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Members of the German Brandenburg special forces unit during WWII

the German special forces unit of World War II

The Brandenburgers (Brandenburger) were members of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht special forces unit during World War II. Originally, the unit was formed by and operated as an extension of the military's intelligence organ, the Abwehr. Members of this unit took part in seizing operationally important targets by way of sabotage and infiltration. Being foreign German nationals who were convinced Nazi volunteers, constituent members had lived abroad and were proficient in foreign languages as well as being familiar with the way of life in the area of operations where they were deployed. The Brandenburg Division was generally subordinated to the army groups in individual commands and operated throughout Eastern Europe, in northern Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East and in the Caucasus. In the later course of the war, parts of the special unit were used in Bandenbekämpfung operations against partisans in Yugoslavia before the division was reclassified and merged into one of the Panzergrenadier divisions in the last months of the war. They committed various atrocities in the course of their operations.

The unit was the brainchild of Hauptmann (captain) Theodor von Hippel, who, after having his idea rejected by the Reichswehr, approached Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, commander of the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr. Hippel proposed that small units, trained in sabotage and fluent in foreign languages, could operate behind enemy lines and wreak havoc with the enemy's command, communication and logistical tails. Canaris was at first against the proposal as he viewed such measures similar to what the Bolsheviks had done and was suspicious of Hippel's motives. Still determined to form the unit, Hippel looked to his section chief, Helmuth Groscurth, who supported the unit's formation and the two men conferred on the matter on 27 September 1939. Just a few days after their meeting, the Army General Staff put forth a directive authorizing the creation of "a company of saboteurs for the West." As part of the Abwehr's 2nd Department, Hippel was tasked with creating the unit. Originally, the unit Hippel assembled was named the Deutsche Kompagnie, then later on 25 October it became the Baulehr kompagnie 800 and then again on 10 January 1940, the unit was called the Bau Lehr Bataillon z. b. V. 800 (800th Special Duties Construction Training Battalion); but its later more widely known epithet, "the Brandenburgers", stemmed from the name of the unit's first permanent quarters. Training for the men in the Brandenburg Division ranged from five to seven months and included course instruction on reconnaissance, swimming, hand to hand combat, demolitions, marksmanship in both German and Allied weapons, conventional infantry tactics, and other specialized training. Brandenburg units were deployed as small commando outfits to penetrate into enemy territory and conduct both sabotage and anti sabotage operations. Despite their demonstrated successes while incurring minimum casualties, many traditionally minded German officers still found their use abhorrent. Most of the personnel were fluent in other languages, which allowed them, for example, to penetrate the Netherlands in 1940 disguised as Dutch barge crews just before the start of the invasion. In 1941, they preceded the invasion of Yugoslavia undercover as Serbian workers. During the night before Operation Barbarossa began, Brandenburger units crossed the Soviet border disguised as Soviet workers and Red Army soldiers. Others even adorned themselves in Arab garments to conduct surveillance on Allied warships traversing the Straits of Gibraltar ahead of the Wehrmacht deployment in North Africa. Correspondingly, Department II of the Abwehr, under which the Brandenburgers were subsumed, had a distinct sub component for army, navy, and air force operations. Many of the Brandenburgers were misfits who could hardly be characterized as conventional soldiers, due in large part to the nature of their operations. They would mingle with enemy soldiers, secretly countermand orders, redirect military convoys, and disrupt communications, all the while collecting intelligence. Ahead of the primary invasion forces in the USSR, operatives from the Brandenburg Division seized bridges and strategically important installations in clandestine missions lasting for weeks before they linked up with advancing forces. The predecessor formation to the Brandenburg Division was the Freikorps Ebbinghaus, which originated before the invasion of Poland in 1939. Colonel Erwin von Lahousen (and the defense groups of military districts VIII and XVII) from within Department II of the Abwehr, put together small K Trupps (fighting squads), which consisted of Polish speaking Silesians and ethnic Germans, whose job it was to occupy key positions and hold them until the arrival of regular Wehrmacht units. The first members of the "K Trupps" were German nationals. Generally, these men were civilians who had never served in the army but were briefly trained by the "Abwehr" and were led by army officers. After the Polish campaign, this changed as these commandos became members of the Wehrmacht. Despite their seeming lack of prior experience, the demands placed on these newly formed commandos were high. It was mandatory that they be volunteers for this duty. They were also expected to be agile, capable of improvising, endowed with initiative and team spirit, highly competent in foreign languages and in their dealings with foreign nationals, and capable of the most demanding physical performance. Eventually, the early guiding principle that required members of the Division Brandenburg to be volunteers ended with their increasing use and integration with the regular army.

