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33-608: The formation was announced on 28 August 1942 by the German occupying powers in Estonia and formally established on October 1, 1942. Oberführer Franz Augsberger was named commander of the legion and the later 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade . By October 13, 1942 500 volunteers had signed up for the Legion. In the spring of 1943 additional men were drafted from the police forces and the number rose to 1,280. Battalion Narva formed from

66-399: A senior colonel rank. This distinction continues in historical circles with most texts referring to Oberführer as a senior colonel rank while some others state it was a military equivalent to a British Army brigadier . SS-Verf%C3%BCgungstruppe SS-Verfügungstruppe ( SS-VT , lit.   ' SS Dispositional Troops ' ) was formed in 1934 as combat troops for

99-598: A motorcycle company and a mortar company. The unit was officially designated SS-Verfügungstruppe ("Dispositional troops", i.e. troops at the personal disposal of the Führer). The men were to be volunteers who had completed their service in the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD; Reich Labour Service). The existence of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) was publicly declared on 16 March 1935 by Hitler in

132-700: A speech at the Reichstag . The SS-VT had to depend on the German Army for its supply of weapons and military training, and the army also retained control of the recruiting system through local draft boards responsible for assigning conscripts to the different branches of the Wehrmacht to meet quotas set by the German High Command ( Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW in German). As a consequence,

165-590: A unit from the Totenkopf , the 4 Company, committed the Le Paradis massacre ; 97 captured men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets . Two men survived. By 28 May the SS-Leibstandarte had taken the village of Wormhout , 10 miles (16 km) from Dunkirk. There, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were responsible for

198-823: The SS-Verfügungs-Division with Paul Hausser as commander. The LSSAH was expanded into a motorized regiment. In addition, the armed but ill-trained Totenkopfstandarten , together with SS Heimwehr Danzig , were organized into the Totenkopf-Division under Eicke's command in October 1939. A further division, the Polizei-Division , was created from the Ordnungspolizei . These formations took part in combat training while under army commands in preparation for Fall Gelb against

231-669: The Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 . The conscripts were included in the Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade, renamed the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade on October 22, 1944. By January 1944 the German military situation in the Eastern front had worsened so far that a general conscription call was announced in Estonia on February 1, 1944. In hopes of restoring the independence of Estonia, the last prime minister of Estonia, Jüri Uluots , supported

264-762: The Nazi Party (NSDAP). On 17 August 1938 Adolf Hitler decreed that the SS-VT was neither a part of the Ordnungspolizei (order police) nor the Wehrmacht , but military-trained men at the disposal of the Führer . In time of war, the SS-VT were to be placed at the disposal of the army. The SS-VT were involved in the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. By 1940 these military SS units had become

297-649: The SS- Stabswache and SS-Sonderkommando Berlin . The LSSAH, under the command of Josef "Sepp" Dietrich , continued to serve exclusively as a personal protection unit for Hitler and an honor guard during this timeframe. By 1937 the SS was divided into three branches: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS), the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), and the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) which administered

330-723: The Wormhoudt massacre , where 80 British and French soldiers were murdered after they surrendered. After the close of the Battle of France, the SS-VT was officially renamed the Waffen-SS, in a speech made by Adolf Hitler on 19 July 1940. Himmler also gained approval for the Waffen-SS to form its own high command, the Kommandoamt der Waffen-SS (Waffen-SS Command Office) within the SS-Führungshauptamt (FHA), which

363-480: The concentration camps . On 17 August 1938 Hitler decreed that the SS military formations were to be placed at the "disposal" of the army in time of war. Hitler stated, at Himmler's request, that service in the SS-VT qualified to fulfill military service obligations. Further, during wartime, units of the SS-TV would be used as reserves for the SS-VT. Over the course of the war this led to a constant flux of men between

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396-462: The invasion of Poland . It fought alongside army units at Rozan , Modlin , Łomża and Kmiczyn . The division was disbanded near the Polish city of Nidzica on 7 October 1939. In spite of the swift military victory over Poland in September 1939, events during the invasion of Poland raised doubts over the combat effectiveness of the SS-VT. The OKW or Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of

