The Waffen SS

I3BrigPvSk

The Viking
The Waffen SS has a reputation of being the German elite fighting force and they have a reputation of being cruel toward civilians and POW's and rightly so, they were cruel. But I don't intend to discuss their cruelty. I want to discuss the military performance. Was the SS better than their army counterparts?

What argue for the Waffen SS to be an elite and what argues for they weren't. We can argue the performance of the Waffen SS at the battle of Charkov proves they were an elite when they recaptured the city. However, the German army performed better or at least equally as the SS at Kursk as what the SS divisions did. When I read about the what the Waffen SS did during the war, I think they were more reckless than a better fighting force than let say the Gross Deutschland division.
 
I think at least early on they were a more ideologically driven force that was prepared to take high losses for success but I think as time went by and the quality of recruits fell the successes evaporated and the atrocities increased.

That being said 12th SS performed well around Caen and held up the Normandy breakout significantly despite the heavy losses.
 
Would you say the SS was prioritized to get the latest equipment?

I think that is a hard one to answer accurately as the SS covered a lot of areas from concentration camp guards to Hitler's bodyguard.
Initially I think it fair to say they were not well armed and received a lot of captured equipment and at least initially they took over Danish Bergmann SMG production, but by the end of the war they were being equipped with the same year as the Beer.
 
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