The 24th SS Police Regiment () was initially named Police Regiment Radom (''Polizei-Regiment Radom'') when it was formed in late 1939 after the
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
from existing
Order Police
The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (''Orpo'', , meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly of power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of t ...
(''Ordnungspolizei'') units for security duties there. It was redesignated as the 24th Police Regiment in mid-1942 before it received the
SS title in early 1943.
Formation and organization
Police Regiment Radom was formed on 4 November 1939. Under its control were four police
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...
s (''Polizei-Batallion''); one battalion from Police Group 1 (''Polizeigruppe 1'') and three from Police Group 2. Its battalions rotated in and out, but it maintained its strength at four battalions until another was assigned in October 1940.
The invasion of Russia in June 1941 created a need for rear-area security units on the
Eastern Front and Police Regiment Radom provided some of these. When the 24th Police Regiment was formed on 9 July 1942, it not have been by redesignating Police Regiment Radom as the regimental headquarters was not formed until 21 April 1943, although it fits in the 22–25 sequence allotted to the four police regiments based in Poland. At any rate, I and II Battalions were formed by redesignating Police Battalions
83 and
133 in the
District of Galicia
The District of Galicia (, , ) was a World War II administrative unit of the General Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the start of Operation Barbarossa, based loosely within the borders of the ancient Principality o ...
.
Police Battalion 93 in
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
was redesignated as III Battalion, but this was strictly nominal as it remained in Slovenia until it was transferred as
Marseilles
Marseille (; ; see below) is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean S ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, as a part of
Police Regiment Griese in January 1943. It was replaced by redesignating I Battalion of the
23rd SS Police Regiment. All of the police regiments were retitled as SS police units on 24 February. The regiment was transferred to
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
in May 1943 and was reformed in mid-November 1944 after having been destroyed during
Operation Bagration
Operation Bagration () was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (), a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern ...
.
[Arico, pp. 88, 260, 278, 338; Tessin & Kanapin, pp. 557, 625]
Notes
References
* Arico, Massimo. ''Ordnungspolizei: Encyclopedia of the German Police Battalions'', Stockholm: Leandoer and Ekholm (2010).
*Tessin, Georg & Kannapin, Norbert. ''Waffen-SS under Ordnungspolizei im Kriegseinsatz 1939–1945: Ein Überlick anhand der Feldpostübersicht'', Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag (2000).
{{SS Police Regts
#