Waffen-Ss

In the early 1920s, a tiny group was formed within the SA to serve as Hitler's personal bodyguard. Originally labelled the 'Stosstruppe Adolf Hitler', they later became known as the SS Schutz Staffeln, or 'protection squads'. From these humble beginnings, the SS rose to a nominal strength of 38 divisions of over 800,000 men by 1945, representing a sizeable portion of Germany's land forces and more importantly a quarter of her tank forces and a third of her mechanised infantry. Martin Windrow provides a splendid in-depth review of the history, uniforms and insignia of the infamous Waffen-SS.Windrow, Martin is the author of 'Waffen-Ss', published 1982 under ISBN 9780850454253 and ISBN 0850454255.