and lost nearly all of its heavy equipment. In early March 1944, while still refitting after its ordeal in the Cherkassy Pocket, the division was ordered to the town of Kovel to help contain a Soviet breakthrough. Only a portion of the division’s strength, equipped only with small arms, and the division commander Gruppenführer Herbert Gille, made it into Kovel before being surrounded by Soviet forces. A breakout was deemed impractical, as there was over 2,000 German wounded in the city. By the end of March 1944, a relief force had been assembled outside of the pocket, lead by Obersturmführer Karl Nicolussi-Leck. This force was built around the 8th Company of Wiking’s 5th Panzer regiment, which had just received sixteen new Panther tanks. Fighting through determined Soviet resistance and heavy snow, the relief force broke through to the pocket on 30 March. Now able to be resupplied and receive reinforcements, Gille conducted counterattacks throughout April, culminating in the scattering of Soviet forces around Kovel on 24 April. Through May, the division received replacements for earlier losses, including Panzer IVs, Stug IVs, and Panther tanks. In early June the division was ordered west, to new defensive positions at Maciejow. On 06 July, the Soviet armored advance reached Maciejow. Wiking’s tanks and AT guns were well dug-in and camouflaged, and were able to destroy over 300 Russian armored vehicles in three days of fighting. After bringing the Red Army’s advance to a standstill in that sector, Wiking was dispatched to Poland on July 13, 1944. Warsaw battles In late-August 1944, the division was ordered back to Modlin Fortress on the Vistula River line near Warsaw where it joined the newly formed Army Group Vistula. Fighting alongside the Luftwaffe's "Hermann Göring" Panzer Division, the division participated in the Battle of Radzymin. The German counterattacks brought the Soviet offensive to a halt and the front line stabilized for the rest of the year. The division remained in the Modlin area, grouped with the 3 SS Totenkopf and the IV SS Panzer Corps. Gille was promoted to the command of the new SS Panzer Corps, and after a brief period with Oberführer Eduard Deisenhofer in command, Standartenführer Johannes Mühlenkamp, commander of the SS Panzer Regiment 5 Wiking, took command. Battles around Modlin followed for the rest of the year. In October, Mühlenkamp was replaced by Oberführer Karl Ullrich, who lead the division for the rest