Profile of Esky

In a nutshell:

1. NSDAP formed from right wing paramilitary groups in 1920s/30s

2. Original paramilitary wing was the SA

3. SS formed as alternative power base within party (and indeed were used to wipe out Rohm's SA)

4. By 1930s SS being formed into proper SSVT (military) wing, deployed primarily as camp guards (for example SS Div 'Totenkopf' was initially made up almost completely of concentration camp guards)

5. Waffen SS established and performed well, if not recklessly, in low countries and Poland 1939-1941

6. During WW2 massive expansion of Waffen SS as regime military units deployed in parallel to Wehrmacht, a most unusual arrangement. The big 'Germanic' divisions (Wiking, LSSSAH, Totenkopf, Das Reich etc) were the legendary 'elite' well-resourced and battle-seasoned. Quality of officers always varied from professional ex-regulars to party apparatchiks)

7. Massive expansion also meant dilution of quality. By 1944 majority of SS were foreign volunteers, a back-door way of inflating German troop numbers. About 10% of the SS could be considered 'elite' and these were always the 'Germanic' divisions

8. Hope this helps. The SS have fanbois on internet like Katana fanbois. SS was nasty political military force. Contained many brave, resourceful but ultimately mislead and often evil individuals. Let's not forget that.

Another informative but irrelevant post. Damn. Everyone's an expert, but the actual question was "how many SS were on the eastern front compared to wehrmacht"....for post after post we're getting political answers and primers on what the SS was...

Also, I must point out the "germanic" title wasn't really used for core german SS divisions like the 1st, 2nd, 3rd SS at all as you seem to think, but of foreign non-military formations, and foreign combat units, i.e. the entire "III Germanische SS Corps" consisting of foreigners even after wiking was sent to heeresgruppe süd.

I would also argue that far more than 10% were "elite" in 1944, and I think your use of "germanic" is misleading for the reasons above, but I guess we'd have to debate what "elite" and "germanic" actually means. For elite, there are many regular heer units that became elite not through training, propaganda, material supplied or anything else but combat effectiveness and leadership, while much of the elite talk these days are given because of how many units were formed precisely to be considered "elite" with better equipment and more numerous armor and supplies than any equal SS or Heer units , i.e. grossdeutschland, Lehr, and the big 3 SS divisions.

I would say practically every W-SS frontline combat unit was "elite" in their own right especially when compared to standard allied combat formations of equal strength, i.e. training and combat ability, man for man, squad for squad, company for company, most of them are deserving of "elite" status but go without the fame and "elite" title that the first 3 SS divisions get because of circumstances they were under more than ability or combat effectiveness, good examples are 16th, 17th, 9th, 10th, etc, etc, who were always outnumbered, often had fuel and material shortages, were bombed and strafed to shit, but still held out incredibly well in actual ground combat against overwhelming odds. Of course, the same thing could be said for many, many heer units as well... The problem with axis forces in general wasn't really the quality of soldiers, even in 1944, but the circumstances they fought in.

Well that's a pretty broad statement to be honest.

I remember reading up on the invasion of France, and the Waffen-SS suffered huge loses due to reckless attacks and the will to stay on and fight against impossible odds. Also the Wehrmacht were reluctant to supply the Waffen SS with good equipment as most thought of them as fanatics and poorly trained as soldiers.

That being said as time went on they were developed into an effective fighting machine, that was due to a number of factors such as finally receiving the latest equipment and superior armour in some cases.

I don't think that you can generalise the Waffen-SS as being "elite" there were certainly extremely decorated and effective divisions such as Leibstandarte, Wiking, Das Reich and Hitlerjugened. Notice how I left out Totenkopf, as I believe that they were destroyed and reformed 3 times during their life span. By the end of the war they were made up of SS camp guards, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine (Much like the majority of German units in 45' on the Eastern Front).

So, like all units in World War Two there were good divisions and bad divisions, although I think this idea of the Waffen-SS being somehow superior to the Wehrmacht is quite strange.

I agree wholeheartedly with the last sentence, many heer units were more than equal to "elite" SS divisions...but the hitlerjugend were famous for being destroyed in fanatical but useless attacks, i.e. against canadian forces in normandy...How do you purposefully ignore totenkopf because they were destroyed three times? They also took part in some of the most lopsided battles in all of history and performed quite well.

The defense while encircled at in the Demyansk Pocket was some of the most ferocious fighting of the whole war and the stuff of legend, yea, the 3rd SS was all but completely destroyed there, but they also tied up 18 some odd soviet divisions that surrounded them and held out in the pocket for months ultimately winning one of the most lopsided battles in history, then of course, you have the actions earlier in Barbarossa up to Leningrad, and the later battles of Kharkov where the legend was born, and of course the crushing but fanatical defeat whilst propping up Kursk during the overwelming counter offensive.

So no one is gonna explain me whats kappa ?

MVGame

So many soothlayers around here.

Your system is fine for COH2, the game is just optimized extremely poorly. Turn off VSync and turn AA off and you should be fine.

What does this mean? Optimised extremely poorly?

Sounds like user end to me....