lesser known details of WW2 part two

Most welcome, Friedrich!

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RADIO WERWOLF. On April 1, 1945, the German station ' Radio Werwolf' began broadcasting for the first time. Created by Propaganda Minister Joseph Geobbels to rally the population to suicidal resistance. Its theme, repeated over and over again was, 'Besser tot als rot' (Better dead than red).

LOST DIVISION. This was the name given to the American soldiers who had deserted in France and in Germany at the end of 1945. They numbered around 19,000, many living on farms and working as labourers, as black market racketeers, or in safe hiding places in the homes of their new found girl friends. By 1948, about 9,000 had been found. In 1947, the British Government announced an offer of leniency for British deserters. A total of 837 gave themselves up.

DOCUMENT. When the German Forces in North West Germany, Holland and Denmark (over one million men) surrendered to the C-in-C, 21st Army Group, Field Marshal Montgomery, the Supreme Commander, General Eisenhower, demanded that the surrender document be handed over to him. Montgomery refused. In the House of Commons, Churchill defended his right to keep it. Today the document can be seen in the Imperial War Museum in London where it was deposited by the Field Marshal after a burglary at his home.

HIGH COMMAND.

3,363 German officers achieved the rank of General during the War.
819 were dead by the time of the surrender.
352 were killed or missing, presumed dead in action.
310 died natural deaths.
101 committed suicide.
57 received death sentences from Allied courts.
25 received death sentences from German courts.
26 of these had their sentences commuted.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/Facts-2.html

 

Had read somwhere that the Werwolf resistance went strong until sometime in 1947. Instances of occupying forces' jeep/truck drivers being decapitated by piano wire strung across roadways and the like. Military Book Club offers a book called "Werwolf" on the subject. Have you ever heard of it and is it any good/worth ordering???

 

Amazing data, Kai! I did like this! I had already made some counts and I had esteemed the cypher in 1.500... I see I'm wrong!

Here is something to complete it:
German Army generals casualties

 

By the way: I have at least one photograph of:

-19 field marshals
-41 colonel generals
-84 generals
-58 lieutenant generals
-42 major generals

And that's only the German Army!!! I, of course have many more photographs of WSS and Luftwaffe generals, plus Kriegsmarine Admirals and many generals and marshals from other nations! As well as photos of junior officers!

If you need any photograph or information about any man you want, don't hesitate and tell me!

[ 04. June 2003, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

 

Hitler made a radio address to the nation at 1 A.M.on 21st July 1944:

"My German comrades! If I speak to you today it is first in order that you should hear my voice and should know that I am unhurt and well, and secondly, that you should know of a crime unparalleled in German history. A very small clique of ambitious, irresponsible, and at the same time, senseless, and stupid officers have concocted a plot to eliminate me and, with me, the staff of the High Command of the Wehrmacht. The bomb planted by Colonel Count Stauffenberg exploded two meters to the right of me. It seriously wounded a number of my true and loyal collaborators, on of whom has died. I myself am entirely unhurt, aside from some very minor scratches, bruises, and burns. I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed upon me by Providence...The circle of these usurpers is very small and has nothing in common with the spirit of the German Wehrmacht and above all, none with the German people. It is a gang of criminal elements which will be destroyed without mercy. I therefore give orders that no military authority...is to obey orders from this crew of usurpers. I also order that it is everyone's duty to arrest, or if they resist, to shoot on sight anyone issuing or handling such orders...This time we shall settle accounts with them in the manner to which we National Socialists are accustomed."

http://www.thirdreichpages.org/valkyrie.htm

 

January 10 1940 brought an incident that would raise a lot of controversy with the Allies as to the interpretation of its implications. On that day a Bf.108 'Taifun', Coded DNF+AW made a forced landing under foggy conditions near Mechelen-aan-de-Maas in the Belgian Province of Limburg. Piloted by Major Eric Hönmanns, the liaison aircraft also held a passenger, i.e. Major Helmuth Reinberger, Adjutant to Colonel Bassenge, Commanding Officer of Dienststelle Fliegerführer 22O, 7. Flieger Division. Soon after the crash the two men were arrested by the Belgian Gendarmerie. On Major Reinberger top-secret documents divulging the invasion plans for the Low Countries
were found. Reinberger attempted several times during his arrest to destroy the documents, however without success.

