As the collapse of Army Group Centre was being played out, the head of the Waffen-SS special forces, Otto Skorzeny, deployed several of his commando teams, or jagdverbande, to try to establish contact with isolated pockets of German troops. Skorzeny's jagdverbande were formed to operate in specific regions. Units included an "eastern" battalion trained to operate on the Russian Front, a "southeastern" battalion trained to work in the Balkans, a Central European unit and a West European unit. The Luftwaffe wing, Kampfgeschwader (KG) 200, was assigned to work with Skorzeny to fly and parachute his men far behind enemy lines.

KG 200 flew deep behind Soviet lines and dropped the Waffen-SS teams on their dangerous missions. All except Jagdverbande Southeast were quickly cornered by the Red Army and wiped out. When the Soviets smashed the German forces in Romania in August, Jagdverbande Southeast was destroyed.

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