SPECIAL POLICE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 26 October 1942, Page 4

SPECIAL POLICE

NAZI-RULED WORLD. HITLER'S OWN CORPS. The British Government issued recently a copy of a secret German document captured in Libya, in which Hitler explains to leaders of the German army the need for the other great armed organisation — the Waffen SS — which he is building up now within the German State, writes the foreign editor of the Daily Herald. Briefly Hitler's argument is this: If he is victorious his world will contain: (1) Germany proper — made up of the present Germany, including Austria, . Czechoslovakia and part of Poi and. (2) The Greater German Reich, of conquered countries. The Waffen SS will be needed to police both these territories. To earn the respect and fear of the people it will control, it must prove itself at the war front along with the other armed forces. In Germany proper this force will be necessary: — Because Germans, as a soldierly people, will only respect a police force blooded in war, and Because the German Army, as a conscript force, must never be re~ quired to go into action against its German fellow citizens. In conquered territories the Waffen SS will be needed: Because the Greater German Reich will contain national units hostile to it, and Because any ordinary police force might be corrupted by fraternisation with the working classes and other subversive influences. FOR THE NEXT 1000 YEARS. So Hitler has given us a clear picture of how he hopes to mahitahi Nazi power over an unconquered world — and over any reluctant Germans if necessary — for the next thousand years. What is this organisation, the Waffen SS, by which he intends to do it? SS is short for Schutzstaffel (proteetion squad) ; waffen means weapons, Waffen SS is the Armed SS. But now the Armed SS is becoming the most important part. In the past two years it has developed enormously. It is organised as a self-contained military unit. At the front, the SS divisions (there are now ten of them) have their own comma.nders, although these are still subordinated to higher

commanders of the German Army. Armed ss formations have taken part in all Hitler's campaigns. The men of the armed ss are carefully picked or are trained from youth for . their intended job as super- police.

SUBDIVISIONS. The Armed SS is subdivided into many groups. The main ones are: SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. — As the personal bodyguard of the Fuehrer they wear in peace-time black uniforms with a" black band on the sleeve bearing, in silver embroidery, the name of Adolf Hitler. In war they wear a green uniform with the same arm-band. In peace, they guard the Fuehrer's chancellery and the Fuehrer; and in war they fight, and they flght well. This corps now comprises more than 10,000 and is expanding steadily. Regiment General Goering: These are air force officers under the immediate command of Goering, and they wear the regular blue-grey uniforms of the Luftwaffe.

They formed the first special military group inside the SS and their origin dates from 1933, when Goering, and not Himmler, was the hejid of the SS, which was at that timo only a sort of political police force. . To day the regiment consists of three anti- aircraft battalions who guard personally the Reichmar - schall's headquarters, one engineer's detachmejit, one infantry battalion to fight possible enemy parachute troops, and a searchlight battalion. Regiment Grossdeutschland : It forms the mass of the SS infantry at the front and is purely a "war creation. This section, really far bigger than a regiment, has borne the brunt of the actual fighting for the SS, and has suffered far greater losses than any other section. SS Verfeugungstruppe : The motorised Gestapo. This is by far the best equipped motorised force in the entire German army. Its uniform is black, and it, too, is purely a war-time army. It consists of several divisions schooled in street combat, and, house-to-house fighting. Its most eminent graduate is General Rommel, who, as a part of it, was the first to reach the coast of the English Channel and lock the Allied troops in the pocket of Dunkirk. Then come the SS Death 's Head formations — so-called from the silver skull and cross- bones worn on their caps — who are the real Gestapo inside Germany. Hitler is careful always to distinguish, both in speeches and in orders of the day, between the soldiers of the army and soldiers of the Armed SS, and he has described the latter as his own special troops.