German Commanders of World War II (2) Waffen-SS, Luftwaffe & Navy

Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich was born on 28 May 1892 in Hawangen, Bavaria. He spent some time as a trainee hotelier before joining the Bavarian Army as an enlisted man in 1911. He was invalided out of the Army again only weeks after joining Feldartillerie Regiment Nr 4, due to an injury sustained when falling from a horse. Following the outbreak of war in 1914 he applied to enlist once again, and was accepted into the Bavarian artillery. He was wounded in action several times, thereafter bearing the scars from an enemy lance thrust above his left eye and a shell splinter on the right side of his head. After attending the Artillery School and qualifying as a senior NCO, he joined the Sturmtruppe (Assault Troops). This new concept was an attempt to break the deadlock of static trench warfare by introducing self-sufficient spearhead units of men trained in fast-moving assault tactics; as well as small arms and grenades, these Sturmabteilungen had integral trench mortar, machine gun. flame thrower and light infantry gun teams. These picked units displayed high morale, and within them relationships between officers and men were less rigidly formal than was normal in the Imperial Army. The ethos of the Sturmtruppe would later be consciously revived by the future Waffen-SS.
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