Organization
Considering that the new Waffen-SS unit of parachutists had to be employed in dangerous actions behind enemy lines, it was decided to extend enlistment to those in the SS disciplinary units which were formed from officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers who had problems with military law. An order of the SS-FHA (the SS High Command) fixed a percentage of 50% for the unit coming from volunteers of Waffen-SS units, the rest from volunteers from the disciplinary units.
Per Massimiliano Afiero, in The Crusade against Bolshevism; European Voluntary Legions (1941–1944), Vol.1, states that many witnesses and historians placed excessive emphasis on the presence of these disciplinary personnel in the unit, mainly because of the identification number 500, assigned also to a penal unit of the Wehrmacht.
The gathering of personnel for the new unit was in Chlum in Czechoslovakia in October 1943. The first commander of the battalion was SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Gilhofer, coming from the 21st SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment of the 10th SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg. In November 1943, the battalion began its training in Madanrushka-Banja (Mataruška banja), close to Sarajevo, with the Luftwaffe Fallschirmschule number 3. The training was completed in the area around Pápa, Hungary at the beginning of 1944.
Read more about this topic: 500th SS Parachute Battalion
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