429-655: The Armed Forces) reported that the SS-VT units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army. They also stated that the SS-VT was poorly trained and its officers unsuitable for combat command. As an example, OKW noted that the Leibstandarte had to be rescued by an army regiment after becoming surrounded at Pabianice by the Poles. In its defence, the SS insisted that it had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal instead of as one formation, and

462-655: The Estonian Legion and 6,800 into the support service of the Wehrmacht. Of the conscripts was formed the second Estonian regiment and the Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade was established on May 5, 1943. Another draft round was announced in October 1943 for men born in 1925–1926. As a result about 5,000 men escaped to Finland to avoid the draft. Most of these men volunteered for service in the Finnish Defence Forces and formed

495-681: The Low Countries and France in 1940. Elements of both the SS-VT and the LSSAH participated in the ground invasion of the Battle of the Netherlands . In the five-day campaign, the LSSAH linked up with army units and airborne troops after a number of clashes with Dutch defenders. After the surrender of Rotterdam, the LSSAH left for The Hague , which they reached on 15 May, after capturing 3,500 Dutch soldiers as prisoners of war . On 16 May

528-592: The SS Totenkopf Division was ordered to France and was attached to army divisions which formed the northern "spearhead" of attack. In France, the SS Totenkopf was involved in the only Allied tank attack in the Battle of France . On 21 May units of the British 1st Army Tank Brigade , supported by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division , took part in the Battle of Arras . The SS Totenkopf

561-540: The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits, thereby limiting its size. In 1936, Himmler selected former Lieutenant General Paul Hausser to be Inspector of the SS-VT with the rank of Brigadefuhrer . Hausser worked to transform the SS-VT into a credible military force that was a match for the regular army. The SS-VT trained alongside Hitler's personal bodyguard, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), which had also been formed from

594-530: The Waffen-SS and the Nazi concentration camps . The military formations under Himmler's command on 1 September 1939 consisted of several subgroups: Elements of the SS-VT served with the Wehrmacht during the occupation of the Sudetenland , Austria , and Czechoslovakia . For those operations, the SS-VT was under the command of the army. The SS-VT also formed an Artillery Regiment during this time-frame which

627-559: The battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket . Retreating through the escape route called Hell's Gate , the battalion came under heavy Soviet fire with little cover. The battalion lost almost all of its equipment during the carnage although most of the troops escaped the encirclement. The German occupying powers forcibly mobilized all Estonian men born between 1919–1924 in March 1943. As a result 5,300 men were conscripted into

660-456: The draft. As a result about 38,000 men were conscripted, the units of the Estonian Legion and Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 were returned to Estonia and reformed into the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) . Oberf%C3%BChrer Oberführer (short: Oberf , [ˈoːbɐfyːʁɐ] , lit.   ' senior leader ' ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dating back to 1921. An Oberführer

693-896: The first 800 men who finished their training at Dębica (Heidelager in 1943), and were sent in April 1943 to join the Division Wiking in Ukraine . They replaced the Finnish Volunteer Battalion , recalled to Finland for political reasons. The Battalion Narva was in the focus of the Red Army's attack near Izium in Ukraine. The unit entered the battle with 800 men, and only one third were left able to fight. The Red Army however, suffered heavier losses, over 7,000 men, and over 100 tanks. Battalion Narva participated in

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726-453: The invasion of Poland, "[t]heir...capabilities were employed instead in terrorizing the civilian population through acts that included hunting down straggling Polish soldiers, confiscating agricultural produce and livestock, and torturing and murdering large numbers of Polish political leaders, aristocrats, businessmen, priests, intellectuals, and Jews." Further, members of the Leibstandarte also committed atrocities in numerous towns, including

