miRS-tonpon - Sturmpanzer.com

employees who already were with the firm before it entered OT)and all others.Three distinct parts comprise the organisation of anOT-Firm : .1. The chief executive -who may be the owner of the firm or a firmrepresentative acting as executive manager. A firm may, moreover,have branches in the OT in two or more widely separated localitiesin occupied Europe (e.g. Norway and Italy). If the firm isassigned to that part of the OT operating within Germany, its entirepersonnel and equipment are likely to have been enrolled forOTwork. If, on the other hand, the firm is assigned to what is leftof German occupied Europe, only part of its personnel and equipmentmay be so enrolled, as an OT branch of the firm, the rest remainingbehind with the main branch in Germany.2. The clerical department whose general duties are the keepingof administrative, personnel, business and financial records and themaking out of reports to the OBL according to OT regulations.3« ©ie technical department which contains statistical personneland field personnel. The statistical personnel is concerned withthe building schedule including such matters as material and equipment*In connection with these duties, i t keeps in close touch with thecorresponding sub-section Statistik in the OBL, The field personnelcomprises the firm technical staff, supervising the various singlepieces of construction on which the firm is working, as weLL as themanpower employed on them. The technical staff has a dual assignmentand a correspondingly dual responsibility and status. In the exerciseof the first it works in the interest of its employer, the firm, andis responsible for the efficient and speedy construction of the jobwhich i t supervised. Finishing a job before schedule means extraprofit to the firm, aside from the advantages accruing from the goodwill of the chief of the OBL. In the exercise of the second,it works in the interests of the OT, and is responsible for seeingtttat specifications are strictly adhered to and properly carried out.In the latter function the construction supervisors are investednormally with the OT rank of Baufuhrer, corresponding to that of asecond lieutenant in the army. Under the Baufuhrer who supervises asingle building job or several adjacent ones, are the Poliere andSchachtmejster (Section Foreman) who supervise the labour gangsand have NGO ranks. The firm executive manager has similar functionsand powers over the entire construction site in which the firm isactive. His OT rank is frequently that of OberbaufQhrer,corresponding to that of a first lieutenant, but it can very as itdepends on the skill of the supervisor and the importance of theparticular construction job.About February 1944, owing to the shortage of German supervisorypersonnel and the desire of the OT to restore features of mobility tofirm units which had become static, the firm and the body of foreignworkers in its employ became a more self-contained unit than it hadever been before. In effect, the administration of the firm took onthe features of a lower echelon of an OBL HQ. A new post was createdas part of the firm re-organisation, namely that of the Mannschaftsfflhrer(Personnel Administrator), who, as a deputy of the OBLFrontfflhrer, took over the administrative duties over all personnelemployed by the firm and carried the rank of Betriebsobmann in theDAF. His status can be either that of OT organic personnel, assignedto the firm, or he can be selected by the firm from among its ownpersonnel provided the choice is acceptable to OBL. HQ. In eitherevent, his Wehrsold (Army Pay) is paid by the firm. His functions,- 55 ­