- Yes
- Maybe
- No
History.
In 1939, before the invasion of Poland, it was decided to increase the number of volunteer divisions to be used to open a war front against the Soviet Union: in December 1940, a division was formed with volunteers from Northern European countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Belgium), and by April 1941, the troops were trained and ready to go to the front. In fact, in mid-May of that year, the division, called the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking,” took part in the southern front during Operation Barbarossa and participated in much of that front both during the advance and during the beginning of the retreat. In the summer of 1944, the division was kept in Poland to protect Warsaw from the devastating and relentless Soviet advance. Above one of the Sd. Kfz.251 of the Kampfgruppe Mühlenkamp battalion (commanded by Johannes-Rudolf Mühlenkamp), part of the division since 1943, an interesting, albeit small, decal added by the crew to the vehicle between the creation of the battalion and June and July 1944 was photographed.
The ultimate fate of the vehicle or its crew is unknown.
The decal.
The decal is a simple clock face with a white border and Arabic numerals printed inside corresponding to the times indicated by the hands (which are missing here).
This decal may have been added by the soldier operating the machine gun, who was presumably not accustomed to using the hours to indicate the location and position of enemy units.
Pictures and drawnings.
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Sources.
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“Kampfgruppe Mühlenkamp,5. SS Pz Div Poland July 44” by Douglas E. Nash and Remy Spezzano
5th SS Panzer Division Wiking - Wikipedia
Panzermänner: Men of Wiking Division in the Battle of Poland 1944
Читать онлайн "Warsaw II: The Tank Battle at Praga July-September 1944" - Bacyk Norbert - RuLit - Страница 3
Почти рабы: кому на Руси жилось хуже, чем крепостным - Русская семерка
Офицеры 5-й танковой дивизии СС «Викинг» в бронетранспортере Sd.Kfz. 251 в ходе боев в восточной Польше — военное фото