The Brandenburger Regiment was a German commando unit during World War II. The unit was originally founded by Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr, and until 1944 was an OKW unit rather than a unit of the regular army (Heer, OKH). The French Navy commando Jaubert storm the Alcyon in a mock assault. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb. ... Wilhelm Canaris Wilhelm Franz Canaris (January 1, 1887 – April 9, 1945) was head of the German military intelligence service, the Abwehr, for much of World War II. He was born in Aplerbeck, in Westphalia. ... The Abwehr was the common name for the German military foreign information and counterintelligence department, during both World War I and World War II. Abwehr is a German word, which is commonly translated to the English defence. The head of the Abwehr during World War II was Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. ... The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW (Wehrmacht High Command, Armed Forces High Command) was part of the command structure of the Nazi armed forces during World War II. In theory, it served as the military general staff for Adolf Hitlers Third Reich, coordinating the efforts of the German Army... Heer (   listen?) is the German word for army. ... The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. ...

The Brandenburger Regiment evolved from the Abwehr's (German military intelligence) K-units and was used as a commando unit during the first years of the war. Initially, the unit consisted mainly of former German expatriates fluent in other languages. Some applicants had reached Germany through the British blockade to enlist. Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int. ...

The original regiment, the Baulehr-Kompanie zbV 800 Deutsche Kompanie, was founded officially on 25 October 1939. Command of a foreign language was a mandatory requirement. On 15 December they became the Bataillon Brandenburg (Brandenburg Battalion). The name was due to the fact that at first the unit was stationed in Brandenburg and trained there. // Size and Composition A regiment is a military unit, larger than a company and smaller than a division. ... October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 67 days remaining. ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Surrounding but excluding the national capital Berlin, Brandenburg is one of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). ...

The original battalion consisted of four companies. The 1st company was formed from men from the Baltic countries; the 2nd from men who had lived overseas in Britain, the United States and Africa; the 3rd from Sudetenlanders; and the 4th from ethnic Germans from Poland. Later additions included paratroop and motorcycle platoons. On 12 October 1940, the battalion was enlarged into a regiment. Although the Branderburgers were part of the Abwehr, they fell under Wehrmacht command, which sometimes caused problems. In military terminology, a battalion consists of two to six companies typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. ... A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 100-200 soldiers. ... Baltic states and the Baltic Sea The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a term which nowadays refers to three countries in Northern Europe: Estonia Latvia Lithuania Prior to World War II, Finland was sometimes considered, particularly by the Soviet Union, a fourth Baltic state. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest continent and second most populous. ... Sudetenland (-German; Czech: Sudety) was the name used from 1938–45 for the region inhabited mostly by Sudeten Germans (German: Sudetendeutsche, Czech: SudetÅ¡tí NÄ›mci) in the various places of Bohemia, Moravia, and parts of Silesia. ... Ethnic Germans (usually simply called Germans, in German Volksdeutsche) are those who are considered, by themselves or others, to be ethnically German rather than anything else but who do not live within the Federal Republic of Germany nor hold its citizenship. ... An American Paratrooper using a T-10C series parachute Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and formed into an airborne force. ... A motorcycle (or motorbike) is a two-wheeled vehicle powered by an engine. ... See also Platoon (movie) and platoon (automobile) for the concept for reducing traffic congestion. ... October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... // Size and Composition A regiment is a military unit, larger than a company and smaller than a division. ... Wehrmacht   listen? was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ...

Brandenburger training included teaching of foreign languages, small unit tactics, parachuting, demolitions, covert operations, use of vehicles and aircraft, and familiarity with enemy weapons, including tanks. Some men were specifically trained as pilots or trained in forgery, demolitions or camouflage. One company, formed out of 127 German skiers, was trained to fight in the northern Soviet Union and was equipped with dog sleds. Skydiver about to land Parachuting, or skydiving, is a recreational activity, competitive sport and method of deployment of military personnel (and occasionally, firefighters). ... A massive crane is used to demolish this tower block in northern England Demolition is the opposite of construction: the tearing-down of buildings and other structures. ... Covert operations are military or political activities that are not only clandestine (undertaken in a manner that disguises the identity of the perpetrators) but also covert, i. ... Forgery is the process of making or adapting objects or documents (see false document), with the intention to deceive. ... Anolis caroliensis showing blending camouflage and counter-shading. ... Skiing is the activity of gliding over snow using skis (originally wooden planks, now usually made from fiberglass or related composites) strapped to the feet with ski bindings. ... Dog sled A dog sled (or dogsled) is a sled pulled by one or more dogs used to travel over ice and through snow. ...

