The 8th SS Police Regiment () was initially named the 8th Police Regiment (''Polizei-Regiment 8'') 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 on the
Eastern Front. It was redesignated as an
SS unit in early 1943.
Formation and organization
The regiment was ordered formed in July 1942 in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, 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 was not formed until 2 September.
[Tessin & Kanapin, p. 619] Police Battalion 91 (''Polizei-Batallion 91''),
Police Battalion 111 and
Police Battalion 134 were redesignated as 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.
[Arico, pp. 268, 313, 341] All of the police regiments were redesignated as SS police units on 24 February 1943.
[Tessin & Kannapin, p. 557]
The regimental headquarters was destroyed in January 1943 and its remnants were withdrawn to Gotenhafen-Adlershorst, (now
dynia-Orłowo Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
), where they were used to help form the first battalion of the
36th Police Rifle Regiment (''Polizei-Schützen Regiment 36'') in mid-1943. Its battalions, however, were assigned to different
German Army
The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...
security divisions and did not suffer its fate.
[
The 8th SS Police Regiment was reformed in November 1944, presumably in the ]Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...
, with four newly raised battalions. The regiment fought in Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
in 1944–45 and it may have been deployed near Stettin
Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...
, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland), in March 1945. Its fourth battalion was disbanded in April.[
]
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
#