Had some thoughts in the wee hours of this morning about the VIIIth Legion. Now, Kais has already noted an operational tendency towards "defeat in detail"; and there's also an obvious penchant for psychological warfare taken to debilitating extremes. But in terms of fleshing out (or, in the case of the Night Lords, *flaying* out), these are still somewhat abstract concepts; and may benefit from having actual units and operational histories to draw from.
Enter the Dirlewanger Brigade. For those unaware, these are basically the literal worst war-criminals [as in, criminals who went to war, whereupon attrocity ensued] you are likely to find in the benighted annals of the Eastern Front. They were so .. almost cartoonishly brutal that even the SS themselves on a number of occasions saw fit to attempt to censure or sanction them [the military courts. etc. never stuck due to political interference, however]. As an example of just /how bad/ we're talking, there was an incident during the Wola Massacre as part of the Warsaw Uprising wherein the men of Dirlewanger stumbled upon a creche of 500 or so Polish children. Dirlewanger ordered them killed (which even members of his own unit reportedly balked somewhat at) ... through the use of bayonets and rifle-butts rather than bullets so as to conserve ammunition. An eyewitness account at the time has "blood and brain matter [flowing] in streams down the stairs".
Anyway, the purpose of this analysis is less to shock/enlighten with historical facts than it is to engage in comparison. And when reading of the Dirlewanger, I could not help but note the perhaps surprising degree of coterminity which they had with the Night Lords in terms of the unit's formation, employment, and tactical shortcomings.
They were put together as something of an anti-partisan force (officially, a small unit -initially at least - of "poachers"; men convicted of certain (narrowly constrained) classes of criminal offence, whose skills and 'criminal initiative' were thought to be of potential use in the relevant form of operation). With time, the strictures upon who was eligible for enlistment with Dirlewanger became virtually nonexistent - and the force grew substantially in size, attracting ever more deplorable varieties of criminal and/or psychopath along the way (like, I'm not even joking - "criminally insane" is a literal legal description of some of the men involved). It also played host to 'local' recruits from Eastern European populations for a number of months, until it was deemed that they were too "unreliable" under fire. During this period, its engagement style evolved from behind-the-lines anti-partisan duties through to a rather more pro-active approach of rollling up in a village, coralling the population into a church or other large building, setting fire to the building, and then shooting anyone who attempted to flee the flames. Exactly such an action is depicted in the Soviet masterpiece film "Come And See". It is a mark of the sort of duties they engaged and revelled in that at the point Dirlewanger Battalion had killed its 15,000th victim [the far and away overwhelming majority of which don't appear to have been partisans], it had lost only 92 men - mostly, apparently, to alcohol and friendly fire incidents.
'Dirlewanger' DID wind up eventually being committed to more 'conventional' warfare toward the latter half of the war - although the results were overwhelmingly negative. During their main engagement with the Russians as part of Army Group Center, they lost somewhere over 50% of their men; whereas during the Warsaw Uprising they apparently suffered 315% casualties (as in, they lost several times over the number of men they went in with - which was only possible due to the steady stream of criminals who were continually able to be supplied to the unit). Toward the War's end, 'Dirlewanger' started to steadily disintegrate (even as it was officially bulked out into the status of a full Division), and you wind up with incidences like one of the "Division's" component regiments lynching its commanding officer [for reasons which, whilst never officially confirmed, may have had something to do iwth the fact hta tthe officer in questoin was the former commandant of Dachau - where a number of the criminals now in Dirlewanger had previously been imprisoned...].
Anyway. The parallels iwth the Night Lords ought be immediately obviously apparent. In both cases, we have a force deliberately constructed out of criminals and designed for anti-insurrectionary operations, who made oblique terror-tactics and seriously inhuman brutality their calling cards. Again, in both cases, we also have formations which were frightningly effective (arguably) in their particular combat role (well, they were certainly frightening, at any rate); yet which were ultimately "wasted" on conventional engagements. Additional problems of a fractious approach to discipline and internal morale coupled with cowardilness and a certain penchant towards friendly fire (of an occasionally quite deliberate nature hwen it came to offing hated erstwile superiors and the like) further stand out as similarities. We can also arguably trace the steady deterioration in 'Dirlewanger' to the demands for its swift expansion which lead to the incorporation of ever more outwardly deranged recruits - which is pretty much exactly what happened with the VIIIth Legion following the admission of Nostraman born inductees.
When reading about the Durlewanger Battalion's activities and makeup I couldn't help but recall a certain Sevatar quote:
""Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!""
