German special forces: SS saboteurs and Otto Skorzeny special forces. Elite troops of the Wehrmacht

Probably, their task was to show a simple fighter of the worker-peasant army, cut off from the plow and machine, preferably unsightly. Like, there he is, almost a meter with a cap - and Hitler wins! Such an image perfectly matches the muzzled, exhausting victim of the Stalinist regime. Which, since the late 1980s, post-Soviet historians and filmmakers have put on a cart, given a “three-ruler” without cartridges and sent towards the armored hordes of the Nazis - under the vigilant supervision of detachments.

In reality, of course, the Germans themselves entered the USSR on 300 thousand carts, and as for weapons, fascist Europe was 4 times inferior to us in the number of machine guns produced, and 10 times in self-loading rifles.

Recently, of course, the view of the Great Patriotic War has become different, society is tired of exaggerating the topic of "senseless victims", and border guards-terminators, scouts-ninjas, daring crews of armored trains and other characters have appeared on the screens - now already exaggerated. As they say, from one extreme to another. Although
it should be noted that the real border guards and scouts (as well as paratroopers and marines) were really distinguished by good physical shape and training. In a country where sport was massively obligatory, there were much more "jocks" than now.

And only one type of troops was never noticed by the screenwriters, although it deserves the most attention. Because of all the special forces (special forces) of the Second World War, the most numerous and strongest were the Soviet assault engineer-sapper brigades (ShISBr) of the reserve of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

During the course of the war, most of the belligerents realized that classic infantry could not perform many specific tasks. Therefore, Britain began to create battalions of "commandos", the United States - detachments of army rangers, Germany reformed part of its motorized infantry into "panzergrenadiers". The Red Army, having started in 1943 its great
offensive, faced the problem of heavy losses during the capture of German fortified areas and during street fighting.

In terms of building fortifications, the Germans were big docks. Pillboxes, often made of concrete or steel, covered each other, and behind them were batteries of anti-tank guns or self-propelled guns. All approaches were heavily mined and entangled with barbed wire. In cities, every basement or sewer hatch turned into a pillbox, even ruins became impregnable forts.

It was possible to send fines to storm them - senselessly putting thousands of soldiers and officers to the delight of future accusers of "Stalinism". You could throw yourself at the embrasure with your chest - heroically, but, let's be honest, it's pointless. Therefore, the Headquarters, realizing that it was time to stop fighting with the help of a bayonet and “cheers”, went the other way.

The very idea was taken from the Germans, more precisely, from the Kaiser's army. Back in 1916, in the battle for Verdun, the German army used special sapper-assault groups with special weapons (light machine guns and knapsack flamethrowers) and passed a specific training course. The Germans themselves forgot about their experience, apparently counting on a "blitzkrieg" - and then they trampled for a long time near Sevastopol and in Stalingrad. But it was adopted by the Red Army.

In the spring of 1943, the formation of the first 15 assault brigades began. The engineering and sapper units of the Red Army served as the basis for them, since the new special forces required, first of all, technically competent specialists. After all, the range of their tasks was quite wide and complex.

To begin with, the engineering reconnaissance company examined the enemy fortifications for their firepower and "architectural strength". Drawing up a detailed plan where pillboxes and other firing points are located, what they are (earth, concrete or otherwise) and what they are armed with, what kind of cover they have, where minefields and obstacles are located. Based on these data, an assault plan was developed.

Such requirements were explained simply: firstly, an attack fighter carried a load several times larger than a simple infantryman. He was wearing a steel breastplate, which protected him from small fragments and pistol (machine gun) bullets, and a heavy bag with an “explosive kit” often hung over his shoulders. The pouches contained an increased ammunition load of grenades, and
also bottles with a "Molotov cocktail", which were thrown into embrasures or window openings. And from the end of 1943, they received knapsack flamethrowers at their disposal.

In addition to traditional assault rifles (PPSh and PPS), assault units were armed to capacity with light machine guns and anti-tank rifles - the latter were used as large-caliber rifles to suppress firing points.

In order to teach the personnel to run nimbly with all this load on their shoulders, as well as to reduce their possible losses, he was given tough training. In addition to the fact that the fighters were driven in full gear on the obstacle course, live ammunition was also poured over their heads with all their hearts - so that the rule “keep your head down” was fixed at the level of instinct even before the first battle. The other half of the day was occupied by training firing and explosions, demining. Plus, hand-to-hand combat, throwing knives, axes and sapper shovels.

It was much more difficult than training, say, scouts. After all, the scout went on a mission light, and for him it was important not to find himself. And the attack fighter did not have the opportunity to hide in the bushes, he could not quietly “flee away”. And his goal was not single drunken "tongues", but the most powerful fortifications of the Eastern Front.

The battle began suddenly, sometimes even without artillery preparation and without any cries of "Hurrah!". Through pre-made passages in the minefields, detachments of machine gunners and submachine gunners quietly passed, which cut off the German pillboxes from infantry support. The enemy bunker itself was dealt with by explosives or flamethrowers.

Even the most powerful fortifications were put out of action with the help of a charge embedded in the vent. Where the path was blocked by a grate, they acted witty and angrily: they poured several cans of kerosene inside and threw a match.

In urban conditions, the fighters of the ShISBr were distinguished by their ability to appear suddenly from the most unexpected side for the Germans. Everything is very simple: they literally passed through the walls, making their way with TNT. For example, the Germans turned the basement of a house into a pillbox. Our fighters came in from behind or from the side, blew up the basement wall (or the floor of the first floor) and immediately
fired flamethrowers into it.

A good service in replenishing the arsenal of the ShISBr was provided by ... the Germans themselves. From the summer of 1943, faustpatrons ("Panzerfaust") began to enter service with the Nazi army, which the retreating Germans threw in huge quantities. The fighters of the ShISBr immediately found a use for them: after all, the faustpatron pierced not only armor, but also walls. Interestingly, our
the fighters came up with a special portable rack for salvo firing from 6-10 faustpatrons at the same time.

Ingenious portable frames were also used to launch heavy domestic 300-mm M-31 rockets. They were brought to the position, laid down - and hit with direct fire. So, in the battle on Lindenstrasse (Berlin), three such shells were fired at a fortified house. No one survived inside the building's smoking ruins.

In 1944, companies of flamethrower tanks and all kinds of floating transporters came to support the assault battalions. The power and effectiveness of the ShISBr, whose number had already reached 20, increased dramatically.

However, at first, the successes of the assault engineer-sapper brigades made the army command dizzy. There was an erroneous opinion that the ShISBr could do anything - and brigades began to be sent to all sectors of the front, and without the support of other branches of the military. It was a fatal mistake.

If the German positions were actively covered by artillery fire, which was not previously suppressed, the ShISBr was almost powerless. After all, no matter how prepared the fighters were, for German shells they were just as vulnerable targets as recruits in overcoats. Even worse, when the Germans fought back their positions with a tank counterattack - here the special forces suffered heavy losses. Only in December 1943, the Headquarters established strict regulations for the use of ShISBr: now the brigades were necessarily supported by artillery, tanks and auxiliary infantry.

The rear guard of the ShISBr were demining companies, including one company of mine-detecting dogs for each brigade. They followed the assault battalions and cleared the main passages for the advancing army (the rear sapper units were engaged in the final demining of the area). Miners also often used steel bibs - as you know, sappers sometimes make mistakes, and two millimeters of steel could protect them from the explosion of small anti-personnel mines. In any case, it was at least some kind of cover for the chest and abdomen.

The golden pages in the history of the ShISBr were the battles for Koenigsberg and Berlin, as well as the capture of the fortifications of the Kwantung Army. Military analysts confidently believe that without the engineering assault special forces, these battles would have dragged on, and the losses of the Red Army would have been many times greater.

But, alas, already in 1946, the entire main structure of the ShISBr was demobilized, and then, one by one, the brigades were disbanded. At first, this was facilitated by the confidence of the next "Tukhachevsky" that the Third World War would be won by a lightning strike of the Soviet tank armies. With the advent of nuclear weapons, the Soviet General Staff began to believe that with
the atomic bomb will perfectly cope with the enemy. Apparently, it never occurred to the old marshals that if anything survived a nuclear cataclysm, it would be bunkers and underground forts. "Open" which could, perhaps, only ShISBr.

The unique Soviet special forces were simply forgotten - so that the next generations did not even know about its existence. So one of the most interesting and glorious pages of the Great Patriotic War was simply wiped out.

The period of World War II was a time of rapid popularization of special forces. It was then that the commanders of the armies of different countries began to realize the effectiveness of special forces and widely use them both to support large army operations and to perform tasks that, for one reason or another, could not be entrusted to ordinary units. After the first successes, special forces began to be created in almost all countries participating in the war, and some of these units have successfully survived to this day.

Germany. From Goering to Skorzeny
In the last article, I said that the first modern special forces unit can be considered SS Leibstandarte. However, with the outbreak of World War II, the situation changed dramatically. It was decided to include the SS troops in the army and use them in military operations. But it turned out that the SS were poorly adapted to operations as part of army units. Therefore, it was decided to reform and expand the SS so that they could operate independently of the army. This led to the fact that the SS began to rapidly lose the appearance of a special unit - the tasks that the SS troops performed in wartime did not differ much from the goals of the army. There was no longer any talk of any narrow specialization and in-depth special training.
As part of the SS, however, there were separate special forces, mainly engaged in internal security and the fight against partisans. The SS also had their own landing units - 500th Parachute Battalion. However, this unit was quickly overshadowed by the glory of the Air Force paratroopers.
Long before the Second World War in the USSR, not far from Kyiv, large-scale maneuvers of the Red Army were carried out. Among the numerous foreign observers was a colonel of the German Air Force Kurt Student. During the exercises, he was amazed by the spectacle of joint jumps of two thousand paratroopers. Student's enthusiastic report convinced the commander-in-chief of the German Air Force, Marshal Hermann Göring. And by the end of 1935, the creation of a regiment of paratroopers began under the symbolic name "General Goering". Strict selection limits were set - out of three applicants, only one was usually accepted. In addition to intensive jump training, attention was also paid to the development of initiative among the personnel - this quality is indispensable for fighters, who, presumably, must operate in small groups and even alone.
In determining the place of the new battalion in hostilities, the opinion of the command of the ground forces turned out to be decisive, which proposed using paratroopers to destroy fortifications on the borders with Germany and spoke of a gradual increase in the number of paratroopers. Already on July 1, 1938, it was decided to create on the basis of the regiment "General Goering" 7th air division, the command of which was entrusted to Kurt Student.
The soldiers of the 7th division received their baptism of fire in 1939, during the attack on Poland, when landing groups were thrown behind enemy lines mainly for reconnaissance - the actions of the ground forces in the Polish direction were more than successful, and they did not endanger the valuable unit. But the lightning-fast capture of Denmark and Norway in the spring of 1940 became possible already thanks to the paratroopers, who, in difficult conditions, were able to recapture a number of important objects from the enemy with minimal losses. The most impressive operation of the 7th division, perhaps, was the assault on the Belgian fort Eben-Emael - one of the key posts of the defensive line on the border with Germany. Half underground, protected by two-meter-thick walls and deep ditches, armed with 18 guns, the fort seemed almost impregnable. But not for airborne assault. On May 11, 1940, the wounded fort capitulated. This was made possible thanks to the coordinated actions 85 paratroopers who were trained for several months on an exact layout of the fort.
The combat path of the 7th division ended in an extremely unsuccessful Cretan operation (May 1942). For two weeks, the paratroopers lost over three thousand people and most of the equipment killed. After the operation, the remnants of the division were reformed into the 1st Parachute Division. However, neither she nor ten other similar divisions were able to repeat the glory of the 7th division. In fact, these units were selected infantry, trained in the basics of landing from the air and performing standard tasks for an infantry unit.
In addition to the German Air Force, "their special forces" were created in Abwehr- German military intelligence. Abwehr Chief, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, was a big fan of the general von Vorbeck and even invited one of the veterans of operations in Tanganyika, Captain von Hippel, to the post of adviser to the Abwehr on partisan actions. By the summer of 1939, a division was formed under his leadership. "Ebbinghaus" specialized in sabotage behind enemy lines. In addition to the standard high requirements for physical and military training, special attention was paid to the level of intelligence, knowledge of foreign languages, as well as the appearance of the applicant, which had to be discreet and unforgettable. The detachment received its baptism of fire in Poland. It is interesting that in the conditions of the rapid advance of the German army, the saboteurs were engaged not so much in damaging the rear facilities as in protecting them from the retreating enemy, who was trying to destroy the bridges and railways to delay the advance of the Germans. Both in Poland and in other countries, people who knew the local language and local customs to perfection were first involved in operations behind enemy lines. This allowed them to wear someone else's uniform and even, posing as an officer, give orders to enemy units.
After the Polish campaign, the Ebbinghaus saboteurs became the basis of the secret secret army formed in the city of Brandenburg. 800th Special Purpose Construction Regiment(the name, of course, had nothing to do with reality). The unit grew rapidly, and by the end of 1940, most of the saboteurs were withdrawn from Brandenburg. and stationed in the territories bordering the countries against which it was planned to conduct a sabotage war. The headquarters of the regiment was located in Berlin.
Saboteurs were taught methods of capturing and destroying various objects, orienteering, covert movement and camouflage, and silent killing of the enemy. The geography of actions was very extensive: from India to Finland. Already after the first operations, the Brandenburg fighters gained fame as one of the most brutal units in the history of World War II. In their actions, the saboteurs did not disdain anything: they intimidated and killed the civilian population, violated international law, disguised themselves as the wounded and refugees. Brandenburg fighters almost always penetrated enemy territory before the official declaration of war.
At the end of 1942, the Brandenburg regiment was deployed to 800th Special Purpose Division. The situation on the fronts changed more and more every day: the rapid advance of the Germans was replaced by positional battles. Under these conditions, the 800th division began to be used against partisans - operations in the rear of the enemy gave way to operations in their own rear. And by December 1944, all units subordinate to the Abwehr were merged into a motorized infantry division, which inherited the name "Brandenburg". By that time, the most experienced fighters of the division had already transferred to separate sabotage companies, which were subordinate to the SS.
The creation of these units began in 1943, when the German command, which had lost the strategic initiative, declared the doctrine of "total war". One of the elements of this doctrine was the conduct of many sabotage operations around the world. The organizational side of the issue was entrusted to the commander department "C"(sabotage and terror) Otto Skorzeny.
Saboteurs for the new detachments were trained in the strictest secrecy at Friedental Castle near Berlin. The requirements for potential saboteurs were perhaps the most stringent in the history of German special forces. They took only reliable people, mostly Germans, who had vast experience in sabotage and terror. Each saboteur was trained according to an individual program. Particular attention was paid technical support - the latest developments of German scientists first of all came to the disposal of the SS.
Until the very end of the war, SS saboteurs inflicted considerable damage on the allies. The triumph of Skorzeny's wards was Operation Thunder, which was aimed at the allies who had landed in Normandy and was carried out on December 16, 1944. In parallel with the large-scale offensive of the German troops, more than 40 specially trained saboteurs penetrated the rear. They brought confusion into the ranks of the retreating enemy, destroyed warehouses, mined roads and even rearranged road signs. Within a few days, the allies were disorganized and retreated tens of kilometers back. However, they soon came to their senses and launched a counteroffensive. Operation Thunder was one of the last German victories in World War II.

