Why the Waffen-SS

[BillHermann]

I am lost 1stpanzer what does your post have to with the narrative of this thread

[Cult Icon]

This tumblr:

http://5sswiking.tumblr.com/

Is a good source of research photos but if you read the captions (invented by the account holder) you can see the fantasy element of loving the SS.

[ChristopherPerrien]

"Why the Waffen-SS"

Cool uniforms, elite status , fighting for the patriot of the German Volk and killing communists.

What is not to like? LOL

This topic has gone round and round about extreme details but the end result
is still either what they fought for or what they fought against. Can't take off the
kid gloves when arguing about it, hence a 164 page topic of deflection.
The actual battlefield and the ideas involved are too scary or verboten to talk about today.
And it is not even real war here, not when men of various ideas, fought and died for their own.

Keep the muck topic for the diamonds that arise on occasion or close it?
I vote this topic has way run its course. I am wondering off either way.

[Ghost-Division]

The reason why I'm interested in the Waffen SS is because 3 family members were part of it. It has nothing to do with politics...it's history.

[Arduino]

edited, refer to post below

[Arduino]

Reading through a lot of these posts really makes me chuckle. People justifying that the Waffen-SS wasn't 'elite' by using the example of the failed counterattack Of the I & II SS Panzerkorps in Normandy on July 1st when the allies had COMPLETE control over the skies and the Sea ??? They had to mitigate nonstop allied air attacks and a perpetual shelling from the allied Navy.Either your very stupid or your attempting to grasp at straws

[thestor]

I vaguely remember a quote, very roughly something like this: "Die Waffen-SS war keine Eliteinheit, wie das Heer verfügte sie lediglich ueber einige exzellente Großverbände." "The Waffen-SS was no elite unit, like the army it only contained some excellent large formations."

The Waffen-SS had dozens of divisions, which of these qualify as "elite"? The low numbering tank divisions I believe, but didn't the same also hold true for the regular army?

Another thing, I am unwilling to call a unit "elite" only for fanaticism, to my knowledge few call the Japanese island garrisons "elite", despite banzai charges and similar fanaticism. Skill is paramount IMHO.

[DarthChewie]

Gentlemen - in case you don't know we have a distinguished forum member who is a former SS Soldier.

Now, back to our regular programming.

Who was the former soldier posting on the forum?

[Harro]

The late "HaEn"

[Cult Icon]

My copy of "Comrades to the End" has the author openly state that the "Der Fuhrer" and "SS-VT" did not consider themselves an elite. They were horse drawn before the war and then motorized not long before the war started but they were deficient of training in maneuvers with this equipment.

Before France 1940 states that their new training brought them up to the "standard of the 100,000 man Reichswehr".

The most positive comments about the Das Reich's standards of combat power were that of training and rebuilding into a de-facto panzer division just in time for the 3rd Battle of Kharkov. The comments are very positive up to the fall of 1943, where Das Reich took crippling losses. Afterwards, the comments about manpower, training, and material decline and eventually become quite derogatory by 1944/1945.

This is a bit different from the history of GD, which was a fighting elite from the beginning or the senior panzer divisions.

[georgica]

Let's not forghet the fact that SS were the most dicipline , the most commited and well organized force ever existed , ever. No force in the world today comes near...and will never be !
They realy belived in their cause.. that if was right or wrong is for you to decide...

[Ironmachine]

Let's not forghet the fact that SS were the most dicipline , the most commited and well organized force ever existed , ever. No force in the world today comes near...and will never be !
They realy belived in their cause.. that if was right or wrong is for you to decide...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! God, this joke is really good.
Wait...
Because you are joking, aren't you?

[BillHermann]

Let's not forghet the fact that SS were the most dicipline , the most commited and well organized force ever existed , ever. No force in the world today comes near...and will never be !
They realy belived in their cause.. that if was right or wrong is for you to decide...

Inddded funny and a total gross exaggeration. Obviously hasn't read much on the matter one can certainly not say that about many of the divisions let alone the famed 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. Not organized, not disciplined, not committed well committed to drunken pillagIng, rape and mutinies.

[DarthChewie]

Fascination with the Waffen-SS is a related phenomenon to Holocaust denial. The Waffen-SS was at the vanguard of an effort to change history by killing 10 million Jews and starving or enslaving 30 millions Slavs. The SS at the front lines were pursuing this goal no less than the ones at the death factories, since the point of the war was to make it possible for Hitler to kill these racial groups.

Portrayals of the SS that focus on their uniforms, insignia, and battle tactics deliberately omit this most crucial fact about the group. The effect is to make it seem like the Waffen-SS were comparable to elite units in other countries. And if the Waffen-SS were just like any other units, then WWII was just like any other war. The Holocaust disappears from view.

[j keenan]

Fascination with the Waffen-SS is a related phenomenon to Holocaust denial. The Waffen-SS was at the vanguard of an effort to change history by killing 10 million Jews and starving or enslaving 30 millions Slavs. The SS at the front lines were pursuing this goal no less than the ones at the death factories, since the point of the war was to make it possible for Hitler to kill these racial groups.

Portrayals of the SS that focus on their uniforms, insignia, and battle tactics deliberately omit this most crucial fact about the group. The effect is to make it seem like the Waffen-SS were comparable to elite units in other countries. And if the Waffen-SS were just like any other units, then WWII was just like any other war. The Holocaust disappears from view.

You have a bizarre take on history !!