Sorry to Nitpic but i am 99% certain that the image you use at 7:42 for the "Ehrenwinkel der Alten Kämpfer" is incorrect or more specifically has the descriptions switched. As in the one with the black background and the star/flower/rankpip whatever you would like to call it that one is meant for veterans of the armed forces and police and the one without is for members who joined the party before the general election. I of course could wrong so if you have any info to the contrary please let me know for the rest happy holidays :)
I will pin this comment, thank you. This was identified in the original comments section but those comments were lost when the video came down. Yes - note the image is from a contemporary period document, which had it wrong also. Links to the Wikipedia articles are en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Chevron_for_Former_Police_and_Military and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honour_Chevron_for_the_Old_Guard Hand Grenade Division Headquarters regrets the error....
@@HandGrenadeDivision Like i said its a Nitpic and one in the context of a other wise good and useful video. But nevertheless your response is greatly apricated :)
@@HandGrenadeDivision The only other thing i could possibly Nitpic about is the lack of mention of the silver bullion wire on hats collar/shoulder tabs and the sleave eagle and cuff title for officers. But honestly that might be for the best because the amount of conflicting information / contemporary images is insane Because some say its only Propper officers and above but ive seen some juniors nco's wear them and ALOT of seniors nco's wear them its a rabbit hole that seems like it has no end. But thats my Nitpicy rant over once more happy holidays
@@Kurland-13I’m just butting my own opinion in because it’s TH-cam, but perhaps they had the silver threads made/altered/added. I know in service a lot of guys buy off brand/unauthorized gear, or “technically” not in regs uniform bits and bobs to either make inspection easier, prep faster, or some other reason to swerve out of what the mainline army tries to do
@@samg5463 That of course is possible but from what I've seen doesn't seem to be the case for these 2 main reasons. 1.The SS was incredibly focused on rank and appearance for many of the same reasons the regular army was but also especially because rank in the SS at least in thought was also equated to time with the party and dedication to it. So think of uniform items in the silver bullion wire versions as the same kind of symbolic meaning as to what jump boots were for US paratroopers or the edelweiss for Gebirgsjäger and so on. 2.The NCO's that are wearing them. The fast fast majority of time I've seen them being worn by NCO's they were either very well decorated NCO's and if that wasn't the case then specifically they would be of the rank Sturmscharführer. Which leads me to believe that it is a sign of respect and commendation from higher ups to allow them to wear it. Which IMO makes a lot of sense with NCO's existing in this grey area of not being Propper officers but also not being comparable to enlisted men. So IMO that seems to largely explain the inconsistency of who could wear them (ignoring of course in certain cases possibility of logistical/supply and manufacturing issues)
@Friendly-Operator-0 Yt thinks everything concerning the "BADDIES" shouldn't be shown, even though it's HISTORY. If you notice though, they have no problem with ADULT content creators showing young males how to apply makeup.
@KevinSmith-yh6tl it's annoying tbh to get a video taken down for no reason, and youtube allows heat videos on this platform, which is probably 70% kids. Absolutely disgusting.
The reason why these get removed, even though I don’t agree with it, is that they attract a lot of people with less well informed and nuanced views on history. The line about using history to not repeat the mistakes is often used as an excuse without internalising its meaning.
@@fridrekr7510 I disagree, you make the well-known censorship practiced across social platforms sound as a positive reaction towards those who are 'less informed' or with 'nuanced views'. And as far as I know, what one man may consider a mistake, another man may consider to be the right thing. Thank you for your well mannered reply, I like it when people are civil to each other.
It's crazy to me that youtube is now filled with "historical" AI garbage while true educational videos get taken down just because the topic is "not advertiser friendly".
6:30 The runes weren’t exclusively worn by Germans. In case of the Scandinavian volunteers, they also wore runes when they were part of Wiking and the national legions. They then largely switched to the sunwheel when Nordland became its own division, but those who remained in Wiking kept wearing runes and some also continued to in Nordland. I don’t think Austria would’ve been considered different from Germany after the Anschluss, especially since the Austrian military became fully integrated into the Wehrmacht. Some Germans also didn’t wear runes, like Totenkopf who wore skulls from the beginning to the end, even before all the non-German divisions that didn’t wear runes were formed.
I was about to comment this. 80% of the Norwegian volunteer pictures I only see runes. Early volunteers had the Norwegian lion, and late war had a mix of runes and sun wheel
Yes, another example was Polizei who wore their police collar tabs, but in both this case and TK, the insignia was related to the fact they were drawn from personnel from other services - the KL staff in the case of TK.
