BASIC INTRO ON THE SS
At the start of WW2 there were three separate armed forces of Himmler's SS.
Sepp Dietrich's "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler," Hitler's bodyguard unit, organized as a motorized infantry regiment.
Paul Hausser's "Verfungstruppe," composed of three standarten organized as motorized infantry regiments: SS Standarte Deutschland, SS Standarte Germania, and SS Standarte Der Fuhrer; along with an SS Artillery Regiment, reconaissance battalion, anti-tank battalion, light flak battalion and engineer battalion. The Verfungstruppe was the forerunner of the Das Reich division.
Theodor Eicke's Totenkopfverbande (Death's Head units) were concentration camp guards. Eicke, being an empire builder like most of Hitler's minions, had formed four Totenkopf "standarten" or regiments (one for each of the concentration camps): SS Totenkopf Standarte I Oberbayern for Dachau; SS Totenkopf Standarte II Brandenburg for Oranienburg; SS Totenkopf Standarte III Thuringen for Buchenwald; SS Totenkopf Standarte IV Ostmark (in Austria) for Mauthausen. Eicke had also managed to build up a sizeable reserve force and acquire his own depots and factories for supplies and arms (using concentration camp labor).
With the outbreak of war, the Totenkopf forces expanded with the calling up of 40,000 SS reservists and the enrolling of new recruits. Eicke soon had under his control no less than fifteen standarten of Totenkopf troops plus one "SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte" (cavalry regiment). The first three of the new standarten, built from the best personnel from the four original units and others, formed SS-Totenkopf-Standarten 1, 2 and 3 which were the nucleus of Eicke's new Totenkopf-Division. The rest of the units were used as garrison units in occupied Poland and elsewhere.
When Himmler managed to get control of his unruly subordinates and combine the three separate forces (plus the SS-Polizei Division) into the "Waffen SS," Eicke's extra units were used as follows: Standarten 8 and 10 went to form SS-Brigade 1; Standarten 4, 5 and 14 to form SS-Brigade 2; Standarten 6 and 7 ended up in Finland and were used to expand SS-Kampfgruppe Nord into a mountain division; Standarte 9 was used to garrison Kirkenes and became the basis for SS-Kampfgruppe Nord (but later was sent to Russia and was ultimately absorbed by the Totenkopf Division); Standart 11 became part of Felix Steiner's Wiking Division; the cavalry regiment was expanded into two regiments and, as John also noted, became SS Cavalry Brigade Fegelein (commanded by Eva Braun's brother-in-law); and Standarten 12, 13, and 15 were disbanded.
© 2000 Created by Rokas Pukinskas