppe), and Leutnant Lothar Werner (Flugzeugführer in 4. Staffel).
The pilots of II.Gruppe / Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" (II./JG 2)
eating lunch at
the Kairouan airfield in Tunisia, 12 February 1943. Facing to the camera, from left to right:
Oberfeldwebel Kurt Goltzsch (Flugzeugführer in 4. Staffel), Hauptmann Erich
Rudorffer (Gruppenführer II. Gruppe), and Leutnant Kurt Bühligen (Staffelkapitän 4. Staffel).
Sources:
W. P. Fellgiebel, Elite of the Third Reich, Helion & Company Limited, Solihull, 2003.
F. Kurowski, Knight's Cross Holders of the Afrikakorps, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Atglen, 1996.
E. Obermaier, Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe, Hoffmann, 1989.
K. Patzwall & V. Scherzer, Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, Band II, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2001.
A. Kwasny & G. Kwasny, Die Eichenlaubträger 1940-1945 (CD), Deutsches Wehrkundearchiv, Lage-Waddenhausen, 2001.
F. Berger, Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern, Die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges, Selbstverlag Florian Berger, 2006.
Die Ordensträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht (CD), VMD-Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 2002.
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
Generalmajor Walter Fries (left, Kommandeur 29. Panzergrenadier-Division) posed with Oberst Dr.rer.pol. Fritz Polack (Kommandeur Artillerie-Regiment 29) after the Ritterkreuz award ceremony for Polack.
Fritz Polack (22 October 1892 – 6 April 1956) was a highly decorated Wehrmacht officer who rose from artillery lieutenant in World War I to Generalleutnant in World War II. A veteran of the Saxon Fußartillerie-Regiment Nr. 10, he earned both classes of the Iron Cross in 1914–1916 before studying political economy and rejoining the Reichswehr in 1934. By 1943 he commanded Artillerie-Regiment 29 (motorisiert) within the 29. Panzergrenadier-Division (under General Walter Fries) during the defense of Sicily in Operation Husky.
He received the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross) on 27 August 1943 as Oberst and regimental commander. The official citation highlights his actions on 11 August 1943 at Brolo on Sicily’s north coast: “Oberst Polack assembled a Kampfgruppe with all available forces and used it to fight for control of the narrow passage at Brolo. He then held this position until he made contact with the Kampfgruppe led by Oberstleutnant Krüger.” This was no routine artillery duel—it was a desperate, improvised infantry-style stand by an artillery headquarters that saved the division’s escape route during the final German withdrawal from Sicily.
By early August 1943 the 29. Panzergrenadier-Division formed part of the German rearguard along Sicily’s northern coastal Highway 113 (the only viable east-west route). The division held the strong Naso Ridge–San Fratello line against the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, but the Americans launched “end-run” amphibious landings to outflank them and race to Messina. Task Force Bernard (Lt. Col. Lyle W. Bernard’s understrength 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry—roughly 650 men—plus five Shermans, self-propelled 105 mm guns, engineers, and naval support from the cruiser USS Philadelphia and six destroyers) hit the beaches west of Brolo just after 0243 hours on 11 August.
Polack’s regimental HQ (a tiny force of artillerymen, HQ staff, and a few 20 mm Flak guns) occupied the commanding double-humped ridge of Monte Cipolla—a steep, scrub-covered height only 450 yards from the sea that overlooked the coastal road, the stone village of Brolo, the lemon groves (“the flats”), and the dry Brolo Riverbed. The balance of his artillery regiment and elements of the 71st Panzergrenadier Regiment were spread eastward along the coast.
The Americans landed almost undetected at first. Companies F and G scrambled up the precipitous northeastern nose of Monte Cipolla through lemon groves and over a 13-foot railroad embankment. Dawn broke with the hill seemingly in American hands.