Great Britain. victory over conservatism
For many years after the First World War, the command of the British army was considered one of the most conservative in the world. The higher ranks were extremely suspicious of the proposed innovations, believing that the UK was able to defeat any adversary using traditional methods of warfare and economic sanctions.
Prime Minister Churchill unexpectedly found himself in opposition to the army command. He was very interested in the experience of using special forces units both during the First World War and later - during the German attack on Poland and Norway. Churchill used all his influence to put pressure on the senior officers of the army, air force and navy. On June 22, 1940, an order was issued to begin the formation of several special forces units. The Department of Defense gave these units a common name: Special Service Battalions. By a curious coincidence, this name was abbreviated as SS (SS - Special Service), which made it unpopular among both unit soldiers and civilians. The public preferred the term " commandos", derived from the name of the Boer cavalry units of the early 20th century, which used the tactics of fleeting strikes followed by a retreat. The first is the name began to be used by lieutenant colonel Dudley Clark- the author of the concept of creating special forces. Clarke's plan was approved by Churchill, and already in June 1940 he was assigned to recruit the first volunteers for a sabotage unit intended to attack German coastal positions. Due to the difficult condition of the British regular army, at first, recruitment was carried out in parts of the civil defense. The first combat experience that the commandos received a few weeks after the start of the formation turned out to be unsuccessful - the groups sent to the territories occupied by the Germans for reconnaissance purposes suffered losses and returned with nothing. However, the British immediately learned from the defeats and began to reorganize the not yet fully formed special forces on the go. Was involved in this work Roger Case(naval admiral, veteran of the First World War), who headed the newly created Directorate of Combined Operations, under the beginning of which passed Special Forces Brigade. By 1941, the final structure of the brigade was formed - 11 commando detachments, each of which had 6 platoons of 65 people. A little later, uniform standards for the selection and training of personnel were developed - their author was the commander of one of the detachments, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Newman. The document received the unofficial name "Catechism" and consisted of 18 rules. It was deduced the main purpose of the commando - an effective fight against the enemy anywhere in the world. To do this, the training of the commandos had to meet very stringent requirements. Each fighter had to have a high morale and independently think over his actions, be able to kill the enemy both with his bare hands and with the help of various weapons, and be fluent in any vehicles. Each of the commandos had to prove their professional suitability both at the selection stage and during training - any fighter who could not cope with the load was immediately fired.
Until the autumn of 1941, commandos were used in the "small war" - conducting reconnaissance and sabotage raids behind enemy lines. A number of successful actions (for example, it was thanks to the commandos that the British got components of the latest German cipher machine) proved the high level of training of Case's pupils. Despite this, they were in no hurry to involve commandos in large-scale army operations - confusion arose with the definition of the role of special forces in such actions, and the army leadership kept putting sticks in the wheels. The escalation of the conflict led to the fact that in October 1941, Admiral Case was removed from his post. In his place came the captain of the 1st rank Louis Mountbatten, who began to ensure that the commandos could operate in conjunction with the marines and navy. The results were not long in coming - since 1942, the commandos were actively involved in major military operations. These ranged from famous victories like the destruction of the dry dock at St. Nazaire to crushing defeats like the failed attempt to capture Tobruk.
In addition to units recruited from the inhabitants of Great Britain, there was also the 10th Inter-Allied Commando Detachment, where, in addition to the British, they received the French, Norwegians, Dutch and Poles. Thanks to Mountbatten, commando units began to be formed from the Marine Corps, which had previously been exclusively engaged in guarding ships and performing colonial service. To ensure the successful operation of the commandos began to be created auxiliary parts for special purposes. The first such units were units designed to ensure the landing of commandos from boats, and air force guidance units that corrected the actions of aviation.
At the end of 1943, commando units underwent another reform and were consolidated into four brigades. In this composition, the commandos ended the Second World War. The 1st and 4th brigades participated in the Normandy landings, the 2nd brigade operated in the Mediterranean, and the 3rd was transferred to the Far East. In 1946, commando units were disbanded - post-war Great Britain did not want to support special forces. The exception was the 3rd brigade, renamed Marine commando brigade.
Already at the beginning of World War II, other parts of the special forces began to stand out from the commandos. One of these parts was Special Aviation Service(CAC ). Her forefathers were 11th SAS Battalion(created on the basis of the 2nd commando battalion) in the UK and a small Squad "L"(created from the remnants of the combined commando unit "Layforce") in North Africa.
The SAS was an airborne unit, consisting of many independent battalions scattered throughout the theater of operations - from Europe to the Pacific basin. The unit specialized in reconnaissance and sabotage operations deep behind enemy lines. Also, the SAS fighters were engaged in the formation of resistance units on enemy territory. A set of requirements for SAS fighters, developed by the commander of the "L" detachment, lieutenant colonel David Sterling, resembled the requirements for commandos. An interesting detail - the list of mandatory items included a sense of humor. Two French and one Belgian SAS regiments were created, operating in conjunction with the British regiments.
The British special forces turned out to be so furious and cruel in battle that in October 1942, Hitler issued an order according to which all captured commando and SAS fighters were to be shot on the spot.
Starting in 1944, when the strategic initiative completely passed into the hands of the Allies, the SAS, like commando units, began to be actively used to support army operations. Until the end of the war, most of the SAS units operated behind French lines, supporting the opening of a second front.
In addition to the SAS and commandos, the British military command created several small special forces to wage a "small war" - like detachments of special purpose boats And long range search groups(Shindits). The fighters of the first specialized in carrying out daring landings and sabotage with the help of sea and river vessels. The second were organized in 1940 in North Africa. They were equipped with a large number of fast off-road vehicles and used for patrol and sabotage operations behind enemy lines.

