■ In the drama "Tiger's Mouth Escape", he drives a tricycle with a side pocket and a field gendarme with a two-wheeled motorcycle.
"Tiger's Mouth Escape" can be regarded as an absolute Chinese German fan enlightenment film, the plot twists and turns, and the audience is sometimes thrilled and sometimes laughs. Especially in the bridge section of the car chase, the protagonists were all hanging on the line, but fortunately, they finally threw off the chasing soldiers, which made us relieved at that time. These German soldiers on motorcycles, not only dressed in leather clothes, can shoot with one hand, but also have a clear metal plate on their chests. Let's take a look at the development of the German field gendarmes.
■ The two protagonists of "Tiger's Mouth Escape" also passed a gendarmerie addiction.
In order to maintain the discipline of millions of troops during World War I, the Second German Empire established as many as 115 field gendarmerie companies. But with the defeat of World War I, the military police in the German army also disappeared. In 1933, Hitler entered the Political Arena in Germany, and the Third Reich began to rise. In particular, after the German army got rid of the limit of 100,000 people, the German army quickly established a military police force with a complete system and many functional departments. Even if the functions of some departments overlap and overlap, it has not caused any confusion in law enforcement. The field gendarmes of the German military police are often referred to as "chain dogs" for their distinctive badges, but when questioned by their wearers, there is no officer or soldier who does not feel creepy. Not only was the German high command recognized, but the German military police were also recognized by their Allied counterparts, and as soon as Germany surrendered, the Allies allowed heavily armed field gendarmes to maintain social order. Even the ordinary allied soldiers had to cooperate with it, which was reflected in the "Brotherhood Company" filmed by HBO.
■ Photographs taken by German and American gendarmes on duty, the spirit of the German gendarmes occupying the c position.
In 1955 the military police were also one of the first branches of the German Rearmament Force. Modern German military police officers use white holsters and ropes, and wear armbands with white mb on a black background on their left arm. If you have the chance to stroll along the Straße Staufenberg in Berlin, Germany, you'll have the chance to meet the patrolling military police.
As the largest branch of the military police, the feldgendarmerie is also the most commonly encountered by officers and soldiers at the grass-roots level. In 1938, the Army seconded a large number of civilian police officers to temporarily assume the role of field gendarmes, and after the completion of the merger of flowers without bloodshed, the seconded personnel returned to the civilian police. In 1939, the German Army began to mobilize as Poland dared to say "no" to Germany. At the same time as the expansion of combat units, the field gendarmerie units have also expanded rapidly again, as in the previous year, through the absorption of civilian police. About 280 officers and 7,900 non-commissioned officers joined the German Army in wilderness grey uniforms, and this time the Army established a permanent field gendarmerie unit to support the operation. Throughout World War II, from North Africa to the Eastern Front, it can be said that field gendarmes can be seen wherever there are German combat troops.
■ Comparison of a civilian police officer after his transfer to the Defence Forces.
The commander of the field gendarmerie unit is directly responsible to the German Army General Command, accepts the combat task and assigns it to the field gendarmerie units. On the front lines, all german army groups, corps and divisions had field gendarmerie units of a certain size to cooperate with the combat tasks of their units. The occupation of field gendarmes can be divided into three main categories.
The first category is the maintenance of order and discipline:
Maintain order and discipline among military personnel
Collect prisoners of war
Investigate crimes committed by military personnel
Search for deserters
Check the documents of persons on leave to and from the country
The second category is traffic management:
Plan military routes
Traffic control and directions
Regulate water traffic
Monitor military traffic
Ensure certain traffic orders
The third type of security work:
Prevent vandalism and espionage
The defense of important command
General police duties are performed in occupied areas where administrative order has not been restored
Protection of rear communication lines
Fight against resistance groups such as guerrillas.
In the formation of the field gendarmerie, there are field gendarme battalions, field gendarme companies, and field gendarmes. Field gendarmerie battalion-level units are supporting operations at the army group and corps level one. Field gendarme companies or field gendarmerie units are responsible for supporting division-level units. The Field Gendarmerie Battalion consists of three field gendarmerie companies with supply units and corresponding vehicles. A full field gendarmerie battalion numbered more than 420 people, of which the number of non-commissioned officers was about 340, which also reflected that non-commissioned officers were the main force in military police law enforcement. The Field Gendarmerie Company consists of three field gendarmerie platoons with supply units and corresponding vehicles. The field gendarmerie is divided into four types: a, b, c, and d. The Type A Field Gendarmerie is subordinate to the Infantry Division and the Type B Field Gendarmerie is subordinate to the Panzer Division. The field gendarmerie of these two species is highly mobile and is equipped with motorcycles, cars, trucks and other vehicles. While c and d were subordinate to the Static Defense Division, and since frequent maneuvers were not required, the two types of field gendarmerie were equipped with bicycles instead of motorcycles and cars. Field gendarmes use Army-standard weapons, but the ratio of submachine guns to machine guns is greater than that of other army combat units.