Mostly the same script but with a few words tweaked and one short section added in acknowledging some aspects of a sordid reputation and the uneven military abilities of the different formations.
A few years back one of my granduncles on my mein mutti's side started to talk about his time in the Waffen SS as well as his time in the FFL in Indo China during the 1950's. He had never spoken about this while I was growing up....But his experiences during WW 2......Something else.
Small annotation: "Rotte" technically refers to a group of wild boars. Wenn used in relation to a group of people in every day use this undertone of animals is generally implied. "zusammenrotten" lit.: "together rotten" means the gathering of a mob or any other group of people which are considered a threat. Which is probably why the Nazi used this word. "Schar" similarly is generally for a small group of animals, although "in Scharen" has the same meaning as "in droves". "Heer(Army)scharen" is a term for vast numbers of soldiers (coming your way with unpleasant thoughts in their minds) and thus often used for any multitudes of people perceived as a threat.
I want to ask a question I recently saw on the internet: "What is the requirement for an "General Assault Badge" for instance? What constitutes an "assault"? And on what level - personal, squad, platoon, company, etc...? How were the counted?" I ask because your video for "Common Combat Awards" was very informative!
It's a great question, and a similar question is often asked around the Close Combat Bar and what is a "close combat day." I don't have a great answer but sounds like an idea for a future video. Christopher Ailsby's reference, which is dated now, is kind of silent on what constitutes an "assault" - to be honest, I'm not sure there needed to be a legalistic definition of the word for purposes of awarding the decoration. Like art, I wonder if German commanders wouldn't have known an assault if they saw one without necessarily being able to define it according to some more granular criteria. Looking at The Face of Courage by Florian Berger, about the 98 men who received both the Close Combat Clasp in Gold and the Knight's Cross, there seems to be lots of discussion about how spotty records could be, especially around stuff like documenting assaults and close combat days. And despite the perception that all Germans were obsessed with their medals, I am quite convinced different personalities viewed the matter differently - including commanders who had to interpret such things. I will see if I can't find something more definitive, and if so, perhaps add it to the channel in future. Thanks for the question.
@@HandGrenadeDivision " I will see if I can't find something more definitive" - Thank you! I will check out " Looking at The Face of Courage" by Florian Berger, because I haven't heard of it. Also it's not just the Close Combat Bar and the General Assault Badge, but also The Tank Badge. It too is numbered, but how is it counted? I suspect because of the massive numbers of men in this conflict it was on a Company level, because it is the smallest unit capable of independant action. I cannot confirm this however. "Company on the attack" is a common battle drill. But then again so is "platoon on the attack"...
If remembered correctly, the Reichsfuhrer-SS in late-1944/1945 did participated in combat as an army group commander. Given Reichsfuhrer-SS was inside Allgemeine-SS rank tree only, was a Waffen SS rank equivalent considered or granted to him for the combat command?
Despite what the video suggests, my impression is that the Germans were never crazily rank-conscious. The example I've seen given was the film "Zulu" - two British officers in the 1800s are at a military outpost, both have the same rank, and they compare commissioning dates to determine who would be in command. It was pointed out to me long ago this would not have happened in the Second World War German Army, and you can look at all the battlegroups (kampfgruppen) that formed over the years, with relatively low ranking officers in fact commanding sub-units commanded by higher ranking officers as the situation demanded. So while I tend to doubt that Reichsführer-SS needed any special military rank to convey his authority over generals of the Waffen-SS placed under his command, I honestly don't know the answer to your question.
Is there any chance on us getting a video about WWII German signal whistles and their usage? The article on the website is wonderful and I feel like getting that sort of cool info to a wider audience could be nice. Maybe you could even include the sound of it? I can't find a recording of the distinct sound of the whistle anywhere, either original or reproduction.
This is an interest of mine, a reference somewhere compares the whistle to that of "a robin being castrated" which isn't a very useful description, though it is certainly colourful. I have some notes somewhere on the actual signals, and I think they may have been used in some training films. Apparently the BGS (West German border guards) had a similar whistle and cord; I have one in my collection somewhere but not an original. No promises, but I'll add it to the list of things I'd like to cover. Thanks for the suggestion.
Not always were non German SS members not adorned with the SS symbols on the rich patch. Take for example Hendrik Verton. A Dutch member of the SS. On pictures of him you can clearly see the SS symbols on the right patch.
