Hi there everybody,
Looking for help here, does anyone have a detailed description of the uniform and insignia the Brandenburg commandos wore?
I know they wore many allied uniforms, as part of their "work", but i want maybe a picture or something of the likes, of their German uniform.
Thank you,
Con
Brandenburg Commandos
Moderator: Feldjager
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DasreichIreland
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:30 am
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
Sorry, also is there anyone re-enacting these guys? I would be interested in getting in touch.
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
The Brandenburg Commandos
During World War I, the legacy of German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s superb guerrilla war in East Africa and T.E. Lawrence’s use of Arab hit-and-run tactics to fight the Turks in the Middle East made a profound mark upon one of Lettow-Vorbeck’s junior officers, a young captain named Theodore von Hippel.
Finding a place in the German intelligence community after the war, Hippel proposed utilizing small, elite units to penetrate enemy defenses before hostilities or offensive actions had begun. However, the idea ran afoul of the stiff-necked Prussian sense of honor. Such units, the majority believed, would be an infringement of the rules of war, and furthermore, such saboteurs were not worthy of being called soldiers. Hippel persevered, however, and when he became an officer in the war ministry’s intelligence agency, Abwehr, his ideas finally found a home.
The Abwehr got its name from the compound of ab-, meaning away or off, and -wehr, which implies defense. This deceptive name was born in the days of the Weimar Republic during the 1920s, when Communists and dissidents were spied on to prevent uprisings. The Abwehr evolved over the years, first under Captain Konrad Patzig and then under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to become an espionage agency that worked for the German military.
The German high command allowed Hippel to form a battalion to do what he had proposed–sabotage the enemy’s ability to respond to German attacks by capturing roadways and bridges ahead of the main force and securing strategic targets before they were demolished. Known as the Ebbinghaus battalion, the unit performed magnificently during the Polish campaign, though it was dissolved shortly afterward. It had not failed, however, to gain notice. Admiral Canaris gave Hippel the opportunity to form a unit like the Ebbinghaus group for the Abwehr. On October 15, 1939, the Lehr und Bau Kompagnie z.b.V. 800 (Special Duty Training and Construction Company No. 800), which consisted primarily of the former Ebbinghaus volunteers, was officially founded in Brandenburg, where it would adopt the shorter name of Brandenburg Company.
Recruitment methods for the elite Brandenburg commandos were almost directly contrary to those of another elite unit, the SS. Instead of seeking out soldiers with Nordic features, blonde hair and blue eyes, Hippel scoured Germany’s borders to find Slavs or other ethnic groups. Every member of the Brandenburg Company had to be fluent in a foreign language, whether it be Czech, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Ukrainian or Ruthenian, and they had to know the country’s or region’s customs as well. Instead of being more ‘racially pure than their enemies, the Brandenburgers had to be the enemy–they had to blend in to be effective saboteurs. They had to know not only the customs of the area they were to infiltrate but also the local habits and the mannerisms of the natives. In the words of one Abwehr agent, a Brandenburger in Russia would have to know how to spit like a Russian.
The Brandenburgers would also receive extensive training for their missions. Self-reliance was the key, for they would often work alone.
On May 10, 1940, German troops poured across the Belgian and Dutch borders, ending the period called the Phony War. Two nights before, on May 8, the Brandenburgers had donned Dutch uniforms and secretly crossed the border. One of their targets was the bridge over the Meuse River at the town of Gennep, Netherlands. At 2 a.m. on May 10, Lieutenant Wilhelm Walther led his eight-man detachment in an attempt to capture the bridge intact after obtaining information about where demolition charges had been placed.
Disguised as Dutch military police escorting a number of German prisoners, the Brandenburgers took the defenders of the bridge by surprise. Two guard posts were immediately destroyed, but three Brandenburgers were wounded, and the posts on the far side of the bridge were not yet under German control. Wearing a Dutch uniform, Walther advanced boldly, and the defenders hesitated. Capitalizing on this mistake, the rest of the Brandenburgers destroyed the remaining guard posts and seized the detonator just as the first panzers rolled over the bridge.
Adolf Hitler turned his attention south toward the Balkans in Operation Marita and, again, the Brandenburgers–now organized as a regiment–paved the way for his armies. On April 5, 1941, one day before Hitler’s invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia, a 54-man detachment from the 2nd Battalion secured the docks at Orsova, on the Danube River. With the Balkans in German hands, the Führer made final preparations for a major assault on Russia.
Considering all their accomplishments, it would be difficult to declare one mission more impressive than another, but there was one occasion when the Brandenburgers seemed to outdo even themselves. In early August 1941, a Brandenburg detachment of 62 Baltic and Sudeten Germans led by Baron Adrian von Fölkersam penetrated farther into enemy territory than any other Brandenburg unit. Nicknamed the wild bunch, they undertook to secure the oil fields at Maikop. Using Red Army trucks and the uniforms of the NKVD, the Russian secret police, Fölkersam infiltrated the Soviet lines. The Brandenburgers immediately ran into a large group of Red Army deserters, and Fölkersam saw an opportunity to use them. By persuading them to return to the Soviet cause, he was able to join with them and move almost at will through the Russian lines.
