Waffen SS Snipers

G

Graywinter

Mongoose
I read a blurb on Wiki about snipers in the SS:

In the video game, Medal of Honor: Frontline, Waffen SS soldiers were encountered throughout the game, and some of them were employed as snipers however, this is not realistic as the Waffen SS considered sniping as the Wehrmachts job.
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Anyone know anything about this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen_SS

EDIT: I found lots of references to SS snipers and the fact that they thought of it as a dishonorable way of fighting. Odd that they felt that way yet still did it.
 
There's a difference between "doing what is honorable" and "doing what is needed for victory."

How's the old saying go?

Anything worth fighting for, is worth fighting dirty for.

-bRm

p.s. hi Gray, it's your new Soviet convert :P
 
big RED many said:
There's a difference between "doing what is honorable" and "doing what is needed for victory."

How's the old saying go?

Anything worth fighting for, is worth fighting dirty for.

-bRm

p.s. hi Gray, it's your new Soviet convert :P
Click to expand...

Cool! I'm glad you finally made on it. Now get painting, my SS need something new to shoot at. :P
 
Well, SS units did have a tendency to spend lots of time dying in a fight the Wehrmacht would have backed away from sooner.

Being a nazi thug doesn't nescesarily mean you're stupid though. They had snipers just like everybody else did.
 
Well, as family history goes, one of my dads uncle (from the side that still lived in Germany) was in the SS. I have to say, he always seemed like a smart guy to me. College educated and all. Would have never guessed he was what he was during the war.

So, I'm sure some sterotypes are true, and some aren't. As for snipers, I asked him about that and he just shrugged and said "Everyone had them. Us....them. The Russ more than anyone."
 
There were SS and there were SS. Plenty of stories about people enrolling in SS to get a higher education or a career. Also, Whermacht did not employ non-germans or half-germans. So if you wanted to fight the russians you had to employ in the SS.

Remember, everything is not black and white, and the Soviet Union were percieved by many in Europe as the bad guys. We know now that the nazis were evil, hindsight is a very nice thing to have.
 
Laffe said:
Also, Whermacht did not employ non-germans or half-germans. So if you wanted to fight the russians you had to employ in the SS.
Click to expand...

Er... No...

Plenty of foreign volunteers and formations in the Wehrmacht.

Roughly 2,000,000 in the Wehrmacht in total.
 
Heaven forbid we let history get in the way of our personal notions!
The Wehrmact did employ foreign troops. One merely has to look at the orders of battle of troops in Normandy to see the large number of Ostbattalions used to back this up.
The SS were not Khorne Berzerkers or Fuzzy Wuzzy fanatics, they were a professional military force -- elite -- and used snipers.
 
Hmmm...

Not all Waffen-SS are elite...

Indeed by mid '44 few were.

I would hardly term Handschar or other Balkan formations elite. Only a few maintained any sembalance of 'elite' status throughout the war, the rest were as varied as the rest of the Heer fomations.

Giving all Waffen-SS units 'elite' status is wrong in my book, many were no better than Heer units and many were far worse in some cases.

If you are recreating a unit from 1st SS LAH or one of the other 'premier' units then they may be deserving of a higher morale rating, but the other and more prolific Late-War units would be at best classed as 'regular'.

To think otherwise is to decieve oneself into the whole 'Waffen-SS = Ubersoldat" school of thought (or lack of thought! :wink: )
 
All true!
If you want your SS force to have a more normal status use the Grenadier list, pay less in points, get less skills and all is fine.
:)
 
Then you're forgetting one of the key tenants...

... historical accuracy / realism gives way to game logic. Game logic will have the Waffen-SS as an elite unit, despite what historical accuracy says. I mean, take a look at Modern Combat or Evolution. Realism would really have the US steam rolling the opponent through combined arms and overall capabilities. Game Logic, though, says 'hey, everyone is effectively capable on the same level to defeat each other'.

Besides, Uber Nazis sell!
 
So do I get to have you roll for available supplies, disease, what kind of weather you're suffering, and whether or not my soldiers have managed to infiltrate into your rear area? ;)
 
Hey, I aint that bad!

Just a roll to see how many of my men are feeling 'depressed and disillusioned' will do.

And dont mention ammo supplies... Played some awful rules with ammo limits, not too mewntion a set that needed a protractor to work out the AP rounds angle relevant to the tanks armour...

Only played that set of rules once, before I burnt it...
 
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