Jackboot
Private
Kampfgruppe 'Kraft'
Posts: 104
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Post by Jackboot on Apr 25, 2010 3:35:30 GMT -5
I've been searching all over online and going through tons of books on partisan movements throughout the war; yet I can't find much on anything specific they wore to let you know they were axis-pro partisans (ie like the Allied-pro Free French armband)
All I've seen is that they wore mainly civilian clothing, captured a few allied misdrops and fought other partisan outfits and tryed to push back the allies on the west front the best they could, while on the east front they did large parts in mass numbers of slowing the Russians.
I know the werwolf unit was mainly post war and that the Volkssturm was in mostly civilian attire but were working as a normal military unit.
So, does anyone have expertise or anything else to add?
Thanks
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Post by Paul Rech on Apr 25, 2010 8:34:38 GMT -5
Pro-German civilians were almost always inducted into some sort of para-military group going back to the 1930's. Partisans were considered the lowest of the low in the German Military High Command, and were either enrolled into the military or disbanded. The idea of separate para-military partisan groups within German held territory was not accepted. Think back to the SA purge. There was a reason the German Military issued an Anti-Partisan Badge. The closest you might get could be a number of para-military groups on the Eastern front or in the Baltic States ( i.e. Cossacks, Chechniks, etc. ). Most Western Countries had their own Fascist para-militray parties, so if one was a Hitlerite there were enough groups around to join. My advise would be to research the Hilfswillige. They were made up of volunteers from various POW camps, civilian populations in all of the Eastern and Western countries, etc. They wore a wide variety of uniforms from civilian clothing to old Soviet military uniforms to a host of German uniform items. The main part of any Hilfswillige impression is the Armband, which denotes the wearer as a legal volunteer in the German military. Otherwise if captured by the Allies they could have been considered partisans and under International law been executed. Remember, all combatants had to be under direct control of a major military power in order to operate legally. Even during all the inhumanity of WWII this was adhered to within the German High Command, for the most part. This is a picture of a HIWI armband I own.
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