This time the Soviets had prepared their defences well and had two reserve armies ready to strike back. The Fifty-Sixth Independent Army struck from the south and pinned down Dietrich's men in the city. To the north, the Thirty-Seventh Army sent waves of T-34s against three German divisions, screening the supply line into Rostov. Amid freezing weather and snow storms, the Leibstandarte held Rostov for 10 days before the army High Command ordered it to pull back on 28 November. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the commander of Army Group South, had disobeyed a direct order from the Führer to hold Rostov to the last man. The field marshal was sacked, but Dietrich and his men had been saved from being trapped in Rostov by 21 Soviet divisions.

Retreat to the Mius

The retreat to the Mius was a depressing end to the Leibstandarte's six-month, non-stop advance through Russia. Out of 9994 who had entered Russia under his command in June, Dietrich had lost 5281 killed, wounded or missing. Only 15 percent of his vehicles were in working order, and most of the division's heavy weapons also needed repair.

Hitler was furious about the retreat from Rostov and flew to Kleist's headquarters in the Ukraine to interrogate the army general and Dietrich on why his élite troops had pulled back from the city. The Leibstandarte commander now proved he was no "yes-man", and detailed the true state of his command to a shocked Hitler. Dietrich and his men were ordered to hold fast on the Mius. Retaking Rostov was off the agenda for the time being.

The Wiking Division

Felix Steiner's Wiking Division was held in Army Group South's reserve during the first five days of Barbarossa, as part of XXIV Panzer Corps. In less than six months, Steiner had built Wiking up to a strength of 9377 men, including 631 Dutchmen, 294 Norwegians, 216 Danes and more than 400 Finns. Although strong in manpower, the Wiking Division did not have as many trucks or heavy weapons as the other Waffen-SS motorized units. The unit also lacked the élan and unit spirit that its counterparts had gained from their combat experience in Poland, France and the Balkans. It moved across the border late in June in the wake of Kleist's dash for Uman. Galicia had been seized from Poland in September 1939 and the civilian population was predominantly Catholic. They initially welcomed the Germans as liberators. The region also had a large Jewish population, many of whom had fled from Poland during the German invasion two years earlier.

First action

The Wiking Division had its first taste of combat on 29 June, when it was ordered to advance towards Tarnopol to mop up the remnants of three Soviet mechanized corps that had tried to strike at the southern flank of Kleist's divisions. The Westland Regiment spearheaded the attack that rolled into Lvov from the west on 30 June and was soon embroiled in heavy street fighting with Soviet rearguards. In one of these battles the commander of the Westland Regiment, Helmar Wackerle, was killed. Tens of thousands of Soviet troops had been bypassed in the Lvov-Ternopol region and the bulk of the Wiking Division spent most of July sweeping the area. They also took the opportunity to stage several mass killings of Jews, including the shooting of 60 in Lvov in reprisal for the death of Wackerle. Troops of the army's 1st Mountain Division joined in this incident and other massacres by the Wiking Division in the Ukraine.

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