1 - The SS was not an elite fighting force, it was just the politically charged public servant/national guard/praetorian guard equivalent. The Waffen-SS's performance was not that great compared to the Wehrmacht.
The SS weren't an elite fighting force? How do you figure?
During the Third Battle of Kharkov, what's called the "Backhand Blow" of 1st Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 2nd SS Das Reich, and 3rd SS Panzer Totenkopf divisons, was a regrouping and counter-attack that totally destroyed 25 Soviet divisions, and severely compromised a further 27. 3 divisions took 52 out of the fight. And as for the leadership, Josef Dietrich was
literally Hitler's top guy, a mad man who led his men from the vanguard, and his superior was Paul Hausser of the 2nd Panzer Division, who had a traditional Prussian military education and is known as the Father of the Waffen-SS.
There's other storied SS divisions too and some of their leaders are some of the greatest military commanders of all time. 5th SS Division Wiking accomplished a lot and was led by Felix Steiner, who like Paul Hausser, had a Royal Prussian military academy background, and who to this day, is still largely informative in regards to tactics with smaller forces, as best as I know about the German influence on military doctrine. During the Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket the 8th Army was totally destroyed and the 5th SS Division Wiking was able to fight its way out of total annihilation, preserving most a core cadre of veterans for the Germans, whose greatest commodity was talent. It was Wiking who was the spearhead of the breakthough and saved what was left of Group Stemmerman and Group Lieb (North and South Columns), and then they provided the rearguard as well.
I don't know how you could view them as anything but the most competent and fanatical that the Reich had.
Anyways, I'm on Team Jew now, so it's neither here nor there.
weev
Good fucking riddance to a degenerate.
