Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I was just checking out Sebastian Bianchi's Wehrmacht rank chart on this site, and wondered why, on two occasions, he has listed Reichsführer as the equivalent of a Field Marshall. The rank of Reichsführer was a political appointment wasn't it, not a military one, so why is it listed as such? Thanks!
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Since the SS didn't have a field marshal rank, Reichsfuhrer was as close of an equivalent as you can get, which is why you often see it equated to FM.
Interestingly enough, there evidently was plan for a field marshal rank in the Waffen SS to be called Volksmarschall and would've been awarded to Sepp Dietrich had the Ardennes offensive been a success. -
Wow Mike, I've never heard that before! Was it just talk or was anything put on paper at all?Comment
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You can probably find a little bit about it by doing a google search, but offhand I don't remember exactly where I read about it....though I have heard this several times over the years. I do know there exist Russian capture photos of diagrams for a SS FM baton and there is a collector here in the US who has what may be a prototype (I should have photos of on my site at some point in the near future). I don't know what other information there is out there, but perhaps somebody else will chime in.Comment
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Himmler was in command of all the military forces toward the end of the war on the Vistula, which would have been commanded by a GFM rank. Of course he didn't do a good job of it -- but that's another story.
BobComment
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