A thorough investigation was made of the matter in order to ascertain the value of the documents and discussion ensued at very high level. The Belgian Army eventually re-enforced their troops and left it at that. History would prove the plans genuine.

http://ibelgique.ifrance.com/baha2/Webpages/Navigator/Belgian_Aviation_History/interbellum/ThePhoneyWar.htm
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However Hitler changed his plans and we know what then happened...

 

Tiger Tank bits:


http://www.achtungpanzer.com/tiger.htm

Tiger I heavy tank originally received the designation of Panzerkampfwagen VI H (8.8 cm) Ausf H1 - Sd.Kfz.182, but then in March of 1943, was redesignated to Panzerkampfwagen Tiger (8.8 cm L/56) Ausf E - Sd.Kfz.181.

It is reported that in July of 1944, commander of 3rd company of schwere Panzer Abteilung 506, Captain Wakker, destroyed Soviet T-34 at the range of 3900 meters.

Original 250 Tigers were powered by 12-cylinder Maybach HL 210 P 45 engine with total power of 650hp, which made Tiger badly underpowered and its off-road performance suffered as a result. To improve that problem modified 12-cylinder Maybach HL 230 P 45 engine with power increased to 700hp was installed in all models since May of 1943. The sound of the Tiger engine starting had a distinctive noise even at the distance and was well known to the Allied soldiers, who remember it with respect.

The first 500 (495) Tigers were equipped with a snorkelling device allowing them to travel underwater as deep as 4-5 meters for 2.5 hours. Later models were provided with wading equipment allowing them to travel underwater only as deep as 1.3 meters.

 

Roth, Ernst-August (1898 – 1975)

Became the last Komandandierende General der Luftwaffe in Norwegen on 10.10.44 as a Generalmajor, being promoted Generalleutnant on 01.01.45, a post which he held until entering British captivity on 09.06.45. Roth entered the German Navy on 03.01.16 as an officer and was involved in naval aviation from the start, transfering to the Luftwaffe on 03.01.34 but remaining involved in naval aviation until 1940 when he became Lufttransport-Chef for X fliegerkorps for the invasion of Norway. Later on he became Geschwader-Kommodore for KG26 whilst it was stationed in the country and involved in anti-shipping strikes against the Arctic convoys sailing to and from Murmansk and Archangel. On 11.02.43 he became Fliegerführer Lofoten at Bardufoss before the post was renamed Fliegerführer 5 on 19.04.44 and moved to Trondheim. On 19.08.44 Roth left this post and returned to Germany before being recalled to Norway to take on the Komandandierende General der Luftwaffe in Norwegen post on 10.10.44. Roth was awarded the Ritterkreuz on 06.11.43 whilst acting as Fliegerführer Lofoten.


http://www.specialcamp11.fsnet.co.uk/Generalleutnant%20Ernst-August%20Roth.htm

 

Operation Judgement



The war was going towards the end, and the negotiating about a German capitulation was in progress. Adolf Hitler committed suicide April 30th 1945, and his successor, chosen by Hitler himself, was Grossadmiral Carl Dönitz. The German u-boats were still attacking the Murmansk convoys which delivered airplanes, tanks, ammunition, and fuel among other necessary supplies to the Red Army who was chasing the Germans south through a burned-out Finnmark. A strategic point was the u-boat depot in Kilbotn, near Harstad in northern Norway. German u-boats operating in the arctic water used this base to get replenishes with fuel, torpedoes, AA ammunition and food, in addition to recreation for the crew.

May 1st 1945 Admiral McGrigors Force One left Scapa Flow with the cruisers
Norfolk, Diadem, the escort aircraft carriers Searcher, Trumpeter, Queen and the tanker Blue Ranger, and finally two destroyers. Their mission was to meet the westbound convoy RA 66 which had left Murmansk on the evening of May 29th. The Admiral had at two occasions made an attempt to attack the u-boat depot in Kilbotn, but failed due to bad weather. They would now, for the third time, try to attack the base, and the operation was given the name Judgement.

May 4th, at 17:23 GMT the force was west of the Lofoten islands. From the 3 escort aircraft carriers 16 Avenger bombers and 28 Wildcat fighters were launched for the attack against the German forces in Kilbotn. Their plan was to let some of the fighters enter the war-scene first to engage the enemy and reduce their anti aircraft artillery (AAA). The bombers, guided by the rest of the fighters, whose plan were to attack Black Watch and other ships, would follow them. The intelligence had done a good job, and the bombers succeeded in doing what they were there to do when they dropped their 500 lb. bombs towards the targets. Black Watch, the u-boat depot supply ship, was hit in the stern, and set on fire. She was hit by a total of 7 bombs, in addition to 4 bombs that fell into the sea close to the ship. After a few minutes the ship exploded, before it broke apart and sunk.