The Bergmann battalion (meaning "miner") was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, composed of five German officered companies of volunteers from the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union. The battalion was formed of the émigrés and Soviet POWs from the Caucasian republics at Neuhammer in October 1941. Subordinated to the German commando battalion Brandenburgers and placed under the command of Oberleutnant Theodor Oberländer, the unit received training at Neuhammer and Mittenwald (Bavaria) with the Gebirgsjäger. Later a special 130 men strong Georgian contingent of Abwehr codenamed "Tamara II" was incorporated into Bergmann. By March 1942, there were five companies of some 300 Germans and 900 Caucasians. In August 1942, Bergmann went to the Eastern Front, where it saw its first action in the North Caucasus campaign in August 1942. The unit engaged in anti partisan actions in the Mozdok Nalchik Mineralnye Vody area and conducted reconnaissance and subversion in the Grozny area. At the end of 1942, Bergmann conducted a successful sortie through the Soviet lines, bringing with them some 300 Red Army defectors, and covered the German retreat from the Caucasus. Bergmann went through a series of engagements with the Soviet partisans and regular forces in the Crimea in February 1943 and was dissolved—like other Ostlegionen units—at the end of 1943. The significantly shrunken ex Bergmann companies were dispatched to conduct police functions in Greece and Poland.

The Nachtigall Battalion, officially known as Special Group Nachtigall, and the Roland Battalion, officially known as Special Group Roland, were subunits under command of the Abwehr special operation unit Brandenburgers (1st Brandenberg Battalion). They were formed 25 February 1941 by the head of the Abwehr Wilhelm Franz Canaris, which sanctioned the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command. They were manned primarily by occupied Polish citizens of Ukrainian ethnicity directed to unit by Bandera's OUN orders. In May 1941, the German command decided to split a 700 strong Ukrainian Legion into two battalions: Nachtigall ("Nightingale") and Roland Battalion. Training for Nachtigall took place in Neuhammer near Schlessig. On the Ukrainian side, the commander was Roman Shukhevych and on the German, Theodor Oberländer. (Oberländer was later to become Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims in the Federal Republic of Germany.) Ex Brandenburger Oberleutnant Dr. Hans Albrecht Herzner was placed in military command of the Battalion. The Nachtigall unit was outfitted in the standard Wehrmacht uniforms. Before entering Lviv, they placed blue and yellow ribbons on their shoulders. In comparison to Nachtigall – which used ordinary Wehrmacht uniform – the Roland Battalion was outfitted in the Czechoslovakian uniform with yellow armband with text "Im Dienst der Deutschen Wehrmacht" (In the service of the German Wehrmacht). They were given Austrian helmets from World War I. The battalion was set up by the Abwehr and organized by Richard Yary of the OUN(b) in March 1941, prior the German invasion to Soviet Union. Approximately 350 Bandera's OUN followers were trained at the Abwehr training centre at the Seibersdorf under command of the former Poland Army major Yevhen Pobiguschiy. In Germany, in November 1941 the Ukrainian personnel of the Legion were reorganized into the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion. It numbered 650 persons and served for one year at Belarus before disbanding. Many of its members, especially the commanding officers, went on to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and 14 of its members joined 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) SS Freiwilligen Schützen Division Galizien in spring 1943.