Waffen-SS: Stalingrad, 1942

Background

In early 1942 Hitler and Stalin were each looking for a decisive victory on the Eastern Front. The German panzer divisions were rebuilt ready to launch a new Blitzkrieg, this time aimed at seizing Russia's oil fields in the Caucasus. Denied this key source of fuel, Hitler believed the Soviet war effort would grind to a halt and allow the Wehrmacht to knock the USSR out of the war.

Reformation

Hitler was keen to use his élite Waffen-SS motorized divisions to spearhead this offensive, and in January 1942 authorized the formation of the first SS tank battalions for them. The four Waffen-SS motorized units - Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Totenkopf and Wiking - were still engaged on the Russian Front and could not be pulled back to Germany to be refitted and re-equipped with their new tanks. It would also take several months for the Waffen-SS to master its new equipment, so it would not have a major role in the coming offensive, dubbed Operation Blue.

The Wiking Division

Das Reich was withdrawn from the Eastern Front during April, and the Leibstandarte followed in June, with both ending up in France assigned to Paul Hausser's new Waffen-SS panzer corps. While the Totenkopf was locked into bitter fighting around the Demyansk salient until the autumn of 1942, Felix Steiner's Wiking Division remained in the Ukraine as part of Army Group South. It was ordered to rebuild itself in Russia, and as the spring turned to summer train-loads of replacement personnel and equipment started arriving at its bases on the Mius Front. Crucially, in April the 5th SS Panzer Battalion arrived at the division with 53 tanks. These included 12 Panzer II light tanks, 12 Panzer IIIs armed with 50mm guns, and four Panzer IVs with short 75mm guns. It also had 12 Panzer IVs with long-barrelled 75mm cannon that could engage the feared Soviet T-34 on equal terms. The arrival of these tanks meant that the Wiking was the first Waffen-SS division to go into action equipped with its own tanks.

The division's two motorized infantry regiments, the Westland and Nordland, were also brought up to strength, and the assault-gun battalion received new StuG IIIs. This re-equipment programme meant that it was not sent into action against the Soviet spring offensive against Kharkov, but remained on the Mius line until June. By then it had some 18,000 men ready for action. The rebirth was not without its teething troubles, though. Many of the replacements were non-Germans from the Low Countries or Scandinavia whose military expertise was below par. Perhaps most importantly, there was not time to conduct large-scale field exercises to prepare the new recruits in the art of armoured warfare.

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