Hitler's Army in Allied Service 1945-46

[Music] the german army surrendered on the 8th of may 1945 right well not quite huge parts of it remained in service for months after the surrender and some of it even remained armed well into 1946 the reason these german army units were useful to the british and americans film of early may 1945 is usually dominated by giant columns of feel gray-clad german soldiers being marched off into captivity the battle defeated remnants of the once mighty army that five years earlier had conquered most of europe but many of these units were given a role to play in the british and american occupation zones working closely with their former enemies in the reconstruction of war-ravaged germany and austria the western allies still had to defeat japan and began running down their forces in western europe after the german surrender transferring men to the far east and also demobilizing large numbers of servicemen back to britain and the states there was of course a severe labor shortage one group of units remained absolutely intact after the surrender german army service units all that changed for these units was that they handed in their weapons they remained under the command of german officers up to the rank of major but under u.s supervision these units were allocated for labor between the u.s field armies and the communication zone behind them later german officers of lieutenant colonel and colonel rank were allowed to take command of these units if the local u.s commanding general concurred certain supply and depot areas were placed under the command of german field grade officers who controlled internal administration even german generals were put to work those who wish to cooperate and who volunteered spent weeks preparing detailed reports of wartime actions in which they participated and other valuable historical work this material remains on file the national archives and records administration at college park maryland the german units were virtually self-sufficient using their own wartime equipment and supplies that the americans had captured any shortfall was made up from u.s army depots in june 1945 due to a continual shortage of labor german prisoners of war who volunteered were formed into new provisional units direct from pow camps but these were organized like u.s army units with gis providing administration and support unlike the previous wartime german units that had remained in service alongside them unchanged from the third reich era both types of german army administration and supply units used by the americans were paid for their service each german soldier received monthly pay in fearsold which was wartime german army currency in the form of nazi-era reichsmarks and renton marks which remained as the currency until the allies could make new arrangements for western germany uniforms were denatified that is the national eagle was removed from caps and clothing plus any nazi-era decorations that showed the swastika were removed from uniforms another group of german army units that were kept in service after the surrender were engineer battalions they were used to build military bridges over the danube river for example and highly impressed the americans with their excellent skills the u.s 12th corps decided to keep all german army signals troops in its area intact but disarmed under german officers and loose u.s supervision the signals troops set to work repairing infrastructure such as telephone and telegraph lines destroyed in the war building new signals infrastructure and generally operating communications other u.s corps used german transport regiments engineers service companies ammunition companies and ordnance units to help restore order to the chaos of war ravage germany and austria and clear up the detritus of that conflict the employment of german pows went so far as the new military and civil occupation governments the western allies set up in their zones former german civil servants aged over 40 who had been captured as german soldiers were recruited for their particular skills and business qualifications as well as as translators these persons were screened and the age qualification was to ensure that they had been too old for the hitler youth and would therefore be less indoctrinated by nazi ideology than some of the younger soldiers captured by the allies all of the units i have mentioned thus far were disarmed pows but there was one branch of the world war ii german army that did not surrender in may 1945 and remained under arms until june 1946 13 months after germany's defeat this was the feldchand armoury the german military police nicknamed kettenhunden by ordinary german servicemen meaning chained dogs this was due to the gorget they wore around their necks on a thick chain the badge of office at the felt john damari and still emblazoned with the nazi eagle and swastika this symbol continued to be worn until june 1946 no ss felt john armory were employed the ss being an outlawed political organization all felt john armory were either army or luftwaffe troops the british and americans used the fel chandamri to help them to deal with the vast numbers of german pows that required disarming and moving to collection centers and for controlling traffic on the roads clogged with pow columns allied vehicles displaced persons and refugees in the british eighth corps sector in schleswig holstein in northern germany an entire regiment of volunteer fell john dahmery were kept in service fully armed to run the demobilization center at meldorf the reactivated military police wore an armband that stated fearmacht ordnang or armed forces order troop so the very last surrender of wartime german troops occurred in june 1946 when the fel john damari finally officially surrendered and handed in their arms but by the time the fel john d'armary was stood down special labour units of former german pows raised by the americans had already been given permission to bear arms in this case u.s infantry weapons since september 1945 selected german labor service units protecting military supplies and installations could be armed ten years before the creation of the bundeswehr germany's official post-war army in 1955. however the feldshon dahmery's surrender 13 months after the war's end in june 1946 marked the last wartime uniformed and armed german army units to leave service thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 725,431

Rating: 4.9596453 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, German Army, Bundeswehr, Nazi Germany, Feldgendarmerie

Id: p8RJpJdFjIw

Length: 8min 6sec (486 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020