Great video, I have a question on one of my SS sleeve eagles. It definitely has seen the war. The eagle itself is in gold bullion. The backside is exposed threads because of the disintegrated backing. From my research it is said that it is a generals sleeve eagle. Any information would be appreciated and thank you again for this video
I suspect gold bullion eagles were not unheard of, but provenance is king. The SS eagle was fairly distinct from the other military and political services, but there are so many pictures of people wearing unlikely stuff that one really never knows where something originated - or ended up.
TH-cam wants to hide your uploads from me, even with notifications turned on. TH-cam, I WILL watch my favorite channel, you can't stop me from my HGD fix. Thanks for the repost
No, that's just what I pointed out to them in the appeal. The actual reason makes even less sense. I noted that SS rank was "unique." That's it. In other words, the rank badges of the SS looked different than the Army's. It's a statement of fact. TH-cam - or their robot moderators - took that to mean I was promoting white supremacy.
As a german person , i can say herr was never used, only Herr, because substantives are in german allways written with capital letters. Herr is currently used like Mister, Monsieur, Senior, Signore .... Once Herr was läuft like Sir only allowed for noblemen ( Freiherr was for example a nobility rank, containing Herr) or may be for honouring a priest, doctor ... Rarer and rarer Herr is used for a ,commanding/ ruling ' person , for example : In the house of Mr. Müller, his wife is the Herr, or as german equvalent to Gentleman. But as noted, in this two ways, Herr is today rarer used. I am no scientist, so i don' t know if Herr is related to Heer, which means like Old English here an army, not impossible, because Freiherren/ Ritter ( knights) at first had been mounted warriors.
I am german, Brittas boyfriend only using her Computer too. My hobby History in general, and Military History in detail started 1971, during a Kindergarten trip to a fairytale castle. Today english is international language ( lingua franca) , but from about 1650 to 1920 this was french. In second half of 17th century also Military German was heaviely influenced by french. For example a Fähnlein became a Bataillon, a Feldwebel a Sergeant, a Hauptmann a Capitaine or an Oberst a Colonel. In napoleonic era, for obvious reason, there was a Comeback of german military words, to some degree. By using words like Rotte, Schar etc., the SS wanted to sound extra german. In ideology context, makes sense.
To really understand the SS and SA rank system, one has to take the national socialist _Führerideologie_ or "Leader ideology" into consideration. Today, people speak of "the Führer" and generally refer to Adolf Hitler, but in fact Hitler's full title was "Oberster Führer des Deutschen Volkes" - highest leader of the German nation, with emphasis on "highest". The Nazi ideology postulated that every man, woman and child should, no matter their situation in life, always have a "Führer" directly above them. Their ideal was a hierarchical pyramid of Führer on top of Führer on top of Führer, until eventually one would arrive at the one highest Führer. E.g. in matters of home and living, you had a "Blockwart" responsible for the order in a block of flats, or the foreman in a factory, responsible for a group of workers, or for the children, the Jungschaarführer and Hitlerjugendführer. The idea was to never let people be unsupervised ideologically or loyalty-wise. The SA/SS rank system, which was developed based on party ideology and only later applied to military and paramilitary units, is a perfect reflection of that principle.
"Pips" not stars. It would have been better to compare SS enlisted rank to US enlisted for better understand, Private, Sgt would be Team Leader, SSG would be Squad Leader etc. However ever good presentation
"Stars" is the correct term, "pip" is colloquial. And direct comparisons between ranks of the different nations are often false - this is discussed on the channel in the German Army ranks video. A corporal in the US Army had much less training and fewer responsibilities than a corporal in the British Army, so the word "corporal" itself does not convey any real meaning. Both were considered NCOs in the traditional sense of the word, while Gefreiter/Sturmman/Oberfgefreiter/Rottenführer were not.
To reclaim it rather than hide from it. The history of the 65th Infantry Division is unstained by anything Dirlewanger and his drooling morons did. To paraphrase Freud - sometimes a hand grenade is just a hand grenade. And it must be working - you've gotten his first name wrong.
Kapitan as SS rank? Impossible! Not only that it must be Kapitän. Kapitän is a naval term ( in civilian context also pilot of an airliner/ freight plane), and as far as i know, SS had no naval arm. As a rank of SS ground forces, i don' t believe. In late 17th century french language and culture dominated Europe. So also in ,military german' many terms switched from german to french. So a Fähnlein became a Battalion, a Feldwebel a Sergeant, an Oberst a Colonel and a Hauptmann a Capitaine. Napoleonic era caused a Comeback of some german military terms. So this SS ranks using Rotte, Schar, Sturm, Gruppe had been created, to sound extra german.