Then Polack’s small headquarters erupted. Flares lit the sky like magnesium stars. Machine guns and small-arms fire ripped down the slopes, “tearing up the slopes around the scrambling Americans with small-arms fire, killing several.” The outgunned artillerymen poured fire into the climbing GIs; American bodies tumbled back down the brick-hard terraces. Polack’s party fought until they were forced to beat a hasty retreat off the hill and into the village of Brolo.
Polack immediately grasped the mortal danger: if the Americans seized the narrow coastal defile at Brolo, the entire 29th Division—and potentially larger German forces—would be cut off from Messina. He radioed General Fries, who ordered an immediate counterattack and began pulling troops from the Naso Ridge defenses. Polack wasted no time. He scraped together every man he could find—his own artillery personnel (now fighting as infantry), two companies of panzergrenadiers, and half a dozen tanks—and packed them into half-tracks and personnel carriers.
Around 1100 hours his Kampfgruppe Polack rumbled out of Brolo along Highway 113. Tanks and half-tracks clanked forward in a thunder of tracks and engines, infantry dismounting to push through gullies and stone walls. German guns opened up from the village; 20 mm Flak hammered the American positions on Monte Cipolla. In the lemon groves below, Polack’s tanks dueled American Shermans and self-propelled guns at point-blank range—one German tank and an American crew both burst into flames after a direct confrontation. His men overran and destroyed two American howitzers from Battery B and mowed down ammunition mules and runners.
The coastal road and riverbed became a hellscape. Naval shells from the Philadelphia and destroyers screamed in, shattering trucks and carving craters along the highway. Grass fires ignited by explosions burned telephone wires and isolated American units. A-36 fighter-bombers screamed overhead, strafing and bombing Brolo. American mortar and machine-gun fire cut down German scouting parties (one 30-man group advancing down the Brolo Riverbed was almost annihilated). Yet Polack’s Kampfgruppe seized and held the vital narrow passage at Brolo—the choke point that controlled the retreat route.
All afternoon the fighting raged. Bernard’s men on Monte Cipolla were squeezed into a shrinking perimeter; radio pleas grew desperate (“Enemy counterattacking fiercely. Do something!”). Misplaced American bombs even killed 19 of their own men and destroyed Battery A’s remaining howitzers. German tracers zipped through the darkness “like neatly organized fireflies,” bullets churning the hard ground while figures ran, cursed, and fell.
Polack’s force maintained the position under relentless naval and air pounding until late in the day, when they finally linked up with Kampfgruppe Krüger (elements of the 71st Panzergrenadier Regiment under Oberstleutnant Walter Krüger advancing from the west). The link-up secured the coastal highway. The 29th Panzergrenadier Division was able to withdraw eastward past the trap, loading men and vehicles onto trucks under cover of night and shellfire. Most of the division escaped to Messina and crossed the Strait of Messina in the final evacuation (Operation Lehrgang), completed by 17 August.
Polack’s rapid assembly of a scratch Kampfgruppe, his personal leadership in the close-quarters fight, and his stubborn defense of the Brolo defile prevented the Americans from severing the German line of retreat. This action—turning artillerymen into street-fighting infantry and coordinating tanks and infantry under devastating naval gunfire—directly earned him the Knight’s Cross.
The award recognized not only bravery but decisive leadership that preserved combat power for the Italian mainland campaign. Polack later commanded the 29. Panzergrenadier-Division itself (from August 1944) and was nominated (but not officially awarded due to the war’s end) for the Oak Leaves. He surrendered to U.S. forces in Italy in 1945 and died in 1956.
The “Imbroglio at Brolo” (as one American account called it) was a classic small-unit knife-fight in a larger campaign: a handful of determined Germans under an artillery colonel turned back a surprise amphibious thrust and kept the escape corridor open for thousands. That is the vivid, gritty action that won Fritz Polack the Ritterkreuz.
