miRS-tonpon - Sturmpanzer.com

Sc^al Festungspionier stab, (Portress Engineer Staff).OT work details have occasionally been also assigned to dig trenches,lay minefields and prepare demolition charges for blowing up bridgesand other key points of conmuni cat ions under orders of the Armyengineers, from division upwards. The primary defensive tasks of theOT, however, are skilled construction and salvage work in the rearzone or at most in the rear lines of the front zone.The basic and most caramon contact with OT in the construction ofdefence work is made by the Fortress Construction Engineer Staff competentin the particular sector where the OT personnel is at work. Ifthe area is sufficiently stable to allow an OT administrative HQ, suchas an OBL, to be set up, the execution of the task is supervised bythe OT-firm executive and his supervisory staff to whom the specificpiece of construction has been assigned. The equipment used is likewiseowned or at least rented by the firm. An overwhelming majorityof individual workers in rear zone construction has up to recently beencomposed of foreigners, and indications are that the Germans have evennow very considerable foreign assistance - willing or otherwise - atits disposal. The Fortress Construction Engineer Staff controls theproper carrying out of specifications. If, on the other hand, the areais considered too dangerous for stabilisation, firm equipment is transportedto the rear along with most foreign personnel, and all Germanfemales and males are either directly detailed to the FortressConstruction Engineer staffs or are split up into mobile units attachedto Division, Corps or Army (Engineers, or Transport, or Services ofSupply) depending on the fluidity of the situation and local factors.In such cases, the OT formations, devoid as they are of the greaterpart of foreign OT elements, are termed B&utrupps (ConstructionDetachments).OT's facilities were increasingly employed in France in emerge*ncyand even permanent repair of air-raid damage to transport andcommunication systems, to power plants and other sources of supplyessential to a military machine. The best qualified personnel in theorganization, amounting to about ten per cent, of the total number,was assigned in May 1944 to a manpower pool for air-raid emergencyrepair. After D-day, OT's entire remaining facilities in France wereused for this purpose. (See IA13).89. Air Force Liaison.The Air Force, until June/July 1944, was operationally in closeliaison with the OT, but retained control over its own constructionagencies. For example, the construction corporation Strassenbau AktienGesellschaft (trade name Strabag) which is said to be controlled by theG0RING- interests devoted practically its entire facilities to repairand construction work for the German Air Force in France and the LowCountries until the spring of 1942.Strabag and similar construction firms were administratively controlledby the Luftwaffe Feldbauamt (Air Force Field ConstructionBureau) competent in the particular sector where such constructionactivity was going on. The pmftwaffe Feldbauamt furthermore hadauthority to sign building contracts directly with private firms,provided the basic terms such as pay scales and the tariff for hiringequipment conformed with existing governmental regulations. TheLuftwaffe Feldbauamt was in turn controlled by a higher echelon theBezirksbauleitung. This was the highest GAP organization specially setup to supervise construction locally. Beyond the Bezirksbauleitung,regional construction was administered by control staffs i.e.Luftgaukomnando (Air District HQ) Verwaltun^B (abbreviation for Bauor Construction) under command of the Luftgauintendantur. Disciplinaryorders were handed down from the Luft gaukanmando through the Feldluftgaukonmando(Field Air District HQ), the Fluffiafenbezirke (Air PortArea) and the Flughafenkoaniandanturen (Air Port Regional Command)acting as administrative channels respectively for the Bezirksbauleitungand the Feldbauamt. Around April 1942, when the OT