Posted 11 years ago
bluemax1914
(71 items)
The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment (brigade), the LSSAH eventually grew into an elite division-sized unit. The term Leibstandarte was derived partly from Leibgarde – a somewhat archaic German translation of "Garde du Corps" or personal bodyguard of a military leader ("Leib" = lit. "body, torso") – and Standarte: the Schutzstaffel (SS) or Sturmabteilung (SA) term for a regiment-sized unit.
The LSSAH independently participated in combat during the invasion of Poland, and was amalgamated into the Waffen-SS together with the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT) and the combat units of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) prior to Operation Barbarossa in 1941. By the end of World War II it had been increased in size from a regiment to a Panzer division.
This is a museum-quality replica of the original that was thrown at the foot of Lenin's tomb with hundreds of other captured Nazi banners and standards after the Victory Parade in June, 1945. It now resides in the Moscow Military Museum.