I was taking a browse through the pictures here and I came across this
I know that the british used commando squads behind enemy lines, but was never able to find information on the German commandos. Any sites or info about these units would be greatly appriciated.
Thanks
I’m not sure that photo is of German Commandos, they look like regulars to me.
Try this site:
http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/bunker/3351/axmen/brndbrg.html
That’s an intresting read, did the Germans ever perform attacks in britain? I have seen the film “The eagle has landed” is there any fact to that?
Thanks
Not as far as I know, although there are always rumours etc.
The Germans never got a commando unit into Britain for an attack. “The Eagle has landed” was complete fantasy as is “Churchill, the Hollywood years”. In fact they had trouble just getting covert spys in to Britain, let alone commando units.
The reverse however was quite different.
The big difference being the Germans were not liked by the vast majority of people in the countries they occupied. Thus the British received massive amounts of help from those occupied countries who would house, feed and hide incoming commandos and agents. In fact many of these “invaders” were from the nation they were infiltrating further frustrating the Abwehr, etc. because they could blend in alot more effectively than a German in UK.
On the flip side, the Brits weren’t to keen on the Nazi’s in general so if a stranger arrived in UK they were most likely to get arrested in short order. The British, even in large cities, were very familiar with each other so a new person, with or with out strange accent stood out like a sore thumb. Even Poles fighting in the RAF were occaisionally investigated.
This is also proven by the sad lacking of successfull German escapes from POW camps, they were nearly always rounded up by the second night.
One of the measures conducted by the Brits to slow down invasion was to remove signposts and place names. Thus anybody asking where they were or a way to a place automatically were under suspicion, many locals would not give this information out. I’m pretty sure that it was proven that practically every agent they dropped into Britain was captured with days and in most cases turned and used to send back false info back to the Germans. Some even gave themselves in!!!
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Committee
Many of the agents who reached British shores turned themselves in to the authorities. Still others were apprehended when they made elementary mistakes during their operations.
So basically the Germans never managed it. A point to note, is that although the Germans were good at the old blitzkreig they were babes in arms to the British when it came to Int gathering/counter intel and general deception operations. Not only did we have their entire spy ring in our hand, we (with the poles) had cracked Enigma early on and of course Op Quicksilver and the Phantom Signal Regiment meant they didn’t know if we were coming or they were going!!!
One film that is true (or based on truth) was the story of the Brits using a man who had died of pneumonia (in an autopsy the symptoms of pneumonia are simialr to those of drowning) to be a “special” courier. He was launched off the back of a submarine and was handcuffed to a briefcase in which invasion plans were placed. This convinced the Germans that Greece was to be the next invasion point.
The film was called “the man who never was” and depicted the true story of Op Mincemeat (I think that is the real Op name as well).
It’s called counter intelligence, very used in that day in England. 8)
Thanks 1000ydstare, that post was full of good info!
Hey i’m not sure if this has been posted… anywhere… but i found it to be an interesting read…
I had not come across that site, thanks for posting! Its making an intresting read.
I had not come across that site, thanks for posting! Its making an intresting read.[/quote]
Its almost exactly what Firefly posted… but there was a little bit more information there.
German Commandos… it certainly isnt something you read about very often… eh?
I really like the idea of small crack teams taking on really daring missions, I was first intrested when I played the game Commandos which is a few years back now. The Allied Commando teams were very intresting, one day thought “I wonder if the Germans had any Commando teams?” So I did a search but found out very little.
Thanks all who contributed! If you find anything else be sure to post it here!
They dont even look like commandos, more like waffen.
The Brandenbergers used german uniforms and equipment and they came in many guises, there was even an air unit for special missions.
This book, while a bit far fetched does have some good details on brandernbergers and of course there are many more publications dedicated to their exploits from N Africa to Russia.
the name oft this unit ist not brandenbergers :lol: !! The right name was Brandenburger. It was a Elite Unit from the german. Brandenburg is a town in east germany near berlin (Brandenburg an der Havel). Very good units come from the Waffen SS and the HJ.
Some of that information comes from the WWII Time-Life series on “Commandos.” I believe the SAS tried to do the same thing in North Africa (wearing German uniforms) with mixed results…
Here’s a unit that was led by the infamous Otto Skorzeny…
He established the “Friedenthäler Jagdverbände” in 1943, and they recused Mussolini on a daring “commando” mission…
Here’s a unit that was led by the infamous Otto Skorzeny…
He established the “Friedenthäler Jagdverbände” in 1943, and they recused Mussolini on a daring “commando” mission…
http://www.worldwar.nl/persons/Skorzeny/otto_skorzeny.htm[/quote]
Thanks… thats an interesting link. 
I did a thread on that mission not so long ago.
I read it when you posted it too Thanks man! Very interesting stuff