miRS-tonpon - Sturmpanzer.com

(SS Liaison Officer) are the following: guarding againstsabotage, political crimes and other transgressions, checkingon German and foreign personnel; issuing of permits and passes ofall types; keeping a card index of all OT personnel and of SScounter-intelligence operatives and tracking down fugitive workers,this l&st by means of the Schutzkomnandos (SK: Security GuardUnits). (See also IIFo).(10 to 12) The Personalaoteilung (Personnel Section).Arbeitseinsatz und Sozialpolitik (Manpower Allocation andSocial Policy sections) and Kultur, Presse und Propaganda(Education, Press and Propaganda; are found only in the highestechelons, namely Amt Bau OTZ and in Einsatzgruppen. On lowerlevels such as Oberbauleitungen, the above matters are parceledout to subsections within the sections Frontffinning and Verwaltung«The lowest construction units, fran a B a uleitung down, havea very restricted administrative organization oomposed of atechnical staff which takes care of construction and, if they aresufficiently important, a deputy Frontf flhrer. (See also IBS, IIB,HIE, Chart 9 and Tables, I, II and V).43• Einsatzgruppe West (EGW)B. Chain of Command and HQ SectionsThe procedure for the planning and construction of largeprojects of a military nature in the EGW up to June 192|4 was asfollows: After strategic policy had been decided upon by theGerman Supreme Command, the execution was entrusted to theCommander in Chief of Army Group West, who in turn oalled in theChief of corresponding OT sector (Einsatzgruppe) as his executiveengineer. Thus, in the case of the Atlantic Wall, General ELeldMarshal VOW RUNDSTEDT was responsible for the project on the basisof plans as evolved by Oberbaudirektor WEISS, Chief of the TodtOrganization in the West and Chief Engineer on RUNDSTEDT'smilitary staff. In the planning of so large a projeot as thebuilding of the Atlantio Wall, it can naturally be assumed thatHITIER, SFEER and other high functionaries showed varying degreesof professional interest, SPEER and his staff, for example,concentrated on standardisation methods and constructionspecifications. The experience gained in the building of theWest Wall was used in the selection and standardisation of thebest type of fortifications for a particular terrain down to thasmallest detail. This procedure simplified immensely both theplanning and the estimating of material requirements. MoreoverWEISS had at his disposal, beside his own staff, a special liaisonstaff of Army Portress Engineers, and the Engineers from the staffof Army Group West. The blueprints were then sent to OTZ BERLINfor approval, normally given as a routine procedure provided theplans did not depart radically from the original conception of theSupreme Command of the Armed Forces.The Army exercised control through periodio inspections, firsthy Lt-General of Engineers SCHMETZER, Inspector of Gratifications inthe West, and then by General of Engineers, Alfred JACOB tteInspector General of Fortifications. Similar control for Naval andAir Force installations was exercised by the. Uavy and Air Force HiflhCommands. Finally General Field Marshal ROMMEL inspected theentire Atlantic Wall in the capacity of Inspector General ofIn the exercise of this function, ROMMEL, like SPEER wasresponsible only to HITIER.