16. Storm Troops: Senior Troop Leader, SA We mannschaft, 1943, SA Wehrmannschafts Uniform.
Wehr- With the coming of the Second World War the SA was put on a war footing. Vast numbers of its members were drafted into the Armed Forces and by 1945 as much as 80 percent of its pre-war membership of three million men was serving in the armed forces. By a decree of 1935, Hitler created the SA Wehrmannschaitcn or SA Military Training Defence Groups. These Groups were entrusted with military training both preceding and following the period of regular military service. It was also made responsible for training those males unfit to be accepted by the Armed Forces. The Wehrmannschaften together with other war activities helped restore to the depleted SA some of its lost importance. The demands of the war also gave prominence to the special SA formations listed below. The ordinary rank and file and junior officers of the SA Wehrmannschaften were distinguished from the regular SA by the use of a specially designed Service Cap, modeled it would seem on the similar cap worn by Italian Army troops. Cuff-titles were worn which carried the name of an individual Wehrmannschaft unit and in 1939 the shoulder straps, originally used by the SA for the lower ranks of its formations, underwent a complete revision. The multitude of different straps with their coloured underlays used to indicate various SA districts were abolished. In their place new shoulder straps were introduced worn in pairs which reflected the r81e in which the SA now found itself. All straps had light brown braiding with a fine silver-white chevron design but the nine basic colours used as underlays indicated the following formations: Carmine red: Senior SA Officers, Bright red: SA Group Staff, Light Grey: Foot Units including SA Standarte 'Feldhermhalle', Emerald Green: lager (light infantry), Rifle and Mountain troop units, Lemon Yellow: Signals troops, Gold Yellow: SA Cavalry, Dark Blue: Marine SA Detachments, Mid-Blue: SA Medical units, Black: SA Engineer units.

17. Storm Troops: Stabschefder SA Ernst R�hm, 1933, SA Officers Uniform.
Born in 1887 Ernst R�hm had been a professional soldier for most of his early adult life. As an Army Captain he had been a Company Commander in the 10th Bavarian Infantry Regiment and after the war he had served as political adviser on the staff of General Ritter von Epp, whose Freikorps had 'liberated' Munich from the Communists in 1919. He became a member of the Nazi Party almost from the start and during those early days of the Movement it was he who helped Hitler to organise the fledgling Hall-Guards, later to become known as the Storm Detachments (Sturmabteilung. SA). He left the German Army in 1923 and devoted all his time to building up the SA, the leadership of which was first held by Johann Ulrich Klintsch and then by Hermann G�ring. He took part in the Munich Putsch of November 1923 and with its failure was arrested and imprisoned. On his release, and with Hitler still in Landsberg prison, it was R�hm and Alfred Rosenberg who kept alive the banned Nazi Movement. When Hitler was released from prison he reformed the National Socialist Party and R�hm was once more placed in charge of re-organising and expanding the SA. But disagreement between Rohm and Hitler as to the future course that the SA should take set in which resulted in R�hm leaving Germany in May 1925 to serve as a Staff Officer in the Bolivian Army. During his absence and with Goring in exile and from the time it had been reformed in November 1926 Captain Franz Felix Pfeffer von Salomon took on the leadership of the SA. Five years later in October 1930 R�hm was recalled to Germany by Hitler and with the dismissal of von Salomon, R�hm was appointed Chief-of-Staff of the SA. Hitler took upon himself the position of Supreme Leader of the SA (Oberster SA Fuhrer OSAF). R�hm retained this position up to the time of his murder by order of Hitler as part of the massive purge that was inflicted on the SA Leadership on the night of 30 June 1934. Ernst R�hm is shown here (No. 17) in the SA Tunic and breeches introduced into the SA after June 1932. The use of coloured collar patches and coloured tops to the SA Officers kepi had been in use since August 1929. The collar patch emblem of a gilt six-pointed star set within a wreath of laurel leaves was in all probability designed by R�hm himself or at least on his insistence as the star emblem was copied from those worn by Generals of the Bolivian Army.

18. Storm Troops: SA -Truppf�hrer and Musician from the Horst Wessel Detachment, Berlin-Brandenburg SA District, 1933. The 'Traditionl Uniform'.
The brown shirt worn together with brown breeches, high boots and kepi as shown here in No. 18 was the uniform that had evolved over the years from the first beginnings when only a swastika armband existed to distinguish the members of the early Hall-Guards. Although the uniform as shown in Nos. 17, 24 and 25 became after 1933 the standard type of uniform worn by SA Officers the brown shirt outfit was occasionally worn after this date as a 'Tradition Uniform'.

