3 Kompanie 17th SS Gotz von Berlichingen Reenactment/Living History

Remember to go follow/like our Hermann Goring division page. With Australia how it is and events banning anything Waffen SS related, HG has become our main focus. That being said we will still continue to do SS at some private events.

The men make ready to settle into guard duty. Hopefully it will be a quiet watch.

The Pioniere Spähtrupp identifies a potential location that the enemy could use to flank the HG positions. The area will be mined with a mix of anti personnel and anti tank mines shortly to deny the enemy freedom of movement.

Some photos of our encampment at History alive this year as the Hermann Goring division.

With how the world currently is going and the new laws in Australia the group unfortunately wont be portraying the 17th SS anywhere near as much as we did. With that in mind make sure to go over to our Hermann Goring division impression page and follow that to see what we are up to the majority of the year.

Some photos from a recent interstate tactical some of our members attended.
Our medic assists our Heer comrades in Reenact SA

The men enjoy a quick coffee and cigarette during a break.

Coffee time. Otto boils up some water for coffee during a quick break from digging.

The digging continues, foliage is added to conceal the positions. This way American patrols can be ambushed and will struggle to call in accurate artillery fire.

The men of GvB start digging in. On the 13th of June 1944 the 17th SS alongside the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment launched a counter attack to retake Carentan. Elements of the US 101st Airborne were routed but American reinforcements in the form of armour stopped the 17th SS from retaking the town. From here Gotz would be heavily outnumbered and on the defensive. Constantly defending and giving ground. Here some men of 3 Kompanie start digging in along a small road in order to slow down the allied advance.

Time for some historical/reenacting myth busting. The first reenactorism myth that needs to go away is the belief that even in 1944 SS men were all young (teenagers to early 20s) and volunteers. Over ten years of re-enacting I have heard this nonsense spouted far to many times from people all over the globe. It is simply not true in the slightest.

Seeing this group reenacts the 17th SS let us look at actual evidence from that unit, a "late war" unit formed in 1943 and first seeing action in Normandy, 1944. To do so presented here is passages from the units own records and photos showing that not all men were volunteers, in fact most were conscripts from all over Reich controlled or friendly lands. And that a solid number of them were older men. If your being conscripted your clearly not a indoctrinated volunteer.

The reports from GvB mention that by 1943 conscription was implemented to create new Waffen SS units and that large numbers of them were Volksdeutsche from outside the borders of Germany. Ranging from areas such as Alsace-Lorraine, Hungary, Italy plus many more. Some coming as far away as Romania. Some couldn't even speak beyond very basic/broken German.

Here we also see that the division reports that 13.5% of its men were older then 34. Many people may try and claim that this would be officers. This is blatantly wrong when you factor in that GvB had a critical shortage of officers and ncos. Then when you look at photos you see older men in the rank and file. III Kompanie of the 37th SS Panzergrenadier regiment (which we mostly portray) even mentions 53.2% of its men were youth under 23. It is therefore safe to say that even in the panzergrenadier ranks there were men in their 30's and when you go to more rearline units such as artillery, signals, flak etc there would be even more men in their 30-40's as stated by GvB themselves.

As the war goes on more and more older men would find themselves in the frontline ranks of the SS as evidenced by looking at surviving soldbuchs. Clearly this myth of only young indoctrinated men in the SS even in 1944 is utter nonsense.

3 Kompanie has the honour of re-enacting alongside this new group that is forming in Queensland focusing on 41 Royal Marine Commando. Be sure to go give them a like/follow. If you live in or near Queensland and have ever thought of re-enacting the British side of things be sure to reach out to them.