USA. Rangers and Normandy
The United States of America met the Second world with a very weak and unprepared for the new conditions of the army. After the removal in the 20s of General Mitchell- the author of the plan for the landing on Belgian territory in 1919 - even the creation of airborne troops was slowed down. The first parachute units began to form only in 1940, but by the end of World War II they were already considered the most combat-ready units of the American army.
A similar situation developed with special-purpose units. The first such units began to form in Office of Strategic Services created in 1941 by the CIA. The competence of the Directorate included reconnaissance and the organization of special forms of warfare on enemy territory. Special detachments under the Directorate were diverse - their structure and training varied significantly depending on the intended tasks. For example, task forces included 34 people and were intended to organize and supply the Resistance in the occupied countries. In addition, these groups were often involved in sabotage and reconnaissance operations. They were usually delivered to the object by sea or by air. So called commands, consisting of only three people, were intended to establish contact and subsequent communication with the Resistance units. In connection with the wide geography of actions, residents of those countries on whose territory it was supposed to fight were willingly taken to the detachments of the Directorate.
On June 20, 1942, the Americans, together with the Canadians, began to form 1st Special Forces Group- the first regular army special forces. When preparing the group, the intended area of ​​\u200b\u200bits operation was taken into account - a mountainous area with a cold climate - therefore, in addition to standard skills, the special forces were trained in mountain fighting tactics and the use of skis. The unit lasted a little over two years, during which, however, it carried out several successful operations.
In May 1942, it was decided that America, whose main enemy was still insular Japan, would continue to actively participate in European operations. This required units with the skills of amphibious assault. No matter how strangely, in the early 40s, even the American marines did not own this tactic. Moreover, instead of training, their command took up the formation of parachute and sabotage units.
Therefore, by order of the Chief of the American Staff, General George Marshall began the creation of special-purpose units, called rangers- in honor of Robert Rogers' units operating in the Hudson Valley during the Seven Years' War (1756-63). The Rangers were supposed to be used for naval and airborne assaults, reconnaissance and sabotage behind enemy lines. The formation of such units began simultaneously in the UK, where volunteers were recruited from the stationed American units in 1st Ranger Battalion, and in the United States, where it was formed 2nd Ranger Battalion. Later, they were joined by the 3rd and 4th battalions created in North Africa.
According to the tactics developed by the American military, together with the rangers, it was supposed to use sapper units to clear the coastline and engineer support for the landing, as well as coastal battalions to quickly unload the landing. In the preparation of the rangers, the schemes and methods used by the English commandos were initially used. Often, British and American special forces trained jointly.
The combat path of the Rangers during the Second World War was littered with setbacks. Despite good training and well-coordinated actions, the Rangers suffered huge losses. For example, during Operation Galka at the beginning of 1944, the 1st and 3rd battalions were almost completely destroyed. The rangers had even worse during the landing at the Omaha sector (the opening of a second front in Normandy). According to the landing plan developed by the American command, a special role was assigned to the rangers of the first echelon - the capture of coastal heights and the destruction of heavy pillboxes. Of the landed fighters, half died before they reached the German positions. In total, during the landing at the Omaha site, the ranger units lost about two-thirds of their personnel. Despite this, the actions of the rangers were more effective than the rest parts. In some areas, the successful completion of the landing can be considered entirely the merit of the Rangers.
After the Omaha landing, the Rangers were used to support the offensive in Europe. Besides, 6th Ranger Battalion participated in the battles in the Pacific.

Special forces units in other countries participating in the war
Naturally, special forces units during World War II were created not only in Germany, Great Britain and the USA. Almost all countries by the Second World War already had airborne units - or were actively working on their creation. At the same time, almost all parachute formations had the attributes of special forces - strict selection, high-quality training, sharpened for one or another sphere of action. Subsequently, however, small airborne units, as a rule, deployed into larger ones and lost these features - like, say, the German 7th Air Division, which I described in the first chapter.
Subversive units were also popular, like Separate motorized rifle brigade of special purpose of the NKVD of the USSR or Japanese saboteurs-suicide bombers. Many units were created in the image and likeness of the English commandos. The reason is simple: many political bodies of the countries occupied by the Germans, including military departments, were evacuated to the territory of Great Britain. Commando units were created from subjects of such countries as France, the Netherlands; in addition, there were units that acted jointly with other English units (for example, the Greek "Holy Squad" under the leadership of the SAS) or as part of them ( 5th SAS Regiment was fully staffed by former fighters of the Belgian army).
* * *
The Second World War was an important stage in the development of special forces units. Probably, if it were not for the experience gained during this war, then the current special forces would be completely different.
It is the special forces of our time that the continuation of the material in the next issues of Igromania will be devoted to. We advise you not to miss it.

"Edelweiss"

For the first time, mountain rifle units were created in Germany during the First World War on the Italian front. It was then that their emblem was the image of the Edelweiss flower, growing exceptionally high in the mountains. Developing traditions, mountain shooters played an important role in the German invasion of the Balkans during the Second World War. They also played an important role during the operation to capture the island of Crete, landing on it along with airborne paratroopers.

At the initial stage of the war with Russia, the mountain shooters of the 1st and 4th divisions broke through to the Caucasus and hoisted the Nazi banner over Elbrus. When the Red Army drove the fascists from Soviet soil, the mountain riflemen, retreating, fought bravely not only on the Eastern Front, but also in Finland and Norway.

Emblem of "Edelweiss"

After the war, only the 1st Mountain Division or, as it is also called, the “1st Division of the Alpine Riflemen” remained in the Bundeswehr. As a result of the reform of the Bundeswehr in 1991-1995. only the 23rd brigade of the Alpine Riflemen (GebJgBrg23) remained. The brigade headquarters (together with the control company) is located in Bad Reinhall, near the Austrian border. The brigade consists of 4 battalions:
(231st - mountain (Bad Reinhall),
232nd mountain (Bishofswisen),
233rd mountain (Mittenwald),
225th Mountain Artillery (Füssen)),

as well as 5 mouths:
230th Reserve Company (Bad Reinhall),
230th Support Company (Bad Reinhall),
230th mountain tank (Freying),
280th mountain tank training (Ingolstadt),
company for the preparation and use of animals (Bad Reinhall).

Mountain ranger from "Edelweiss"

Organizationally, since 07/01/2001 it has been part of the 10th Panzer Division. They took part in operations in Somalia (1993) and Yugoslavia (1995). 07/25/1998 celebrated the 40th anniversary. The artillery battalion is armed with eighteen 155 mm howitzers. The mountain battalion includes a control company, a support company, 3 combat companies and a heavy weapons company. The 7th company is in the state, but in peacetime it has been curtailed. The 1st company is prepared for the highlands with special alpine training from contract soldiers. The company of heavy weapons is armed with: tracked transporter BV 206 C, armored personnel carriers Wiesel MK20 and Wiesel TOW, self-propelled mortar MTW 120.

According to the state of wartime, the strength of the brigade is 6,000 people. As in previous years, mountain shooters are staffed mainly by volunteers, natives of Southern Bavaria, who grew up in the mountains.

airborne assault

The first division of the German airborne forces emerged on April 26, 1936, when a parachute school was established in the town of Stendal. Its graduates became the basis for the 1st Airborne Battalion of the Luftwaffe. In the Wehrmacht, in the same period, an airborne company was formed, which from November 1938 became the 2nd paratrooper battalion, also becoming subordinate to the Luftwaffe. By 1939, the battalions were deployed into regiments and consolidated into the 7th Airborne Division. The first combat use of airborne assault forces also remained with the Germans. Moreover, at that moment, neither the French, nor the British, nor the Americans had airborne units as part of their armed forces at all.

