Basics
by
RS
Blanksguy2001@chartermi.net
Short history of the Waffenamt
from Abwehr
A Short History of the Heereswaffenamt (HwaA)
The Third Reich
As Hitler had promised, his military rearmament and conscription programs soon
engendered a dramatic reversal of Germany's unemployment problem. By the end of
1936, the number of registered unemployed had dropped to 1,098,000, and by June
1938 there were only 292,000 persons out of work. Soon there were none, and the
shortage of work was rapidly replaces by a shortage of manpower.
Industry met this challenge head-on by increasing the number of working hours in
a day. By the outbreak of World War II, the workers in many German armaments
factories were working ten and twelve hour days. Eliminating unemployment by
firing up Germany's armament industries to full production capacity did not come
cheaply: over 90 billion RM would be spent for this rearmament from 1933 to
1937.
The task of overseeing this gigantic rearmament process was given to the
Heeresabnahmestelle (the Army Acceptance Organization, commonly referred to as
the Abnahme), a subsidiary of the Heereswaffenamt (the Army Weapons Office). As
shown in the following table, the Abnahme quickly outgrew its small initial
size:
Category WaA
Abnahme
Officers 271
71
Beamte 352
234
Unteroffizeren 174
132
Mannschaften 2,800
2,637
By 1940 the Abnahme consisted of 25,000 men in five departments in 16 inspection
areas, augmented by specially selected plant personnel who were assigned to
assist the Waffenamt inspectors in each manufacturing facility. Later, in the
middle of 1944, approximately 8,000 of these Abnahme inspectors were "freed for
service at the front".
Organization and Responsibilities of the WaA
The Heeres-Abnahmewesen was responsible for the testing and acceptance of all
weapons, equipment and ammunition before delivery to the Wehrmacht. Inspections
were carried out according to detailed guidelines called "Technische
Lieferbedingungen" (TLs) prepared by the various Waffenprufamter (WaPruf)
departments as follows:
Army Weapon Department (WaA) Chief: Artillery General Leeb
Dept. for Development and Testing(WaPruf) Chief: Lt. Gen. John
Wa Pruf No.
Department
1. Ammunition
2. Inf Abt: pistols, rifles, telescopes, Oberst Dr. Hadlen
sights, auto. pistols,
Leader: Oberst Kittel - machine guns, self loaders, Ministeralrat Dr. Peter
-assault rifles and accessories. Wa Pruf 2 I
Rifles and revolvers Leader: Major Eiserbeck
Oberamtmann von Einsiedel Wa Pruf 2 II
Machine Guns Leader: Obersteutnant Breitenbach
Dipl. Ing. Maushart
Dipl. Ing. Eckart
Wa Pruf 2 III
General Equipment Leader: Oberstleutnant Haenel
4. Artillery
5. Pioniere (Engineer) Equipment Fest
Fortress Weapons and Equipment
6. Vehicles and Panzerkampfwagen (tanks)
7. Signal Equipment
8. Optical and Observation Equipment
9. Chemical Weapons (smoke, etc)
10. Rockets
11. Administration
F . Forschung (research)
In addition to the inspections the Waffenamt Prufwesen was charged with the
design and development of practically everything the Army used, except food,
clothing and housing. Lt Gen. Richard John headed this office during almost the
entire war.
The inspection officers and officials of the Abnahme assigned to the various
armament factories were originally Army armourers who had been given civil
service status with the rank of Leutnant (Waffenamt Second Lieuenant). When the
rearmament program began, Waffenamt inspection departments were established in
each factory and armourers were encouraged to apply for positions there. In
preparation for their new duties they were given a four-week course at the
Heereswaffenmeisterschule (Army Armourers School). The course ended with a test
for Technical Inspector which raised the rank of each successful applicant to
that of Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant). At the beginning of 1935, all
inspection officials in the newly created program started on an equal footing as
Technical Inspectors, but by the start of the war in 1939 nearly all of them had
been promoted to Technical Inspector First Class with a rank of Hauptmann
(Captain).
On the average, ten officials were employed in the inspection department of each
factory manufacturing weapons. Several Ordnance and Technical sergeants were
also assigned to each contractor by the Waffenamt organization. At the Mauser
Werke plant in Obernfdorf, for example, the head of the inspection team was a
Technical Administrator with the rank of Major.
The team's duty encompassed inspection of the entire production activity within
the plant; not only final acceptance of the finished product, but all ongoing
inspections of each individual part. As this was beyond the capability of the
ten-man team itself, some of Mauser personnel were assigned to assist the team
in its inspection; however, all test firings, which were performed by factory
personnel remained under the strict supervision of the Abnahme inspectors.
When a Waffenamt officer assumed command of an inspection team he received a
commission number and a correspondingly numbered set of Abnahmestempel or
acceptance stamps, commonly known as the Waffenamt Stamps. If the officer was
transferred to another factory he took his stamps with him, but left the rest of
the inspection team for the next officer. These transfers were not uncommon, and
this can be seen by the change in the Waffenamt Stamp number change in those
used on the P.08 pistol during its manufacture at the Mauser Werke Plant. As we
know, the Heereswaffenamt personnel, and in particular the members of the
Abnahme, were intimately involved with every phase of P.08 production.
Instructions to the Waffenamt inspectors assigned to the various plants were
first issued in early 1936. During the course of the production history of the
P.08, these instructions were continually updated or changed, and many additions
were inserted. As is standard practice with this type of military manual,
changes to individual pages were accomplished by issuing a new page with the
changes, with the date of issue noted at the bottom. The OKH declared these
manuals Staatsgeheimnis (State Secrets), although not all pages were so stamped.
These changes allowed the inspectors to lower the standards of finish we see on
firearms as the war progressed and still provide the German Wehrmact with a
quality product. These standards were utilized until the very end of the war to
assure the weapons reaching the troops were safe to use.
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