Kommando

Long before the 'Green Berets' were engaged in South East Asia or before even the elite SAS was raised in the deserts of North Africa, Germany had used special forces. In a prelude to the Second World War, an offshoot of the SS employed some of its men in Bohemia as agents-provocateurs to foment the political crisis that led to the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. A short while later, the SD carried out a similar operation in Poland, where it successfully fabricated the justification needed for Hitler's declaration of war on that unhappy country. Another special force meanwhile had infiltrated Polish factories and mines to ensure that these installations would pass intact into German hands.

These successes went unnoticed, submerged in the greater victory that the army had won, but it was from such beginnings that Germany's special forces were raised. Although capable of stunning achievements against all the odds, the absence of proper coordination and planning for the development of special forces resulted in a lost opportunity for Germany. Units were raised spasmodically, in several distinct waves, as increasingly desperate responses to Germany's everweakening position and the growing strength of her enemies.

Among the special forces that were formed to stave off certain military defeat were flotillas of manned torpedoes and explosive motor boats. In the air, the world's first operational jet aeroplanes were grouped into special squadrons and sent out in an effort to cripple the US air offensive. Other Luftwaffe units were made up of men who would sacrifice themselves to bring down the huge enemy bombers by deliberately ramming them. On the ground, a forlorn hope, made up of battalions of over-age men, set out on foot or on bicycles to reach Berlin, from which city they expected to fling back the Soviet Army's tank armadas. In those parts of Germany overrun by the Allied forces, the Werewolf operated - young people trained to carry out partisan warfare. Then there were the children of the Hilter Youth, some nog even in their 'teens, who committed acts of sabotage against Allied military installations and attacked British and American soldiers with firearms.