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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Herbert Otto Gille during the Siege of Kovel

Herbert Otto Gille is seen here as an SS-Gruppenführer and commander of 5. SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking" in an observation post during the defense of Kovel in the spring of 1944. In the historic battle for the Cherkassy Pocket in January 1944, Wiking Division, held out against superior Soviet forces, before successfully breaking out. Subsequently ordered to take command of the Fortress Kovel, Gille refused to take his battered division into what he knew was a death trap; but he himself flew into Kovel, where the garrison under his command held out against repeated armoured assaults by four Soviet armies - despite not having a single remaining tank of their own - until a relief force from the Wiking Division broke in and later with the help of two Panzer divisions and a infantry division established a permanent linkup. For this remarkable achievement Gille was decorated with the Diamonds to the Knight’s Cross on 19 April 1944.

Source :
http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/post/139447110277/herbert-otto-gille-is-seen-here-as-an

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