Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 SNO Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 NARVA 1944: THE WAFFEN-SS I AND THE BATTLE FOR EUROPE I It SNO HISTORY BOOKSHOP 2 THE BROADWAY, FRIERN BARNET ROAD, LONDON N11 30U ~1~r, 01 ·3688568 -~-:..'~~:-,: .- Books Bought • Sold Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 I I NARVA 1944: THE WAFFEN-SS AND THE BATTLE FOR EUROPE I Richard Landwehr Illustrated by Ramiro Bujeiro SNO BIBLIOPHILE LEGION BOOKS, INC. Box 612 Silver Spring, Maryland 209010612 Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 Copyright © 1981 by Bibliophile Legion Books, Inc. This book is respectfully dedicated to the soldiers of the III. SS Panzer Corps (Germanic), living and BIBUOPHILE LEGION BOOKS, INC. dead. You will not be forgotten! P.O. Box 612 Silver Spring, Maryland 209010612 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Landwehr, Richard Narva 1944: The Waffen·SS and the Battle for Europe Bibliography: p. 184 1. World War U, 1939·1945-Regimental histories-Germany -Waffen'SS (Germanisches). SS-Panzer·Korps, Ill. 2. Waffen·SS (Germanisches). SS·Panzer·Korps, Ill-History. 3. World War II, 1939·1945-Campaigns-E!;tonia. 4. Estonia-History-German - occupation, 1941·1944.1. Title. D757.85.L36 940.54'13'43 81-18009 ISBN 0·918184-02-9SNO AACR2 rvlanufactured in the United States of America Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 CONTENTS Page Foreword ............................................................................. 11 NOTE TO THE READER Chapter I On the Oranienbaum Front .......................................... 15 The reader will notice that the place names in Estonia and 11 Red Offensive Latvia appear in Estonian, Latvian, English, and German. This ..................................................... 24 was due to the fact that the author used these spellings from the III Retreat from the Oranienbaum Front 33 original research material when writing the book. Due to the IV time delay that would result to correct the spellings of the place Battle for the Luga River Line ................... 42 names the publisher chose to rectify this in a second printing of V The Battle for Estonia Begins NAR VA 1944 rather than delay the first edition which would ....................................... 45 mean a delay of at least two or three months. VI Enemy Landing at Merelrula .......•............. 53 VII The Struggle for Narva's Southern Front ....•........ 56 VIII The Fight for the Narva Bridgehead 60 IX Withdrawal from the Narva River Front 70 x The Tannenberg Line .............................................. 76 XI The Defense of the Tannenberg Positions 82 -XII Fighting for Europe ............................................... 93 XIII Crisis in Latvia .............................................. III XIV The Evacuation of Estonia ........................................ 122 XV Latvian Battles ........................................................ 131 SNO XVI Kurland Front ...................................................... 139 Afterword ...................................................................... 164 Appendix A Insignia of Ill. SS Panzer Corps ..........•........ 165 B Rank EqUivalency Chart with SS Abbreviations ...................................................... 168 C Foreign Volunteer Units of the Ill. SS Panzer Corps ......................•.. 169 Bibliograph yan d A cknowledgements ......... _ . • . .• 184 Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 ILLUSTRATIONS (All photographs are from the author's private collection.) Cover design: Battered SS Runic shield imposed on the city of Narva. The Hermannsburg castle is on the left, with the Ivangorod citadel on the right. Map: Oranienbaum Breakout ........................... 17 Christian Peder Kryssing .............................. 21 Mattias Kleinheisterkamp ............................ " 23 Haralt Nugiseks .................................... 49 He:lmut Scholz . • . • . .. 59 Map: Narva Bridgehead '" . .. 63 European volunteers from 11 th SS Division "Nordland" ......... 73 Map: Tannenberg Battle Positions ...................... " 78 Derk-Elsko Bruins • • • . • . • . • . • . .. 80 Flemish Waffen-SS volunteer ........................... 85 Hans HaemeJ . • . " 90 Hans Collani ...................................... 99 Remi Schrynen .................................... 101 SNOPaul-Albert Kausch .................................. 103 Juerge:n Wagner .................................... 112 Le:on Gillis ....................................... 116 Martin Guerz ...................................... 121 Dutch volunteers taking the: Waffen-SS oath of loyalty .......... 133 Felix Steiner •...........•.•.............•••...•... 143 Fritz KnoechJe:in ...•............•.......•.......•.. 149 Wilhelm Schuete:r ................................... 