German Commandos

David Jones Jan 11 1999, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.history.war.world-war-ii
From: David Jones <d.jo...@barnsley.ac.uk>
Date: 1999/01/11
Subject: German Commando's ?

I know there were several Allied Commando raids on occupied Europe, but
were there any similar German raids on the UK?
BTW Are there any published (and available) accounts of the Bruneval
raid?
Regards
David
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DBSDESIGN Jan 13 1999, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.history.war.world-war-ii
From: dbsdes...@aol.com (DBSDESIGN)
Date: 1999/01/13
Subject: Re: German Commando's ?

jagermeis...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> The Brandenberger's and they were part of the Abwer(sp?).
> It was a unit more along the lines of the OSS.

The Brandenburgers were a sort of private army of Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr intelligence unit. They
were enlarged to division size in October 1942. They performed
several cloak and dagger missions on the Eastern Front until
Canaris and the Abwehr fell out of favor with Hitler.
Himmler in particular was jealous of the Brandenburgers and
wanted his own elite SS Commando unit, which was formed
and led by Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny got the choice missions
(and the publicity) from then on and the Brandenburg Division
was relegated to being used as elite infantry. Some men from
the Brandenburgers transferred to the SS, since Skorzeny was
later the only game in town for special operations.
_____________________________________________________
                                                                                D B S D E S I G N @ a o l. c o m
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A man may build himself a throne of bayonets but he cannot sit on it.
                                                                                                                        -W.R. INGE
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JAMES JACQUIN Jan 18 1999, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.history.war.world-war-ii
From: JIMJ...@webtv.net (JAMES JACQUIN) -
Date: 1999/01/18
Subject: Re: German Commando's ?

             Origanally the German Abhwer assembled a scratch
detachment of commandos for the invasion of Poland. They were called
"T-Truppen" and they were raised to seize bridges, rail junctions,and
other strategic targets behind Polish lines. They were recruited
primarily from among Silesian Germans who spoke Polish, for the most
part they dressed as civilians and infiltrated across the Polish border
just prior to the invasion. Their record was mixed but they did achieve
some of their goals. This led directly to the creation of the
Brandenburg Battalion under the auspices of the Abhwer. The Battalion
reieved specialized training, and it's members were for the most part
ethnic Germans from beyond the borders who spoke foriegn langauges. They
were trained to infiltrate enemy lines either in civlian clothes or
dressed in the uniform of the opposing army. They were considered so
successful during operations in the West and the Balkans that eventually
they were raised to the status of a Regiment and participated fully in
Barbarossa. The Brandenburgers eventually became a full Division, but at
this point in the war Germany was so pressed for manpower that thier
specialized role was dropped and they entered the front line as a
regular infrantry division. They ended the war stranded in the Balkans
behind Alied lines.

The Brandenburgers were not however Germany's only commando force. Numerous other formations were raised on an ad-hoc basis for specific operations. One of the more famous were the Roland and Nightingale battilions raised for service on the Eastern Front, each battilion was recruited
exclusively from Ukrainian nationalists. The "Nightingales" were formed
just prior to Barbarossa, and were sent forward a day before the
invasion into the Ukraine wearing Whermacht uniforms. They encountered a
NVKD border patrol and convinced them that they were actually Soviet
operatives returning from an infiltratrion of German occupied Poland.
After the invasion comenced the "Nightingales" captured Lvow ahead of
the main German advance, and declared an independant Ukraine. Shortly
there after they were quickly disbanded by the Germans.

Otto Skorzeny, perhaps the most famous German commando, was an SS
officer who consciously inmitated the Brandenburgers and
Fallschirmjager. In fact many of his personel were recruited from both
formations. His rescue of Mussolini is well known, but less well known
and more important by far to the German war effort was his operation in
Budapest later in the war. Admiral Horthy, the regent of Hungary was
planning a seperate surrender to the Allies in 1944. Skorzeny was
summoned to prevent Hungary from leaving the Axis. He accomplished this
by siezing Budapest in a lightning coup by SS comandos who had
infiltrated the city secretly. Admiral Horthy's son was also siezed and
deported to Germany as a hostage, Hungary effectively became a German
puppet state and stayed in the war until the bitter end.

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Robert Wells Jan 20 1999, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.history.war.world-war-ii
From: "Robert Wells" <bmwe...@mindspring.com>
Date: 1999/01/20
Subject: Re: German Commando's ?

>Actually, probably most of the commando type raids were not conducted by
>commando units of the Wehrmacht. They were conducted by the
>'Himmelfahrtskommandos'. These were impromptu volunteer, or penal, units
>given daring assignments with a high risk quotient. Before Heinz says
>being a Landser is high risk, (of course I agree), these were even higher
>risk than normal(for the Wehrmacht). It would be really fascinating if a
>historian could research these units and write a book about them. It
>hasn't been done, that I know of, if it could be researched.

You also might want to research the German group known as the
Brandenbergers. I know Franz Kurowski has written a book about them, and I'm sure another author has as well. These units carried out raids behind enemy lines, similar to the British Long Range Desert Group. They are also
mentioned in Paul Carrell's "Foxes of the Desert".

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Holger Schaefer Jan 21 1999, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: soc.history.war.world-war-ii
From: Holger Schaefer <hschae...@fh-harz.de>
Date: 1999/01/21
Subject: Re: German Commando's ?

Robert Wells wrote:
>     You also might want to research the German group known as the
> Brandenbergers. I know Franz Kurowski has written a book about them, and I'm
> sure another author has as well. These units carried out raids behind enemy
> lines, similar to the British Long Range Desert Group. They are also
> mentioned in Paul Carrell's "Foxes of the Desert".

You'll get faulty results when searching for Brandenbergers in a data
bank. The right name is Brandenburger, named after the region around
Berlin.
Cheers,
--
Fachhochschule Harz             Economics Dept.
Holger Schaefer, Dipl. oec.     Research Associate