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Brandenburgers
The Brandenburgers (German: Brandenburger) were members of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht special forces unit during World War II.
Originally, the unit was formed by and operated as an extension of the military's intelligence and counter-espionage organ, the Abwehr. Members of this unit took part in seizing operationally important targets by way of sabotage and infiltration. Consisting of foreign German nationals working on behalf of the Third Reich, the unit's members often lived abroad, were proficient in foreign languages, and were familiar with the local culture and customs of the areas where they were deployed.
The Brandenburg Division was generally subordinated to the army groups in individual commands and operated throughout Eastern Europe, in northern Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and in the Caucasus. In the later course of the war, parts of the special unit were used in Bandenbekämpfung operations against partisans in Yugoslavia before the division was reclassified and merged into one of the Panzergrenadier divisions in the last months of the war. They committed various atrocities in the course of their operations.
The unit was the brainchild of Hauptmann (captain) Theodor von Hippel, who, after having his idea rejected by the Reichswehr, approached Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, commander of the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr. Hippel proposed that small units, trained in sabotage and fluent in foreign languages, could operate behind enemy lines and wreak havoc with the enemy's command, communication, and logistical tails. Canaris was at first against the proposal as he viewed such measures as similar to what the Bolsheviks had done and was suspicious of Hippel's motives. Still determined to form the unit, Hippel looked to his section chief, Helmuth Groscurth, who supported the unit's formation, and the two men conferred on the matter on 27 September 1939. Just a few days after their meeting, the Army General Staff put forth a directive authorizing the creation of "a company of saboteurs for the West." As part of the Abwehr's 2nd Department, Hippel was tasked with creating the unit. Originally, the unit Hippel assembled was named the Deutsche Kompagnie, then later on 25 October it became the Baulehr-kompagnie 800 and then again on 10 January 1940, the unit was called the Bau-Lehr-Bataillon z.b.V. 800 (800th Special Duties Construction Training Battalion); but its later more widely known epithet, "the Brandenburgers", stemmed from the name of the unit's first permanent quarters.
Training for the men in the Brandenburg Division ranged from five to seven months and included course instruction on reconnaissance, swimming, hand-to-hand combat, demolitions, marksmanship with both German and Allied weapons, conventional infantry tactics, and other specialized training. Brandenburg units were deployed as small commando outfits to penetrate enemy territory and conduct both sabotage and anti-sabotage operations. Despite their demonstrated successes while incurring minimum casualties, many traditionally-minded German officers still found their use abhorrent. Most of the personnel were fluent in other languages, which allowed them, for example, to penetrate the Netherlands in 1940 disguised as Dutch barge crews just before the start of the invasion. In 1941, they preceded the invasion of Yugoslavia undercover as Serbian workers. During the night before Operation Barbarossa began, Brandenburger units crossed the Soviet border disguised as Soviet workers and Red Army soldiers. Others wore Arab garments to conduct surveillance on Allied warships traversing the Strait of Gibraltar ahead of the Wehrmacht deployment in North Africa. Correspondingly, Department II of the Abwehr, under which the Brandenburgers were subsumed, had a distinct sub-component for army, navy, and air force operations.
Many of the Brandenburgers were misfits who could hardly be characterized as conventional soldiers, due in large part to the nature of their operations. They would infiltrate enemy military formations, secretly countermand orders, redirect military convoys, and disrupt communications, all the while collecting intelligence. Ahead of the forces invading the USSR, operatives from the Brandenburg Division seized bridges and strategically important installations in clandestine missions lasting for weeks before they linked up with advancing forces.
The predecessor formation to the Brandenburg Division was the Freikorps Ebbinghaus, which originated before the invasion of Poland in 1939. Colonel Erwin von Lahousen (and the defense groups of military districts VIII and XVII) from within Department II of the Abwehr, put together small K-Trupps (fighting squads), which consisted of Polish-speaking Silesians and ethnic Germans, whose job was to occupy key positions and hold them until the arrival of regular Wehrmacht units.[citation needed] The first members of the "K-Trupps" were German nationals. Generally, these men were civilians who had never served in the army but were briefly trained by the "Abwehr" and were led by army officers. After the Polish campaign, this changed as these commandos became members of the Wehrmacht. Despite their seeming lack of prior experience, the demands placed on these newly formed commandos were high. It was mandatory that they be volunteers for this duty. They were also expected to be agile, capable of improvising, endowed with initiative and team spirit, highly competent in foreign languages and in their dealings with foreign nationals, and capable of the most demanding physical performance. Eventually, the early guiding principle that required members of the Division Brandenburg to be volunteers ended with their increasing use and integration with the regular army.
The night before the invasion of Poland (Plan White) in September 1939, small groups of German special forces dressed in civilian clothes crossed the Polish border to seize key strategic points before dawn on the day of the invasion. This made them the first special operations unit to see action in the Second World War. Freikorps Ebbinghaus engaged in atrocities against Poland's population and its captured PoWs. On 4 September, members of the Freikorps Ebbinghaus executed 17 people at Pszczyna, among them Boy Scouts from the town's secondary schools. They also tortured 29 citizens of Orzesze before executing them. On 8 September 1939, in the upper Silesian city of Siemanowice, they executed six Poles and then on 1 October 1939, shot 18 people in Nowy Bytom. Larger massacres were carried out in Katowice, where hundreds of people were executed. Within two weeks of the invasion of Poland, Ebbinghaus had "left a trail of murder in more than thirteen Polish towns and villages".
