The SS technocrats

While the likes of Dietrich and Eicke represented the beer hall Nazi heritage of the Waffen-SS, there was also a growing breed of military technocrats that joined the organization during the late 1930s with an eye on career advancement. The most famous of these were Paul Hausser, Wilhelm Bittrich and Felix Steiner. They were all officers of the old school, having served in the Kaiser's army during World War I and then in the post-war Reichswehr. If anyone was responsible for turning the premier Waffen-SS divisions into an élite armoured fighting force, it was Hausser. He retired from the army in 1932 as a lieutenant-general, but within two years he had joined the SS and had set up the first training depot. He was soon put in charge of all Waffen-SS training, and he made a good job of it. He led the Das Reich Division during the invasion of Russia and was rewarded with the job of setting up the SS Panzer Corps in the summer of 1942. He led this formation during the Normandy campaign in 1944. Some of the old Munich gang did not like him because of his Prussian officer corps pedigree, but Hitler trusted him implicitly.

Wilhelm Bittrich

Bittrich was made from similar material, and replaced Hausser as commander of the Das Reich Division in October 1941. He was heavily involved in raising the Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg Divisions, and again replaced Hausser as commander of II SS Panzer Corps in 1944. Steiner formed the Wiking Division in 1940 and led it in Russia until May 1943. These men, along with Dietrich, were the most competent Waffen-SS panzer corps commanders thanks to their depth of military skill and experience.

Working behind the scenes of the Waffen-SS panzer units was a cadre of ex-army professional staff officers who kept them running at a peak of efficiency. The two most prominent were Rudolf Lehman, who was the chief of staff of the Leibstandarte until the summer of 1944, and Fritz Kraemer, who was chief of staff of I SS Panzer Corps for most of its existence. They effectively ran their formations to a standard that would be considered appropriate for equivalent army units.

Lower-level commanders

Many of the regimental and battalion commanders in the Waffen-SS during the 1942-43 period - such as Otto Kumm, Kurt Meyer, Hermann Priess, Joachim Peiper, Theodor Wisch, Fritz Witt and Max Wünsche - would all rise to high command later in the war. They could, perhaps, be called swashbuckling characters who rose to the top through their success in battle during the Blitzkrieg years. They only knew how to soldier the Waffen-SS way: aggressively, taking risks to achieve victory. They were natural leaders who, time and again, would be at the centre of the action, ruthlessly driving their men forward and never giving up. These men kept the hard-pushed Waffen-SS panzer divisions fighting during the last two years of the war, when less motivated men would have given up.

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