Wiking Officers Strolling at Nurzec rail station

 

Image size: 1600 x 1246 pixel. 684 KB
Date: Saturday, 22 July 1944
Place: Nurzec-Stacja, Poland
Photographer: SS-Kriegsberichter Ernst Baumann

Three officers of the III.Bataillon / SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 9 “Germania” / 5.SS-Panzer-Regiment "Wiking" stroll along a road near the Nurzec rail station on 22 July 1944 at the village of Nurzec-Stacja in eastern Poland. The tower shown in the background still stands in modern times. The three Wiking officers are, left to right: SS-Hauptsturmführer Friedrich Hannes (Chef 12.Kompanie), SS-Hauptsturmführer Helmut Schumacher (Chef 9.Kompanie) and SS-Hauptsturmführer Paul Scholven (III.Bataillon executive officer). The village had just been captured by the Germans that day and the fighting is over for now. Due to the presence of Scholven it may perhaps be that these men are on their way to a meeting with III.Bataillon commander SS-Sturmbannführer Paul Kümmel. The barefoot German Heer soldier is an officer of the Grenadier Battaillon z.b.V.("zur besonderen Verwendung" or For Special Employment unit) 560 which was established as a Bewährungs-Battaillon or a probationary battalion created for soldiers who had been convicted of minor crimes or disciplinary offenses. Presumably this officer had earlier been captured by the Soviets and stripped of his boots and uniform insignia. Only several thousand meters to the north of Nurzec-Stacja the Gren.Btl.z.b.V. 560 had been surrounded by Soviet forces in the small village of Zerczyce for three days and was the objective for Kümmel’s III.Bataillon ”Germania” and their attack that day, successfully relieving the trapped and battered penal battalion which had suffered heavy losses.

 

The tower near the Nurzec rail station in present time

Source :
"Kampfgruppe Mühlenkamp: 5. SS-Panzer-Division "Wiking", Eastern Poland, July 1944" by Douglas E. Nash and Remy Spezzano
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