I had two great Grandfathers who were part of the Waffen SS one was a Nazi and a member of the SS since 31, and swiched to the Waffen SS in 41 as a Sturmbannführer of the Division Wiking... The other one joined with the age of 18 in 43 (he was forced and didn't join voulenteerly) and fought '44 in Jugoslavia in the division Prinz Eugen, 2nd Grenadier regiment... He wasn't a nazi but was in the Younger counterpart of the Hitler youth, the "Deutsches Jung-Volk ", short DJV and his father was a member of the NSDAP and his brother a Wehrmacht Officer that lost a leg and his other brother a year earlier in Leningrad... Their sister was a part of the BDM even after the age of 18... A SS guy (who wasn't a Nazi) in a family full of Nazis... In that case actual nazis and not "oh a party mber and a officer? NAZIS!" No they were strong believers in the regime and the father commited suicide after Hitlers death... The 2 of the 3 brothers met up with the Waffen SS general major and SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krugenberg after the war... Weird coincedence, but he acctually comanded the 7th SS Division Prinz eugen in 45! But my great Grandfather was in a soviet POW camp in siberia from october 44 - june 45... But he had to have done Something or else the Geneal major wouldn't have known him and written " an gedenken an alte zeiten, Kameradschaftlich-" in a book about the War that he gifted my great Grandfather... Or he knew my great granduncle during the war, as he was promoted to a Officer in 37 (and in 41 to a oberst) and thus they might have known each other... On the pictue where he celebrated his promotion in a pub, there was a Allgemeine SS "soldier" and a SA soldier amongst my great grand uncle and some of his comrades from other pictures... (I wonder if a picture like that is rare?)
The photograph itself is probably not rare, but provenance of such photos is dwindling, due to a number of factors. Decreasing interest in the period, for a variety of reasons, combined with shrinking family sizes. A lot of family photo albums are no longer passed down and increasingly you see them sold on ebay - sometimes stripped apart with individual photos sold without context to collectors. Or simply junked. A colleague once saved a set of kodachrome colour slides from a widow's trash can; they had crystal clear colour photos of UN soldiers in Korea in 1951, and were a few seconds away from disappearing forever.
Very upset that TH-cam would rather censor educational materials because the ideology associated is evil. How else are we to learn from the past so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the future? Historical facts and footage should never be censored. Keep up the good fight @HandGrenadeDivision.
I'm not seeing any 'Leutnante' designation of rank. I'm writing a trashy horror novella set in WW2 (1941) and one of my characters is a certain 'Leutnante von Schellenberg'. He is supposed to be commander of a platoon-sized group of Einsatzgruppen SS transitting through the Carpathian mountains in late October 1941. Did the SS not use that rank designation? If not, what would've been the equivalent? Also, would a Schütze rank soldier be addressed as 'Gefreiter'? Or was that just for the regular Wermacht? I'd appreciate whatever info you can provide. Thanks.
Sorry to Nitpic but i am 99% certain that the image you use at 7:42 for the "Ehrenwinkel der Alten Kämpfer" is incorrect or more specifically has the descriptions switched.
As in the one with the black background and the star/flower/rankpip whatever you would like to call it that one is meant for veterans of the armed forces and police and the one without is for members who joined the party before the general election.
I of course could wrong so if you have any info to the contrary please let me know
for the rest happy holidays :)
I will pin this comment, thank you. This was identified in the original comments section but those comments were lost when the video came down. Yes - note the image is from a contemporary period document, which had it wrong also. Links to the Wikipedia articles are en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Chevron_for_Former_Police_and_Military and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honour_Chevron_for_the_Old_Guard Hand Grenade Division Headquarters regrets the error....
@@HandGrenadeDivision Like i said its a Nitpic and one in the context of a other wise good and useful video.
But nevertheless your response is greatly apricated :)
@@HandGrenadeDivision The only other thing i could possibly Nitpic about is the lack of mention of the silver bullion wire on hats collar/shoulder tabs and the sleave eagle and cuff title for officers.
But honestly that might be for the best because the amount of conflicting information / contemporary images is insane
Because some say its only Propper officers and above but ive seen some juniors nco's wear them and ALOT of seniors nco's wear them its a rabbit hole that seems like it has no end.
But thats my Nitpicy rant over once more happy holidays
@@Kurland-13I’m just butting my own opinion in because it’s TH-cam, but perhaps they had the silver threads made/altered/added. I know in service a lot of guys buy off brand/unauthorized gear, or “technically” not in regs uniform bits and bobs to either make inspection easier, prep faster, or some other reason to swerve out of what the mainline army tries to do
@@samg5463 That of course is possible but from what I've seen doesn't seem to be the case for these 2 main reasons.