Now, as it happens, there are some other units and practices which may be relevant for a proper discussion of the VIIIth. In specia, the talk about gangs turning up in the US Military. Although I think I might save more detailed analysis on this for if/when I get around to writing up something on the XVIth Legion - whom I basically perceive as operating on exactly this cultural model...
Enter the Dirlewanger Brigade. For those unaware, these are basically the literal worst war-criminals [as in, criminals who went to war, whereupon attrocity ensued] you are likely to find in the benighted annals of the Eastern Front. They were so .. almost cartoonishly brutal that even the SS themselves on a number of occasions saw fit to attempt to censure or sanction them [the military courts. etc. never stuck due to political interference, however]. As an example of just /how bad/ we're talking, there was an incident during the Wola Massacre as part of the Warsaw Uprising wherein the men of Dirlewanger stumbled upon a creche of 500 or so Polish children. Dirlewanger ordered them killed (which even members of his own unit reportedly balked somewhat at) ... through the use of bayonets and rifle-butts rather than bullets so as to conserve ammunition. An eyewitness account at the time has "blood and brain matter [flowing] in streams down the stairs".
Anyway, the purpose of this analysis is less to shock/enlighten with historical facts than it is to engage in comparison. And when reading of the Dirlewanger, I could not help but note the perhaps surprising degree of coterminity which they had with the Night Lords in terms of the unit's formation, employment, and tactical shortcomings.
They were put together as something of an anti-partisan force (officially, a small unit -initially at least - of "poachers"; men convicted of certain (narrowly constrained) classes of criminal offence, whose skills and 'criminal initiative' were thought to be of potential use in the relevant form of operation). With time, the strictures upon who was eligible for enlistment with Dirlewanger became virtually nonexistent - and the force grew substantially in size, attracting ever more deplorable varieties of criminal and/or psychopath along the way (like, I'm not even joking - "criminally insane" is a literal legal description of some of the men involved). It also played host to 'local' recruits from Eastern European populations for a number of months, until it was deemed that they were too "unreliable" under fire. During this period, its engagement style evolved from behind-the-lines anti-partisan duties through to a rather more pro-active approach of rollling up in a village, coralling the population into a church or other large building, setting fire to the building, and then shooting anyone who attempted to flee the flames. Exactly such an action is depicted in the Soviet masterpiece film "Come And See". It is a mark of the sort of duties they engaged and revelled in that at the point Dirlewanger Battalion had killed its 15,000th victim [the far and away overwhelming majority of which don't appear to have been partisans], it had lost only 92 men - mostly, apparently, to alcohol and friendly fire incidents.
'Dirlewanger' DID wind up eventually being committed to more 'conventional' warfare toward the latter half of the war - although the results were overwhelmingly negative. During their main engagement with the Russians as part of Army Group Center, they lost somewhere over 50% of their men; whereas during the Warsaw Uprising they apparently suffered 315% casualties (as in, they lost several times over the number of men they went in with - which was only possible due to the steady stream of criminals who were continually able to be supplied to the unit). Toward the War's end, 'Dirlewanger' started to steadily disintegrate (even as it was officially bulked out into the status of a full Division), and you wind up with incidences like one of the "Division's" component regiments lynching its commanding officer [for reasons which, whilst never officially confirmed, may have had something to do iwth the fact hta tthe officer in questoin was the former commandant of Dachau - where a number of the criminals now in Dirlewanger had previously been imprisoned...].
Anyway. The parallels iwth the Night Lords ought be immediately obviously apparent. In both cases, we have a force deliberately constructed out of criminals and designed for anti-insurrectionary operations, who made oblique terror-tactics and seriously inhuman brutality their calling cards. Again, in both cases, we also have formations which were frightningly effective (arguably) in their particular combat role (well, they were certainly frightening, at any rate); yet which were ultimately "wasted" on conventional engagements. Additional problems of a fractious approach to discipline and internal morale coupled with cowardilness and a certain penchant towards friendly fire (of an occasionally quite deliberate nature hwen it came to offing hated erstwile superiors and the like) further stand out as similarities. We can also arguably trace the steady deterioration in 'Dirlewanger' to the demands for its swift expansion which lead to the incorporation of ever more outwardly deranged recruits - which is pretty much exactly what happened with the VIIIth Legion following the admission of Nostraman born inductees.
When reading about the Durlewanger Battalion's activities and makeup I couldn't help but recall a certain Sevatar quote:
""Because the Wolves kill cleanly, and we do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!""
Now, as it happens, there are some other units and practices which may be relevant for a proper discussion of the VIIIth. In specia, the talk about gangs turning up in the US Military. Although I think I might save more detailed analysis on this for if/when I get around to writing up something on the XVIth Legion - whom I basically perceive as operating on exactly this cultural model...
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