(SS-VT, ) was formed in 1934 as combat troops for the Nazi Party (NSDAP). On 17 August 1938 Adolf Hitler decreed that the SS-VT was neither a part of the (order police) nor the , but military-trained men at the disposal of the . In time of war, the SS-VT were to be placed at the disposal of the army.
The SS-VT were involved in the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. By 1940 these military SS units had become the nucleus of the .
Formation
The SS-VT was formed on 24 September 1934 from a merger of various Nazi and paramilitary formations such as the SS Special Detachments (SS-Sonderkommandos) and the Headquarters Guard (SS-Stabswache) units. The SS-VT was to be made up of three regiments modeled on the infantry regiments of the German Army (Heer) and according to their regulations. Each regiment would contain three battalions, a motorcycle company and mortar company. The unit was officially designated SS-Verfügungstruppe ("Dispositional troops", i.e. troops at the personal disposal of the Führer). The men were to be volunteers who had completed their service in the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD; Reich Labour Service).
The existence of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) was publicly declared on 16 March 1935 by Hitler in a speech at the Reichstag. The SS-VT had to depend on the German Army for its supply of weapons and military training, and they had control of the recruiting system through local draft boards responsible for assigning conscripts to the different branches of the Wehrmacht to meet quotas set by the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW in German). The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits, thereby limiting its size.
In 1936, Himmler selected former Lieutenant General Paul Hausser to be Inspector of the SS-VT with the rank of Brigadefuhrer. Hausser worked to transform the SS-VT into a credible military force that was a match for the regular army. The SS-VT trained alongside Hitler's personal body guard the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), which had also been formed from the SS-Stabswache and SS-Sonderkommando Berlin. The LSSAH under the command of Josef "Sepp" Dietrich continued to serve exclusively as a personal protection unit for Hitler and an honor guard during this timeframe.
By 1937 the SS was divided into three branches: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS), the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), and the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) which administered the concentration camps. On 17 August 1938 Hitler decreed that the SS military formations were to be placed at the "disposal" of the army in time of war. Hitler stated, at Himmler's request, that service in the SS-VT qualified to fulfill military service obligations. Further, during wartime units of the SS-TV would be used as reserves for the SS-VT. Over the course of the war this led to a constant flux of men between the Waffen-SS and the Nazi concentration camps.
The military formations under Himmler's command on 1 September 1939 consisted of several subgroups: Hitler's bodyguard unit, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) under Sepp Dietrich. The Inspectorate of Verfügungstruppe under Paul Hausser, which commanded the Deutschland, Germania and Der Führer regiments. The Concentration Camps Inspectorate (Inspektion der Konzentrationslager) under Theodor Eicke, which fielded four militarized Death's-Head Standarten comprising camp guards of the SS-Totenkopfverbände. The SS-Totenkopf Division was initially formed from concentration camp guards of the Standarten (regiments) of the SS-TV and the SS Heimwehr Danzig in October 1939. It was then folded into the Waffen-SS in August 1940. These troops wore the SS-TV skull and crossbones rather than the SS-VT "SS" runes. There were in addition combat-trained non-SS police units of Obergruppenführer Kurt Daluege's Ordnungspolizei which reported to Himmler in his capacity as Chief of German Police. For the 1940 campaigns these also would be formed into a division, which would be placed under Waffen-SS control in January 1941 and merged into it in February 1942.