When the attack started U-711 was lying moored to the side of Black Watch, and Kaptlt. Hans-Günther Lange managed together with a few of his crew to sail his boat away from Black Watch, towards the outlet of Kilbotn. The damages on U-711 are too serious to allow the u-boat to submerge, and approximately 0,2 nautical miles from Black Watch she sinks. She was still close to the shore, and the crew managed to survive.



In addition to U-711 and Black Watch the cargo boat M/S Senja was sinked. The motor barge MW6 and the anti aircraft cruiser Thetis (former Norwegian panzer ship Harald Haarfagres) were beached with severe damages. The German losses were approximately 250 men, but also the British had their losses. The AAA shot down one of the bombers which crashed into the sea and all 4 of the crew were reported killed. Also 2 of the planes returned to the aircraft carrier with injuries after being hit by enemy fire.

What actually caused the sinking of U-711 is a little unclear, since the participating aircrews never mentioned this in their reports. One possibility is that she was hit by bombs or depth charges at the site where she's sunk, but it may be even more likely that she was injured when she was moored to the side of Black Watch. Aboard U-711 there is 12 men who survives the attack, while 40 of her crew is killed. Those who were killed were all aboard Black Watch when the attack started.



The Black watch was HQ ship for General Der Infanterie E.Dietl since 1943.


http://server794.dnslive.net/~vrakdykk/u-711,_side_2.htm

http://home.online.no/~djandres/innhold.htm

http://www.skovheim.org/bwatch.html

http://www.atd.no/projects/u-711.htm

 

A Short Profile of Banff Strike Wing



THE Banff Strike Wing enjoyed a spectacular success during its brief life on the exposed north-facing coast of the Moray Firth. Six squadrons joined forces to create an effective multi-national unit which denied Germany many thousands of tons of vital iron ore and other supplies during operations from RAF Banff between September 1944 and May 1945. Under the command of Group Captain The Hon. Max Aitken, son of the then Lord Beaverbrook, the mixed Mosquito and Beaufighter Wing mounted concentrated attacks on German surface vessels and U-boats in the North Sea and along the Norwegian coastline. Often penetrating deep into heavily defended fjords to reach their anchored supply ship targets, which only dared venture to sea under cover of darkness; the Strike Wing crews ran the gauntlet of formidable anti-aircraft fire to achieve their goal. Although their reputation was built on the outstanding capabilities of both the Beaufighter MK. 10 and the Mosquito FB.VI, it was undoubtedly the latter which became synonymous with the Strike Wing and eventually equipped the RAF Banff based squadrons. Armed with a deadly mixture of cannon and rockets the Wing’s aircraft inflicted heavy damage on shipping. The unit was unique because of the presence of 333 Sqn Royal Norwegian Air Force as part of the Strike Wing. Their skills in the air and ability to locate targets concealed in mountain-fringed fjords became one of the RAF Banff unit’s great strengths and helped the joint RAF, Norwegian and Commonwealth aircrews who made up the unit achieve outstanding success in the destruction of supply ships, flak ships and U-boats. Flying alongside 333 Sqn were 143 Sqn, 248 Sqn, 404 Sqn, 144 Sqn and 235 Sqn whose losses were heavy. More than 80 RAF Banff Strike Wing aircrew died on operations.

The Banff Strike Wing which operated from RAF Banff in the closing months of World War II, often jointly with the nearby RAF Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter force, made a significant contribution to the defeat of Germany by denying them vital raw materials.

http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rafbanff.html

HEY! AND LOADSA GREAT PICTURES....

http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/banimage.html

 

In the spring of 1940, Britain was virtually without allies. Germany was already well on the way to occupying a large part of Europe and Sir Henry Tizard realized that it would not be long before Britain's productive capacity could not match that of Germany and the countries then in her possession. He recognized that if America did not enter the war, Britain simply could not win without the research and productive capacity of the North American continent. This was particularly true in the field of electronics which was already playing a crucial part in the conduct of the war.

