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The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking (German: 5. SS-Panzerdivision Wiking) or SS Division Wiking was an infantry and later an armoured division among the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. During World War II, the division served on the Eastern Front. It surrendered on 9 May 1945 to the American forces in Austria.
A Kampfgruppe of the 5th SS-Panzer-Division Wiking under SS-Obersturmführer Karl Nicolussi-Leck, which consisted of 17 panthers and a bergepanther, along with an infantry battalion from SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Germania, [8] set out to save Kovel. After sustaining several losses, 7 panthers reached the Kovel defenders.
All Waffen-SS divisions were ordered in a single series of numbers as formed, regardless of type. [1] Those with ethnic groups listed were at least nominally recruited from those groups. Many of the higher-numbered units were divisions in name only, being in reality only small battlegroups ( Kampfgruppen ).
5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" Rank Name Service period SS-Obergruppenführer: Felix Steiner: 1 December 1940 – 1 May 1943 SS-Obergruppenführer: Herbert Gille:
However, of all the German divisions in the pocket, the 5th SS Panzer Division contributed the most to continued operations. [48] Since the SS Division Wiking was the only truly mobile force inside the pocket, the division's tracked units were repeatedly shifted from one end of the pocket to the other to shore up crumbling lines.
The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was organized according to the above table, and served as a standard for all other SS panzer divisions during World War II. The average complement was approximately 19,000. However, only two out of seven SS panzer divisions contained that strength.
He led his SS-battalion during the breakthrough of the Dutch Grebbe-line and was wounded in the process. He also served in the invasion of the Soviet Union. [6] His service was spent with the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. [10] He had reached the rank of Standartenführer by the time he was killed in action near Lviv in 1941. [6]
3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf; 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division; 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking; 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland; 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS; 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen; 18th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Horst Wessel; Volunteer Legion ...