Pretending to be a Major Truchin from Stalingrad, Fölkersam explained his role in recovering the deserters to the general in charge of Maikop’s defenses. The Russian general believed Fölkersam and gave him a personal tour of the city’s defenses the next day. By August 8, the German army was only 12 miles away, so the Brandenburgers made their move. Using grenades to simulate an artillery attack, the Brandenburgers knocked out the communications center of the city. Fölkersam then went to the Russian defenders and told them that a withdrawal was taking place. Having seen Fölkersam with their commander and lacking any communications to rebut or confirm his statement, the Soviets began to evacuate Maikop. The German army entered the city without a fight on August 9, 1942.
By autumn of 1944, the Brandenburgers had been officially dissolved, but not before they had earned more decorations and commendations than any other single unit of comparable size in the German army
During World War I, the legacy of German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s superb guerrilla war in East Africa and T.E. Lawrence’s use of Arab hit-and-run tactics to fight the Turks in the Middle East made a profound mark upon one of Lettow-Vorbeck’s junior officers, a young captain named Theodore von Hippel.
Finding a place in the German intelligence community after the war, Hippel proposed utilizing small, elite units to penetrate enemy defenses before hostilities or offensive actions had begun. However, the idea ran afoul of the stiff-necked Prussian sense of honor. Such units, the majority believed, would be an infringement of the rules of war, and furthermore, such saboteurs were not worthy of being called soldiers. Hippel persevered, however, and when he became an officer in the war ministry’s intelligence agency, Abwehr, his ideas finally found a home.
The Abwehr got its name from the compound of ab-, meaning away or off, and -wehr, which implies defense. This deceptive name was born in the days of the Weimar Republic during the 1920s, when Communists and dissidents were spied on to prevent uprisings. The Abwehr evolved over the years, first under Captain Konrad Patzig and then under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, to become an espionage agency that worked for the German military.
The German high command allowed Hippel to form a battalion to do what he had proposed–sabotage the enemy’s ability to respond to German attacks by capturing roadways and bridges ahead of the main force and securing strategic targets before they were demolished. Known as the Ebbinghaus battalion, the unit performed magnificently during the Polish campaign, though it was dissolved shortly afterward. It had not failed, however, to gain notice. Admiral Canaris gave Hippel the opportunity to form a unit like the Ebbinghaus group for the Abwehr. On October 15, 1939, the Lehr und Bau Kompagnie z.b.V. 800 (Special Duty Training and Construction Company No. 800), which consisted primarily of the former Ebbinghaus volunteers, was officially founded in Brandenburg, where it would adopt the shorter name of Brandenburg Company.
Recruitment methods for the elite Brandenburg commandos were almost directly contrary to those of another elite unit, the SS. Instead of seeking out soldiers with Nordic features, blonde hair and blue eyes, Hippel scoured Germany’s borders to find Slavs or other ethnic groups. Every member of the Brandenburg Company had to be fluent in a foreign language, whether it be Czech, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Estonian, Polish, Ukrainian or Ruthenian, and they had to know the country’s or region’s customs as well. Instead of being more ‘racially pure than their enemies, the Brandenburgers had to be the enemy–they had to blend in to be effective saboteurs. They had to know not only the customs of the area they were to infiltrate but also the local habits and the mannerisms of the natives. In the words of one Abwehr agent, a Brandenburger in Russia would have to know how to spit like a Russian.
The Brandenburgers would also receive extensive training for their missions. Self-reliance was the key, for they would often work alone.
On May 10, 1940, German troops poured across the Belgian and Dutch borders, ending the period called the Phony War. Two nights before, on May 8, the Brandenburgers had donned Dutch uniforms and secretly crossed the border. One of their targets was the bridge over the Meuse River at the town of Gennep, Netherlands. At 2 a.m. on May 10, Lieutenant Wilhelm Walther led his eight-man detachment in an attempt to capture the bridge intact after obtaining information about where demolition charges had been placed.
Disguised as Dutch military police escorting a number of German prisoners, the Brandenburgers took the defenders of the bridge by surprise. Two guard posts were immediately destroyed, but three Brandenburgers were wounded, and the posts on the far side of the bridge were not yet under German control. Wearing a Dutch uniform, Walther advanced boldly, and the defenders hesitated. Capitalizing on this mistake, the rest of the Brandenburgers destroyed the remaining guard posts and seized the detonator just as the first panzers rolled over the bridge.
