Нацистік SS жасақтарының алғашқы күштері

Predecessor of the Waffen SS

SS Verfügungstruppe (SS VT, ) was formed in 1934 as combat troops for the Nazi Party (NSDAP). On 17 August 1938 Adolf Hitler decreed that the SS VT was neither a part of the Ordnungspolizei (order police) nor the Wehrmacht, but military trained men at the disposal of the Führer. In time of war, the SS VT were to be placed at the disposal of the army. The SS VT were involved in the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. By 1940 these military SS units had become the nucleus of the Waffen SS.

Elements of the SS VT served with the Wehrmacht during the occupation of the Sudetenland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. For those operations, the SS VT was under the command of the army. The SS VT also formed an Artillery Regiment during this time frame which was used to fill the gaps in a number of army units for those events. The SS VT regiments Deutschland and Germania along with the Leibstandarte participated in the invasion of Poland, with Der Führer (recruited in Austria after the Anschluss) in reserve at Prague. In September 1939, a combined unit of SS VT and Heer (army) troops conducted operations jointly as Panzer Division Kempf during the invasion of Poland. It fought alongside army units at Rozan, Modlin, Łomża and Kmiczyn. The division was disbanded near the Polish city of Nidzica on 7 October 1939. In spite of the swift military victory over Poland in September 1939, events during the invasion of Poland raised doubts over the combat effectiveness of the SS VT. The OKW or Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces) reported that the SS VT units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army. They also stated that the SS VT was poorly trained and its officers unsuitable for combat command. As an example, OKW noted that the Leibstandarte had to be rescued by an army regiment after becoming surrounded at Pabianice by the Poles. In its defence, the SS insisted that it had been hampered by having to fight piecemeal instead of as one formation, and was improperly equipped by the army to carry out its objectives. Himmler insisted that the SS VT should be allowed to fight in its own formations under its own commanders, while the OKW tried to have the SS VT disbanded altogether. Hitler was unwilling to upset either the army or Himmler, and chose a third path. He ordered that the SS VT form its own divisions but that the divisions would be under army command. In addition, Eicke's SS TV field forces were not military, and during the invasion of Poland, "[t]heir capabilities were employed instead in terrorizing the civilian population through acts that included hunting down straggling Polish soldiers, confiscating agricultural produce and livestock, and torturing and murdering large numbers of Polish political leaders, aristocrats, businessmen, priests, intellectuals, and Jews." Further, members of the Leibstandarte also committed atrocities in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre in Złoczew, where 200 civilians were machine gunned. Złoczew's children also suffered; SS men beat and murdered them, sometimes with rifle butts. Crushing the skulls of toddlers. Shootings also took place in Bolesławiec, Torzeniec, Goworowo, Mława, and Włocławek.

In October 1939 the SS VT regiments Deutschland, Germania, and Der Führer were organized into the SS Verfügungs Division with Paul Hausser as commander. The LSSAH was expanded into a motorized regiment. In addition, the armed but ill trained Totenkopfstandarten, together with SS Heimwehr Danzig, were organized into the Totenkopf Division under Eicke's command in October 1939. A further division, the Polizei Division, was created from the Ordnungspolizei. These formations took part in combat training while under army commands in preparation for Fall Gelb against the Low Countries and France in 1940. Elements of both the SS VT and the LSSAH participated in the ground invasion of the Battle of the Netherlands. In the five day campaign, the LSSAH linked up with army units and airborne troops after a number of clashes with Dutch defenders. After the surrender of Rotterdam, the LSSAH left for The Hague, which they reached on 15 May, after capturing 3,500 Dutch soldiers as prisoners of war. On 16 May the SS Totenkopf Division was ordered to France and was attached to army divisions which formed the northern "spearhead" of attack. In France, the SS Totenkopf was involved in the only Allied tank attack in the Battle of France. On 21 May units of the 1st Army Tank Brigade, supported by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, took part in the Battle of Arras. The SS Totenkopf was overrun, finding their standard anti tank gun, the 3.7 cm PaK 36, no match for the British Matilda tank. After the Dutch surrender, the LSSAH was moved south to France. On 24 May the LSSAH, along with the SS VT division, were positioned to hold the perimeter around Dunkirk and reduce the size of the pocket containing the encircled British Expeditionary Force and French forces. On 27 May, a unit from the Totenkopf, the 4 Company, committed the Le Paradis massacre, where 97 captured men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets. Two men survived. By 28 May the SS Leibstandarte had taken the village of Wormhout, from Dunkirk. There, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion were responsible for the Wormhoudt massacre, where 80 British and French soldiers were murdered after they surrendered. After the close of the Battle of France, the SS VT was officially renamed the Waffen SS in a speech made by Adolf Hitler on 19 July 1940. Himmler also gained approval for the Waffen SS to form its own high command, the Kommandoamt der Waffen SS (Waffen SS Command Office) within the SS Führungshauptamt (FHA), which was created in August 1940 under Gruppenführer Hans Jüttner. The Totenkopf Division, together with the independent Totenkopf Standarten, were transferred to FHA control. Further that same month, SS chief of staff Gottlob Berger approached Himmler with a plan to recruit volunteers in the conquered territories from the ethnic German and Germanic populations. At first Hitler had doubts about recruiting foreigners, but he was persuaded by Himmler and Berger. He gave approval for a new division to be formed from foreign nationals with German officers. In December 1940 the Germania Regiment was removed from the Verfügungs Division and used to form the cadre of a new division, SS Division Germania. It was made up of mostly "Nordic" volunteers from the newly conquered territories, Danes, Norwegians, Dutch and Flemings. By the start of 1941, Germania was renamed Wiking with command given to then Brigadeführer Felix Steiner, the former commander of the SS VT regiment Deutschland. The Verfügungs Division was also renamed Reich (in 1942 Das Reich). The Polizei division was brought under Waffen SS administration. The Leibstandarte was expanded to a division for Operation Barbarossa. When the Waffen SS divisions were assigned numbers much later in the war these first formations, Leibstandarte, Das Reich, Totenkopf, Polizei and Wiking were recognized as SS divisions 1 through 5.