The European Elite of the Waffen SS: Wiking | World War II
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Delve into the history of one of the most renowned and controversial divisions of the Waffen-SS during World War II - Wiking. In this gripping documentary, we explore the formation, operations, and legacy of the European elite soldiers who fought under its banner.
Led by seasoned commanders and comprised of volunteers from various European nations, Wiking gained a reputation for its fierce combat prowess on the Eastern Front. From the frozen plains of Russia to the urban battlegrounds of Warsaw, these soldiers demonstrated unmatched determination and skill in the face of adversity.
But amidst tales of battlefield heroism, Wiking's story is also entwined with complex moral dilemmas and the atrocities of war. As part of the SS, they were embroiled in the darkest chapters of human history, prompting heated debates that continue to this day.
Join us as we unravel the myths and realities surrounding Wiking, examining its role within the broader context of World War II and its lasting impact on European history. Through archival footage, expert analysis, and firsthand accounts, we aim to shed light on this enigmatic division and the soldiers who served under its banner.
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MALWARE!
Thank you all wikings who fought for Finland.
These guys volunteered to end communism. The german forces was some of the most diverse soldiers ever to that point to fight together. And operatio barborasa was a 6 nation invasion not just germany
Facts! "History is a set of lies agreed upon." NB
I knew of a few American veterans who had friends from the 5th Wiking, many of them moved to the USA after the war, they were a very skilled bunch of fighters
Skilled what?
hard as nails. fought in some of the war's toughest conditions and performed extremely well
@chrisstucker1813 yes those guys were tough, to go thru that, as i get older i look at the war more objectively, the victors do write the history books. Were atrocities committed yes, on both sides, but most were soldiers doing there job 🫡
@@The_war_thunder_noob_02 skilled at fëeling yøu up yøur drêss...
@@The_war_thunder_noob_02 Read it again
Leon Degrelle and his Sturmbrigade Wallonien would be worth a separate video. He was awarded the close-combat clasp in gold, which means he lived through at least 50 days of close combat. Only around 650 soldiers had been awarded the "Nahkampf-Spange in Gold".
The most Based channel on YT, appreciate all of your work
youtube.com/@FORGOTTENHISTORYCHANNEL?si=bu3rjQkZDol2tgPy Here's another one. Exquisite contents.
Check out Robert Sepehr. The most dangerous anthropologist.
I do agree that the SS Wiking division was the elite foreign division of the SS but not of the entirety of German forces. The 250th infantry division of the 16th army also known as the Blue division gets that distinction in my opinion. They were a division made up of Spanish volunteers. They showed their tenacity with their first orders. They were to march over 550 miles from Poland to join Army Group Center for its march towards Moscow. Shortly before they arrived they were reassigned to Army Group North and its siege of Leningrad. In its most famous battle at Krasny Bor just under 5000 of them took the brunt of the attack from 33000 Soviet infantry of the 55th Army. Even with the Soviets attacking with 30 tanks and over 1000 field guns they could not dislodge the Spaniards. The Blue division dealt the red army 5 times more casualties and stopped the Soviets cold allowing the siege of Leningrad to go on another year. They were never beaten in battle and Hitler created a special award just for them. He was reported to hold them in very high regard saying "Those Spanish have never yielded an inch." Also remarking that he was sure any German troops would be happy to know they had the blue division on their line. They were battle hardened from the Spanish Civil War before joining the Germans and hated communism. Franco because of allied pressure ordered the last of them to return to Spain before the Soviets launched Bagration which more than likely saved the Spanish some very heavy casualties. They were a fierce division of warriors being led by Spanish generals. They were the true elite of German foreign divisions. Wiking, Charlemagne and the Latvian Legion all deserve recognition but can any of them say a military award was created in their honor and awardedbby Hitler?
Great post Robert . I had heard of Spanish nationals fighting for Germany but knew very little of them . Thank you for that post
There you go again glorifying those murdering fascist legions. You have no regard for those killed for NOTHING BUT GREED.
Great info
@@aegontargaryen9322 Indeed, I absolutely agree
Absolutely love your work, the fine line in history where we should explore. Your perfectly centred, not too radical with your presentations as like others on KZhead, love it
Did the American vets mention that they regret fighting the Germans in WW2?
I used to talk (early 90's) with two finnish SS men who were volunteers and fought in the east front during '41-'44. They we're hard boiled fighters.
Wow the stories those men must have had.
Obviously the Russians were harder 😊
Were they in the wiking division or maybe nord?
@@loneranger5349 when they were a rapin’ you mean as obviously to anyone with a brain the results of the winter war proved different looking at losses.
@loneranger5349 if by the Russians being Harder you mean, had 20 times the man power, yeah sure lol. 1,000,000,000,000 ants will probably take down an elephant
I always recommend reading “twilight of the gods” by thorolf hillblad about a Swedish ss soldier serving in ss nordland a great book which shows the toughness of ss volunteers in general
Awesome book, it cuts through all the negative propaganda that was generated after the end of the war. It gives you the truth, which is hard to come by these days.
@@yuppy1967 reminds me of some of my opas war stories from the eastern front, such a brutal struggle
Felix Steiner was one of very few ss-generals who was not trialed of war crimes .
Wrong side won idiot, as if people who commit crimes like dresden could moralize to anyone
"Where is Steiner," "Where is Steiner??" AH, April '45 Every German General: "Steiner ain't comin'!!"
@@Jakal-pw8yq"DaS wAr eIn bEfEhL!"
They were fighting for nothing but the inflicting of pain and suffering. Both Stalin and Hitler were blood-seeking wolves.
Thankyou ! Gotta come back to this later with more time lol.
We need these on streaming services, amazing documentary’s
Tubi has some good ones on Soviet and German, ww1 and ww2
You mean "documentaries" (plural).
Why it’s on KZhead your watching it
Us Brits were on the wrong side 🤷♂️
"if all the dead allied soldiers could see their countries now, they would have thrown down their weapons and fought with the Germans"
😂@@bennyboy2466
a hard division that fought every where, brave soldiers, thanks for this doco
Wiking had some of the toughest german soldiers, e.g. Hans Dorr.
These videos are amazingly well done, so much research and scripting and editing. Thank you so much for your dedication. Will always follow your channel brother.
You have a new sub.. ive watched a few of your videos.. great quality content.. you and the history underground are 2 of the best on here
Note NOT in Viking - there were British and a sprinkling of Canadian, South African, Australian and New Zealanders in the SS. One Brit now passed was a strong man and stayed on in Berlin after its conquest. He got a job in a circus doing strong man acts. Eventually the Russians found out and he spent 10 years in a Russian Gulag camp. He was released in 1955 and returned to UK. Later the same year he was employed teaching Norfolk school children PT - a remarkable come back
Interesting! Do you have his name?
What a great ❤documentary 😢it’s sad that so many life’s from all sides lost so much but their memories shall never be forgotten for their valor
A great video and effort to find so much information. Thanks
And the snow fell …
Saga?
@@Schwxrzritter Skrewdriver first, then Saga
The Viking Division, contrary to what has been told, existed for the bigger part of ethnic germans! The volunteer numbers from other European countries, didn’t meet the expectations of the ss … Nonetheless, respect to all the European volunteers who bravely fought against the new world order on german side!!!!
Ooooooh Motheeeer !!!!
Load of nonsense. They fought for a supposed ”master race” that lost the first war they ever fought.
Well done very interesting and informative
God, I love this channel
Goosebumps
Great video, love the narration
I have studied WW2 for over 50 years. I didn't know there were men from Iceland in the SS.
At least one served in Waffen SS, Björn Sveinsson, the son of the first Icelandic president and maybe 5 others, quite obscure in Iceland and lost in time. Iceland got it´s independence 1944 and when Björn came home after the war it was silenced by the government I guess. Decades passed before it was talked about again, very touchy subject for the president at that time.
@@EggertEggertsson-cz7lndo you know how the general public in Iceland felt about the few men who had served when they returned? My guess is nobody really cared. Iceland was never occupied so they didnt have the same issues as they had in Norway and Denmark for example...!?!
As I understand it, the president asked the media in Iceland not to report anything about his son so the general public didn´t quite know anything about it. Furthermore he told his son never to talk about it. It was mainly reported in left/communist media but few cared out of respect for the president or something... or just didn´t car as you say. Iceland was in fact occupied by the British and later Americans but it was a "glorious" occupation for Iceland, lot of work and prosperity. Pre war some Icelanders liked Hitler and his Ludacris Arian philosophy about the Nordic master race so I guess no one wanted to talk about it later on. Everyone realized soon It was so much blessing to get Allied forces instead of the Nazis. @@uranusismightybig5111
I did replied yesterday but it was deleted, I guess I´ve mention something not allowed or whatever. Anyways, general public didn't care for the most part, partly because of respect for the president and partly it was simply not comfortable to talk about Icelander working for the Germans, let alone WSS.... small community and all. In fact Iceland was occupied by the British and later Americans but our occupation was "glorious", lots of work and prosperity came mostly by the Yankees e @@uranusismightybig5111
I'll bet that if you've only studied the "approved" narrative, then there is much you don't know.....