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Brandenburgers
The Brandenburgers (German: Brandenburger) were members of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht special forces unit during World War II.
Originally, the unit was formed by and operated as an extension of the military's intelligence and counter-espionage organ, the Abwehr. Members of this unit took part in seizing operationally important targets by way of sabotage and infiltration. Consisting of foreign German nationals working on behalf of the Third Reich, the unit's members often lived abroad, were proficient in foreign languages, and were familiar with the local culture and customs of the areas where they were deployed.
The Brandenburg Division was generally subordinated to the army groups in individual commands and operated throughout Eastern Europe, in northern Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and in the Caucasus. In the later course of the war, parts of the special unit were used in Bandenbekämpfung operations against partisans in Yugoslavia before the division was reclassified and merged into one of the Panzergrenadier divisions in the last months of the war. They committed various atrocities in the course of their operations.
The unit was the brainchild of Hauptmann (captain) Theodor von Hippel, who, after having his idea rejected by the Reichswehr, approached Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, commander of the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr. Hippel proposed that small units, trained in sabotage and fluent in foreign languages, could operate behind enemy lines and wreak havoc with the enemy's command, communication, and logistical tails. Canaris was at first against the proposal as he viewed such measures as similar to what the Bolsheviks had done and was suspicious of Hippel's motives. Still determined to form the unit, Hippel looked to his section chief, Helmuth Groscurth, who supported the unit's formation, and the two men conferred on the matter on 27 September 1939. Just a few days after their meeting, the Army General Staff put forth a directive authorizing the creation of "a company of saboteurs for the West." As part of the Abwehr's 2nd Department, Hippel was tasked with creating the unit. Originally, the unit Hippel assembled was named the Deutsche Kompagnie, then later on 25 October it became the Baulehr-kompagnie 800 and then again on 10 January 1940, the unit was called the Bau-Lehr-Bataillon z.b.V. 800 (800th Special Duties Construction Training Battalion); but its later more widely known epithet, "the Brandenburgers", stemmed from the name of the unit's first permanent quarters.
Training for the men in the Brandenburg Division ranged from five to seven months and included course instruction on reconnaissance, swimming, hand-to-hand combat, demolitions, marksmanship with both German and Allied weapons, conventional infantry tactics, and other specialized training. Brandenburg units were deployed as small commando outfits to penetrate enemy territory and conduct both sabotage and anti-sabotage operations. Despite their demonstrated successes while incurring minimum casualties, many traditionally-minded German officers still found their use abhorrent. Most of the personnel were fluent in other languages, which allowed them, for example, to penetrate the Netherlands in 1940 disguised as Dutch barge crews just before the start of the invasion. In 1941, they preceded the invasion of Yugoslavia undercover as Serbian workers. During the night before Operation Barbarossa began, Brandenburger units crossed the Soviet border disguised as Soviet workers and Red Army soldiers. Others wore Arab garments to conduct surveillance on Allied warships traversing the Strait of Gibraltar ahead of the Wehrmacht deployment in North Africa. Correspondingly, Department II of the Abwehr, under which the Brandenburgers were subsumed, had a distinct sub-component for army, navy, and air force operations.
Many of the Brandenburgers were misfits who could hardly be characterized as conventional soldiers, due in large part to the nature of their operations. They would infiltrate enemy military formations, secretly countermand orders, redirect military convoys, and disrupt communications, all the while collecting intelligence. Ahead of the forces invading the USSR, operatives from the Brandenburg Division seized bridges and strategically important installations in clandestine missions lasting for weeks before they linked up with advancing forces.
The predecessor formation to the Brandenburg Division was the Freikorps Ebbinghaus, which originated before the invasion of Poland in 1939. Colonel Erwin von Lahousen (and the defense groups of military districts VIII and XVII) from within Department II of the Abwehr, put together small K-Trupps (fighting squads), which consisted of Polish-speaking Silesians and ethnic Germans, whose job was to occupy key positions and hold them until the arrival of regular Wehrmacht units.[citation needed] The first members of the "K-Trupps" were German nationals. Generally, these men were civilians who had never served in the army but were briefly trained by the "Abwehr" and were led by army officers. After the Polish campaign, this changed as these commandos became members of the Wehrmacht. Despite their seeming lack of prior experience, the demands placed on these newly formed commandos were high. It was mandatory that they be volunteers for this duty. They were also expected to be agile, capable of improvising, endowed with initiative and team spirit, highly competent in foreign languages and in their dealings with foreign nationals, and capable of the most demanding physical performance. Eventually, the early guiding principle that required members of the Division Brandenburg to be volunteers ended with their increasing use and integration with the regular army.
The night before the invasion of Poland (Plan White) in September 1939, small groups of German special forces dressed in civilian clothes crossed the Polish border to seize key strategic points before dawn on the day of the invasion. This made them the first special operations unit to see action in the Second World War. Freikorps Ebbinghaus engaged in atrocities against Poland's population and its captured PoWs. On 4 September, members of the Freikorps Ebbinghaus executed 17 people at Pszczyna, among them Boy Scouts from the town's secondary schools. They also tortured 29 citizens of Orzesze before executing them. On 8 September 1939, in the upper Silesian city of Siemanowice, they executed six Poles and then on 1 October 1939, shot 18 people in Nowy Bytom. Larger massacres were carried out in Katowice, where hundreds of people were executed. Within two weeks of the invasion of Poland, Ebbinghaus had "left a trail of murder in more than thirteen Polish towns and villages".