The Waffen-SS Get Involved

o the end of the war, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-lOs, G-14s and K-4s, together with the Focke-Wulf 190 A-8s, A-9s and D-9s were the single – engined fighters still operating in large numbers. Of these about 4,800 were delivered to the units between 1 January 1945 and the capitulation. About 3,000 were Bf 109s and 1,800 Fw 190s. The Та 152 C and H played an increasingly minor role once their production centres were overrun by the Red Army. Only Та 152 H-Os continued to run off the assembly lines. The Me 262 A-la grew in significance. By April 1945,1,400 had been turned out, but not all reached Luftwaffe units. During the last three months of the war a second jet, the He 162 Volksjager, was certified operational by OKL. Industry produced 180 of these machines while roughly another 400-500 were still under construction. Powerful armament proved the value of this machine in later operational work, but the entanglement of the SS in armaments was disadvantageous. Himmler reduced the role of the SS-WHA under Gruppenfiihrer Oswald Pohl, a move welcomed by Gruppenfiihrer Jiittner, head of the SS-FHA, and by Gruppenfiihrer Kammler. The latter had proven himself an outstanding success in connection with SS planning and he seemed a suitable choice to handle far more difficult assignments. After being given control of production of V-weapons, Kammler enlarged his sphere of influence within the SS to cover armament procurement as a whole. When he was given additional far-reaching powers by Hitler, the SS could begin to draw up demarcation lines quite openly for its presumed zones, the intention being that it would eventually ensnare in the medium term all aircraft, weapons and especially rocket production.