The 2nd SS Police Regiment () was initially named the 2nd Police Regiment (''Polizei-Regiment 2'') when it was formed in 1942 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 in
Occupied Europe
German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...
. It was redesignated as an
SS unit in early 1943.
Formation and organization
The regiment was ordered formed in July 1942 in
Tilsit
Sovetsk (; ) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania.
History Early history
Tilsit, which received civic rights from Albert, Duke of Prussia in 1552,''Sło ...
,
East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
(now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast), but the
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation.
In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...
al headquarters and the signal company were not formed until 2 September.
[Tessin & Kanapin, p. 615] Police Battalion 11 (''Polizei-Batallion 11''),
Police Battalion 13 and
Police Battalion 22, the regiment's first through third
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s, respectively, were withdrawn from Russia to Tilsit between July and September to be reorganized and rebuilt.
[Arico, pp. 121, 131, 140; Tessin & Kanapin, pp. 615, 629] The regiment was reinforced with three
batteries of artillery on 29 January 1943 which were consolidated into Police Artillery Battalion I (''Polizei-Geschütz Abetilung I'') on 8 September. All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February 1943.
Activities
The regiment took part in numerous anti-
partisan
Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII
** Ital ...
operations in Russia, including
Operation Adler
Operation Adler was the code name designated by the Luftwaffe for their air offensive against Great Britain in the summer of 1940. The defensive side of this operation was known as the Battle of Britain. This offensive was part of an ambitious camp ...
in July–August 1942,
Operation Wisent in November,
[ Operation Zauberflöte in April 1943][Blood, pp. 184–86] and Operation Hermann in August.[
]
Notes
References
* Arico, Massimo. ''Ordnungspolizei: Encyclopedia of the German Police Battalions'', Stockholm: Leandoer and Ekholm (2010).
*Blood, Phillip W. ''Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe'', Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books (2006).
*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
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