For the invasion of Russia, code-named ‘Operation Barbarossa’, the German Army assembled some three million men, divided into a total of 105 infantry divisions and 32 Panzer divisions. There were 3,332 tanks, over 7,000 artillery pieces, 60,000 motor vehicles and 625,000 horses. This force was distributed into three German army groups: Army Group North, commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, had assembled his forces in East Prussia on the Lithuanian frontier. His Panzergruppe, which provided the main spearhead for the advance on Leningrad, consisted of 812 tanks. These were divided among the 1, 6 and 8.Panzer-Divisions, 3, 36.Motorised-Infantry-Division and the SS.Motorised-Division ‘Totenkopf’, which formed the Panzergruppereserve.
Among the strong force of Army Group North, the Gebirgsjäger were to play a major part in the battle in the East. For the invasion, the 2 and 3.Gebirgs-Divisions, which were part of the Gebirgs-Korps, were allocated in the Gebirgs-Korps Norwegen.
During the early morning of 22 June 1941, the mountain troopers attacked Russia and followed in the wake of the leading spearheads of the mighty Panzerwaffe. On the northern front, the terrain was terrible, comprising of swampland, barren rock and huge dark forests. The area was regarded as so bad that even the local Finns could not believe they were conducting operations in such an inhospitable place. But, despite the appalling conditions and the long marches, they smashed through Soviet defences and reached the River Liza in July 1941. By this time, the Russians had been totally shattered by the weight and accuracy of the German shellfire but also by the skilful deployment of the Gebirgsjäger storm troops.
However, in spite the rapid drive of the German soldier into Russia, the Red Army were a complete enigma to him. There was little information supplied about the country in which they were invading, nor was there anything substantial on the terrain and climate. He simply saw the Russians as Slavic people that were an inferior race. Propaganda had made good use to prove conclusively that all Russians were living in poverty and its antiquated army were totally unprepared for war. Even when the German soldier rolled across into Russia, during the summer months of 1941, he was totally unaware of the immense undertaking he had in crushing the enemy. Although the ordinary German found a huge contrast between his own country and that in which he was fighting, they were totally unprepared for the unimaginable size and distance in which they had to march. The soldiers were amazed by the immense forests, the huge expanses of marshland, and the many rivers that were continuously prone to flooding. They were also surprised that the little information they did have, was often incorrect. Maps frequently showed none of the roads, and when they were fortunate enough to come across them, they were in such terrible state of repair that military traffic would often reduce them to nothing more than dirt tracks.
Gebirgsjäger forces march across into the Soviet Union with Army Group North during the summer of 1941. Among the strong force of Army Group North, the Gebirgsjäger were to play a major part in the battle in the East. For the invasion, the 2 and 3.Gebirgs-Divisions, which were part of the Gebirgs-Korps, were allocated in the Gebirgs-Korps Norwegen.
The roads were appalling in Russia and were often unable to cope with the large volumes of traffic. After a downpour of rain, the roads, which were no more than dirt tracks, were turned into a quagmire, even during the summer period in the north. Here, in this photograph, Gebirgstruppen, with their pack animals towing supplies, trudge through the mud towards the front.
From a hill top and Gebirgs officers can be seen observing enemy positions. By their position, there appears to be some danger of enemy fire. Note the officer wearing a leather greatcoat watching the forward movement of his troops through a pair of 6×30 field binoculars.
Another great contrast that the German soldier experienced during his march through Russia was the climatic conditions. There were extreme differences in temperature, with the bitter cold sometimes dropping to thirty or even forty degrees below zero, and the terrible heat of the summer when temperatures soared to insufferable levels. When the first snow showers arrived, in October 1941, the German soldier was totally unprepared for a Russian winter. Sleet, and the cold driving rain, turned the Russian countryside into a quagmire with roads and fields becoming virtually impassable. The lack of winter clothing too, caused widespread worry for the soldiers, for they knew that the winter would create graver problems than the Russians themselves.
Living and fighting in the winter on the Eastern Front was very difficult, even for the well trained men of the Gebirgsjäger. The distances the soldiers had to travel were immense. The most popular form of transport was by sledge. Sheltering, too, posed a huge problem and many of them were taught to construct native style shelters from tree branches and build igloos. Although these mountain forces sustained heavy casualties during the winter of 1941, they grimly held the line, and by early 1942, a stalemate developed. Before the spring, only minor skirmishes continued, as both sides rebuilt their strength.
In early spring 1942, the 7.Gebirgs-Division was deployed far north, as the Soviets unleashed their new offensive. For weeks and months, the mountain troops fought a battle of attrition, trying to prevent the Soviets cutting them off. A series of vicious Russian assaults nearly succeeded, but the arrival of bad weather, once again, deprived the Red Army of victory. By the time the bad weather had improved, the Gebirgsjäger had brought up additional reserves and equipment. The Russian offensive failed and the mountain troopers were able to spend the next two years, until 1944, patrolling the northern sector.
In the summer of 1944, the Red Army launched another offensive on the Northern Front. The attack was so fierce that the Finns concluded a separate peace with the Russians, in September 1944. With the prospect of being cut off, all German troops, including those of the Gebirgsjäger, were pulled back through Lapland into Norway, whilst at the same time combating Norwegian troops who had now turned against them.
