German Special Forces Extraordinaire

The Germans established its special forces under its counter-intelligence unit, known as the Abwehr in 1939. Everyone in the force had to be a volunteer and know a foreign language as well as another country’s customs. German military advisors had used as a model the tactics of Col. T.E. Lawrence’s fight with the Turks in the Middle East: that is, the deployment of a small band of saboteurs to create chaos and confusion. Dubbed the Brandenburgers, they were the first special operations unit to see action in the war.

Instead of recruiting soldiers with Nordic features, blonde hair and blue eyes, like those in the SS, the unit recruited Slavs or members other ethnic groups. The Brandenburgers, in essence, had to be the enemy to blend in to be effective, learning the habits and mannerisms of the natives whose areas they would infiltrate. Trained extensively for their missions, the Brandenburgers had to be self-reliant because they often worked alone. Training included parachuting, weapons handling, skiing, marksmanship, and the use of small boats and canoes. The unit also learned how to survive in the wild, produce explosives from everyday provisions, and kill without making a sound by using a knife or garrote.

Their first wartime test took place on May 8, 1940, when about a dozen Brandenburgers put on Dutch uniforms and secretly crossed the border into the Netherlands, remaining in concealed positions until dawn. Their target was the bridge over the Meuse River at the town of Gennep, primed with explosives to thwart a German attack. As the Germans approached the bridge, Dutch sentries ran to intercept them, raising their rifles ready to shoot. But the sentries stopped when they saw the uniforms of the Dutch military police. That hesitation allowed the Brandenburgers to grab the guards from behind and slit their throats.

With that, the rest of the Brandenburgers killed the remaining elderly sentry and seized the detonator just as the first panzers rolled over the bridge. German troops poured across the Belgian and Dutch borders on May 10. The operation, only one of the Brandenburgers’ attacks during the war’s blitzkrieg phase, was a resounding success.

When Hitler turned his sights south toward the Balkans, the Brandenburgers–now organized as a regiment–paved the way for his forces. On April 5, 1941, one day before Hitler invaded Greece and Yugoslavia, a 54-man detachment from the 2nd Battalion secured the docks at Orsova on the Danube River.

One group of Brandenburgers, called the Wild Bunch, penetrated farther into enemy territory than any other such German unit. In early August 1941, a Brandenburg detachment of 62 Baltic and Sudeten Germans led by Baron Adrian von Fölkersam endeavored to secure the oil fields at Maikop. Using Red Army trucks and Russian secret police uniforms, Fölkersam infiltrated the Soviet lines, running right into a large group of Red Army deserters. Fölkersam persuaded them to return to the Soviet cause, and by joining them, he moved almost at will through Russian lines.

Posing as a Major Truchin from Stalingrad, Fölkersam told the general in charge of Maikop’s defenses that he had recovered the deserters. The general believed him and gave him a tour of the city’s defenses the next day. By August 8, with the German army only 12 miles away, the Brandenburgers made their move. Using grenades to simulate an artillery attack, they knocked out the communications center of the city. Fölkersam then went to the Russian defenders and told them that their forces were withdrawing. Having seen Fölkersam with their commander and lacking any information to the contrary, the Soviets began to evacuate Maikop. The German army entered the city without a fight on August 9, 1942.

Meanwhile, other units of Brandenburgers headed to Libya with the Afrika Korps in early 1941. Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, at first viewed the Brandenburgers with disdain. But once he saw their effectiveness, his opinion brightened.

By autumn of 1944, the Brandenburgers had been officially dissolved, but not before they had earned more decorations and commendations than any other single unit of comparable size in the German army. Unfortunately for them, about 1,800 of them (including Fölkersam), became infantry troops and went to the Eastern front.