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C; Training.129. Military Training.Regulations issued by the Wehraaoht tiirou^i the OT, providedfor basic military training of all German personnel (both Reichand "racial" Germans) and for "reliable" elements of foreignpersonnel. In actual practice, however, these regulations werecarried out spasmodically at best. In theory the trainingprocedure was as follows: a German employee of an OT-Firm wasupon enrolment in the OT issued a uniform and given militarytraining. The latter consisted of rifle drill and practice, and acertain amount of combat training. It was carried out underWehrmacht supervision and usually took place on Sundays or afterwork, alttou#i sometimes a group of workers was taken from theirjobs to partake in these military exercises. In case of invasion,these men were to assist the Armed Forces.When in January 1944, the danger of an invasion seemed to havebecome more imminent, the Frontfflhrung West (EGW), issued an orderthat every firm should form a training and combat unit of its own.This regulation obviated the necessity for constant Wehrmachtassistance in this respect. These units were armed, mostly withcaptured weapons of various makes, but an attempt was made atuniformity by restricting the equipment of each firm to one type ofrifle. For every German, the official issue was one rifle and 198rounds of ammunition. Thirty rounds were to be carried on the constructionsite, the remaining ammunition was to be stored in aplace easily accessible in case of alarm. Pistols were only issuedta OT officers and to NCOs. from the rank of Obermeister up. Itwas laid down that, in case of alarm, the armed German OT personnelwas to guide the foreign workers to their respective camps and posta guard over them.Just how this plan was to work out does not seem to have beenvery clear even to the OT leaders themselves. In certain areastraining was started under Wehrmacht NCOs. detached to the OT forthis purpose, but this practice does not seem to have provedgenerally successful. Reports tell of complaints being lodgedagainst these NCOs. for their brutality towards elderly men.Others tell of men who left their rifles, usually obsolete Frenchmodels, lying around, having never been given instructions on howto use them.The GAP seems, on the whole, to have done better in trainingOT men in the use of anti-aircraft weapons for their own protectionand that of the construction sites. In case of danger, OT personnelwas to man these guns entirely without military, i.e., OAF, supervision.130. Schools for Leadership Training and Other Schools.In order to train selected men and promote them to advancedpositions in the OT, picked personnel is sent to so-calledFahrerschulen (Leader Training Schools). In the early days when OTpersonnel was stil l being recruited from Germany, a so-called "Hausder Kameradschaft" (Fellowship House) was created in connectionwith the Haupterfassungslager (Main Induction Camp) in BERLIN.Workers in responsible positions such as Poliere (foremen) andother supervisory personnel were trained there for the specialisedtask of OT leadership. Their training included certain fundamentalmilitary subjects such as the use of fire-arms, besides indoctrinationin Frontffthrung (Front Area Personnel direction) andconstruction supervision.-135­