Overlooking the Baltic coast is a 2cm FlaK 30 anti-aircraft gun. This FlaK gun weighed some 770kg and had an effective ceiling range of 2,200 meters against aerial targets. In the Gebirgsjäger, these guns were operated by light flak companies and were used extensively to protect both mountain troops and Wehrmacht forces against enemy aerial attacks. They could also be used in a ground defensive role too, with great effect.
Southern Front
On the Southern Front, mountain troops saw more extensive action against the Red Army than those operations conducted in the north. In June 1941, the 1 and 4.Gebirgs-Divisions were involved in the rapid advances which followed the invasion of Russia. The soldiers covered some 35-miles each day and maintained this truly remarkable progress, day after day, week after weary week. During these early days, morale was high. They smashed through the Stalin Line and conducted vigorous attacks deep into enemy territory. They had also participated in the encirclement of the Uman pocket, which saw 100,000 Red Army troops being marched into captivity. The Gebirgs-Korps alone captured 22,000 prisoners. This, in itself, was a great victory and for weeks and months that followed, the mountain troops pushed further east towards Stalino, which was captured in November 1941. They then advanced to positions by the River Mius where winter was fast approaching.
In July 1942, the Gebirgsjäger took part in the drive on the Caucasus Mountains. It was here that the soldiers were able to exhibit their Alpine skills and scale some of the highest peaks in the Caucasus range. On Mount Elbrus, they managed to plant the German national flag. By the end of 1942, as the city of Stalingrad was about to fall, the 1 and 4 Gebirgs-Divisions were withdrawn, barely escaping the clutches of the Red tide. Both divisions halted at the Kuban bridgehead, where they fought until the autumn of 1943, in mosquito-infested marshland.
Three photographs, taken from the same slide, showing SS-Division Nord during action against enemy positions in a wooded area. The division saw action on the Norwegian–Finnish border and began hostilities against the Russians, in June 1941, in an Operation, code-named ‘Arctic Fox’. During a battle at Salla, against strong Russian forces, Nord suffered 300 killed and 400 wounded in the first two days of the invasion.
At the end of the year, the 5.Gebirgs-Division was withdrawn from the Leningrad sector where it saw extensive action on the Southern Front. But, despite the stiffening of German forces in the south, nothing could prevent the growing strength of the Soviet Army. By early 1944, over four million Russian soldiers were now being thrown at the exhausted troops. Even the elite Waffen-SS Gebirgs-Divisions could do nothing to stem the rapid enemy onslaught. By mid-May, the Red Army overran the Crimea and was remorselessly bearing down on the Carpathian Mountains.
The end in the East seemed imminent. Hitler began taking drastic steps to try and hold the Russians from overrunning the Hungarian oilfields. To bear the brunt of this massive defence strategy, the 1. Gebirgs-Division, now attached to parts of the 2.Panzer-Armee, took part in the offensive around the area of the Platensee.
On 5 March 1944, the attack began in earnest, but the spring thaw turned the countryside into a sea of mud and almost immediately the troops of the 2.Panzer-Armee were bogged down in the mire. As for the Gebirgsjäger, they could still move with their pack animals, and, during the first ten days, they made good progress. But then their advance ground to a halt. Along the disintegrating German front, a mere handful of units, including the 1.Gebirgs-Division and the 13.Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS ‘Handschar’, mainly composed of Bosnian Moslems, faced a massive Russian Army of some 40 divisions. Under the pulverizing effects of the Russian troops and their artillery, both the 2.Panzer-Armee and the 6.SS.Panzer-Armee were forced to withdraw. As the bulk of the German forces retreated under a hurricane of fire, it was up to the 1.Gebirgs-Division to fight back the Soviet force whilst the remnants of the Wehrmacht clawed its way westward.
Gebirgstruppen from the new SS-Division Nord during operations in the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. A motorcycle combination is following a Pz.Kpfw.II towards the battlefront watched by soldiers on the edge of the road. SS Kampfgruppe Nord was formed in February 1941, from two SS Totenkopf Regiments. The designation changed to SS-Division Nord in September 1941, and again in September 1942, to SS Gebirgs-Division Nord, and finally to 6th SS Gebirgs-Division Nord.
Nord truppen in action with their 3.7cm PaK35/36. Even though the PaK35/36 had become inadequate for operational needs, in the face of growing armoured opposition, they were still quite capable of causing some serious damage to their opponent.
A Nord MG34 machine gun crew with their weapon attached to a Lafette 34 sustained-fire mount with optical sight. Note the special pads on the front of the tripod. These were specifically used when the weapon was being carried on the carriers back. The pads would allow the carrier some reasonable comfort.
Here, Gebirgstruppen hold a morning formation inside a Russian village. They are all wearing the standard Gebirgsjäger uniform. Once their commander had finished lecturing his men, the troops would disperse and prepare for their daily duties in the snow. This would first consist of the soldiers donning their winter camouflage smocks and standard field equipment.
Three photographs showing a Gebirgsjäger wearing the special woolen toque beneath the Bergmütze. Typically, troops wore two toques in the extreme arctic conditions, as these photographs vividly illustrate. One was worn over the head to protect the ears and face, and one around the neck. The toques main purpose was intended to keep the head warm whilst wearing the steel helmet, which during winter operations in the east, the soldiers referred them as like a ‘freezer box’. Along with the toque, the soldier either wore the winter white camouflage smock or the standard issue greatcoat with insulated two-finger mittens.