1.The SS was incredibly focused on rank and appearance for many of the same reasons the regular army was but also especially because rank in the SS at least in thought was also equated to time with the party and dedication to it.
So think of uniform items in the silver bullion wire versions as the same kind of symbolic meaning as to what jump boots were for US paratroopers or the edelweiss for Gebirgsjäger and so on.
2.The NCO's that are wearing them.
The fast fast majority of time I've seen them being worn by NCO's they were either very well decorated NCO's and if that wasn't the case then specifically they would be of the rank Sturmscharführer.
Which leads me to believe that it is a sign of respect and commendation from higher ups to allow them to wear it. Which IMO makes a lot of sense with NCO's existing in this grey area of not being Propper officers but also not being comparable to enlisted men.
So IMO that seems to largely explain the inconsistency of who could wear them (ignoring of course in certain cases possibility of logistical/supply and manufacturing issues)
Only true OGs will know this is a re-upload. Been a fan since the early days brother.
@@calvinfernandez1956
Of course it is.
But we still watch, 👍,and comment, all for the channel.
👍
Same here
Wish It didn't get removed by youtube even though it's history
@Friendly-Operator-0
Yt thinks everything concerning the
"BADDIES" shouldn't be shown, even though it's HISTORY.
If you notice though, they have no problem with ADULT content creators showing young males how to apply makeup.
@KevinSmith-yh6tl it's annoying tbh to get a video taken down for no reason, and youtube allows heat videos on this platform, which is probably 70% kids. Absolutely disgusting.
Dear youtube, please do not remove this video it is used for history and acknowledging that they existed and so we don’t make the same mistake
The only mistake is not downloading these well-made videos before being 'purged' by you-know-who.
The reason why these get removed, even though I don’t agree with it, is that they attract a lot of people with less well informed and nuanced views on history. The line about using history to not repeat the mistakes is often used as an excuse without internalising its meaning.
@@offizierhashxmI don’t know who, can you explain? Or are you going to be cryptic?
@@Evopandawithalumpia hes a coward like the rest of them Nutzis
@@fridrekr7510
I disagree, you make the well-known censorship practiced across social platforms sound as a positive reaction towards those who are 'less informed' or with 'nuanced views'.
And as far as I know, what one man may consider a mistake, another man may consider to be the right thing.
Thank you for your well mannered reply, I like it when people are civil to each other.
It's crazy to me that youtube is now filled with "historical" AI garbage while true educational videos get taken down just because the topic is "not advertiser friendly".
And to mention, people who promote Revisionism (ie about the Nazis and Soviets) are also left unmolested by TH-cam.
This is hidden gem
been sifting through the AI slop that this has seeped into this corner of YT for months. Finally a glistening gemerald channel...
6:30 The runes weren’t exclusively worn by Germans. In case of the Scandinavian volunteers, they also wore runes when they were part of Wiking and the national legions. They then largely switched to the sunwheel when Nordland became its own division, but those who remained in Wiking kept wearing runes and some also continued to in Nordland. I don’t think Austria would’ve been considered different from Germany after the Anschluss, especially since the Austrian military became fully integrated into the Wehrmacht. Some Germans also didn’t wear runes, like Totenkopf who wore skulls from the beginning to the end, even before all the non-German divisions that didn’t wear runes were formed.
I was about to comment this. 80% of the Norwegian volunteer pictures I only see runes. Early volunteers had the Norwegian lion, and late war had a mix of runes and sun wheel
Yes, another example was Polizei who wore their police collar tabs, but in both this case and TK, the insignia was related to the fact they were drawn from personnel from other services - the KL staff in the case of TK.
Its a damn shame that historical content gets censored constantly.
If only we could go back to "If you don't like it change the channel".
Love this reupload.
Ay look it's back! The script seems to have been reworked too
Mostly the same script but with a few words tweaked and one short section added in acknowledging some aspects of a sordid reputation and the uneven military abilities of the different formations.
A few years back one of my granduncles on my mein mutti's side started to talk about his time in the Waffen SS as well as his time in the FFL in Indo China during the 1950's.
He had never spoken about this while I was growing up....But his experiences during WW 2......Something else.
Absolutely GREAT.
Valuable historical info.
Thank you very much.