Surely readers are aware of the mass airborne operation that the Germans carried out during the capture of the island of Crete on May 20, 1940. Then eight thousand paratroopers were thrown out. The numbers are impressive. However, not many people know that more than half of them died. But a month before this famous operation, the first airborne assaults were dropped over Denmark and Norway to capture airfields. When eighty-five German paratroopers, having landed on gliders, captured the impregnable fort of Eben-Emael, the world started talking about a new kind of troops. This was the message for the creation of airborne units of Great Britain and the United States. France had capitulated by then.

During the Second World War, the Germans deployed the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th airborne divisions, and the 7th in 1942, after serious losses on the Leningrad front, was renamed the 1st airborne division. German paratroopers bravely and skillfully fought on the fronts of World War II. And during the last offensive of the Nazis near the Ardennes, the 3rd and 5th airborne divisions, together with saboteurs from the Brandenburg-800 division, played such a prominent role that the allies still remember this with respect for their enemy.

“Brandenburg-800”

History of creation.

Even during the First World War, the German captain Theodor von Hippel, who was then in the African corps of General Lettov-Vorbeck, drew attention to the fact that the competent use of intelligence officers disguised as local residents or enemy military personnel during offensive operations allows them to take under control of strategically important objects. In the early 30s, the officer formulated all the positive experience of such operations in Tanganyika (at the beginning of the century - an African colony of Germany) in the form of a special report. The material caught the eye of the chief of the Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. In 1935, Hippel was again drafted into the army, where he began to form a detachment of "professional partisans".

September 27, 1939 Hippel submits a report to Canaris on the creation of a special purpose unit. The backbone of the unit was to be made up of already well-established commandos - 3 officers and 67 lower ranks. On October 25, Canaris signed an order to create a "construction training company for special applications-800" with a permanent location in the city of Brandenburg. The secret appendix to the order indicated that the name "training and construction" was nothing more than a screen for disguise, and the company would be subordinate to the 2nd department of the Abwehr (sabotage department). A separate line stated that the formation of the unit by personnel would take place strictly on a voluntary basis from among experienced paratroopers, intelligence officers, signalmen, sappers, snipers, divers. The company became the first regular part of the German special forces.

When selecting recruits in the Abwehr, they in no way relied on the requirements of any charters and documents regulating the process of recruiting parts of the Wehrmacht. First of all, applicants were required to be resourceful, resourceful, able to adapt to various conditions of life, excellent knowledge of a foreign language, as well as the customs, characteristics and orders of other countries. Here Hippel was helped by the foreign department of the military registration department, which gave him information about ethnic Germans who had recently returned to their historical homeland, served in the army and expressed a desire to work for the Abwehr. These were immigrants not only from European countries, but also from Africa and America. In the course of personal acquaintance with the candidates, the company command determined to what extent the candidate was prone to adventurism and risk, and also how inconspicuous his appearance was. Serious tests awaited those who passed this first, formal, selection: testing the level of intelligence, psychological stability, the ability to instantly navigate the environment, improvise "in the course of the game," self-discipline and self-control. And of course, physical fitness, which was supposed to be much higher than average.

The process of forming a company took several years. In addition to bureaucratic delays, Canaris was also hampered by "comrades-in-arms" in the party, who saw in the formation of such a unit in the structure of the Abwehr the admiral's desire to have his "pocket army" with him. His subsequent plot against Hitler seems to confirm these fears, however, German scientists believe that, despite possible assumptions about the unreliability of the company, true adherents of Hitler's ideas still served in Brandenburg, since in the entire history of this unit there was not a single case of betrayal.

In mid-December 1939, the company was reorganized into a battalion, which received the same number and name. "Brandenburg-800" consisted of 7 companies, of which one was headquarters, and the rest were divided according to geographical and professional characteristics. People from Russia, the Baltic States, and Finland served in the 1st Baltic company; French, English, Portuguese, and African platoons were assembled in the 2nd company; The 3rd consisted of Sudeten Germans, immigrants from Poland served in the 4th, southwestern and paratroopers were separate companies. The Hippel battalion also included separate motorcycle-patrol, northern and western platoons. At the same time, the customs of "Brandenburg" were also formed - the relationship within the unit was more of a friendly character. Traditional military greetings were replaced by the usual male handshake, drill training was carried out, as a rule, only when visiting the unit by the authorities. There are several explanations for the fact that there was no place for drill and barracks in the special forces, the main of which, perhaps, should be recognized as the following: “Yes”, “Yes”, “I obey” and similar statutory words hammered into the subconscious of the military could to extradite a saboteur, especially since he had to act in civilian clothes on foreign territory. In a word, military bearing did not help to merge with the local population, to go unnoticed in the crowd.

The fighters had to perform reconnaissance and assault tasks (reaching the object and holding it until the approach of the main forces, destroying transport interchanges and communication centers), as well as working with caches to transmit information, avoid surveillance, meet with agents, navigate in cities, be able to induce panic in the crowd, conduct active disinformation.

The main training camp of the "Brandenburg-800" was the training ground in the town of Quenztug. It housed a shooting range, a sapper-technical field with fragments of a railroad track with switches, bridge trusses, highway intersections, and power poles installed on it. Great attention was paid to working out techniques for penetrating the object, neutralizing sentries, and mining. The main subjects of training were subversive work and individual work.

The uniforms of the personnel were common for the German army. To camouflage and prevent information leakage, the Brandenburg servicemen wore the uniform of rangers, which was adopted back in 1936 and differed from the combined arms only by a green gap on shoulder straps and buttonholes. On October 2, 1942, a brand distinction was introduced for Brandenburg - a chevron on the right sleeve in the form of three green oak leaves and one acorn on a brown branch. The same composition of leaves and an acorn was cast from metal and worn on the left side of the cap.

Initially, the functions of a training unit were performed by a headquarters company, which later grew into a training regiment and a separate training "Aleksandrovsky" battalion. The training process was very intense and, despite the fact that each of the cadets already knew some kind of army specialty, lasted up to nine months.

The list of disciplines was as follows: enemy shooting, types of weapons and their use, martial arts (jiu-jitsu), parachute training, driving all types of vehicles, military equipment, including the basics of piloting or driving a steam locomotive. Also studied were radio and communications, photography, camouflage, orientation and topography, a foreign language, legislation and customs of the country of "application", engineering training - mining, demining, the basics of fortification, handling explosives and their manufacture at home, providing medical care. At the Abwehr technical school, cadets learned how to forge documents, make seals, and distribute banknotes for the purpose of circulation.

Preparation, tactics and structure of "Brandenburg"

The main disciplines were subversive engineering and individual action tactics. In the town of Quenzgut, in addition to the barracks and the educational building, there was a shooting range and a sapper-technical training ground. Parts of all kinds of real objects were installed on it - bridges, crossings, highway sections, etc. Much attention was paid to the practice of an inconspicuous, covert approach to the object, the silent removal of posts, as well as the installation of explosive devices and mining. The Brandenburg fighters studied foreign languages, parachute jumping, landing on the coast, cross-country movement (including skiing). They were also trained to fight in difficult weather conditions and at night, were well acquainted with various types of small arms and military equipment. The main task of the "Brandenburgers" was to achieve the effect of surprise by means of camouflage and misleading the enemy, which was to be used by the German troops following them. At the same time, surprise was tactical, and sometimes operational-strategic in nature. The use of Brandenburg was so diverse that it covered all conceivable forms and methods inherent in reconnaissance and sabotage operations with full or partial camouflage. For partial camouflage, characteristic parts of the enemy's uniform and weapons were used. When opening fire, these attributes had to be dropped, which was fully consistent with the laws of warfare. Full camouflage was needed in order to cause the enemy to panic by shooting "his troops" and due to this, quickly complete the task. Such military operations were carried out outside the laws and customs of war. The number of "Brandenburg" units varied depending on the nature of the planned operation - it could be groups of saboteurs from 5 to 12 people, and entire companies attached to the armies.

