Kommando

General term for special police and military forces A Kommando (German: [kɔˈmando] ⓘ, lit. "unit" or "command") is a general term for special police and military forces in German, Dutch, and Afrikaans speaking nations. It was also the term in the World War II era Luftwaffe for special units used to test new aircraft for combat readiness (as Erprobungskommando units) and examples existed that only used the "Kommando" name, such as the Luftwaffe Gruppe-sized Kommando Nowotny. In the winter/spring 1945 period, single-plane Kommando-designated units that used the Arado Ar 234 Blitz jet powered reconnaissance-bomber operated from hidden, forest-lined runways in eastern Germany. Before and during World War II, the basic unit of organization of forced labourers in Nazi concentration camps, equivalent to a detail or detachment were referred to as Kommandos. Among the most notable of such units were the Sonderkommandos (lit. 'Special Kommandos'), carrying out the Final Solution by guarding the newly arrived inmates, escorting them to gas chambers, searching the bodies and burning them. Außenkommandos were external work details that were set up, either leaving from the concentration cam