Small annotation: "Rotte" technically refers to a group of wild boars. Wenn used in relation to a group of people in every day use this undertone of animals is generally implied. "zusammenrotten" lit.: "together rotten" means the gathering of a mob or any other group of people which are considered a threat. Which is probably why the Nazi used this word.
"Schar" similarly is generally for a small group of animals, although "in Scharen" has the same meaning as "in droves". "Heer(Army)scharen" is a term for vast numbers of soldiers (coming your way with unpleasant thoughts in their minds) and thus often used for any multitudes of people perceived as a threat.
Man, I miss Charlton Comics. Great stuff as always.
TH-cam's stated reasons for removing content rarely, if ever, have anything to do with why TH-cam removes said content.
I want to ask a question I recently saw on the internet: "What is the requirement for an "General Assault Badge" for instance? What constitutes an "assault"? And on what level - personal, squad, platoon, company, etc...? How were the counted?"
I ask because your video for "Common Combat Awards" was very informative!
It's a great question, and a similar question is often asked around the Close Combat Bar and what is a "close combat day." I don't have a great answer but sounds like an idea for a future video. Christopher Ailsby's reference, which is dated now, is kind of silent on what constitutes an "assault" - to be honest, I'm not sure there needed to be a legalistic definition of the word for purposes of awarding the decoration. Like art, I wonder if German commanders wouldn't have known an assault if they saw one without necessarily being able to define it according to some more granular criteria. Looking at The Face of Courage by Florian Berger, about the 98 men who received both the Close Combat Clasp in Gold and the Knight's Cross, there seems to be lots of discussion about how spotty records could be, especially around stuff like documenting assaults and close combat days. And despite the perception that all Germans were obsessed with their medals, I am quite convinced different personalities viewed the matter differently - including commanders who had to interpret such things. I will see if I can't find something more definitive, and if so, perhaps add it to the channel in future. Thanks for the question.
@@HandGrenadeDivision " I will see if I can't find something more definitive" - Thank you! I will check out " Looking at The Face of Courage" by Florian Berger, because I haven't heard of it.
Also it's not just the Close Combat Bar and the General Assault Badge, but also The Tank Badge. It too is numbered, but how is it counted? I suspect because of the massive numbers of men in this conflict it was on a Company level, because it is the smallest unit capable of independant action. I cannot confirm this however. "Company on the attack" is a common battle drill. But then again so is "platoon on the attack"...
8:06 "Steiner, how do I reload!?" 😅
Glad I'm not the only one to get it as soon as I heard the music 😂
If remembered correctly, the Reichsfuhrer-SS in late-1944/1945 did participated in combat as an army group commander. Given Reichsfuhrer-SS was inside Allgemeine-SS rank tree only, was a Waffen SS rank equivalent considered or granted to him for the combat command?
Despite what the video suggests, my impression is that the Germans were never crazily rank-conscious. The example I've seen given was the film "Zulu" - two British officers in the 1800s are at a military outpost, both have the same rank, and they compare commissioning dates to determine who would be in command. It was pointed out to me long ago this would not have happened in the Second World War German Army, and you can look at all the battlegroups (kampfgruppen) that formed over the years, with relatively low ranking officers in fact commanding sub-units commanded by higher ranking officers as the situation demanded. So while I tend to doubt that Reichsführer-SS needed any special military rank to convey his authority over generals of the Waffen-SS placed under his command, I honestly don't know the answer to your question.
Is it just for me? It says that the video is 14 min. But when I watch it, it's only 8 min
Not just you! It shows up that way in my list also. My last two videos are having incorrect times reported.
No, also for me. But I think it's a TH-cam problem...
Is there any chance on us getting a video about WWII German signal whistles and their usage? The article on the website is wonderful and I feel like getting that sort of cool info to a wider audience could be nice. Maybe you could even include the sound of it? I can't find a recording of the distinct sound of the whistle anywhere, either original or reproduction.
This is an interest of mine, a reference somewhere compares the whistle to that of "a robin being castrated" which isn't a very useful description, though it is certainly colourful. I have some notes somewhere on the actual signals, and I think they may have been used in some training films. Apparently the BGS (West German border guards) had a similar whistle and cord; I have one in my collection somewhere but not an original. No promises, but I'll add it to the list of things I'd like to cover. Thanks for the suggestion.
7:43 the two chevrons were switched i see
I’d like to see a ranks of the Luftwaffe guide. That and branch colors of the Heer, SS, and Luftwaffe.
Not always were non German SS members not adorned with the SS symbols on the rich patch.
Take for example Hendrik Verton. A Dutch member of the SS. On pictures of him you can clearly see the SS symbols on the right patch.
