This above text is full of confusion. For example - why shall somebody, if he drives from Tripoli to Sebha use the deviation via Hon? Just a mismatch...
KUNO QUOTE;- A) Sonderverband 287 was never in North Africa but only Sonderveband 288. SV.288 had no Arab staff and was not at all related to zbV.800 Brandenburg. Hi, No idea it was an interesting article like I said I`m no expert ...does any of the text actually relate to the Brandenbergs?. The information regarding KODAT comes from Uniforms There is a discussion at length on the matter at ;- Axis History Forum • View topic - Arabs and African volunteers in wehrmacht There was also a discussion on the German Africa Corps Site but when I opened it I found it was in answer to aquestion you had asked in 2003 Deutsches Afrika-Korps :: View topic - DEUTSCH-ARABISCHE LEGION and just to muddy the waters even more I`ve just found this;- Free Arab Legion in North Africa 1942-1943 Sonderverband 288 was formed from Germans and foreign language specialists from the Brandenburg Division. The unit served in North Africa and worked closely with Arab volunteers, they had ties to the "Deutsche-Arabische Lehr Abteilung", which was raised on 7th April 1942. A group of French Arabs were formed into the "Phalange Africaine" from the french colonies of Algeria and Tunisia. Just before the fall of Tunis, Sonderverband 287 arrived in North Africa.??????????????????????? don`t know where this all came from or what truth there is in any of it I but I bow to your higher Knowledge on the matter and retire to the stands to spectate.. Regards Verrieres
"Muddy" as you said. That's probably the corrct description. SV288 was actually a unit formed to be sent to Iraq. They were equipped like a small army: Artillery, Antitank etc... However; the uprising in Iraq did actually not proceed as it was hoped from the Axis side and therefore the original taks of that unit became obsolete. As far as I am aware, the tankhunters and the Gebirgsjäger (at least a part of them) were sent to North Africa then... There were lots of re-groupings and small units were always attached to this and that other,bigger, unit - would be quite difficult to separate everything. zbV. 800 Brandenburg was actually not a Regiment of only specialists like 007 but as well some sort of a pot where just everything was thrown in, what did not fit somewhere else..
Colleagues; just that you don't think I would like to be unpolite if I deny all those quotes from the i'net: I don't know more about the Brandenburger (not ...berger!) but some statements are just weird and mixed up. Not logical and not proved by anything. Sometimes it looks like if one copies from the other, adds something and so on...
Some of the Brandenburger exploits definitley mirrored the best of British SF operations in WWII, however they suffered badly on the Eastern Front due to their Air Movements officer betraying many operations to the Harnack Spy ring in Berlin, in the West Enigma decrypts ensured that many missions were doomed before they even deployed. Missions where they clashed with british elites included Leros and Simi in the eastern Mediterranean. After the July 44 Bomb plan the Brandenburgers were either transferred to Skorzney's Jagd Kommandos (often as complete units) or moved to conventional soldering with the Panzer Grenadier Division Brandenburg which formed part of Gross Deutschland. An interesting point regarding Skorzeny the OKW insisted that an experienced Brandenburger was his Chief of staff, initially Adrian Von Foelkersam who had won a Knights Cross on a Brandenburg Mission in the Maikop Oil Fields, and after Foelkersam was KIA by Oberst Walther who had served with the Brandenburgers from 1940 when they were still company sized. The best book on the Brandenburgers is Die Brandenburger by Helmuth Spaeter- Walther Angerer 1978 - alas only available in German.
Helmuth Spaeter? At least hat he writes about North Africa does not seem to be correct.... I could not recommend this book.
