Herbert Otto Gille is seen here as an SS-Gruppenführer and commander of 5. SS Panzer Division Wiking in an observation post during the defense of Kovel in the spring of 1944. Of particular interest is the Gothic script version of the divisional cuffband, worn only by a few other individuals. In the historic battle for the Cherkassy Pocket in January 1944, Wiking Division, held out against Soviet forces which reached more than 20 times the strength of the encircled German units, before successfully breaking out. Subsequently ordered to take command of the ‘last man, last bullet’ defence of the city of Kovel, Gille refused to take his battered division into what he knew was a death trap; but he himself flew into Kovel, where the garrison under his command held out against repeated armoured assaults by four Soviet armies - despite not having a single remaining tank of their own - until a relief force from the Wiking Division broke in and Gille withdrew his men and vehicles, with over 2,000 wounded, along a narrow corridor. For this remarkable achievement Gille was decorated with the Diamonds on 19 April 1944.