Great video, I have a question on one of my SS sleeve eagles. It definitely has seen the war. The eagle itself is in gold bullion. The backside is exposed threads because of the disintegrated backing. From my research it is said that it is a generals sleeve eagle. Any information would be appreciated and thank you again for this video
I suspect gold bullion eagles were not unheard of, but provenance is king. The SS eagle was fairly distinct from the other military and political services, but there are so many pictures of people wearing unlikely stuff that one really never knows where something originated - or ended up.
Thank you for this video. I appreciated the correct pronunciation of the german rank insignia. Love the historical content.❤❤❤
TH-cam wants to hide your uploads from me, even with notifications turned on. TH-cam, I WILL watch my favorite channel, you can't stop me from my HGD fix. Thanks for the repost
So they made the original video deleted because it showed photos of soldiers in heroic photos and not surrendering? wow thats insane
No, that's just what I pointed out to them in the appeal. The actual reason makes even less sense. I noted that SS rank was "unique." That's it. In other words, the rank badges of the SS looked different than the Army's. It's a statement of fact. TH-cam - or their robot moderators - took that to mean I was promoting white supremacy.
Somehing similar happened to me too. I uploaded a compilation of my arma 3 ss and heer vignettes and they warned me not to promote hate.
Interesting, never know about "herr" not being used anymore.
As a german person , i can say herr was never used, only Herr, because substantives are in german allways written with capital letters. Herr is currently used like Mister, Monsieur, Senior, Signore .... Once Herr was läuft like Sir only allowed for noblemen ( Freiherr was for example a nobility rank, containing Herr) or may be for honouring a priest, doctor ... Rarer and rarer Herr is used for a ,commanding/ ruling ' person , for example : In the house of Mr. Müller, his wife is the Herr, or as german equvalent to Gentleman. But as noted, in this two ways, Herr is today rarer used.
I am no scientist, so i don' t know if Herr is related to Heer, which means like Old English here an army, not impossible, because Freiherren/ Ritter ( knights) at first had been mounted warriors.
Himmler hated using army class distinctions, so he had that done away with in the SS
I am german, Brittas boyfriend only using her Computer too. My hobby History in general, and Military History in detail started 1971, during a Kindergarten trip to a fairytale castle. Today english is international language ( lingua franca) , but from about 1650 to 1920 this was french. In second half of 17th century also Military German was heaviely influenced by french. For example a Fähnlein became a Bataillon, a Feldwebel a Sergeant, a Hauptmann a Capitaine or an Oberst a Colonel. In napoleonic era, for obvious reason, there was a Comeback of german military words, to some degree. By using words like Rotte, Schar etc., the SS wanted to sound extra german. In ideology context, makes sense.
@@brittakriep2938 yes youtre right
ty for this, ima novice collector, this helps
I don't mean to flex or anything but I'm exactly the 2 thousandth person to like this video.
Look for the haircuts, Opposition of american movies😂
To really understand the SS and SA rank system, one has to take the national socialist _Führerideologie_ or "Leader ideology" into consideration. Today, people speak of "the Führer" and generally refer to Adolf Hitler, but in fact Hitler's full title was "Oberster Führer des Deutschen Volkes" - highest leader of the German nation, with emphasis on "highest". The Nazi ideology postulated that every man, woman and child should, no matter their situation in life, always have a "Führer" directly above them. Their ideal was a hierarchical pyramid of Führer on top of Führer on top of Führer, until eventually one would arrive at the one highest Führer. E.g. in matters of home and living, you had a "Blockwart" responsible for the order in a block of flats, or the foreman in a factory, responsible for a group of workers, or for the children, the Jungschaarführer and Hitlerjugendführer. The idea was to never let people be unsupervised ideologically or loyalty-wise. The SA/SS rank system, which was developed based on party ideology and only later applied to military and paramilitary units, is a perfect reflection of that principle.
"Pips" not stars. It would have been better to compare SS enlisted rank to US enlisted for better understand, Private, Sgt would be Team Leader, SSG would be Squad Leader etc. However ever good presentation
"Stars" is the correct term, "pip" is colloquial. And direct comparisons between ranks of the different nations are often false - this is discussed on the channel in the German Army ranks video. A corporal in the US Army had much less training and fewer responsibilities than a corporal in the British Army, so the word "corporal" itself does not convey any real meaning. Both were considered NCOs in the traditional sense of the word, while Gefreiter/Sturmman/Oberfgefreiter/Rottenführer were not.
