28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien - Korsun Pocket - Battle of Narva

Battle of Narva

While Wallonien and Wiking were engaged defending the brunt of the Soviet attack, several Soviet Tank formations had advanced along the side of the salient and succeeded in encircling the German forces.

During the battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket, the Wallonien was given the task of defending against Soviet attacks on the Eastern side of the pocket. After the 105. Regiment of the 72. Infanterie Division became exhausted defending Novaya-Buda from Soviet attacks, the Wallonien was sent to relieve them. While General der Artillerie Wilhelm Stemmermann, the overall commander for the trapped forces, moved his forces to the west of the pocket in readiness for a breakout attempt, Wallonien and Wiking were ordered to act as a rearguard. During the desperate fighting, Lippert was killed. Degrelle quickly took command of the Brigade, and after repulsing all Soviet attempts to break through near the town of Novaya-Buda, the Wallonien began withdrawing one platoon at a time, under cover of darkness. Advancing through Hell's Gate, the brigade came under heavy enemy fire with little or no cover. Of the brigade's 2,000 men, only 632 survived the carnage of the Korsun Pocket. For his actions in the battle, Degrelle was awarded the Knight's Cross and promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer. A propaganda campaign was launched which successfully portrayed Degrelle as a hero to pro-German Europeans. The gravity of the Korsun disaster was downplayed, and Degrelle took an active role in promoting the Wallonien, addressing 10,000 people at the Brussels Sports Stadium. When he was awarded the Knight's Cross in Berlin, Hitler said to him of the Korsun affair You had me worried. The veterans of the 6.SS Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade Langemarck, the other Belgian SS formation, caustically remarked that they too had suffered at Korsun, but they had no Degrelle to make a fuss about it.

The ragged remains of the Wallonien was sent back to Wildflecken to be reformed. Large numbers of new recruits were arriving thanks to the propaganda campaign, which had been augmented by a widely attended march of the Wallonien survivors through Brussels. In June 1944, the Battles around Narva (Known as the Battle of the European SS) were beginning to go badly for the German Army Group North. A 440 man battalion of the Wallonien was sent to Estonia to assist in the defence of the Tannenberg Line. Operating under SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner's III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, the battalion was thrown into the line near Dorpat, attempting to halt a Soviet breakthrough at Pskov. On 10 August, the battalion joined Kampfgruppe Wagner, and for three weeks fought against Soviet tank, infantry, artillery and air attacks. By the end of the month, only 200 men remained. After Operation Bagration, Army Group North began to fall back into the Kurland Pocket. During the retreat, the battalion escaped entrapment by leaving through the port of Tallinn (Reval) on the Baltic. During this period, the leader of the Panzerjäger platoon, SS-Untersturmführer Léon Gillis, received the Knight's Cross for his actions in single-handedly destroying a number (anywhere from 14 to 19) of T-34s. In early August, Degrelle was flown out of the Kurland Pocket to receive the Oakleaves to his Knight's Cross for his actions during the Battle of Narva.

The shattered remnants of the Battalion were sent back to join the rest of the Brigade, which was located at Breslau.