759-586: The murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre in Złoczew, where 200 civilians were machine gunned. Złoczew's children also suffered; SS men beat and murdered them, sometimes with rifle butts, crushing the skulls of toddlers. Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec , Torzeniec , Goworowo , Mława , and Włocławek . In October 1939 the SS-VT regiments Deutschland , Germania , and Der Führer were organized into

792-629: The nucleus of the Waffen-SS . The SS-VT was formed on 24 September 1934 from a merger of various Nazi and paramilitary formations such as the SS Special Detachments ( SS-Sonderkommandos ) and the Headquarters Guard ( SS- Stabswache ) units. The SS-VT consisted of three regiments, modelled on the infantry regiments of the German Army ( Heer ) and regulations; each regiment consisting of three infantry battalions,

825-468: The several Gaue throughout Germany; in 1928 the rank was renamed Oberführer , and used of the commanders of the three regional SS-Oberführerbereiche . In 1930, the SS was reorganized into SS-Gruppen and Brigaden , at which time Oberführer became subordinate to the higher rank of Brigadeführer . By 1932, Oberführer was an established rank of the SA, SS and NSKK . Oberführer wore two oak leaves on

858-468: The start of 1941, Germania was renamed Wiking , with command given to then Brigadeführer Felix Steiner , the former commander of the SS-VT regiment Deutschland . The Verfügungs-Division was also renamed Reich (in 1942 Das Reich ). In addition, the Polizei division was brought under Waffen-SS administration. The Leibstandarte was also expanded to a division for Operation Barbarossa . When

891-546: The uniform collar rank patch, along with the shoulder boards and lapels of a general officer. In 1938, the status of SS-Oberführer began to change with the rise of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), which would later become the Waffen-SS . Since Brigadeführer was rated equal to a Generalmajor , and Standartenführer to an Oberst , Oberführer had no military equivalent and quickly became regarded as

924-487: Was created in August 1940 under Gruppenführer Hans Jüttner . The Totenkopf Division, together with the independent Totenkopf-Standarten , were transferred to FHA control. Further that same month, SS chief-of-staff Gottlob Berger approached Himmler with a plan to recruit volunteers in the conquered territories from the ethnic German and Germanic populations. At first Hitler had doubts about recruiting foreigners, but he

957-536: Was improperly equipped by the army to carry out its objectives. Himmler insisted that the SS-VT should be allowed to fight in its own formations under its own commanders, while the OKW tried to have the SS-VT disbanded altogether. Hitler was unwilling to upset either the army or Himmler, and chose a third path. He ordered that the SS-VT form its own divisions but that the divisions would be under army command. In addition, Eicke's SS-TV field forces were not military, and during

990-542: Was overrun, finding their standard anti-tank gun , the 3.7 cm PaK 36 , no match for the British Matilda tank . After the Dutch surrender, the LSSAH was moved south to France. On 24 May the LSSAH, along with the SS-VT division, were positioned to hold the perimeter around Dunkirk , assisting in reduction of the size of the pocket containing the encircled British Expeditionary Force and French forces. On 27 May,

1023-541: Was persuaded by Himmler and Berger. He gave approval for a new division to be formed from foreign nationals with German officers. In December 1940 the Germania Regiment was removed from the Verfügungs -Division and used to form the cadre of a new division, SS-Division Germania . It was made up of mostly "Nordic" volunteers from the newly conquered territories, Danes, Norwegians, Dutch and Flemings. By

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1056-606: Was typically an NSDAP member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographical region. From 1921 to 1925, the phrase Oberführer was used as a title in the Sturmabteilung (SA), but became an actual SA rank after 1926. Oberführer was also a rank of the Schutzstaffel (SS, at that time a branch of the SA), established in 1925 as Gauführer , a rank for SS officers in charge of SS personnel in

1089-523: Was used to fill the gaps in a number of army units for those events. The SS-VT regiments Deutschland and Germania along with the Leibstandarte participated in the invasion of Poland , with Der Führer (recruited in Austria after the Anschluss ) in reserve at Prague. In September 1939, a combined unit of SS-VT and Heer (army) troops conducted operations jointly as Panzer Division Kempf during

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