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Description

Backstory:

After the Nazi seizure of power on the 30th of January 1933 members of Der Stahlhelm Bund der Frontsoldaten were urged to join the SA. On the 27th of April 1933 they succeeded, members over the age of 35 were put under command of the SA-Reserve I and II whilst the rest, about 314,000 men, would become part of the active SA, otherwise known as Wehrstahlhelm.

Almost nothing was changed on the Stahlhelm uniform when the Wehrstahlhelm was founded. They were allowed to retain the grey colour, the black and silver cuff title, their regional patches, their medals… the only obvious change was the inclusion of the swastika on their banners, the SA-eagle being added on their uniforms and caps, and the grey-coloured (later on this would change to just red) swastika armband becoming mandatory.

314,000 new SA members and the SA itself taking over all Stahlhelm installations meant that the SA needed to expand their administration considerably overnight. For this reason, many Stahlhelm commanders were recruited as local leaders and supervisors. Even though their loyalty was questionable, it seemed that at least for now they were cooperating with the fusion they had initially resisted. That did not mean there were no instances of SiPo-SD raids on Stahlhelm administration buildings as several of those were conducted between 1934 and 1940. In most of these nothing severe happened, it was just Himmler’s paranoia getting the better of him, but other times there were shootouts between SS and Stahlhelm men. In the latter’s case it would be up to the SA to reinforce the raiders and, ironically enough, those reinforcements would come from the local SA brigades, meaning that Wehrstahlhelm men had to, at times, shoot their former comrades.

It is no wonder that the SS’s arrogance and raids made the SA and their new ex-Stahlhelm members set their differences aside to jointly resist SS influence over their paramilitary. Himmler’s paranoia of being targeted by everyone for his position next to the Führer made him especially dangerous. He had orchestrated the execution of Ernst Rhöm and thus had diminished SA-influence considerably. The new SA-commander, Viktor Lütze, had therefore acted as if he had no ambitious with the SA. In actuality, he was trying to regain the SA’s influence and strength. The Wehrstahlhelm had been such a merger that had increased the manpower count, but they still weren’t as elite as the SS.

Politics aside, the Wehrstahlhelm and former Stahlhelm did bring with them several World War 1 veterans, or in other words: men with combat experience. Lütze’s plan to bring the SA back up to par had very good use for such men. The veterans capable enough were promoted to NCO’s and tasked with drilling SA men as a whole. It seemed that in this up-and-coming new SA there would be no room for slacking, and the Wehrstahlhelm would be the veteran core of it all.

Disclaimer: I do not support any of the views these people might have had, this is just for creative purposes and alt-history curiosity!

Credit to TheRanger1302 for his Rangerbase tools.

Description

Backstory:

After the Nazi seizure of power on the 30th of January 1933 members of Der Stahlhelm Bund der Frontsoldaten were urged to join the SA. On the 27th of April 1933 they succeeded, members over the age of 35 were put under command of the SA-Reserve I and II whilst the rest, about 314,000 men, would become part of the active SA, otherwise known as Wehrstahlhelm.

Almost nothing was changed on the Stahlhelm uniform when the Wehrstahlhelm was founded. They were allowed to retain the grey colour, the black and silver cuff title, their regional patches, their medals… the only obvious change was the inclusion of the swastika on their banners, the SA-eagle being added on their uniforms and caps, and the grey-coloured (later on this would change to just red) swastika armband becoming mandatory.

314,000 new SA members and the SA itself taking over all Stahlhelm installations meant that the SA needed to expand their administration considerably overnight. For this reason, many Stahlhelm commanders were recruited as local leaders and supervisors. Even though their loyalty was questionable, it seemed that at least for now they were cooperating with the fusion they had initially resisted. That did not mean there were no instances of SiPo-SD raids on Stahlhelm administration buildings as several of those were conducted between 1934 and 1940. In most of these nothing severe happened, it was just Himmler’s paranoia getting the better of him, but other times there were shootouts between SS and Stahlhelm men. In the latter’s case it would be up to the SA to reinforce the raiders and, ironically enough, those reinforcements would come from the local SA brigades, meaning that Wehrstahlhelm men had to, at times, shoot their former comrades.

It is no wonder that the SS’s arrogance and raids made the SA and their new ex-Stahlhelm members set their differences aside to jointly resist SS influence over their paramilitary. Himmler’s paranoia of being targeted by everyone for his position next to the Führer made him especially dangerous. He had orchestrated the execution of Ernst Rhöm and thus had diminished SA-influence considerably. The new SA-commander, Viktor Lütze, had therefore acted as if he had no ambitious with the SA. In actuality, he was trying to regain the SA’s influence and strength. The Wehrstahlhelm had been such a merger that had increased the manpower count, but they still weren’t as elite as the SS.

Politics aside, the Wehrstahlhelm and former Stahlhelm did bring with them several World War 1 veterans, or in other words: men with combat experience. Lütze’s plan to bring the SA back up to par had very good use for such men. The veterans capable enough were promoted to NCO’s and tasked with drilling SA men as a whole. It seemed that in this up-and-coming new SA there would be no room for slacking, and the Wehrstahlhelm would be the veteran core of it all.

Disclaimer: I do not support any of the views these people might have had, this is just for creative purposes and alt-history curiosity!

Credit to TheRanger1302 for his Rangerbase tools.