National Socialist Motor Corps

An NSKK man directs traffic in Posen, October 1939

NSKK Female Driver's Badge

Sometime in August 1938, the NSKK began its services as a courier for Organization Todt (OT) during the construction of the Westwall. Members of the NSKK transported classified documents, important reports and announcements, construction plans, and routine papers to and from the organization's headquarters. Exemplary services provided to the Organization Todt resulted in Hühnlein being given oversight for the transportation needs related to the task.[14] Over 15,000 trucks went into operation, delivering building materials to the 22,000 individual construction sites of the Westwall. Daily movements of the 200,000 workers required over 5,000 buses to get the workers to and from the construction sites.[15]

Concomitant to the support provided to Organization Todt during the construction of the Westwall by the NSKK, the organization was also tasked by Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer. He founded a unit known as the "Transport Brigade Speer", which was organized under the auspices of military considerations, dividing them accordingly into regiments, divisions, companies and platoons. On 27 January 1939, Hitler made the NSKK the sole authority for motor-vehicle related military training.[11] Shortly thereafter, the NSKK was divided into 5 main groups and 23 subordinate motor groups. Approximate manpower strength of the NSKK reached nearly half a million men at this stage with its leadership operating primarily out of Munich and Berlin.[16]

With the outbreak of World War II in Europe on 1 September 1939, the National Socialist Motor Corps became a target for army recruitment, since NSKK members possessed knowledge of motorized transport, a coveted skill when the bulk of German ground forces relied on horses. The NSKK was used to transport German Army troops, supplies and ammunition.[2] By the time the Second World War began, the NSKK had already trained some 200,000 men at its 21 training facilities.[8]

During field operations in the Eastern Front, the NSKK members of the Transport Brigade Speer followed Army Group South, providing infrastructural backup and replenishment. Members of the Transport Brigade Speer wore either the gray-blue uniform of the Luftwaffe or the brown uniform of Speer's staff. NSKK men working for Organization Todt became members of the "NSKK Transport Brigade Todt", which were further divided into individual motor groups in the occupied territories.[17]

Major units of the NSKK were formed by 1944, operating throughout Germany. There were two full brigades of the NSKK supporting the Luftwaffe; a Motorobergruppe Alpenland in the Austrian Alps; Motorobergruppe Mitte (middle) which operated in Berlin, Franconia, and the Lower Rhine; Motorobergruppe Nord (north) that covered Hamburg, Lower Saxony, the Baltic Sea and Schleswig-Holstein; Motorobergruppe Nordost (northeast) in Danzig, East Prussia, and Wartheland; Motorobergruppe Ost (east) for Leipzig, Lower and Upper Silesia; Motorobergruppe Süd (south) which served Bavaria and Hochland; Motorobergruppe Südwest (southwest) for the Rhine-Moselle, and Swabian regions; Motorobergruppe Südost (southeast) covering the Upper and Lower Danube, Sudetenland; and Motorobergruppe West (west) which was responsible for Hessen, Thuringia, and Westphalia. Moreover, there were also NSKK units assigned to Organization Todt, operating in France, Italy and Russia.[18] Historian Peter Longerich suggests that members of the NSKK along with the para-military police, the Waffen-SS, and the German Army were all culpable in varying degrees for large-scale arrests, torture, and mass executions.[19]

The French section of the NSKK began shortly after the German occupation of France in 1940. However, the section was not officially recognized until July 1942. The main office was in Paris, but recruitment occurred throughout France. By the end of 1942 there was one company of 200 men; by the end of World War II there had been seven companies raised.[20] The men had to sign up for two years of service. The French NSKK was originally attached to the Luftwaffe, although they wore the standard NSKK uniforms and used its rank system. They did have their own arm badge with the colors of the French flag. The first version had "NSKK" in black letters across the top of the shield; the second version had the word "France" in black letters across the top of the shield.[21]

The original unit was officially known as NSKK Gruppe Luftwaffe and a second one was known as NSKK Transportgruppe Todt.[22] At Melun, the NSKK had its own driving school for French recruits and others from European countries. Before the Schutzstaffel (SS) began to openly recruit members into the Waffen-SS, Frenchmen used the NSKK as a "back-door" to get into the Waffen-SS to fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union. Some French NSKK men were sent to the Eastern Front in a group known as NSKK Einsatzgruppe Russland.[23]

In September 1944, the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS "Charlemagne", was formed. It was formed from the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism or LVF and the SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France. Joining them were French collaborators fleeing the Allied advance in the west, as well as Frenchmen from the German Navy, the NSKK, the Organisation Todt and the detested Milice security police.[24] In February 1945, the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS "Charlemagne" was officially upgraded to a division and became known as the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French).[25]