Otto dirlewangner is the worst thing I can think about of ww2, that monster had the same symbol for his division of war criminals, why use it?
To reclaim it rather than hide from it. The history of the 65th Infantry Division is unstained by anything Dirlewanger and his drooling morons did. To paraphrase Freud - sometimes a hand grenade is just a hand grenade. And it must be working - you've gotten his first name wrong.
@@HandGrenadeDivision the 65th Infanterie-Division still committed quite a metric fuckload of war crimes though
Milsim Community will be wildin with this
Kapitan as SS rank? Impossible! Not only that it must be Kapitän. Kapitän is a naval term ( in civilian context also pilot of an airliner/ freight plane), and as far as i know, SS had no naval arm. As a rank of SS ground forces, i don' t believe. In late 17th century french language and culture dominated Europe. So also in ,military german' many terms switched from german to french. So a Fähnlein became a Battalion, a Feldwebel a Sergeant, an Oberst a Colonel and a Hauptmann a Capitaine. Napoleonic era caused a Comeback of some german military terms. So this SS ranks using Rotte, Schar, Sturm, Gruppe had been created, to sound extra german.
He literally said that Those title are from comics and mostly fictional. And should not be taken serious
he said in the video that those are from comics and fictional
I have Asperger Autism!
@@brittakriep2938I see
I had two great Grandfathers who were part of the Waffen SS one was a Nazi and a member of the SS since 31, and swiched to the Waffen SS in 41 as a Sturmbannführer of the Division Wiking... The other one joined with the age of 18 in 43 (he was forced and didn't join voulenteerly) and fought '44 in Jugoslavia in the division Prinz Eugen, 2nd Grenadier regiment... He wasn't a nazi but was in the Younger counterpart of the Hitler youth, the "Deutsches Jung-Volk ", short DJV and his father was a member of the NSDAP and his brother a Wehrmacht Officer that lost a leg and his other brother a year earlier in Leningrad... Their sister was a part of the BDM even after the age of 18... A SS guy (who wasn't a Nazi) in a family full of Nazis... In that case actual nazis and not "oh a party mber and a officer? NAZIS!" No they were strong believers in the regime and the father commited suicide after Hitlers death... The 2 of the 3 brothers met up with the Waffen SS general major and SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krugenberg after the war... Weird coincedence, but he acctually comanded the 7th SS Division Prinz eugen in 45! But my great Grandfather was in a soviet POW camp in siberia from october 44 - june 45... But he had to have done Something or else the Geneal major wouldn't have known him and written " an gedenken an alte zeiten, Kameradschaftlich-" in a book about the War that he gifted my great Grandfather... Or he knew my great granduncle during the war, as he was promoted to a Officer in 37 (and in 41 to a oberst) and thus they might have known each other... On the pictue where he celebrated his promotion in a pub, there was a Allgemeine SS "soldier" and a SA soldier amongst my great grand uncle and some of his comrades from other pictures... (I wonder if a picture like that is rare?)
The photograph itself is probably not rare, but provenance of such photos is dwindling, due to a number of factors. Decreasing interest in the period, for a variety of reasons, combined with shrinking family sizes. A lot of family photo albums are no longer passed down and increasingly you see them sold on ebay - sometimes stripped apart with individual photos sold without context to collectors. Or simply junked. A colleague once saved a set of kodachrome colour slides from a widow's trash can; they had crystal clear colour photos of UN soldiers in Korea in 1951, and were a few seconds away from disappearing forever.
Germany navy Rank next.
Very upset that TH-cam would rather censor educational materials because the ideology associated is evil. How else are we to learn from the past so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the future? Historical facts and footage should never be censored. Keep up the good fight @HandGrenadeDivision.
My classmates: What are you watching?
Me:
TH-cam is a slog now ngl
Boyah!
Woke YT
I'm not seeing any 'Leutnante' designation of rank. I'm writing a trashy horror novella set in WW2 (1941) and one of my characters is a certain 'Leutnante von Schellenberg'. He is supposed to be commander of a platoon-sized group of Einsatzgruppen SS transitting through the Carpathian mountains in late October 1941. Did the SS not use that rank designation? If not, what would've been the equivalent? Also, would a Schütze rank soldier be addressed as 'Gefreiter'? Or was that just for the regular Wermacht? I'd appreciate whatever info you can provide. Thanks.
Wehrmacht Leutnant = Waffen-SS Untersturmführer
if he was a leader of a group of Einsatzgruppen, he would be "Untersturmführer Schellenberg", with that rank being equivalent to Leutnant