He therefore made the bold suggestion that Britain should hand over her war-time secrets to the USA in exchange for research and productive capacity. This did not get a good response from his colleagues in the first instance, but when France fell, the wisdom of his proposal was apparent. Winston Churchill became personally involved and talked directly to Roosevelt about the possibility of a Mission being sent to the USA for this purpose. So fast did things move in those days that agreement to dispatch such a Mission was reached between Britain and America in July, members of the Mission were chosen in August and they arrived in Washington at the beginning of September 1940. The membership of the Mission was:

Sir Henry Tizard (Mission Leader)

Brigadier F.C.Wallace (Army)

Captain H.W.Faulkner (Navy)

Group Captain F.L.Pearce (RAF)

Professor John Cockcroft (Army Research)

Dr, E. G . Bowen (Radar)

A.E.Woodward Nutt (Secretary)

The purpose of the Mission, subject to carefully vetted security procedures, was to hand over to the US Services, all the recent British technical advances. These included virtually every British secret - jet engines, rockets, predictors, radar, etc. Nothing was excluded.

http://www.radarworld.org/tizard.html

 

"Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Brings Freedom) was the sign over the gates of Auschwitz. It was placed there by Major Rudolf Hoss, commandant of the camp.



The entrance gate to Auschwitz camp

http://english.gfh.org.il/concentration_and_death.htm

 

http://www.s-t.com/daily/05-00/05-14-00/e07li232.htm

On Feb. 27, 1943, about 200 German women married to Jewish men who had been rounded up for the gas chambers stood on Berlin's Rosenstrasse shouting, "Give us back our husbands!" The demonstration grew to more than 1,000 over the next few days, and the protesters ignored demands by armed SS and Gestapo men that they disperse.

Remarkably, Hitler relented. Fearing the protest could turn public opinion against the regime, the Nazis released 1,700 Jews who were married to Germans -- while continuing to send other Jews to join those who were being killed in death mills like Auschwitz.

This extraordinary episode -- the only open demonstration in Germany against the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust -- is recounted in a book by Eric A. Johnson, "Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews, and Ordinary Germans."

 

Anecdotes from the Battle of the Bulge

http://users.pandora.be/dave.depickere/Text/anecdotesbob.html

Late on the night of December 23rd, Sergeant John Banister of the 14th Cavalry Group found himself meandering through the village of Provedroux, southwest of Vielsalm. He'd been separated from his unit during the wild retreat of the first days and joined up with Task Force Jones, defending the southern side of the Fortified Goose Egg. Now they were in retreat again. The Germans were closing in on the village from three sides. American vehicles were pulling out, and Banister was once again separated from his new unit, with no ride out.
A tank destroyer rolled by; somebody waved him aboard and Banister eagerly climbed on. They roared out of the burning town. Somebody told Banister that he was riding with Lieutenant Bill Rogers. "Who's he?" Banister wanted to know. "Will Rogers' son," came the answer. It was a hell of a way to meet a celebrity.
An hour later they reached the main highway running west from Vielsalm. There they found a lone soldier digging a foxhole. Armed with bazooka and rifle, unshaven and filthy, he went about his business with a stoic nonchalance. They pulled up to him and stopped. He didn't seem to care about the refugees. "If yer lookin for a safe place," he said, "just pull that vehicle behind me. I'm the 82nd Airborne. This is as far as the bastards are going."
The men on the tank destroyer hesitated. After the constant retreats of the last week, they didn't have much fight left in them. But the paratrooper's determination was infectious. "You heard the man," declared Rogers. "Let's set up for business!" Twenty minutes later, two truckloads of GIs joined their little roadblock. All through the night, men trickled in, and their defenses grew stronger.
Around that single paratrooper was formed the nucleus of a major strongpoint.


At 3:26 PM on December 23rd, the "American Luftwaffe" carried out another bombing run. Six B-26s from the 322nd Bombardment Group, a unit of the Ninth Air Force, were nearing their secondary target. Despite the crystalline clarity of the day, the flight leader had somehow failed to locate their primary target, the town of Zulpich, Germany. After consulting his maps, though, he decided that he was close to Lammersum, another German town that was also a legitimate target. He decided to proceed with the bomb run on Lammersum.
From 12,000 feet, the six bombers dropped a total of 98 250-pound bombs, using their top-secret Norden bombsights for precise targeting. Twelve tons of high explosives whistled down and pulverized the small town. Another successful mission accomplished, the B-26s banked and returned to their base in England. Below, in Malmedy, Belgium, the survivors of their attack, Belgian civilians and GIs from the 30th Infantry Division, screamed futile imprecations at the departing bombers. 37 Americans and scores of Belgians died in the attack.
General Hobbs, commanding the 30th Infantry Division, telephoned an Air Force general to berate him for yet another fatal screwup. This was not the first time that the Ninth Air Force had bombed American ground forces. It wasn't even the first time that they'd bombed the 30th Infantry Division. The Air Force general apologized and promised that it wouldn't happen again. But his superiors later denied that any error had occurred. And over the next five days, there were four more mistaken bombings.


