S.S. PANZARARMEE HELL

Membership: None named

Base of Operations: Germany, formerly Minsk, Russia, WWII era to present

First Appearance: Demon III #46 (April, 1994)

History:  (Demon III #46-48) - In Winter, 1942 Hitler's occultists unlocked the key of performing rituals that would create an undying army. No soldiers were willing to volunteer until Hitler approached the sadistic and mad General von Raddel, who was more than willing. The men under his command were branded with the triskele symbol, and Raddel was given an amulet that, using the powers of the moon, could raise his soldiers from the dead. His panzer Division attacked Minsky, Russia on July 13, 1943, and the Russians surprised his men with guerilla tactics, killing his soldiers to a man. Before Raddel could raise them, a Russian soldier shot him in the head. He was left brain-damaged and comatose in a long term care facility for over 50 years. Fuhrer Bergen planned on creating a Fourth Reich, and brought Raddel out of his coma by showing him a swastika. Raddel happily raised the men formerly under his command as zombies, the S.S. Panzerarmee Hell. Demon, the hitman of Hell, was charged with sending the Nazis back to Hell, and went to Limbo, seeking the aid of General J.E.B. Stuart of the Haunted Tank. Stuart agreed to put the Nazis down and left Limbo to once take possession of the Haunted Tank, which was rusting away in military storage. Jason Blood met with the Tank's former crew in a bar in Texas, and although they thought it unbelievable anyone besides them knew about the Haunted Tank, they were convinced to help when the tank and General J.E.B. rolled up outside the bar. Bergen wanted to start his regime by crippling America, so the country couldn't undermine his future rise in Germany. The Panzerarmee attacked Fort Cahill, Texas home of the U.S. Army's Second Armored Division. The zombies mowed down the Americans, giving Raddel access to an army of tanks.Bergen told Raddel how he formed the hate group Wotan's Fist in Germany, finding a number of people who supported his rascist ideology of driving out or exterminating immigrants, liberals and radicals. Raddel complimented his oration, but said they still had to secure military superiority. He planned to drive the panzers to Washington, D.C., kill the President and establish command of the capitol. He sent advance fuel tanks east to supply the panzers. Etrigan was spying on them and laughed at the vain Nazis and their false sense of glory. He met up with the Haunted Tank and together they destroyed the fuel trucks and Panzerarmee present with hellfire and firepower. When Riddell and Bergen arrived Etrigan told them to give up, but Riddell used his mystic amulet to summon damned souls who dragged Etrigan into the Earth. With only a bit of fuel remaining Bergen and Riddell headed for the town of Chapparal to take the diesel fuel there and kill people to work off some steam. The Haunted Tank couldn't allow such a slaughter and drove to cut them off. The Haunted Tank held off the panzers, tossing grenades into their hatches and taking out a number of them while General J.E.B. Stuart went to the underworld to seek out Etrigan. Etrigan had been dragged to the Aryan Inferno, a section of Hell run by the Knights of the Order of Saint Blitzen. They tied Etrigan to a swastika and flailed him, entreating him to join them, but Etrigan spat that he had too much taste. Stuart freed him, and together they ran roughshod on the Nazi demons. Etrigan told the head of the Order he knew nothing about true demon hate because he was a pitiful creature full of petty spite, and executed him for daring to lay hands on a rhymer. Führer Bergen was sitting out the battle between Raddel and the Panzerarmee Hell against the Haunted Tank. Etrigan killed him with one blow, and blew up most of the Panzerarmee with hellfire. The Haunted Tank finished them off, but their tank was nearly destroyed in the process. Etrigan saluted them for rising to a chance for one last glory, and promised the Haunted Tank wouldn't end up in a scrapyard. Desert winds buried the tank, waiting until it was needed again.