Paul Hausser
SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser was widely considered to be the best organizer and operational leader in the Waffen-SS. Born in 1880 in Brandenburg, he served in the German Army from 1899 to 1932. During the Great War, as a captain he won numerous decorations serving as a General Staff officer on the western front; he also served as a company commander there in 1915 with the 28th Infantry Regiment von Goeben. After that conflict, Hausser remained in the new Reichswehr, commanding an infantry battalion and subsequently the 10th Infantry Regiment. Reaching mandatory retirement age in 1932, Paul Hausser departed the service as a major general.
Two years later, the fledgling SS-Special Purpose Troops (SS-Verfügungstruppe [SS-VT]) knocked on Hausser’s door. The organization belonged neither to the police nor the Armed Forces but was composed of military-trained men for the use by the Führer in peace or war – in effect, combat troops for the Nazi Party. Paul Hausser did not need the SS-VT, but the SS-VT needed Paul Hausser, as the organization was seeking legitimacy in the eyes of the German Army. Now an SS-Standartenführer, Hausser initially served as the inspector of the SS leadership school system, and then became the inspector for the entire SS-Special Purpose Troops organization.
Hausser then became the commander of the just-formed SS-Special Purpose Troops Division, which would soon be better-known as SS-Division Deutschland that in turn became SS-Division Reich. A lead-from-the-front division commander, Paul Hausser suffered a grave wound to his upper jaw and right eye socket in October 1941, when shrapnel from an enemy anti-tank shell struck him. The wound cost him his right eye and he spent the next several months undergoing various medical procedures. He became the commanding general of the SS Panzer Corps on September 14, 1942. (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)
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71st Infantry Division Tactical Symbol
On September 14, 1942, the 71st Infantry Division initially repelled an enemy counterattack from the 399th Rifle Division; it then attacked in zone, seizing Hill 112.5, and reached Stalingrad’s Central Railway Station at noon (the station changed hands at least five times that day), with one regiment reaching the Volga River and encountering the 13th Guards Rifle Division. The division also seized the waterworks. The 245th Sturmgeschütz Detachment was attached to the division. To the north was the 295th Infantry Division; to the south was the 24th Panzer Division. The division lost 38 NCOs/enlisted killed in action; six officers and 120 NCOs/enlisted were wounded in action; one man was reported missing in action. The division reported that all eight infantry battalions were weak in combat power, while the combat engineer battalion was average in combat power. The division headquarters was located three miles southwest of Gorodishche. (Stalingrad: The Death of the German Sixth Army on the Volga, 1942-1943)