Max Pabel eased the Me109G up to 1,000 feet, then leveled off, heading west for Bastogne. The rest of his squadron was all around him; Pabel felt a sense of security that he knew to be illusory. Within minutes the Allied fighters were on them. P47s and P51s dove down, machine guns hammering, and the German fighters jettisoned their bomb loads and scrambled about to dogfight the Americans. But Pabel had flown into a cloud just as the Americans jumped them; when he emerged, he was all alone. The radio was alive with the sounds of combat, the warning calls and commands, but he could see nothing. But then he remembered his squadron leader's insistence that morning that they had to get to the front, they were desperately needed. Pabel hesitated only a second; then he set his heading back to 270 degrees, due west, towards Bastogne.
"This is crazy" he told himself. "You don't stand a chance alone up here." But four times they had set out for Bastogne to support the ground troops, and four times they'd been intercepted east of the Rhine. If Fate had smiled on him and given him a golden opportunity to sneak to the battlefield, who was he to spurn her?
At 350 mph, the lone 109 covered ground fast. Already he was over the Schnee Eifel; Bastogne was only four minutes away. With so many familiar landmarks, navigation was easy. There was the Our River; that collection of villages must be Clervaux. Soon he was passing the hilltop town of Wiltz with its picturesque castle.
Suddenly the 109 shook as 50-caliber bullets ripped through its frame. Pabel felt their impact on the armor plating behind the seat. He'd been caught napping by a passing fighter-bomber. Engine oil splattered over the canopy. He yanked the stick but the controls were shot. He threw the canopy release, unbuckled his seat belt -- and the plane smashed into the ground.


"Back up!" screamed Heinz, the tank commander. "Schnell! Schnell!" The driver threw the tank into reverse, and with a great grinding of gears and treads, 50 tons of Panther lurched backward with a start. An instant later, Gunther Bermann, the gunner, heard the whoosh of an antitank shot passing just inches in front of the turret. There was no time to contemplate the whims of fate; already the turret was turning towards the ambusher who had nearly killed them all. Gunther hunched over his gunsight waiting for the turret to stop. "There -- you see? To the left of the fencepost!" Heinz shouted. Gunther already had it in sight, an American tank destroyer that had lain in wait for them coming down this road. They weren't backing away, either, so they were reloading for another shot. But this time Gunther had the initiative. He lined up the shot carefully; an old pro at 22, it took him less than two seconds to register the crosshairs. Without hesitating, he pulled the trigger. The kick of the mighty gun rocked their big tank. Before the tank had stopped rocking, before Heinz had whooped triumphantly, Gunther had verified the kill.
Already he was traversing the turret further. American TDs didn't travel alone; there were more out there. Sure enough, he spotted a towed antitank gun, probably one of those weakling 57mm guns. "HE!" he called out without looking up. The gunloader had already popped out the shell casing; he grabbed a high-explosive shell instead of the armor-piercing shells they used for antitank fighting. By the time he rammed the breech closed, Gunther was ready. A second later, the big gun roared again, and Gunther noted with satisfaction fragments of gun and bodies leaping away from the explosion.


Captain Seymour Green of the 9th Armored Division was commanding a small supply unit that had spent the night of December 16th in Ligneuville, three miles south of Baugnez. It was a Sunday morning, and he was awaiting orders to move out when a bulldozer driver came roaring down the hill road from Baugnez, screaming that German tanks were right behind him. Green had good reason to think that perhaps the excited bulldozer operator was exaggerating. He decided to check things out for himself.
Grabbing a carbine, he ordered his men to get ready to move out and grabbed a jeep and driver. They proceeded up the road to a sharp bend; there Green told the driver to stay behind while he went ahead for a look. Creeping forward stealthily, he rounded the bend -- and came face to face with the lead tanks of Kampfgruppe Peiper. Green stopped dead in his tracks. So did the Germans. For a long moment, the most powerful thrust of the German offensive was stopped cold by one petrified American captain armed with a carbine. Then the Germans started laughing. They waved him aside and drove past, laughing. Green stood sheepishly by the side of the road. This incident would NOT go down in history books as "Green's Last Stand".

More on the site mentioned above!

