SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers

Lineage

• SS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie
• SS-Kriegsberichter-Abteilung
• SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers

History

By August of 1941 many additional units were fighting as part of theWaffen-SS. As a result, also during August of 1941, theSS-Kriegsberichter-Kompanie was expanded to Abteilung (battalion)strength. Waffen-SS expansion continued to grow throughout the war, and inDecember 1943 the reporters unit again expanded, this time to regimentalsize. It also received an honor title at this point, becoming known asSS-Standarte Kurt Eggers. It also received a cuff-title bearing thesame name. Kurt Eggers was the former editor of the SS magazine DasSchwarz Korps. He was killed in action west of Kharkov while serving withthe 5.SS-Division on August 13, 1943

Gunter d’Alquen commanded the SS-Kriegsberichter unit for its entireexistence. He held the Allgemeine-SS rank of Standartenführer, andbegan his Waffen-SS command in 1940 as a Waffen-SS Hauptsturmführer derReserve. During the course of the war, he was gradually promoted until hebecame a Waffen-SS Standartenführer der Reserve at his regimentalcommand.

Under d’Alquen was a staff that processed the incoming material, as wellas photographers, movie cameramen, writers, broadcaster and recorders, allwho served in the field. The men in the field did their service with thevarious platoons assigned to the assorted Waffen-SS formations. Thereporters generally served with several different platoons during the war,and many new reporters joined during the war’s course. Non-Germans mostoften served with their own national formations, but were sometimesdetached to cover a particular campaign and report on it for their homepress.

Organization

Commanders