History of the Inventor: Taking into account the goal of the new Reich government from 1933 to develop Germany into a power factor in the world, changes were also made to the structure of the Army Ordnance Office. Growing political tensions in Europe, the danger of an imminent war and the transformation of the previous Wehrmacht office into the High Command of the Wehrmacht as a result of Hitler's takeover of the Reich War Ministry also had an effect on the organisation of the Army Weapons Office. The departments of the office were changed into office groups, in order to do justice to the extended tasks to the war preparation. The attempt to reorganize the Army Weapons Office as the Wehrmacht Weapons Office was no longer successful in February 1945; this measure was taken only on paper, as the transfer of parts of the Army Weapons Office to northern and southern Germany had already begun. In order to implement the order, however, the office was removed from the subordination of the commander-in-chief of the reserve army and directly assigned to the chief of the army armament. The dissolution of the Wehrmacht Weapons Office began on April 27, 1945 on the orders of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Armament and was completed on May 2, 1945. The duties of the Amtsgruppen were as follows: Central Tasks Group (WaZ): The WaZ's activities covered all tasks of an economic and organisational nature that required uniform control or processing for the entire area of the Office. These included in particular issues of internal organisation, including the establishment of the staff budget, budgetary, contractual, price review and legal matters. Official Group for Development and Testing (WaPrüf): It received the requirements for the development and testing of new weapons, equipment and ammunition from the weapons inspections. These requirements were transformed into the corresponding technical requirements for the development of products at industrial companies, which were carried out under the leadership of WaA in close cooperation with them. The examination of proposals was carried out with regard to functional safety, simplification of production, use of materials of low quality, increase in performance of equipment, fundamental innovations (inventions). After the inspection, the manufactured objects were presented to the weapons inspectors for a decision with a corresponding expert opinion. The test took place at the test sites Kummersdorf, Sperenberg-Klausdorf, Grulich, Hillersleben, Rügenwalde, St. Johann in Tyrol, Mittersill and Berka, which are subordinate to the WaA. Chief Engineer (WaChefIng): The Chief Engineer was responsible for technical matters throughout the entire office. He was commissioned to take into account the latest achievements of technology and scientific knowledge in design and mass production. With the departments subordinate to him, he worked already during the development phase on the creation of faultless production documents. This also included monitoring the use of raw materials. Official Groups Industrial Armaments, Weapons and Equipment and Ammunition (WaIRüWuG and WaIRüMun): They prepared mass production in accordance with the requirements of the General Army Office (AHA) and placed orders with industry. The WaIRüWuG had to carry out the orders in peace according to the budget funds allocated for one year and to ensure a monthly performance required by the AHA in wartime. Official group acceptance (WaAbn): The weapons, equipment and ammunition were accepted by the WaAbn offices in the factories. The acceptance conditions were determined in close cooperation with the official groups WaPrüf and WaChefIng on the basis of the technical drawings and delivery conditions. The acceptance ranged from the conformity of the production dimensions with the drawing dimensions, material tests to the practical functional or bulletproof test. State institutions and also the technical universities were consulted to support the official group for the examinations. For the execution of the acceptance, the WaA was responsible for acceptance inspectors and acceptance commands. Research Department (WaF): It had to establish the connection with the other research institutions of the Reich as well as to carry out basic research and also research for specific purposes, as far as this could not be realized within the scope of the activities of other institutes. It had a research laboratory in Gottorp where, for example, the hollow charge was developed and made ready for use. Official group for flak development (GL/Flak-E): The GL/Flak-E was an official group of the Reich Aviation Ministry. She was responsible for the development of the anti-aircraft armament including the anti-aircraft tanks. Its head of the official group was subordinate to the head of the WaA until the creation of the "Chief of Technical Air Armament" office on 20 June 1944. Army Experimental Station Peenemünde As early as 1930, the Army Weapons Office was concerned with the use of the rocket motor for military purposes. The department for development and testing (WaPrüf) was expanded, as was the procurement department, and Group D of the testing department was set up as a department for special equipment with the later subordinate department Heimatartilleriepark 11 (Heeresversuchsstelle Peenemünde). In 1937, the Peenemünde Army Experimental Station was established, which was later called the Peenemünde Army Experimental Station, also known as the Peenemünde Army Experimental Station, and finally, for camouflage reasons, Homeland Artillery Park 11. In 1944, in the course of the mass production of the liquid rocket A4 (V 2), the company was converted into the private company Elektromechanische Werke GmbH, Karlshagen/Pomerania. The development of liquid missiles was the responsibility of a testing department (WaPrüf 11 ) at the Heereswaffenamt, also based in Peenemünde, which was responsible for the Heeresversuchsanstalt. Subordinate Offices These service stations, which are usually directly connected to the Army Weapons Office, had to test and accept weapons and equipment in accordance with the relevant specifications and, if necessary, submit proposals for modifications. As a result of this task, the test sites were mostly located in the immediate vicinity of military training areas and shooting ranges. Editing note: Cassations, including drawings of individual parts, other than redundancies, have been dispensed with. The documents of the Army Weapons Office were originally to be divided into the following individual stocks: - RH 8 I Heereswaffenamt - RH 8 II Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde - RH 8 III Other subordinate agencies (experimental agencies, army inspection agencies, WaA Paris office and special representative OKH/WaA Italy at Army Group B) All files were, however, provisionally signed with "RH 8-I" (and a sequential number) in order to finally re-sign them later to the respective individual holdings. This was waived due to the expediency and in favour of the unity of the stock. The holdings now only bear the signature "RH 8-I", the holdings RH 8-II and RH 8-III are deleted. Citation style: BArch, RH 8/...