■ This is a vehicle equipped with a gendarmerie squad, with a small car and two motorcycles.
■ C,D field gendarmerie, using bicycles to maneuver.
The field gendarmerie uniform uses the German standard field suit plus the gendarmerie logo, starting with a cuff made of brown rayon above the left cuff, the words "feldgendarmerie" written in Gothic, and above the cuff is the eagle emblem used by the police, an eagle emblem surrounded by an oak leaf garland. The soldier non-commissioned officer version is a woven orange-red eagle emblem, and the officers use embroidered wire to make a white eagle emblem. Each field gendarme has a badge on its chest, commonly known as a "dog tag", which is a half-moon shaped metal stamping plate with raised edges. The surface is sprayed with silver-gray paint and decorated with yellow-green pockmark buckles at both ends. In the middle is the Eagle emblem of the Wehrmacht, and below the eagle emblem is the Latin script "feldgendarmerie". Cloth is used behind the badge to reduce wear between the garment and the badge. The two pins on the back allow the badge to be better fastened to the chest. The field gendarmes of the elite Unit Great German Division also had a special emblem, with an extra piece of black metal above the badge with the gd logo on it.
■ Field gendarme badge front, very well-made.
■ Field gendarme armband, woven version of soldiers on the left and embroidered version of officers on the right.
■ Three different versions of cuffs used by field gendarmes.
■ German front-line field gendarmes wearing m36 uniforms and full identification markings.
■ The gendarmerie officer wearing a white fully embroidered armband showed a sunny smile.
■ It can be seen from the armband on the right arm that this is a field gendarme of the Spanish Division.
■ Rare gendarmerie badge of the Great German Panzergrenadier Division.
■ Photographs of the gendarmes of the Großdeutsches Division actually wearing.
As the second largest branch of the Wehrmacht, the Air Force, under the incorporation of the Imperial Fuehrer Goering, did not lack the formation of ground combat units. There are as many as 22 air force field divisions alone, not counting the Air Paratrooper Division and the Hermann Goering Panzer Division. Accordingly, these combat divisions formed field gendarmerie companies or squads of their own units. The number of people is about 100 people, equipped with automatic weapons and motor vehicles. The same duties are to maintain discipline and defend traffic. The logo cuffs are made of the same army cuffs, and there is no police armband on the left arm. In addition to the Army model, there is also a unique Air Force eagle badge, but it is rare.
■ Air Force unique badge, using the Air Force Eagle emblem.
■ Air Force field gendarmes, through the medals worn, you can see the rich combat experience.
The Führer's Royal Forest Army, the Wil-SS, established 33 field divisions, some of which did not reach full strength until the end of the war, but did not affect the formation of internal field gendarmerie companies/squads. The SS gendarmerie duties are the same as those of their army, air force counterparts. The cuff is a black cuff on the logo. SS-feldgendarmerie is written in Latin. While wearing the field gendarmerie cuffs, the Waffen-SS gendarmes wear the cuffs of their division names on top of them. SS field gendarmes use the same metal badge as the Army.
■ Cuffs used by SS gendarmes.
■ The SS gendarmes on the task of escorting prisoners of war were british from the uniforms of prisoners of war.
Due to its operational nature, the Navy has only established the Marine Kustenpolizei (Marine Kustenpolizei), whose roles and duties are similar to those of the field gendarmes, with the addition of protection for naval port facilities. The Naval Police logo is naturally full of naval style. The cuffs are dark blue with a Latin "marine kustenpolizei" sewn with yellow thread, and above the cuffs are the Navy golden armbands. The badge is slightly smaller than the Army model, and the chain is removed and pinned directly to the uniform. The word "marine kustenpolizei" is written on the front.
■ German Navy Coast Guard badge
■ The cuffs and armbands worn by the Coast Police are shown in the photo.
At all times of the war, the German field gendarmerie and military police played an extreme role. Even when they are involved in front-line combat, they are loyal to their duties. Always adhere to the glorious tradition of "first in, then out".
■ Serious gendarmes also have a funny side.
Jamyansk was originally an obscure town on the battlefields of the Soviet Union. In early 1942, 100,000 German troops were surrounded here, the first time in history that a German army of this magnitude had been encircled. What happened next was a miracle in the history of human airlift, the first time that a force of more than 100,000 people was fully and long-term in the air supply. The German officers and men in the encirclement withstood the most brutal tests in unimaginably harsh natural environments, and completed their redemption in the most difficult desperate situations - they stubbornly resisted the four-month siege of up to 1.5 million Soviet troops, and finally ushered in freedom in the spring.
This is the first column in the series of armored shoveling officers, and I would like to ask for the tepid and friendly support of all fans.
For more military history, please pay attention to the WeChat public account of the same name - Armored Shovel Historian (id: panzercsg).