155 Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 FOREWORD The Meaning of N arva "Now, after our many withdrawals and the shortening of our front, Narva had once again become the gateway between Eu­ rope and the East, just as it had been seven hundred years be­ fore. In dugouts and trenches, in pillboxes and out in no-man's land, men from all the northern countries, now in the ranks of the Waffen-SS, were fighting side by side with Estonian volun­ teers again for the survival of Europe. Thus Narva remained, right into our own troubled times, what it had been for cen­ turies past, the key to northern Europe. Here the future of our continent would be decided. This was the dividing line of the world." Erich Kern in The Dance of Death, p. 176. Narva, Estonia, is barely a dot on the map, yet for much of the year 1944, it stood for so much more. For there, grouped in the town and along the river that both bore the name N arva, a unique international armed force stood its ground against a barbarous foe. They were soldiers of the Waffen-SS, the elite assault force of the German Army, yet on their sleeves they bore the colors of Denmark and Norway, Sweden and Finland, Holland and Belgium, Flanders and Estonia- They served in divi­ sions named "Nordland," "Nederland" and "Estonian" and reg­ iments and brigades titled "Danmark," "Norge," "De Ruyter," SNO "General Seyffardt," "Wallonien" and "Langemarck." They spoke different languages but they shared a common commit­ ment: a love of their continent and a hatred of communism and international capitalism. Motivated by the call of conscience, they chose voluntarily to do battle against these predatory enemies. This book is the story of the European volunteers that fought at Narva in the ranks of the Waffen-SS. It is a story that has vir­ tually been blacked out in the West, and has never appeared in detail in the English language before. It is useless to ask why this is the case. Perhaps someone is afraid that in telling the tale a Whole mountain of anti-German propaganda frabrication may Stiftelsen norsk Okkupasjonshistorie, 2014 12 NARVA 1944 FOh._ .. oRD 13 begin to totter precariously. For instance, the "establishment" man in his own right, was SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (later SS­ (for want of a better term), keeps telling us that the soldiers of ~tandartenfueh~er), Leon Degrelle. He would later play an the Waffen-SS were "criminals," that they were recruited from Imp.ortant part m the struggle for the Narva sector. On the 30th international gutter-sweepings, and that they committed numer­ ann~vers~ of the Cherkassy breakout, Degrelle wrote the fol- ous "atrocities." Actually, this is a pretty accurate assessment 10WlI:g tnbute. Although the battle of Narva is not specifically of the Allied sponsored so-called "resistance movement!" :Most mentIOned, the message certainly applies to that struggle as volunteers in the Waffen-SS actually came from the best human well: elements in their respective countries and they served with "It is now 30 years since we fought side by side in Cher­ honor, decency, idealism and most of all, indefatigable courage. kassy; German comrades, comrades from Holland, Flan­ Quite a contrast to the Allied and Communist terror bands that ders, Denmark, Norway, the Baltic and we the French. preyed on the innocent people of Europe from the cesspools speaking Germanic Wallonian comrades. We g~ve our blood of the underworld! - thousand among us gave their lives - in the service of a "By 1945, the Waffen-SS had proved by its combat success great cause. In this bloody battle we fought for the true that European people could exist together, but as long as they Europ.e, the Europe of 2,000 years of culture. On the recognized and accepted the national differences between one snowfIelds of Cherkassy we defended a great past and the another. It had been in the Waffen-SS that, for the first time, construction of the future. Dutch had been commanded by Germans and Germans by Bel­ "Our sacrific~s and our dead have not immediately gians. It was this idealism, dearly bought on the roads of Russia brought about VICt?ry. But I believe iliat our Europe was and later in its slave labor camps, that created an outstanding the .true Europe, It was not ilie Europe of the pitiful spirit of comradeship and combatant ability among all mem­ manIpulators who put .material interests above the public bers, regardless of nationality or rank. good; n.or ~at of the cl~q~e of egotistical, petty politicians "The greatest triumph of the Waffen-SS, though, was not on and theIT mIserable avarICIOUS associates. the field of battle. It was in its policy of recruiting non-German "Our Europe was the Europe of high ideals and beliefs, volunteers, not as hired mercenaries, but as co-fighters