Beautiful video. Congratulations ❤❤❤ great history and very well and honest narrative.
Fascinating stuff, great insights
Brilliant footage and a respectful voice over.
Great channel, well researched really interesting showing another side literally to the world greatest conflict.
Wow really good video. But with the maps where better. Good job.
Really fascinating stuff
Informative video about Waffen Viking SS divisions members & Ethnic groups...video showed theirs furious and deciplined fought...
My Father lived in Esztergom Hungary was a four year old boy at the time . The nearby road leads to Budapest. He remembers the arrival of Wiking and how the SS tanks and apcs shook the foundations of every house as they rolled in. . A smiling SS trooper picked him up sat him on his knee and cut off a large chunk of bread and smoked ham to feed him . They stayed in the town for a while and in their back garden set up a heavy MG. Firing on Soviet column's on the other side of the Danube. They stayed for for a few days and rolled off towards Budapest. Still remembers to this day . Really good channel here best one on KZhead.
crazy footage, never seen it before i dont know where u got it from
The last Knights of Europa.
The speaker in the smaller documents like „Encirclement Kiew 1941“ suits the best and gives goosebumps together with the background music !
German/Irish - American born. US Military - 1971 to 1973. Western European, American History/Military History & Ancient History. Thanks.
The documentary Europa the last battle is also good!
I love your content! Thank you! Just out of curiosity where do you get all of this incredible footage? I can never seem to find anything good that isn’t under the Creative Commons lol. Keep up the great work! Have a great day!
Hey can you make one video about the Prinz Eugen Division? I heard they were the most brutal ones
Danes and Norwegians each joined the Waffen-SS at an average rate of just four a day. There was certainly nobody killed in a crush at recruitment offices! Only 180-200 Swedes joined the Germans (an average of just 3 men a month!), which was insufficient to even keep a single company up to strength in combat. As a result, there was no Swedish unit at all. Six Icelanders are known to have served with the Wehrmacht in WWII. Compare that to the 258 Icelanders who were repatriated via Sweden and Finland on a single ship to British-occupied Iceland in September 1940. Low Scandinavian recruitment was a massive disappointment for the Germans. As a result, the Wiking Division, which the Scandinavians were meant to fill, had to be manned largely by Germans.
Lot of Flemish and Dutch to...
@@GuntherSDoumson2178 No, not "a lot". Belgium fielded 22 divisions in 1940. Belgian Flemings and Walloons provided less than two for Germany. In 1940 the Dutch, who ha a weak army, fielded 166 battalions. The Waffen-SS raised eight battalions of Dutchmen in two brigades, which were eventually exaggeratedly styled "divisions".
So what, pound for pound, the best ones are the ones that joined the Germans. You can keep the allied Scandinavians, there are no songs sung in their honor or their prowess on the battlefield.
@@yuppy1967 Songs? Songs? Are you serious? The measure of the Wiking Division is now to be how far they got up the music charts? 🤣 Even we sceptics think the Scandinavians deserve better than the ABBA defence!!!
@@markaxworthy2508 I find statements like this ridiculous, where are you getting your facts from? And most of the German divisions were under strength, especially towards the end of the war.
I told you that last video wasn't gonna last long. Can you upload it again soon??
I don’t suppose you can do a video on the LSSAH division at some point?
Great video! By the way, where do you find all the footage for these videos? Is it all from Deutsche Wochenschau?
Thank you! But we can’t tell our secrets😆
Look at europe and usa today 😢
Outstanding account of the 5th Wiking SS division.
Can we have a video about the 10th army(wermacht) fighting in italy? My grandpa fought in that army
Wir sind stolz auf unsere Soldaten der Wickingeinheit!
The maps were looking different, anyway good job
The Austrian painter had to have Stalingrad instead of oil, from there it was all retreat.