Adolf Hitler turned his attention south toward the Balkans in Operation Marita and, again, the Brandenburgers–now organized as a regiment–paved the way for his armies. On April 5, 1941, one day before Hitler’s invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia, a 54-man detachment from the 2nd Battalion secured the docks at Orsova, on the Danube River. With the Balkans in German hands, the Führer made final preparations for a major assault on Russia.
Considering all their accomplishments, it would be difficult to declare one mission more impressive than another, but there was one occasion when the Brandenburgers seemed to outdo even themselves. In early August 1941, a Brandenburg detachment of 62 Baltic and Sudeten Germans led by Baron Adrian von Fölkersam penetrated farther into enemy territory than any other Brandenburg unit. Nicknamed the wild bunch, they undertook to secure the oil fields at Maikop. Using Red Army trucks and the uniforms of the NKVD, the Russian secret police, Fölkersam infiltrated the Soviet lines. The Brandenburgers immediately ran into a large group of Red Army deserters, and Fölkersam saw an opportunity to use them. By persuading them to return to the Soviet cause, he was able to join with them and move almost at will through the Russian lines.
Pretending to be a Major Truchin from Stalingrad, Fölkersam explained his role in recovering the deserters to the general in charge of Maikop’s defenses. The Russian general believed Fölkersam and gave him a personal tour of the city’s defenses the next day. By August 8, the German army was only 12 miles away, so the Brandenburgers made their move. Using grenades to simulate an artillery attack, the Brandenburgers knocked out the communications center of the city. Fölkersam then went to the Russian defenders and told them that a withdrawal was taking place. Having seen Fölkersam with their commander and lacking any communications to rebut or confirm his statement, the Soviets began to evacuate Maikop. The German army entered the city without a fight on August 9, 1942.
By autumn of 1944, the Brandenburgers had been officially dissolved, but not before they had earned more decorations and commendations than any other single unit of comparable size in the German army
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
The Brandburg commandos , the German special commando forces , were erected by the German Abwehr (German inteligence service) . These men prooved very usefull at actions behind enemy lines as was important with the Blitzkrieg tactic . These men had to seize important bridges , crossings etc for the advance of the German army . Many occasions these men were dressed as civilians or in the uniforms of the enemy .
This Commando was dressed up as a Belgian soldier as he has the Belgian sidecap and coat .
These men were highly trained under the rule of Canaris , chief of the Abwehr . Some speculate that Canaris made the Brandenburg commando to overthrow Hitler one day with this private little army .
Many were recruited from the border regions like Poland , Hungary , Czeochoslovakia , ... .Offcourse these men were very familiar with the language and culture of their neighbours .
There wasn't a part of Europe that elements of the Brandenburg commando weren't familiar with .
Company 1 and 4 had men who spoke Russian , Finnish , Ukrainian , Latvian and Estonian .
Company 2 had men of the African colonies who spoke English , Portuguese , French and local dialects .
Company 3 were Volkdeutsche men from Czechoslovakia .
All these men were volounteers , they had to be intelligent , self reliant and prepared to use onorthodox methods to achieve their mission goals if necessary
They were trained in guerilla warfare wich , like the SS , were trained with live ammo .
Alot of things had to be mastered : tracking and navigation , even moving silently through low grass , parachuting , diving , skiing , explosion skills etc ... they were masters in warfare , the ideal warmachine . They were tested intensivly , their abilities to improvise in dangerous situations were also tested , in short , a highly skilled soldier trained for any terrain , any mission .
For example , they had to take fingerprints of a local policechief without being noticed , or look up and capture 5 Heer soldiers and take them back .
Brandenburg commandos were in many Germans eyes nothing but a bunch of criminals , Rommel even didn't want any participation of them in his African campaign although the English used their commandos in the desert .
They saw their first action in Poland , where they had to take the factories of Silesia wich were of importance to the German warmachine . They were deployed before the invasion took place !
They saw much more action in later missions like Norway , Denmark , Holland , Belgium ....
To grant the tie between these commandos , the men were allowed to shake hands instead of the stiff military salute . Even to form little groups was allowed , offcourse traditional German officers thought of the commandos to be a waste of time and military recources .
For the invasion of Russia , Ukrainian volounteers were recruited and attached to the BB 1st regiment .
This Nightingale group had to capture a radiostation 6 days after the invasion , there they proclaimed Ukrainian independance state . The Germans offcourse didn't fully agree with that ... they disbanded the unit at the end of the same year as it was formed , they prooved to be "unreliable" .
In Russia , they were the obvious choice to attack the partisans who were attacking the supply lines .
With Russian volounteers they took on arms against these Partisans , but not a major victory ever occured . Also they were used to raid and attack soviet naval bases using little motorboats .
But offcourse the story comes to an end , the Brandenburg troops on 13 september 1944 were transformed to a panzergrenadiere division and put in the GroBdeutschland panzergrenadiere division , 1800 Brandenburg commandos were transfered to the SS in that division .