19. Storm Troops: Obertruppf�hrer, SA Auxiliary Police Berlin-Brandenburg. 1933, Greatcoat as Winter Service Dress.
20. Storm Troops: FJK-Sturmf�hrer, Feldj�gerkorps, 1934, Ceremonial Dress.
In an effort to increase and maintain strict standards of discipline and correct behavior within the growing, and somewhat undisciplined, ranks of the SA, a special unit of handpicked men chosen from the SA, the SS and the Stahlhelm was formed. This unit was charged with the task of acting as an internal police force. Originally this unit, which was formed on 22 February 14133 at the instigation of Hermann G�ring, Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Police, was known as the 'SA Auxiliary Police of the Group Berlin Brandenburg' (Hilfspolizei der Gruppe Berlin Brandenburg). In March of that same year it was retitled 'Field Police of the Group Berlin-Brandenburg' (Feldpolizei der Gruppe Berlin-Brandenburg. The units strength consisted of three Bereitschaften or readiness squads each of sixty men. The men of these squads wore SA uniform and kepi but with a police greatcoat of blue cloth. Their distinctive insignia consisted of a 'Police Star' mounted on to the right hand, black collar patch - the left hand patch showed the wearer's rank - and these parches were worn on both their tunics and greatcoats. The white metal 'Police Star' insignia was also worn on the front of their black topped SA kepi (black was used as the district colour for the Berlin-Brandenburg SA units). When on duty these SA Police wore a white metal duty gorget (No. 19). On 1 October 1933 Goring raised a new unit to be known as the 'FeldJ�gerkorps in Prussia'. Most of the men from the former Field Police units were transferred to this new formation and additional manpower was selected from amongst officers and men of the SA, SS and the SA-Reserve. This new formation had increased powers of discipline. Himmler gave orders that it was to be regarded as a special unit outside the normal area of the established SA and SS units and its regulations laid down that when on duty any members of the Feldj�gerkorps were considered to be superior to all SA and SS officers and men. Their uniform was changed to a white-piped olive-brown tunic and olive brown breeches worn with brown leather waist belt and cross strap. They wore white-collar patches bearing a gilt metal 'Police Star' (right side) and gilt rank insignia (left side) with white tops to their SA kepis. As a mark of office they wore a white metal duty gorget (Ringkragen) which indicated their FJK unit number and they carried long bladed police bayonets. This new formation under the direct control of SA Chief-of-Staff Ernst Rohm (No. 17) and commanded by Oberf�hrer Fritsch consisted of eight detachments or 'Feldj�ger-Abteilungen' each of three Feldj�gerbercitschaEten with 65 men to each squad. These were numbered and stationed as follows: I Konigsberg, II Stettin, IIla Breslau, IIIb Berlin, IV Magdeburg, V Frankfurt am Main, VIa Hannover and VIb Diisseldori. On 1 April 1935 these units were incorporated into the Reich Protection Police and ceased from that time to have direct Party association (see No. 166).

21. Storm Troops: SA -Truppf�hrer, Stabswache G�ring, 1934, Greatcoat as Parade Dress.
When Ernst R�hm was appointed Chief - of - Staffofthe SA in January 1931 he set up a number of' Stabswachen' or Staff Guards, sometimes referred to as Headquarters Guards. These guards were formed to provide a reliable bodyguard of armed officers and men of at least one year's service in the SA or SS who were made responsible for the protection of an individual and his staff considered of importance to the National Socialist Movement. A Staff Guard was set up to protect the Supreme SA Leader (Stabswache der Obersten SA-F�hrung), which at that time was Ernst R�hm. Hermann G�ring was provided with a Staff Guard known as 'Stabswache G�ring' (No. 21) and StaaGuards were organised for SA Leaders of Groups and Senior Groups 'Stabswachen der Obergruppen und Gruppen'. Adolf Hitler had an entire regiment as his bodyguard known as 'Standarte Adolf Hitler'. The members of the Hermann G�ring Staff Guard wore bright red cuff-titles bearing the inscription in silver lettering 'Stabswache G�ring'. They wore the normal pattern SA uniforms - both tunics and the brown shirt together with greatcoats and brown coloured steel helmets. Because these bodyguards were armed they came to be considered as part of the threat to Hitler and the Nazi Movement represented by KGhm with his ambition to create a 'brown army' from 'his' stormtroopers. With the murder of R�hm and the purge of many of the leading SA Officers these Staff Guards were disbanded - all that is except the SA-Standarte 'Adolf Hitler', which developed into the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler (LSAH).

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