The participation of "Brandenburg" in hostilities

Benelux countries, France. At the beginning of 1940, the Abwehr was instructed, in accordance with the general plan for the occupation of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, to prepare measures that would allow, with the help of military tricks, to capture the most important road and railway bridges across the Meuse River from Maastricht and Gennep. Only under this condition could the German troops quickly reach the fortified Peel line in Holland, and later release their parachute landings dropped near Rotterdam. The action with the capture of bridges across the Meuse near Maastricht was carried out by a volunteer unit prepared by the Abwehr center in Breslau. In the early morning of May 10, 1940, the advance detachment, which was given Brandenburg saboteurs dressed in Dutch uniforms, rode on bicycles in the direction of Maastricht. During the clash with the Dutch border guards, part of the group (including its commander, Lieutenant Hoke) was destroyed, and all three bridges over the Meuse flew into the air, as the saboteurs did not have time to clear them. However, the action near Gennep was a success. By the force of one reconnaissance patrol from the 1st Brandenburg company, the bridge over the Meuse was captured, and while the stunned Dutch came to their senses, German tanks were already moving along the bridge. The trick of the "Brandenburgers" was that the patrol included several "German prisoners of war", whom the patrol allegedly escorted to headquarters, and each "prisoner" had machine guns and grenades under his clothes. Dressed in the uniform of the Dutch border guards, the “escorts” were represented by Abwehr agents who worked in Holland. Thus, it was at Gennep that the tactical interaction of Wehrmacht saboteurs and intelligence agents was first achieved. The 3rd company of Brandenburg was tasked with preventing the explosion of 24 strategic facilities in Belgium. Company subdivisions secretly approached the intended objects and attacked them. The enemy was so stunned that the Brandenburgers managed to save 18 out of 24 objects. In the second phase of the Western campaign of the Wehrmacht, one of the platoons of the 1st company of Brandenburg was involved on June 19, 1940 on the Maginot Line in Upper Alsace. After the advance detachments of the Germans broke through the fortified areas of Mattsthal and Windstein, the platoon was supposed to reach the oil fields near Peschelbron and prevent them from being blown up. Thanks to the quick actions of the troops, the platoon managed to quietly get close to the object and capture it with a sudden blow. Busy with the last preparations for the explosion, the French sappers were taken by surprise and taken prisoner.

Norway. In May 1940, the German command, concerned about the concentration of the remnants of the defeated Norwegian army in the north of Norway, instructs the "Brandenburgers" a difficult and important task - to identify and destroy groups of Norwegian soldiers hiding in the northern regions of the country. The fighter squad (100 people in the form of soldiers of the Norwegian army) carried out a successful raid, which once again confirmed the readiness of the unit to act in all weather conditions and under any circumstances.

Yugoslavia, Greece. Immediately after the surrender of France, Captain von Hippel suggested that the chief of the Abwehr send him with three strike groups by air to the Cyrenaica region with the task of blowing up several locks of the Suez Canal. He had enough Arab volunteers for this. Canaris rejected this offer, because. it needed to be coordinated with the Italian leadership, and Hitler at that time had completely different strategic plans. The success of the Brandenburg units in the Western campaign contributed to the fact that the Wehrmacht command had a growing interest in the development of this special kind of troops. The battalion was reinforced and on October 12, 1940 turned into the "800th Special Purpose Training and Construction Regiment". Along with the increase in the number of personnel, two new units were formed in the regiment, specializing in African and Middle Eastern operations - the “group of coastal saboteurs” and the “tropical team”. The 1st Battalion of the new regiment remained under the command of Captain von Hippel in the former barracks of the artillery regiment of the Reichswehr on the outskirts of Brandenburg. The headquarters of the regiment was also located there, until it was transferred to Berlin. The 2nd battalion, led by Captain Jacobi, was stationed in Unterwaltersdorf near Vienna, and the 3rd battalion (commander - Captain Rudlef) settled first in Aachen, and then in Düren. The regiment was commanded by Major Kevish, then he was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel von Lanzenauer. The 1st battalion was intended for the then planned campaign in the East, the 2nd for the Balkan theater of operations, and the 3rd for participation in the Sea Lion and Felix operations, which involved the occupation of England and Gibraltar, but so it never took place.
In April 1941, German troops invaded Greece and Yugoslavia. According to the plans of the Wehrmacht command, the fighters of the 2nd Brandenburg battalion were to capture a number of key facilities on the Danube. In parallel with this, they had to coordinate the actions of the advancing German units and carry out reconnaissance of enemy territory. The "Brandenburgers" once again coped brilliantly with the tasks assigned to them. For example, in Greece on April 27, 1941, a group of Brandenburg saboteurs entered Athens first, secured the most important city facilities and raised German flags over the buildings of the Athens government and the police department.

SOVIET UNION. In the summer of 1941, when the German Army Group North was advancing in Latvia, one of the Brandenburg units captured the bridge across the Western Dvina (Daugava) and prevented it from being blown up. The soldiers of this group were disguised as wounded Red Army soldiers and drove up to the bridge along with a detachment of retreating Soviet troops. Having reached the bridge, they suddenly attacked its guards and took possession of it within a few minutes. Thanks to this, the advance of the German troops to Riga was carried out quickly and practically without losses.
During the attack on Lvov on the night of June 29, 1941, the role of the forward detachment was performed by the battalion of Ukrainian Nationalists "Nachtigal", which operated as part of the Brandenburg regiment. The main task facing the battalion was to break through to the city center as quickly as possible and capture its main transport and economic facilities - a power plant, a railway station and radio centers. The resistance of the Soviet troops was broken even on the outskirts of the city, and there were no more serious battles in Lvov itself. As a result of decisive, well-coordinated actions of the "Brandenburgers", by 10 o'clock in the morning all the planned objects were in the hands of the Germans. In the summer of 1941, the Brandenburg fighters captured and destroyed a number of strategically important objects on Soviet territory, and also carried out many local reconnaissance and sabotage operations in the Soviet rear. Later, the "group of coastal saboteurs" dealt several very tangible blows to Soviet communications on the Black Sea, Azov and Baltic coasts. The night sorties of the "Brandenburgers" sowed panic in the Soviet rear and undermined the morale of the Red Army. In the following years of the war, Brandenburg, in addition to its main functions, was also engaged in conventional front-line reconnaissance and the fight against partisans. One of the most high-profile Brandenburg operations in the USSR was the famous Maykop operation, which can rightfully be considered a model for the actions of a reconnaissance and sabotage group deep behind enemy lines.
In July-August 1942, a group of "Brandenburgers" consisting of 62 people under the command of Lieutenant von Felkerzam received an order to capture Maikop, hold it until the main units of the Wehrmacht approach and ensure the protection of equipment intended for oil production. Dressed in the uniform of NKVD soldiers, on Soviet army trucks captured earlier in the battle, von Felkersam's saboteurs safely crossed the front line. Once in Maykop, von Felkerzam introduced himself to the Soviet command as an NKVD officer and began to find out how well the defense of the city was organized. Having received the necessary information, he ordered his fighters to destroy the army telephone center in order to deprive the unit commanders of the opportunity to quickly contact the headquarters. Using his "official position" in combination with the lack of normal communications among the defenders, von Felkerzam began to actively disseminate information that the German motorized units had long gone behind their lines, although in fact the forward detachments of the 13th Panzer Division were twenty kilometers away. from Maykop. In an atmosphere of panic and chaos, the soldiers and officers of the Red Army began to hastily leave their positions. Thus, thanks to the determination and professionalism of the people of von Felkerzam, by the evening of August 9, the German troops managed to capture the city almost without a fight.