Also it is common to see books say that most of them were recruited from Strafbatallion 500 or 900 (Dirlewanger) , this is not true
das reich here are two photos on this of them
http://www.geocities.com/herrvermylen2/Brandenburg.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburgers
This Commando was dressed up as a Belgian soldier as he has the Belgian sidecap and coat .
These men were highly trained under the rule of Canaris , chief of the Abwehr . Some speculate that Canaris made the Brandenburg commando to overthrow Hitler one day with this private little army .
Many were recruited from the border regions like Poland , Hungary , Czeochoslovakia , ... .Offcourse these men were very familiar with the language and culture of their neighbours .
There wasn't a part of Europe that elements of the Brandenburg commando weren't familiar with .
Company 1 and 4 had men who spoke Russian , Finnish , Ukrainian , Latvian and Estonian .
Company 2 had men of the African colonies who spoke English , Portuguese , French and local dialects .
Company 3 were Volkdeutsche men from Czechoslovakia .
All these men were volounteers , they had to be intelligent , self reliant and prepared to use onorthodox methods to achieve their mission goals if necessary
They were trained in guerilla warfare wich , like the SS , were trained with live ammo .
Alot of things had to be mastered : tracking and navigation , even moving silently through low grass , parachuting , diving , skiing , explosion skills etc ... they were masters in warfare , the ideal warmachine . They were tested intensivly , their abilities to improvise in dangerous situations were also tested , in short , a highly skilled soldier trained for any terrain , any mission .
For example , they had to take fingerprints of a local policechief without being noticed , or look up and capture 5 Heer soldiers and take them back .
Brandenburg commandos were in many Germans eyes nothing but a bunch of criminals , Rommel even didn't want any participation of them in his African campaign although the English used their commandos in the desert .
They saw their first action in Poland , where they had to take the factories of Silesia wich were of importance to the German warmachine . They were deployed before the invasion took place !
They saw much more action in later missions like Norway , Denmark , Holland , Belgium ....
To grant the tie between these commandos , the men were allowed to shake hands instead of the stiff military salute . Even to form little groups was allowed , offcourse traditional German officers thought of the commandos to be a waste of time and military recources .
For the invasion of Russia , Ukrainian volounteers were recruited and attached to the BB 1st regiment .
This Nightingale group had to capture a radiostation 6 days after the invasion , there they proclaimed Ukrainian independance state . The Germans offcourse didn't fully agree with that ... they disbanded the unit at the end of the same year as it was formed , they prooved to be "unreliable" .
In Russia , they were the obvious choice to attack the partisans who were attacking the supply lines .
With Russian volounteers they took on arms against these Partisans , but not a major victory ever occured . Also they were used to raid and attack soviet naval bases using little motorboats .
But offcourse the story comes to an end , the Brandenburg troops on 13 september 1944 were transformed to a panzergrenadiere division and put in the GroBdeutschland panzergrenadiere division , 1800 Brandenburg commandos were transfered to the SS in that division .
Also it is common to see books say that most of them were recruited from Strafbatallion 500 or 900 (Dirlewanger) , this is not true
das reich here are two photos on this of them
http://www.geocities.com/herrvermylen2/Brandenburg.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburgers
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DasreichIreland
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:30 am
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
Thank you for the info Shergar,
Much appreciated.
Con
Much appreciated.
Con
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SchnellMeyer
- Posts: 1146
- Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:15 pm
- Location: Ireland
- Contact:
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
Hi Con , hope you are well .I have some original photos of "Brandenburgers" , can make copies if you want . James Lucas also wrote a good book called "Kommando" which has info and photos . Would be nice to see somebody doing this elite unit , hope to see you at some of the shows over the summer.
Kampfgruppe Sud:Irelands Largest German military vehicle and
re-enactment group
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DasreichIreland
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 9:30 am
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
Hi there Justin,
Great to hear from you. Thank you for that info. and kind offer, i would appreciate it. Have a great season, i know the work you guys have put in to this hobby and the energy spent in maintaining high standards. The best of luck with all your efforts.
Hope to see you soon.
Regards to all,
Con
Great to hear from you. Thank you for that info. and kind offer, i would appreciate it. Have a great season, i know the work you guys have put in to this hobby and the energy spent in maintaining high standards. The best of luck with all your efforts.
Hope to see you soon.
Regards to all,
Con
-
SchnellMeyer
- Posts: 1146
- Joined: Wed Feb 28, 2007 7:15 pm
- Location: Ireland
- Contact:
Re: Brandenburg Commandos
Thanks for the kind comments Con , yes over the years we have done our best and now it seems to be really paying off , this year should be our best to date .As I said if I can help you with anything else you know where I am .
Kampfgruppe Sud:Irelands Largest German military vehicle and
re-enactment group