Waffen-SS: Southern Russia, 1941

Background

The Leibstandarte and Wiking Divisions both made a significant contribution to Operation Barbarossa in southern Russia. The destruction of Soviet armies and the capture of hundreds of thousands of prisoners apparently signalled the collapse of the Red Army. But the Russians kept on fighting, and the Waffen-SS units began to suffer the effects of attrition as 1941 came to an end.

The Leibstandarte's first actions

The Leibstandarte was committed to the southern sector of Barbarossa as an element of Colonel-General Ewald von Kleist's First Panzer Group. It was assigned the mission of driving into the north of the Ukraine as part of a pincer movement to trap three Soviet armies around Uman. Its line of advance was directly south of the Pripet Marshes, which provided a natural barrier cutting off the German forces in the Ukraine from those advancing towards Minsk and Smolensk. It was the job of the Leibstandarte to screen the left flank of Kleist's panzer groups.

Within days of crossing the border, Kleist's troops were being vigorously counterattacked by Soviet armoured and mechanized reserves. The Leibstandarte had to fend off several of these onslaughts, involving huge swarms of Russian tanks and troops in the back of lorries moving towards the Waffen-SS lines. They were easily driven off, but slowed the division's advance to a snail's pace. The primitive Ukrainian road network added to the Waffen-SS men's problems, which were made worse by heavy rain.

Into the Ukraine

Kleist relentlessly pressured his commanders to increase the pace of the advance to keep the Russians off-balance. By early July his spearheads were deep inside the Ukraine approaching the defences of the Stalin Line, east of Kiev. The Leibstandarte was sent in to breach this position on 7 July. Its reconnaissance battalion found an undefended route over the River Sluczk and it had soon bypassed many of the Soviet positions. Pressing on through thick woods, Waffen-SS armoured cars and motorcycles were closing on Zhitomir when they ran into heavy opposition from tanks and infantry. Soviet air attacks on the Leibstandarte's bridges delayed the main body of the brigade coming to the reconnaissance detachment's aid until later in the day. The next day 88mm flak guns were brought up to help the reconnaissance battalion storm across the River Teterev to open the way for it to capture a key road junction outside Zhitomir.

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