Talk:Maschinen Kommando

The word Kommando was rarely in use in Nazi Germany for combatants; this is a misapplication as "Kommando" means "command" and the term commando used in English, originally for mounted infantry, but later for elite light infantry and special forces, is actually a loan from Afrikaans kommando, not German. The terms used in the Reich for special forces were Brandenburger (from a particular regiment) and Fallschirmjäger (literally "parachute - hunter").

Rather, the most prominent use of the term Kommando in the Third Reich was with work units at the death camps (ie. Sonderkommando lit. "special command", camp prisoners used to guard other prisoners en route to the gas chambers). The closest we get are Einsatzkommando (operational command) units of paramilitary killing squads, which numbered up to 3,000.

''Maschinenkommando would, therefore, mean "machine command" in Third Reich German; the proper term for a machine gunner would actually be Maschinengewehrschütze. ''- 19:39, July 2, 2017 (UTC)