Source :
https://grokipedia.com/page/fritz_polack
https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/35763/Polack-Drrerpol-Fritz.htm
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Felix Martin Julius Steiner was a German SS commander during the Second World War who rose to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS and became one of the most prominent leaders in the multinational volunteer formations of the Waffen-SS. Born on 23 May 1896 in Stallupönen in East Prussia, a region now part of modern Russia, he grew up immersed in the Prussian military tradition and entered the Royal Prussian Army as an infantry cadet in March 1914. His early service in the First World War took him through the brutal fighting on the Western Front where he distinguished himself repeatedly, earning the Iron Cross Second Class in October 1914 and the First Class in November 1917 while also receiving the Wound Badge in Black for injuries sustained in 1918. After the armistice Steiner joined the Freikorps in Memel and participated in the suppression of communist uprisings during the German Revolution of 1919 before being integrated into the Reichswehr in 1921. He advanced steadily through the ranks of the small professional army of the Weimar Republic, reaching the position of major by 1933 when he retired from regular service and briefly served in the Landespolizei. In January 1934 he joined the Nazi Party with membership number 4,264,295 and shortly afterward transferred to the SS with the number 253,351, beginning a new phase of his career that would see him shape some of the most elite and controversial units of the Third Reich. A devout Evangelical by upbringing, Steiner remained unmarried throughout his life and had no children, devoting himself entirely to his military vocation.
Steiner’s entry into the SS-Verfügungstruppe in 1935 quickly propelled him through the ranks as he demonstrated exceptional organizational talent and a modern approach to training. By June 1936 he commanded the SS-Standarte Deutschland, transforming it into a highly disciplined motorized regiment known for its aggressive tactics and esprit de corps. When the Second World War erupted in September 1939 his regiment spearheaded the SS-Verfügungs-Division through the Invasion of Poland, earning him the Clasps to both classes of the Iron Cross within weeks. The real test came during the Battle of France in 1940 when Steiner’s men were tasked with the rapid capture of the Zeeland islands in the Netherlands. Under constant enemy fire he personally directed a lightning three-day thrust westward to Vlissingen, coordinating infantry assaults with Stuka dive-bomber support while his soldiers waded through waist-deep water at the Beveland Canal and stormed fortified French positions in savage hand-to-hand combat along the narrow causeway. The regiment cleared two major defensive lines and took thousands of prisoners, isolating Allied forces and contributing decisively to the collapse of resistance in the region. For this masterful leadership and personal bravery at the front Steiner was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 15 August 1940, one of the earliest such decorations granted to a Waffen-SS officer, cementing his reputation as a bold and innovative commander who could achieve rapid victories even against determined opposition.
Following the French campaign Heinrich Himmler personally selected Steiner to form and lead a new division that would embody the Waffen-SS ideal of a multinational elite force. On 1 December 1940 he assumed command of what became the SS-Division Wiking, a motorized formation initially built around the Germania regiment and later reinforced with Scandinavian, Dutch, Flemish and Baltic volunteers. The division crossed into the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 as part of Army Group South and fought its way through Tarnopol and across the Dnieper River toward Dnepropetrovsk amid ferocious Soviet counterattacks. Through the muddy autumn and the brutal winter of 1941-1942 Steiner kept the formation cohesive despite heavy losses, repulsing repeated Red Army assaults on the Mius River line where one regiment alone suffered fifty percent casualties yet held its ground. In the summer of 1942 Wiking participated in the capture of Rostov-on-Don and then raced across the steppes into the Caucasus, reaching the Terek River in September. There Steiner ordered a daring river crossing under intense artillery fire, after which his panzergrenadiers and attached tanks battled for weeks in the rugged foothills around Mosdok and Alagir, holding mountain ridges against wave after wave of Soviet infantry in freezing nights and close-quarter fighting. The division’s deep penetration to the southernmost point of the German advance and its tenacious defense of the Terek bridgehead earned Steiner the German Cross in Gold in April 1942 and ultimately the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross on 23 December 1942 while he was still commanding the now redesignated 5th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Wiking.
