The Himmler's SS (9 page)

It will be noted that a few of the larger towns and cities had more than one Fuss-Standarte.

As well as the Fuss-Standarten, there were twenty-three Allgemeine-SS cavalry units of regimental size, the Reiterstandarten. Each comprised from five to eight Reiterstürme (cavalry companies), a Sanitätsreiterstaffel (medical squad) and a Trompeterkorps (trumpet corps). The Reiterstandarten were never concentrated in their HQ cities, the component companies usually being dispersed among smaller towns of the Abschnitte. They were always basically ceremonial in function, with a distinctly snobbish outlook, and were seldom if ever used to assist the Fuss-Standarten and police in domestic crowd control. The Inspector of SS Cavalry Training was the equestrian SS-Brigadeführer Christian Weber, one of the Old Guard Stosstrupp men and veteran of the Munich putsch. He set up the Main SS Cavalry School, or SS-Hauptreitschule, in Munich which was commanded by Hermann Fegelein until 1939. After the outbreak of war, the majority of members of the Reiterstandarten were conscripted into army cavalry units, or into the hastily mustered SS-Totenkopfreiterstandarten for front-line service. In 1941, the latter amalgamated to form the Waffen-SS Cavalry Brigade which by 1942 had expanded to become the SS-Kavallerie-Division, named ‘Florian Geyer' in 1944. All of these formations were commanded during the various stages of their development by Fegelein, whose ever-strengthening position in Nazi circles culminated in his marriage on 3 June 1944 to Gretl Braun, sister of Hitler's mistress. The Allgemeine-SS Reiter-standarten were numbered from 1 to 23, each number being prefixed by the letter ‘R' to distinguish them from the Fuss-Standarten. Their headquarters were located as follows:

A kettle-drummer of the SS-Kavallerie-Division in October 1942. The drum cover was made from black velvet with heavy aluminium wire embroidery, and its design had remained unchanged since 1934.

Several of these locations were former garrison towns of imperial cavalry regiments and, consequently, had excellent equestrian facilities. Moreover, many nationalist riding clubs were incorporated into the Allgemeine-SS ‘lock, stock and barrel' during the 1930s, bringing with them their equestrian expertise. All this meant that the SS Reiterstandarten became the best cavalry formations in the Third Reich, surpassing even those of the army so far as ceremonial was concerned.

Each SS Standarte was composed of three active Sturmbanne or battalions, one Reserve-Sturmbann for men between the ages of thirty-five and forty-five, and a Musikzug or marching band. A Sturmbann was usually commanded by an SS-Sturmbannführer, assisted by an adjutant. The full peacetime strength of a Sturmbann ranged from 500 to 800 men and, as it was considered the basic tactical unit of the Allgemeine-SS, it was planned that the SS Sturmbann would be able to operate as an independent entity in times of strife or revolt. The three active Sturmbanne of a Standarte were numbered in Roman numerals from I to III, for example the third Sturmbann of the 41st Standarte was abbreviated ‘III/41'. The Reserve-Sturmbann was distinguished by the prefix ‘Res.', in this case ‘Res./41'.

Each active Sturmbann was in turn composed of four Stürme or companies, a Sanitätsstaffel (medical squad) and a Spielmannzug (fife-and-drum corps). In 1930, few SS Stürme expanded beyond the original Staffel size of seven to fifteen men. By the mid-1930s, however, the full peacetime strength of a Sturm was 120 to 180 men, under an SS-Hauptsturmführer, Ober-sturmführer or Untersturmführer. During wartime, one of the four Stürme served locally as a Wachkompanie, or Guard Company, protecting bridges, important buildings and so on. Another stood by as a civil defence Alarmsturm, or Emergency Company, for use during air raids or ground attacks, and the remaining two were assigned to general patrol duties. A Reserve-Sturmbann generally comprised two Reserve-Stürme, numbered ‘Res.1' and ‘Res.2', and a Reserve-Sanitätsstaffel. Within each Standarte, the four Stürme of Sturmbann I were numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Those of Sturmbann II were numbered 5, 6, 7 and 8, while those of Sturmbann III were numbered 9, 10, 11 and 12. Thus the 1st Sturm of the 2nd Sturmbann of the 3rd Standarte, i.e. the 5th Sturm in the 3rd Standarte, would be referred to within the Standarte as ‘5/II' and outwith the Standarte as ‘5/II/3'.

A detachment from an SS Fuss-Standarte, preceded by its band and traditional musicians' ‘Schellenbaum' or ‘Belltree' standard, c. 1934.

Every Sturm was divided into three or four Truppen (platoons), each composed of three Scharen (sections). A Schar generally numbered ten to fifteen men and was used to patrol blocks of houses within cities and guard official buildings. The Schar itself comprised two or three Rotten (files), the smallest units of the Allgemeine-SS numbering about five men. Depending on their size, Truppen and Scharen were commanded by NCOs of the ranks between SS-Hauptscharführer and Unterscharführer, while Rotten were led by experienced enlisted men known as Rottenführer.

In addition to the regular SS infantry and cavalry units, there were a number of specialist formations intended to act in a support role. Each SS Oberabschnitt was assigned one Nachrichtensturmbann, or Signals Battalion, responsible for SS communications in the Region. These signals battalions were numbered consecutively from 1 to 19, in Arabic rather than Roman numerals, prefixed by the letters ‘Na.'. Their headquarters were located as follows:

An SS-Unterscharführer reservist, denoted by the ‘Reserve' cuff title, c. 1937.

No records remain of the locations of Nachrichtensturmbanne nos 15 and 18.

Pioniersturmbanne or engineer battalions were again organic components of the Oberabschnitte, and were equipped to carry out emergency construction work such as road and bridge repairs, and maintenance of public utilities including gas, electricity, water and the like. Each Pioniersturmbann was numbered consecutively from 1 to 16, prefixed by the letters ‘Pi.'. Their headquarters were located as follows: