Col Gen Wilhelm Hess - Arctic Front: The Advance of Mountain Corps Norway on Murmansk, 1941

DIE WEHRMACHT IM KAMPF

The Advance of Mountain Corps Norway on Murmansk, 1941

WILHELM HESS

Translated by

LINDEN LYONS

Series editor:

MATTHIAS STROHN

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English translation 2021 Casemate Publishers

Originally published as Die Wehrmacht im Kampf 9: Wilhelm Hess, Eismeerfront 1941: Aufmarsch und Kmpfe des Gebirgskorps Norwegen in den Tundren vor Murmansk (Heidelberg, 1956: Scharnhorst Buchkameradschaft)

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-972-8

Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-973-5

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Front cover: German soldiers in winter camouflage suits with sub-machine guns, 1943. (Bundesarchiv, Bild_101I-103-0943-13)

The common view of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 is based on the operations of mechanised units and formations which cut through the Soviet forces and occupied vast areas of territory, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. And yet, this is not the whole story of Operation Barbarossa. German troops had occupied Norway in 1940 and Finland had had to cede territories to the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Winter War of 1939/40. Naturally, the Finns were eager to reclaim the lost territories and decided to join the Germans in the war against the Soviet Union. This opened the northern flank for operations against Soviet troops. From a German perspective, the main aim of the operation was to seize the harbour of Murmansk, which remained ice-free even in winter. From the start, the invasion ran into problems: difficult terrain, logistical issues and fierce Soviet resistance meant that the offensive stalled and that the operational objective, Murmansk, could not be seized by the attacking forces. This would have consequences for the rest of the war, as the western allies were able to send material and equipment to the Soviets via this port, which, arguably, kept the Soviet Union in the war. Despite the strategic importance that the failed offensive had, this part of Operation Barbarossa is often overlooked and it is good that we now have the translation of an account of this operation.

Wilhelm Hess was particularly well suited to write this account, which was originally published in German in 1956. As a Bavarian and a member of the German mountain troops it was logical that he would get posted to Norway, and he spent the majority of World War II fighting in Norway and on the northern part of the Eastern Front. He was the quartermaster of Mountain Corps Norway in 1941 and the senior quartermaster of the Twentieth Mountain Army in Lapland from 1942 until 1944. He spent the years 1945 to 1948 as a British prisoner of war and joined the new West-German Army, the Bundeswehr, in 1956. He retired with the rank of major-general in 1968. His background in logistics means that his account deals in detail with the essential, but little loved, issues of supply and equipment. His writing clearly conveys the logistical issues that the troops were facing in the northern sector, and Hess thus re-emphasises the general perception of the Wehrmacht, which might have been tactically brilliant, but whose operations were constantly being hampered by insufficient re-supply. The book is, naturally, a product of its time, but it is interesting to read how frank and open Hess is in his assessment of the problems that the German troops were facing, and throughout the book Hess pays respect to the fighting spirit of the Soviet soldier.

Hess produced a highly readable and insightful account of the fighting at the northern flank of the cataclysmic struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1941, and it sheds light on an often overlooked episode of Operation Barbarossa.

Prof. Matthias Strohn, M.St., FRHistS

Head of Historical Analysis,

Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, Camberley

Visiting Professor of Military Studies,

University of Buckingham

For a period of five years, German troops from all branches of the Wehrmacht fought side by side with the Finnish border guard units on the Arctic Front. It was the first time in history that military operations were conducted by large formations along the northern coast of Scandinavia. A modern army suddenly swept into an isolated and by nature inhospitable region that did not yet possess the level of importance it would assume in present-day polar strategy.

The high point of the war on the Arctic Front was the assembly and advance of Mountain Corps Norway in the summer and autumn of 1941. Commanded by General of Mountain Troops Eduard Dietl, this formation would later become the XIX Mountain Corps. It did not reach its objective. It is intended that this book will be of value from the point of view of military science by describing and analysing the environment, the sequence of events, and the reasons for certain decisions that were made. The account here is based on the available documents, personal records, and currently available literature. The author was the quartermaster of Mountain Corps Norway in 1941 and the senior quartermaster of the Twentieth Mountain Army from 1942 until 1944 and is therefore able to draw upon his personal experience of the conditions and actions on the Arctic Front. Special thanks must be given to Captain (ret.) Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs for his account of the operations of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla.

Wilhelm Hess

Munich, 1956

Translation of Place Names

Included in this list are only those place names where the German and English differ considerably.