Wehrmact - Waffen-SS Relations

[Josef Weiss]

Starting from the 1930's the relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS troops was strained. The army thought the SS-Verfügungstruppen were amateurs; the SS-Totenkopf were sadists and the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler were "asphalt soldiers" who looked great on the parade ground but weren't capable of fighting. The SS organization during the late 1930's was constantly fighting the German Army for access to new volunteers and better equipment. The German Army looked at the SS troops with suspicion, seeing them as a competitor for scarce German conscripts.

WWII began with the invasion of Poland in September 1939. With the outbreak of the war, RFSS Himmler and the German Army determined the command responsibilities. Himmler oversaw the administration of the SS troops, but the troops operated under the tactical control of the Heer. This tactical/administrative split worked quite well and lasted for the duration of the war. On June 18, 1940, the OKW decreed that Waffen-SS military supplies would come through Wehrmacht channels - although the messy realities of war would render this more theory than practice.

At first the German Army looked down on the SS troops. While admiring their courage and recklessness during the Polish and French campaigns in 1939-40, the German Army felt that overall the SS troops suffered from a combination of recklessness and lack of training which resulted in high casualties. The SS countered that the Army often gave them the most difficult assignments with minimal support. Perhaps both allegations contained a grain of truth.

Army-Waffen-SS relations hit their low during the April 1941 invasion of Yugoslavia. There were several incidents in which SS troops threatened to fire on army columns clogging the line of advance. (One SS regiment leader even positioned antitank mines directly below the front tires of the first truck in an army column, and posted a SS grenadier with strict orders to shoot any German soldier who moved the mines!) In fact the Army's GrossDeutchland division and the Waffen-SS Das Reich division were competing to be the first to capture Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. (The SS won, thanks to the efforts of SS-Oberführer Fritz Klingenberg - who captured the city first)

The Waffen-SS earned its reputation for bravery and steadfastness in Operation Barbarossa and the subsequent fall/winter campaign in Russia. No longer did the Army look down on SS troops, as their elan and courageousness determined many a German advance or repulsed many a Soviet attack. As German Army General von Mackenstein said about the 1st SS division, "...truly is an elite unit."

1943 and 44 were perhaps the high water mark for Waffen-SS troops. The number of divisions and corps multiplied; the Waffen-SS won stunning victories, as at Kharkhov, and were able to stubbornly defend their positions as in the battles of Narva or Caen. By this point in the war Heer units often looked up to the SS troops, who were constantly rushing about the front as a "fire brigade," plugging gaps in the line, rescuing encircled troops and mounting vicious counterattacks. Certainly Army-SS relations were influenced by Hitler's appointments of Waffen-SS Generals such as Oberstgruppenführer Paul Hausser and Oberstgruppenfüuhrer Joseph (Sepp) Dietrich to command Army groups, but this may be more of an example of Hitler's disillusionment with the Army officer corps than a barometer of Army-SS relations. No high ranking SS officer served as a permanent member of the OKH.