Militaria Archive

Polizei Ausbildungs Bataillon, Oranienburg – Polizei Division France 1940

This photograph album covers one man’s early war service, initially as a Hitler Youth Leader, then in Polizei Ausbildungs Bataillon, Oranienburg. Included also are pictures taken during the filming of a large scale period cinema film. There are many photographs taken at Polizeikaserne Oranienburg (Oranienburg Castle) before being assigned to the Polizei Division during the invasion of France in 1940. This period of fighting in France is covered with firsthand accounts in pages 12-40 of ‘In Good Faith’ The History of the 4. SS-Polizei-Panzer-Grenadier-Division Volume 1: 1939-1943 by Friedrich Husemann. Polizei Ausbildungs Bataillon, Oranienburg was formed in Spring 1940 (this Bataillon later formed the basis of Polizei Bataillon 310 (1/310, 2/310, 4/310)). This man however transferred from Pol.-Ausbildungs-Batl. Oranienburg to the Polizei Division in time for the May 1940 invasion of France (he possibly later moved to Pol.Btl.310). Pictured here are Polizei Division men on the roads around Vouziers and Suippes in the vicinity of Voncq where the Polizei Division faced it’s baptism of fire on 9th and 10th of June 1940 in what was described as ‘The Witches Cauldron’. Other pictures cover the period when the Polizei Division occupied Paris (from 2nd August 1940 to June 1941).