Unit organisation and composition varied according to the mission, from two-man teams, to 12-man squads, to full 300-man companies. A large number of operations took the soldiers behind enemy lines. Often they used captured equipment or disguised themselves as soldiers from the opposite side, sometimes including false identification papers. In covert operations, all the men were equipped with a poison pill. A squad is a small military unit subordinate to an infantry platoon. ...

Units of Brandenburgers operated in almost all fronts - the invasions of Poland, Denmark and Norway, in the Battle of France, in Operation Barbarossa, in Finland, Greece and the invasion of Crete, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Some units were sent to infiltrate India, Afghanistan, Middle East countries and South Africa. They also trained for Operation Felix, the planned seizure of Gibraltar, and Operation Sealion. In World War II, Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed 10 May 1940 which ended the Phony War. ... Original German plan Operation Barbarossa (Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the German codename for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that commenced on June 22, 1941. ... Greece and Crete Crete, sometimes spelled Krete (Greek Κρήτη / Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... During World War II, Felix was the proposed name for a German/Spanish seizure of Gibraltar. ... Operation Sealion (Unternehmen Seelöwe in German) was a World War II German plan to invade Britain. ...

In North Africa, Brandenburgers served as part of the Afrika Korps, and troops fluent in English and Arabic used captured British vehicles to infiltrate behind enemy lines in raids and reconnaissance missions. Originally Erwin Rommel frowned upon their tactics, but after the raid in which a group of British commandos tried to kill him, he accepted their methods. North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Azores and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa, though they do not share a common culture with North Africa. ... The Deutsches Afrikakorps (often just Afrika Korps or DAK) was the corps_level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in Libya and Egypts Western Desert during the North African Campaign of World War II. Since there was little turnover in the units attached to the corps the term is commonly... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Mixed reconaissance patrol of the Polish Home Army and the Soviet Red Army during Operation Tempest, 1944 Reconnaissance is the military term for the active gathering of information about an enemy, or other conditions, by physical observation. ... Field Marshal Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (   listen?) (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) was one of the most distinguished German Field Marshals and commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps in World War II. He is also known by his nickname The Desert Fox (Wüstenfuchs,   listen?), for the...

As the battalion expanded further, it created more mixed units. The so-called Arabic Brigade was nominally connected to the Brandenburgers, took its orders from the German oriental mission, and was composed mainly of men from the Caucasus. The Caucasus , a region boardering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus mountains and surrounding lowlands. ...

Between January and April 1943, the Brandenburgers were expanded to the size of a division, and specialized subunits for U-boat crews, air defense, artillery, tank, antitank and combat engineering were created. Men were transferred from the Afrika Korps and Kriegsmarine, and also Muslims from Yugoslavia and volunteers from India. It was later put under the orders of Army High Command. After the July Plot, when Admiral Canaris and the Abwehr fell out with Nazi command, all Abwehr operations were taken over by the SD. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of around ten to fifteen thousand soldiers. ... U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ... American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. ... Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ... Anti-tank, or simply AT, refers to any method of combating military armored fighting vehicles, notably tanks. ... A US army combat engineer setting up a communications cable. ... The Kriegsmarine (or War Navy) was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine. ... A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... The July 20 Plot was a failed coup détat which involved an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. ... SD Insignia Patch The Sicherheitsdienst (SD, Security Service) was the intelligence service of the SS. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was considered a sister organization with the Gestapo. ...

In September 1944, the Brandenburgers were transferred from OKW to the Heer and reorganized as the Panzergrenadier Division Brandenburg, an ordinary motorized infantry division. 1,800 men joined the commandos of Otto Skorzeny. Towards the end of the war, the unit was used as a kind of fire brigade and rarely served in a commando function. 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Heer (   listen?) is the German word for army. ... Motorised infantry is an infantry unit which is transported by trucks or other fast motor vehicles. ... Otto Skorzeny Otto Skorzeny (June 12, 1908 - July 5, 1975) was a colonel in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. He is best-known as the commando leader who rescued Benito Mussolini from imprisonment after his overthrow. ...

After the war, British commandos recruited a number of ex-Brandenburgers with a good command of English. When their service ended, many emigrated to African countries. Others joined the French Foreign Legion. Légionnaires in dress uniform. ...

See also

• Battle of Velikiye Luki