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Watch Officer
![]() Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 344
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Here's an interesting factoid: SS-Volunteer Battalion Nordost From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the SS) The Finnisches Freiwilligen-Bataillon der Waffen-SS was a Finnish volunteer combat battalion of the German Waffen SS. It saw action on the Eastern Front during World War II. Formed in 1941 as SS Freiwilligen-Battalion Nordost the battalion was made up of 1200 Finnish volunteers who had signed to fight against Soviet Union for two years. While many Finns were already serving with the SS-Division (mot) Wiking, the battalion differed in that it was staffed with Finnish officers and NCOs (Wiking being commanded by Germans). After initial training in Vienna the battalion was transferred to Stralsund in June 1941 and at the beginning of August to the infantry barracks at Gross-Born, Pomerania, for more training and where it was attached to SS Division (mot) Wiking. The battalion was sent to the Eastern front in January 1942 and took part on battles along the Mius River and later in the Caucasus campaign of 1942, forming the vanguard of the furthest south made by the Germans during the campaign, reaching the Grozny oil fields before finally being pushed back by the Soviets. In May 1943 the battalion was transferred away from the front, as the two years was at an end, and was disbanded in July 1943. Those members of the battalion who wanted to stay in Waffen-SS joined SS Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier Division Nordland or SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers. The battalion was praised by many Waffen-SS commanders and even Himmler, who said "Where a Finnish SS-man stood, enemy was always defeated." I would bet those guys didn't whine about fighting under the swastika flag. Dep Last edited by Deputy; 09-25-06 at 03:54 PM. |
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