Lettow-Vorbeck, Hippel had witnessed the successful guerrilla war
conducted against Allied colonial troops in East Africa and proposed,
prior to the outbreak of World War II, the formation of small elite
units trained in sabotage working behind enemy lines. The idea
found little favor among the traditional Wehrmacht officers but was
adopted by Abwehr head Wilhelm Canaris in 1939 and assigned
to the sabotage section under Erwin Lahousen. Originally called
the Bau-Lehr-Kompanie zbV 800 (or Special Purpose Construction
and Training Company No. 800), it was composed primarily of eth-
nic Germans from abroad who possessed a second mother tongue.
Because of its rapid growth—and the fact that the main barracks
and training ground were located in the town of Brandenburg an der
Havel—the company was named the Brandenburg Battalion on 15
December 1939. Designated a regiment six months later, it reached
divisional strength at the end of 1942.
In addition to developing an expert knowledge of foreign lan-
guages and customs, the Brandenburgers became well-versed in
parachute jumping, demolition methods, covert operations, and the
use of enemy weapons and equipment. There were also units de-
signed for specific local conditions, such as the company of skilled
cross-country skiers equipped with dog sleds appropriate to the fro-
zen terrain of the northern Soviet Union.
The Brandenburgers, operating in units of anywhere from two to
200 people, saw duty in nearly every military theater between 1940
and 1944. Their single most important achievement arguably took
place in early August 1941, when a detachment of 62 Baltic and
Sudeten Germans led by Adrian von Foelkersam penetrated deeply
into the Soviet Union in order to secure the oil fields at Maikop.
Driving Red Army trucks and clad in uniforms of the NKVD (Soviet
People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs), the detachment simulated
an artillery attack on the city and managed to persuade the Soviet
troops to evacuate, thereby allowing German troops to enter without
firing a shot.
At the same time, numerous accounts have tended to exaggerate
the scope of their exploits. Because of the high risks involved, the ca-
sualty rate of the Brandenburgers was well above the norm for other
German forces. Moreover, whether in such targeted countries as
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, India, or South Africa, their successes50 • BRANDENBURG DIVISION