Africa. For a long time, the actions of the "Brandenburgers" in North Africa were limited due to the negative attitude towards them of General Erwin Rommel, who commanded the African Corps of the Wehrmacht. However, soon, having convinced himself of the effectiveness of similar raids by the British "commandos", he transferred to the Brandenburg fighters the widest powers in the field of reconnaissance and sabotage activities. The "Brandenburgers" did not remain in debt - throughout the entire North African campaign of 1940-1943. they were a headache for the Allies. On account of the Brandenburg fighters, there were numerous attacks on the supply lines of the 8th British Army (the areas of Sudan and the Gulf of Guinea), sabotage actions in North Africa, as well as reconnaissance of caravan routes (bypass routes through the desert) leading to the Nile Delta. Among other North African Brandenburg operations, the attack on Wadi el-Kibir deserves special attention, when on December 26, 1942, 30 Brandenburgers of Captain von Kenen landed from longboats on the Tunisian coast under cover of night, after which they captured and destroyed the railway bridge across Wadi el-Kibir. In February 1943, his assault detachment carried out an even more daring operation - they captured well-fortified American positions near Sidi Bou Sid (Tunisia). As a result of the swift attack by von Koenen, more than 700 American soldiers were captured by the Germans.
On May 13, 1943, the German Army Group Africa surrendered, but the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Brandenburg Regiment did not obey the order to surrender. Dispersed, they crossed the Mediterranean in small groups and safely reached southern Italy.

Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, India. The use of long-range aviation and the German submarine fleet allowed the German command to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage operations thousands of kilometers from the borders of the Reich. It is quite natural that such actions were almost always entrusted to the Brandenburg fighters. In carrying out these operations, the main activities of the "Brandenburgers" were the destruction of enemy communications, intelligence, organization of sabotage and anti-colonial uprisings. The latter function was a priority and was often implemented with the help of national formations in the Brandenburg structure. So, already at the end of 1940, the "Arab brigade" of the "Brandenburg" regiment was redeployed to the Middle East (to Lebanon, Syria and Iraq) to participate in hostilities against the British colonial troops. In Iraq, on May 11, 1941, the Brandenburgers blew up 2 gunboats and captured about 50 support ships, and on May 22 they inflicted serious damage on British troops on the Great Caravan Route from Damascus to Rutba. At the end of May, in the Tigris Valley, Brandenburg fighters ambushed units of the regular British army, while destroying about 100 enemy soldiers and officers. "Brandenburgers" also successfully operated in the territories of Iran, India and Afghanistan. In July 1941, their detachment, disguised as an expedition of epidemiologists to identify patients with leprosy, surveyed the border regions of Afghanistan for a month. The unit made contact with local mountaineer rebels and carried out a number of successful sabotage actions against British colonial troops.

By the end of 1942, under the pressure of the situation on the fronts, the battalions of the regiment (and since December 1942 - divisions) "Brandenburg" were increasingly used for tactical reasons as ordinary infantry units. Front-line reconnaissance and anti-partisan raids became the daily work of the Brandenburgers. Sometimes the elite unit of the German special forces had to act as a "fire brigade", covering the critical sectors of the front. At the end of June 1943, the vast majority of the division's personnel were transferred to the Balkans to participate in operations against partisans.
In May 1944, Brandenburg assault units, together with SS paratroopers, participated in the attack on the headquarters of the Yugoslav Liberation Army. The headquarters was destroyed, but Tito (the leader of the Yugoslav partisans) managed to escape with great difficulty.
In July 1944, Admiral Canaris was arrested as one of the participants in the assassination attempt on Hitler. After the failure of the conspiracy and the ensuing defeat of the Abwehr, dark days came for Brandenburg. In September, by personal order of Hitler, the division was disbanded. All special-purpose units subordinate to the Abwehr were consolidated into a motorized infantry division in the fall of 1944, which inherited the name Brandenburg. About 1800 of the most qualified fighters, not wanting to part with their dangerous but prestigious profession, joined the fighter unit of Otto Skorzeny's SS troops. At first, the Brandenburg motorized infantry division fought against the partisans in the Balkans, and later it was included in the Grossdeutschland division, in which it ended the war.

After the war

Almost all the Brandenburg fighters, who escaped death in battle or imprisonment for war crimes, preferred service in various special units to civilian life. For a long time, the authorities of various countries of the world hid the fact that the German "volunteers" in the ranks of their armies belonged to the famous "Brandenburg". However, years passed, and the biographies of the ex-"Brandenburgers" supplemented the pages of military history. It turned out that after the Second World War, the "Brandenburgers" were part of the SAS of Great Britain, the French Foreign Legion, and special units of the United States. For example, in the battle of Dien Bien Phu (spring 1954), where the French were opposed by numerous detachments of Vietnamese Nationalists, the basis of the units of the French Foreign Legion were former SS troops and Brandenburgers. Later, many ex-Brandenburgers moved to Africa, Asia and Latin America, becoming well-paid mercenaries, military instructors and advisers there. So, during the reign of Sukarno, the Indonesian security service was headed by a former Brandenburg fighter. The former "Brandenburgers" were military advisers to Mao Zedong and Moise Tshombe (Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In the mid-1950s, members of Nazi Germany's best special forces were invited by the Egyptian government as military advisers to organize the fight against Israel. Brandenburg professionals again bowed over the maps of hostilities ...

"Brandenburgers" were members of a special unit of the German special forces in the 2nd World War and took part in covert operations throughout Eastern Europe, South Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Caucasus. They, as a rule, consisted of collaborators or ethnic Germans, citizens of foreign countries where these commandos were used. At first they served as a construction battalion of the Abwehr, at the end of the war they became a separate division.

"Friends of Germany" from Brandenburg

The idea to create a special unit "Brandenburgers", which will participate in covert operations on the territory of foreign states, belonged to Hauptmann Theodor von Hippel. This was long before the start of the Wehrmacht's wars of conquest - in 1935. With this proposal, he turned to the relevant department of the Reichswehr and was refused. A few years later, he came to an appointment with the head of the military intelligence and counterintelligence service in Nazi Germany, Wilhelm Canaris, who at first was also against this initiative.

Working ahead of the curve

As you know, by 1939, that is, even before the start of the war with Poland, the German intelligence Abwehr consisted of three sections. "First" was responsible for espionage and intelligence gathering, "Second" - for sabotage and special units, and "Third" - for counterintelligence and competed with the SS security service (SD), which was headed by Reinhard Heydrich, known for his cruelty.

