Ransom’s continuous thread is just phenomenal. All you guys are the BEST!
Thanks to Dragon Mother and all her FreeQs.
Loving it all.
Awww Man this is a great catch N.
“Storm detachment”
Can’t make this stuff up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung
Excerpts
The Sturmabteilung (SA; German pronunciation: ), literally “Storm Detachment”, was the Nazi Party’s original paramilitary wing. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies; disrupting the meetings of opposing parties; fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Roter Frontkämpferbund of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD); and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and especially Jews such as during the 1933 Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses.
The SA were colloquially called Brownshirts (Braunhemden) because of the colour of their uniform’s shirts, similar to Benito Mussolini’s blackshirts. Brown was chosen as a colour for the SA uniform because so many of them were cheaply available after World War I, having originally been ordered during the war for colonial troops posted to Germany’s former African colonies.[1] The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, with ranks that were later adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief amongst them the Schutzstaffel (SS). The SS originated as a branch of the SA before it was separated.
After Adolf Hitler ordered the “blood purge” of 1934, he withdrew support from the SA. That event became known as the Night of the Long Knives (die Nacht der langen Messer). The SA continued to exist but was effectively superseded by the SS although the paramilitary forces were not formally dissolved until after Nazi Germany’s final capitulation to the Allies in 1945.