Cut the Volga cut supplies . Ya know Roosevelt was the son of the worlds biggest heroin dealer
@@ColinFreeman-kh9us maybe so but splitting the army in two was a huge mistake that led to disaster
@@jayjayson9613 true it didn’t help
I’m almost positive you don’t have the hoses out the window to use the heat. I mean, having your window open in the winter period makes no sense. We have a heater that doesn’t use hoses and it works great
🔥🔥
They are modern SAS
My grandfather could be in those video clips.Died in Kaukasus 1943...Finland contripution against ryssä.
Yesss
No matter how elite your division is you can't beat numbers and quantity
300 spartans
not with that attitude
love this channel, i think its shadow banned by the yt regime. saved.
Another banging documentary about the Waffen SS
In some aspects Wiking can be considered father of NATO.
ahhh no
Ja nun,alles vorbei,heute haben wir andere Probleme in D.
❤❤❤
Long panzer 3 ? try long barrelled gun on the panzer 3, that would be the 50mm. Leona
When i grew up and learned that the USA allied with Communist Jays in Russia everything that i didn’t understand about my Country’s failed culture, foreign policy, Economic policy, and its hattred of US European stock , all of a sudden it all made perfect sense….Communist allies….NVTS
The German armies had real tough soldiers trained to do the work given.they were the best matchless warriors to walk the earth at WW 2, since the Roman Empire Legion's.
Absolutely
Where did they bury their victims during or after all that combat?
There were also many Bosniac muslims in Wehrmacht and SS.
I wonder how many men actually survived all the campaigns
Less than 1k
In the Belgian Walloonien Division, of the 300 men that first joined up, only three survived the whole war. So, not many. Not many at all.
Germany lost so many men and women of good stock to this senseless war.
Just to tell you what happend doing battle on the eastern-front - my wifes father had a working mate that had fought in the waffen ss at the Stalingrad front and had the one Lung shot through and came to Pitomnik airfield to be flown out of the kessel to be sent to a Field lazaret far away , he survived the ordeal and came Back to denmark sometime in early 1944 , many years later and with a unhealty use of alcohol he told my father in law that he fought the russians Every night waking up screamming and strugling so the fear was with him the rest of his life - damm ruskis
My late father was 5th SSPZ Wiking, still have his uniform and medals, and the memories of all the stories he would tell me when he was drunk....saddens me now.
I'm sure he could never get drunk enough to get rid of those memories. Are edged in his Brain my mom went through the Allied Bombings of Hamburg as A child she lost her entire family except for a sister and she seen Hitler twice the only thing to eat was Rotten Horse meat and Rotten potatoes 🤘🇺🇸🇩🇪🤘
In which regiment was he? Did he ever mention Hans Dorr?
I embrace the increased awareness and width of attention the German soldier is now enjoying. As we face Russia with the USA taking a lesser role it's imperative, we know their mythology and embrace them and others. Today and historically groups use this approach to embrace and unite. It is fair to say it rarely succeeds if the groups don't share genealogy, culture, religion along with need. As times become more dire and with the noted attributes in play it would indicate our alignment should and may embrace Russia at the 11th hour. The issue will not be Russia and Ukraine it will come after that outcome when Russia besides to realign or not. We share a common bond and change might see them look back and ask if they are going in the right direction with their current aliment. If it's not too late in the game and resources are available a combined Europe would be a blessing in the coming years. Naturally the USA agree and then it's complicated.
you need to do the 2nd SS Panzer. there is a book MEN OF STEEL 2nd SS Panzer
🎉🎉❤❤
Great division. Extremely tough soldiers, and they were highly respected by all, especially the allies
Errrr....no. They had a reputation for indiscipline even in German ranks. The diary of General Turanec, commander of the Slovak Rapid Division, on the Chir in the winter of 1941-42 records a conversation he had with General Eglseer, commander of a German mountain division and another German divisional commander in which the two German generals complained bitterly about the indiscipline of the Wiking Division in rear areas. Another diary, by a member of the Finnish battalion attached to Wiking, records atrocities committed by the division with some disgust.
They barely fought the Allied forces just the Soviets
Wtf the allies murdered most of the ss troops they captured??
@@legendzeroone1537 Nope. Two thirds of all W-SS men survived the war. On the Eastern Front it was more dangerous to be a captured Austrian than a captured member of the W-SS. Why? Because Austria lost three divisions at Stalingrad, very few of whose members survived. Most W-SS men were captured on the Eastern Front later in the war and had better prospects of survival by comparison.