In Abwehr II, von Hippel headed the department of special operations, so he had an interest in what was happening in Abwehr I, Abwehr III, and even in the SD. He studied the writings on the use of commandos in the African colonies of Germany in the 1st World War. Success accompanied, it turns out, those commanders who used local residents in the performance of special tasks, and were themselves engaged in intelligence and counterintelligence. At least in order not to blindly rely on the relevant intelligence services.

By this point, von Hippel had already recruited small groups of ethnic Germans from the border areas of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and Silesia of Poland. These people not only perfectly knew the languages ​​and traditions of their countries of residence, but also possessed the qualities of special operations fighters. Hippel took only volunteers to his team, because he relied on their high spirit and fearlessness. Soon, a secret "Construction Training Company No. 1" was formed from the German Poles.

First success

A few days before the Wehrmacht's invasion of Poland, a group of 80 people from the "Construction Training Company No. 1" infiltrated the area of ​​​​special importance of the Katowice Railway Junction. They pretended to be Polish railway workers so as not to attract the attention of Polish soldiers who were preparing to repel the German army. When the Germans entered the territory of a neighboring state, the “Hippel people” seized a strategic object by deceit and even convinced the defenders of the Katowice Crossroads to get on the train and leave.

Then the operation went flawlessly, and the German troops began to use the railway junction to their advantage, especially since all of its rolling stock was in perfect working order. However, other divisions of the Construction Training Company No. 1 were less fortunate: they failed to prevent the destruction of bridges across the Vistula River at Dirschau and Graudenz. The capture of the Yablunka tunnel also failed.

Abwehr gave the go-ahead

Despite these failures, the German high command was very impressed with the results of the operations carried out and agreed to expand and develop von Hippel's concept. His immediate superior, Helmut Groskurt, took up the matter, who, having convinced Canaris, on September 27, 1939, ordered the creation of a special unit of saboteurs within the Abwehr II. At first, it was called "friends (comrades) of Germany" - Deutsche Kompagnie, but this team was given the name "Brandenburgers" after the name of the land where they were based. In the list of the Wehrmacht, this unit was listed as the usual training construction battalion No. 800.

To the west

The Germans could not afford to get bogged down in bloody battles in Holland and set the goal of her speedy surrender. Otherwise, the plan to defeat France could not bring results. The Brandenburgers, who on the night of May 9, 1940, crossed the border of Holland, were ideally suited to fulfill this mission. The main target was the railway bridge at Gennap in the path of the 9th Panzer Division, the only armored formation taking part in the invasion of the Netherlands.

A group of seven "German prisoners" - in fact the Brandenburgers - accompanied by two supposedly Dutch guards, arrived at the bridge 10 minutes before the planned attack. After the signal, they attacked the front strongest guard post. Behind, where there was a post with a remote undermining of the bridge, it was also captured by the "Dutch" who allegedly approached the defenders to help. Also Hippel's commandos prevented the Newport lock from opening. During the 1st World War, we recall, the Belgians flooded the Iser plain, which stopped the German offensive.

The Brandenburgers were a huge success with Western companies and in the summer of 1940 they were poised to make a significant contribution to the upcoming invasion of the United Kingdom. When this operation did not take place, they moved to Kenzee, where they began preparations for the Barbarossa plan.

Many Brandenburgers entered our territory on June 21, 1941, literally a day before the start of Operation Barbarossa. They wore clothes customary for these places. Despite the fact that each detachment was led by a commando who spoke fluent Russian, they did not know the Soviet passwords. Because of this, some of the saboteurs were captured by the Soviet border guards, but a significant part still penetrated their positions.

They, for example, on June 27, 1941, managed to capture an important bridge in the Pripyat swamps. The Brandenburgers, dressed in the uniform of the Red Army, pretending to flee from the pursuing Germans, were able to drive onto the bridge in two trucks and capture the post where the building was blown up. In many ways, this happened because the guards, in a Christian way, in the spirit of generally accepted mutual assistance, took pity on the "exhausted and wounded soldiers of the Red Army."

The commander of the Brandenburgers in the form of a senior officer of the NKVD with threats "to rot the chief of security and his family in Siberia, they say, it is absolutely impossible to blow up the bridge, since the Red Army is moving towards the enemy," cut the wires of the detonator, but was shot dead by a Soviet officer. However, the most important overpass, sandwiched between forests and swamps, was captured by the Wehrmacht. And it was a typical operation that allowed the German troops to quickly move into the interior of a huge country.

Brandenburgers against partisans

In October 1942, the number of Brandenburgers reached the division, and their main task was to fight the Soviet partisans, who successfully fought against the invaders. The people's avengers constantly attacked the Wehrmacht's supply lines, using ambush tactics and hiding in forests and swamps. But it was an obvious mistake to use the Brandenburgers as ordinary partisans who were supposedly looking for "their" comrades.

These commandos were trained for offensive operations against an inexperienced enemy. By this time, both the Red Army and the partisans easily figured out the Brandenburgers even in appearance. And although their skills allowed them to achieve some success on this invisible front, the morale of the special forces fell. Having suffered heavy losses, many of the Brandenburgers were transferred to the special forces detachment by SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny, where they were finally killed.

Soviet military historians tried not to mention the existence of these units, the fighters of these units are not shown in films, and the accusers of "talentless Stalin" keep quiet about them.

Probably, the fighters of these units were so ignored by the fact that they did not fit into the popular image of the Soviet "liberator soldier"?

Indeed, in the view of the Soviet people, the Red Army soldiers of the Great Patriotic War are emaciated people in dirty overcoats who run in a crowd to attack after the tanks, or tired elderly men smoking cigarettes on the parapet of a trench. After all, it was precisely such shots that were mainly captured by military newsreels.

Probably, in front of people filming newsreels, the main task was to show a fighter of the worker-peasant army, who was torn off from the machine tool and the plow, and preferably unsightly. Like, look at our soldier - one and a half meters tall, and Hitler wins! This image perfectly matched the emaciated, mutilated victim of the Stalinist regime.

In the late 1980s, filmmakers and post-Soviet historians put the “victim of repression” on a cart, handed him a “three-ruler” without cartridges, sending fascists towards the armored hordes - under the supervision of barrage detachments.

Of course, the reality was somewhat different from those captured by newsreels. The Germans themselves entered the Soviet Union on 300,000 carts. The ratio in armament also differed from the official Soviet data. In terms of the number of machine guns produced, fascist Europe was 4 times inferior to the USSR, and 10 times in terms of the number of self-loading rifles.

Of course, recently the views on the Great Patriotic War have changed.

Society was tired of exaggerating the topic of "senseless victims", and daring armored train crews, ninja scouts, terminator border guards, and other exaggerated characters began to appear on the screens.

As they say, from one extreme to another.

Although it should be noted that real scouts and border guards (as well as marines and paratroopers) really differed in excellent training and physical shape. In a country where sport was massively obligatory, "pitching" was much more common than it is now.

And only one branch of the army was never noticed by the screenwriters, although it deserves the most attention.

It was the assault engineer-sapper brigades of the reserve of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that were the most numerous and strongest among the Soviet special forces during the Second World War.