Sepp Dietrich

Josef Dietrich SS-Obergruppenführer

A Sergeant Major in the First World War and a member of the Nazi Party from 1928, Joseph Dietrich was chosen to form the S.S. bodyguard that became known as the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. Under Dietrich the Leibstandarte became an elite military unit and by 1940 a full division.

The formidable reputation that the Waffen S. S. was to achieve for courage and resource in adversity was in large part due to Dietrich, who, while lacking the strategic genius of Rommel or Manstein, proved himself tactically adept and an exemplary commander of men.

He proved too, to be a man receptive to new ideas. Disdaining the field grey of the Wehrmacht, he outfitted his men with camouflaged combat fatigues, an innovation so novel that the Wehrmacht likened them to tree frogs. Under Dietrich, now a Major General, the Leibstandarte distinguished itself in France and the Balkans. In Greece, Dietrich's S.S. troops harried the British down through the Monastir Gap and across the Isthmus of Corinth to a hasty evacuation of the Peloponese.

For the invasion of Russia Dietrich ordered winter clothing for his troops. He had served on the Eastern Front in the First World War and knew the realities of the Russian climate, but such precautions were not taken by the Wehrmacht, and when Winter came Dietrich's supplies were quite often simply commandeered.

In the savage battles of 1942 the Leibstandarte grew to maturity, their reputation for dash and elan in attack further enhanced by their steadfastness and determination in defence. For this Dietrich must take much of the credit. To his men he was known simply as Sepp. Though course and often foul-mouthed, his personal bravery was legendary. As a man who had come through the ranks, he was the epitome of a soldier's soldier, adored by his men, feared but respected by his enemies.

As the head of his personal bodyguard, Sepp Dietrich was an old friend of Adolf Hitler as well as a loyal and trusted party comrade. In 1944 Hitler gave Dietrich command of three armies for a German counter-offensive in the West. Despite his failure to achieve a decisive victory in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge, Dietrich's attack shocked the Allies and greatly damaged American morale.

In 1945 Dietrich led the 6th S.S. Panzer Army in the last desperate battles for Hungary and Austria, suffering appalling losses and withdrawing Westward to surrender his forces to advancing American troops rather than to the Russians.

In 1946 Sepp Dietrich was sentenced to 25 years in prison by an American military court for the murder of American soldiers in Belgium. Continuing controversy over the verdict and over the incident itself contributed to his release after serving 10 years.