@@markaxworthy2508 yeah not talking about the eastern front and the soviet brutality... But the guy sayd they were respected by the allies, thats not true. They were feared but not treated very good. And very often just killed after they got captured.
👏👏👏👏👍
Beautiful! Those soldiers deserves statues in every corner of modern germany.. instead, there's statues of jews there. That shows WHO led modern germany (directly, by global financiar system AND via british-american IMPERIAL forces)
Their days are numbered.
52:30 deliberate starvation! The victors and Even democratic regimes too has a long history of invading and attacking other countries Like they say never forget
Aș vrea și în limba română.
When I hear about so called elites and best fighters the SS. I ask myself who defeated them? Soviet elites? No, It was a regular army with no special skilles other than to fight for their homeland.
Hoardes
In all seriousness I highly recommend WW2 Through German Eyes by James Lucas. He does a great job and explains the logistical and economic war effort shortcomings of the Germans. After reading this short read it becomes obvious why they lost regardless of their soldiers quality.
@@BaltimoresBerzerker thanks, I will try to get s copy.
Agree with below statement, just endless hoardes and hoardes and soviets, the soviets could send more men at the Germans than the Germans had ammunition.
Smaller ss divisions with hundreds of thousands less men then the Soviet army’s fanaticaly fought and held off thousands of soviet tanks thousands of artillery and close to millions of soviet troops. That is what these elite ss divisions would fight against. To the last man no surrender they were outnumbered at many times 1/10, thus still fighting fanatically and never giving up even when in the face of a certain defeat. These elite divisions held out their ground and held off soviet attacks against all odds. To say their not elite is questionable
You miss plenty Check out swedish k4 under the finland war
Good to see a historically accurate documentary without cheesey American Hollywood nonsense.
💀The Wiking Division, largely symbolic, to portray a pan-Germanic/indo-aryan unity, failed to attract significant Scandinavian/international recruits in #s expectant, like, say, the allure of The French Foreign Legion.🎥✔️
Those where soldiers Cheers
Note Well: there were NO Polish volunteers nor Greeks, thus "other European nations" is a flippant remark.
Do one on dirlewanger brigade
He won't as it will be a criminal offense to call them "brave & heroic". They were let out of jail to create chaos & terror in Poland. Dirlewanger himself was beaten to death...over 1 gull month!
The Wiking SS division ( pronounced 'vee-king) was comprised of 90% Germans, according to Roman Töppel, so not really a European army at all in the broader sense. That is not to say that quite a few northern Europeans didn't serve in the Wehrmacht or Waffen SS.
Please can you do one on bolshevism elite units
There werern't any
It's pronounced Vee-Keeng... Not (Why-king)
Faut pas oublier les slaves, un total de 70.000 waffen SS, dont 15.000 russes, 25.000 cosaques, 10.000 Ruthenes, etc ... Il y a eu 30 nations impliquées dans l'engagement de volontaires pour la waffen SS.
Why do you say the w in waffen correct (w=v in English) but sound silly saying WHY king instead of just how it is. Viking and wiking same group of BA’s same pronunciation. Just remember the movies when one might say ,”(Ve have Vays of making you talk.
By volunteer he means starving people that heard about a job that included meals. just keeping it real
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐💪🏻💪🏻👍🏻
I don't understand why Finnish soldiers would join this division, instead of joining the Finnish Army.
Finland had fought against USSR in winter war which ended on 13th of March 1940. After the winter war the Germans began negotiating with Finland and made a deal that Germany can recruit volunteers from Finland for a 2 year contract. When recruiting began the Finnish volunteers didn’t know at that point that Finland is going to enter into another war with the USSR on 25th of June 1941. If they had known, they most likely wouldn’t have volunteered. So most of them served the 2 year contract in Waffen SS. The Finnish government refused to renew the contract after the 2 year period, so then most of the Finnish volunteers went back to Finland and joined the Finnish army.
@@tuuliaan79 oh nice, thank you for that information! Part of me wondered if some of those Fins who were part of the division were ideologically inclined to join and the Finnish wanted them out of their hair. Finland has a very interesting history during WW2, I was just reading about Lauri Torni recently. Fascinating
bruh this is up to par. the Ai has arrived
What Ai?
Diversity is our strength. Lol
Jerman king military guns
Eie . !