In April 1943 Steiner relinquished direct command of Wiking to take charge of the newly formed III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, a larger combined-arms formation that incorporated Nordic and Western European volunteer units including Nordland, Nederland, Wallonien and Langemarck. After initial anti-partisan operations in Yugoslavia the corps was rushed to the Leningrad front in late 1943 where it faced the Soviet 2nd Shock Army. On 13 January 1944 the Red Army unleashed a massive artillery barrage followed by overwhelming infantry and tank assaults that shattered several Luftwaffe field divisions, yet Steiner’s SS troops conducted a disciplined fighting withdrawal over 150 miles westward, reaching the Narva River just ahead of the pursuers. He immediately established a bridgehead on the eastern bank while positioning artillery inside the city itself on the western side, turning the narrow strip of land and the subsequent Tannenberg Line in the Blue Hills of Sinimäe into a formidable fortress. For six months Soviet attacks came daily, often hourly, supported by hundreds of tanks and endless waves of infantry; Steiner shifted his multinational battalions like a chess master, launching precise counterattacks to retake lost heights and channeling the enemy into killing zones in the marshy forested terrain. At one critical point a single reconnaissance company of Nordland destroyed forty-eight Soviet tanks in a single engagement while the defenders held against overwhelming odds, stalling the Red Army’s drive on the Baltic for half a year. These epic defensive battles earned Steiner promotion to SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS in July 1943 and the Swords to the Knight’s Cross on 10 August 1944, the eighty-sixth recipient of this highest grade.
By late 1944 Steiner’s corps was withdrawn from the Baltic and reassigned to the Eleventh SS Panzer Army under Army Group Vistula, though the army existed largely on paper and his forces were soon placed in reserve with the Third Panzer Army. In January 1945 he briefly commanded the Eleventh SS Panzer Army before it was inactivated near the Oder River. During the final Soviet Berlin Offensive in April 1945 Adolf Hitler personally designated the remnants of Steiner’s units as Army Detachment Steiner and ordered an ambitious pincer attack northward from Eberswalde against the flank of Marshal Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front. Assembling a motley force that included the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Division Polizei, the 5th Jäger Division and the 25th Panzergrenadier Division, Steiner assessed the situation with brutal realism during a conference at the Führerbunker on 22 April. With only two understrength battalions available, virtually no heavy weapons and no prospect of adequate support, he informed his superiors that the planned counterattack was militarily impossible and refused to launch what he viewed as a suicidal operation. Hitler’s subsequent outburst, declaring the war lost and his intention to remain in Berlin, marked a dramatic turning point, yet Steiner’s pragmatic stance preserved what little remained of his command and prevented further pointless slaughter in the final days of the Reich.
After Germany’s capitulation on 8 May 1945 Steiner was taken into British captivity and held until his release in 1948 following investigations that ultimately dropped any war-crimes charges against him at the Nuremberg proceedings. In the postwar years he became a founding member of the HIAG veterans’ organization and emerged as one of its most influential figures, advocating for the rehabilitation of former Waffen-SS soldiers while distancing himself from the most fanatical elements of the Nazi regime. He authored two widely read memoirs, Die Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS: Idee und Opfergang in 1958 and Die Armee der Geächteten in 1963, in which he defended the combat record of the multinational SS divisions and portrayed their soldiers as idealistic volunteers rather than ideological fanatics. Living quietly in Munich, Steiner suffered from declining health and died of heart failure on 12 May 1966 at the age of seventy. His legacy remains complex: revered by some as a brilliant tactician who forged effective multinational units under extreme conditions, yet condemned by others for his senior role in an organization deeply implicated in the crimes of the Nazi regime.
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Source:
Akira Takiguchi photo collection
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
https://ww2gravestone.com/people/steiner-felix-martin/
Felix Steiner, Die Armee der Geächteten (1963)
Felix Steiner, Die Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS: Idee und Opfergang (1958)