 

The national lion emblem for Finnish Waffen-SS men to the left sleeve:

 

The Finnish continuation war 1941-1944 against Russians:

The Finnish Air Force planes and kills:

97 (No of planes) Fokker D-XXI - 61 kills

35 Fiat G-50 Arrow - 88 kills

87 Morane-Saulnier MS-406 - 121 kills

44 Brewster B-239 Buffalo - 478 kills

44 Curtiss Hawk-75A - 190 kills

162 Messerschmitt Bf-109 - 663 kills

http://www.ww2wings.com/wings/finland/finlandmain.shtml

 

The turrets of the battleship "Poltava" in the Coast Defense.

The fate of four 305-mm/52 triple turret artillery mounts of the old Russian Baltic Fleet Battleship "Poltava" built in 1909 - 1914 which had two disastrous fires in 1919 and 1923. The first pair of the turrets was used at the Coast Artillery Battery No 981 (Voroshilov's Battery) at the Russian Island near Vladivostok in 1932. The second pair of the turrets was proposed initially to install at the Fort "Krasnaya Gorka" (Kronstadt) but the plan was no realized. After the Soviet-Finish "Winter War" 1939 - 1940 the turrets were readdress for Russaro Island (Hanko Naval Base), but the works were no completed. The turrets were kept in the in the Merchant Port of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) during all the war. After the WWII the remain turrets were installed in Sevastopol in the concrete block of the former Battery No 30 instead of two 305-mm/52 twin turret mounts MB-2-12 destroyed in June, 1942 during the combat. The height of the former "Poltava's" turrets were much more than such one of genuine artillery mounts. Now, the both pairs of the turrets are at their artillery sites in Vladivostok and Sevastopol and used for museum purposes.

http://www.forteca.friko.pl/poltaw_e.html

 

From the book by Dmitri Volkogonov Stalin, originally published in Russian in 1989.

On Aug 23 1939 the two large Condor planes that took Ribbentrop to Moscow were fired on in the Velikie Luki region.No prior orders were given to the AA units covering the flight path....

This story was confirmed acording to Volkogonov by a man that was among the AA crew that fired at the planes.

Later the day on 23 rd Aug 1939 a special group of NKVD was sent to find out who was "guilty" of this shooting...

......

BTW. Wonder if this had led to Ribbentrop´s death...What would have Adolf done...

 

The incident in Gleiwitz that "started" the German attack to Poland in 1st September 1939:

"12 or 13 condemned criminals who were to be dressed in Polish uniforms and left dead on the ground of the scene of the incident, to show that they had been killed while attacking. The code name by which Müller ( Gestapo chief ) referred to these criminals was 'Canned goods ' .



http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-03/tgmwc-03-24-08.html

 

http://www.eliteforces.freewire.co.uk/Waffen%20SS%20Text+Images/29TH%20SS%201.htm

Himmler did not trust the Italians and did not consider them to be part of the Waffen SS proper and for this reason the SS runes on their Italian uniforms were mounted on red collar patches. The arm eagle was not of the standard Waffen SS design either, being replaced by the emblem of the Italian Socialist Republic.

The title of this formation was "Legione SS delle Milizia Armata" (SS Legion of the Armed Militia) . A short while after this title was changed to the SS Italienische Sturmbrigade and was commanded by SS-Brigadeführer Peter Hansen, with the general inspector being General Manelli who had previously served in the Italian Army.

The first action the unit saw was at Anzio where the 2nd Battalion (1st Italian SS infantry Rgt.) under the command of SS-Obersturmbannführer Delgi Oddi (a former Blackshirt Lt-Col) encountered U.S. Army units. The 650 men of this unit made a excellant account of themselves taking several American PoWs and commandeering their weapons such as the Thompson Submachine gun. The Americans were not able to breakthrough the Italian lines and the 2nd Battalion fought without relief until the 5th June 1944 when they were relieved by another Italian BSI unit. The price they paid was a heavy one though with only 146 survivors from the original 650 men remaining and as a reward for this show of bravery, 29 Iron Cross' were awarded by the Germans. The staff of the BSI awarded 10 Silver medals (Italian equivalent of the German Iron Cross) and 57 men and NCOs were promoted to higher ranks. Also on May 3rd 1944 Himmler ordered that for their sense of duty and courage the Italian volunteers would be considered part of the Waffen SS proper with the same duties and rights as other Waffen SS units. On the 15th June 1944 , Himmler allowed the Italian SS to wear black collar tabs similar to their Waffen SS counterparts and on 7th September 1944 the title of the Italian SS was changed to 1st Waffen-Grenadier Brigade der SS Italien.