Back to the meeting on Saturday with military history. Do not become a regular feature of all the weekend (hard), but I will propose something every time I will feel that you have interesting articles on the subject. Maybe not necessarily on Saturday.
Today we take into account what may be considered the first true special forces of the modern era, the Brandenburg Germany.
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Since the beginning of World War II the German High Command was evident that there was a need for departments to implement the Special Forces of the Blitzkrieg tactic successfully. Railway sidings, bridges, crossings and tunnels were to be acquired in advance objectives advanced conventional army. The Abwher (L ' German Intelligence Service) and then conceived a division able to play this role. The Brandenburg commandos were to be a force of highly qualified, able to capture key strategic points by any means necessary. So they did, becoming the benchmark for all modern body forces Special from there to the future.
Of all the German divisions of World War II, probably the Brandenburg division is that which we know less. The history of this body actually begins at the end of the First World War. In 1919-1920, the German government created a special unit of men identified as "Industrieschutz Oberschlesien. This group was ordered to do everything possible to prevent the Polish insurgents were able to influence the plebiscite in Upper Silesia to Poland. Around 1938, the unit "Industrieschutz Oberschlesien "was renamed" Deutsche Kompanie ". Sudetentland during the crisis of 1938, Deutsche Kompanie "participated in numerous covert actions. One sister, the "Sudetendeutsche Freikorps" was added shortly after the special forces. But it was now clear to all that it needed a more organized structure to frame these divisions in the German army.
(Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, dell'Abwher operated from 1935 to 1944. He is remembered above all for his opposition to the secret Nazi regime, which caused him to run in the concentration camp of Flossenburg, April 9, 1945).
The Abwher, which had expanded rapidly in 1935 and that was the main rival of the SD (intelligence services of the SS), had developed the project "special forces" in 1935, under the Driving the former commander of U-boats of World War I, Admiral Canaris. As Admiral Dönitz, another U-boat commander of World War I, who had become head of the Kriegsmarine, Canaris was an intelligent man with a gift for languages that had matured during the war. Not only that the Admiral was beginning a secret opponent of National Socialism and Hitler, and some historians think that the Brandenburg conceived to overthrow Hitler, when the opportunity presented itself. Although few in number, they had a training even higher than that of Himmler's SS and Luftwaffe ground units.
With Canaris, Theodor von Hippel, who was both nationalist conservative, but not Nazi, was instrumental in the formation of Brandenburg. He had studied the writings of TE Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) and commando tactics von Lettow Vorbeck, who had worked in the African colonies of Germany during the Great War. Von Hippel tried to recruit Germans living abroad or in countries on the borders of Germany. These people belonged to Volksdeutsche (German people) and came from Silesia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Sudetentland; could then go to locals, working in local operations. In reality there was not a part of Europe where the Brandenburg had at least some infiltration. To the east there were infiltrators who were operating on Russian soil, Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian and Finnish. West Division could rely on men who had lived in the German colonies in Africa and then they spoke English, Portuguese and French. These individuals, who were all volunteers, had to be intelligent and ready to use unorthodox methods to accomplish their mission if necessary.
(A Brandenburg enrolled in Libya, Field Marshal Rommel in the Afrika Korps. The local unit had about 300 men, some of which are native to the area. They were all trained to fight in desert and tropical climate and were provided with vehicles and weapons stolen from the English).
The first real test in the field of Brandebug can be identified in business conducted in mid-1939. These are the men from Silesia and Sudetentland (an area of former Czechoslovakia), took part in the Polish campaign in September 1939 under the name identifier of "Bauhler Kompanie ZB V 800. These men, who knew perfectly colloquial terms and customs, and in possession of important documents such as passports, identity cards etc etc, were very useful to the "conquest" of the same Sudetentland.
The Brandenburg were useful and as effective as the most brutal Waffen-SS, which had no estimate, however, the impressive digital media and the limelight. Where the Templars blacks Himmler were trained in the fighting face to face and the perfect execution of strategies for attack, Brandenburg had specialized in guerrilla warfare and guerrilla-like in the fight.
After the outbreak of war had to specialize in other fields, such as parachuting, scuba diving and skiing at high altitude and in the manufacture and operation of explosives. In every possible situation, the Brandenburg was trained to have a great mental strength and to improvise in different situations, the end result was a highly qualified and experienced soldiers to survive in extreme situations.
It should be noted that these men were not spies. Yes it is true, sometimes wearing the uniform of the enemy to gather information or to obtain a tactical advantage, but that was not their primary task, in the broad sense of the word. Some senior commanders strongly disapproved of such methods by guerrillas and saw the men of Brandenburg as criminals and renegades.
This was partly due to the rigid education Prussian army, made of honor and strict supervision and ordered in the military.
As already mentioned, the first use of military power in the grand style of Brandenburg there was the beginning of the Polish campaign, with the command deployed on the field even before the invasion had begun. It was their job to ensure the safe capture of the factories in Silesia, which were then essential for the German war effort.
Their headquarters was in Brandenburg-Havel-am (hence the name that you care), in western Berlin. Later also participated in operations in Denmark and Norway, Holland and Belgium.
(A platoon of Brandenburg in Russian uniforms, in action behind the lines of the Eastern Front).
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