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The Avengers of Roehm:The Black Front

An organization of Nazis opposed to the policies and politicsof Adolf Hitler, the Black Front was established in 1930 by

Nazi politician Otto Strasser. A leader of the left-wing of the Nazi Party, Strasser had campaigned to redirect the focus of the NSDAP towards more socialist causes such as support of labour and the nationalizing of nancial institutions, as well as a closer relationship with the USSR. His vision at odds with that of other

Nazi leaders who feared that such socialist leanings would alienatethe German middle class and especially those industrialists whosupported the Nazi Party, Strassers faction of the NSDAP wasdealt a decisive defeat at the Bamberg Conference held in 1926.Following this meeting of Nazi leaders to determine the focus of their party and eliminate dissent within its own ranks, Adolf Hitler was established as the sole governing voice and ultimate authoritywithin the NSDAP.

Otto Strasser remained amember of the NSDAPuntil his continuingadvocacy of the left wing

nally caused Hitler to expel him from the

party in 1930. Strasser retaliated by forming theUnion of Revolutionary

National Socialists, a political organizationcomposed of socialist

Nazis who consideredHitlers increasing tieswith German industryand Conservatives to

be a betrayal of the NSDAPs politicalideals. This organization adopted the crossed hammer and sword

as their symbol and intended to cause a split within the main NaziParty by sowing discord and dissent against Hitler.

Strassers organization would soon change its focus from propaganda and political dissent to assassination and terrorism, becoming the Black Front.

On February 27th, 1933, the Reichstag was set on re by arsonists.Blaming the ames on Communist terrorists, Hitler used the re asan excuse to assume complete control of the German government.Otto Strasser, understanding that there was nothing between Hitler and absolute power now, immediately ed Berlin. The organizationhed established, with its secret members throughout the Nazi

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Issue 13Party, the German military and even the SS aided Strasser in hisescape, providing intelligence and direct assistance to the enemyof their nations Fuehrer. While the headquarters of the Black Frontwas being ransacked by the Gestapo in Berlin, the organizationsleader slipped into the Thuringian countryside. Hiding out in thecountry, he dispatched orders to all members of the Black Front.

Those whose af liation was known to the Gestapo were to eeGermany. Those whose membership in the organization was not public knowledge were to immediately in ltrate the German army,the SS and the Nazi Party itself.

Through use of the telephone, Strasser continued to run the Black Front from inside Germany. Contacts within the SS and Gestapowarned him in advance when captured Black Front agents brokeand divulged their leaders whereabouts. Slipping past SS cordons,Strasser relocated his headquarters rst to isolated locations inBavaria. Narrowly escaping arrest by the SS in Bavaria, Strasser held one last meeting with the leaders of the Black Front beforecrossing the Bavarian Alps into Austria under the very noses of

German frontier guards. Behind him he left a squad of assassinsdespatched by Hermann Goering for the express purpose of killinghim. All the murderers found was the deserted farmhouse Strasser had been hiding in at Chiemsee.

May 10th, 1933 foundOtto Strasser leavingGermany for Austria.Soon he established thenew headquarters of the Black Front in thecapital of Vienna. Soon,Strassers organization

began publishing aanti-Hitler newspaper called The Secret Sender and smuggling it acrossthe border into Germany.Such activities ensuredthat neither Strasser nor his Black Frontwould be forgotten bythe Nazis. On July 4th,1933, after a series of

bombings and terroristacts committed by the Austrian Nazi Party, the Austrian policemade an attempt to arrest Strasser as the perpetrator of the attacks.Instead of laying the blame for the bombings on the Austrian NaziParty, the Viennese Chief of Police Dr Otto Steinhausl held theBlack Front as the responsible party. A pro-German conspirator,Steinhausl would later be made an SS-Oberfuehrer followingthe annexation of Austria by Germany. Because of Steinhauslsefforts, Otto Strasser found himself the most wanted man not onlyin Germany, but also Austria.

Escaping Austrian police, Strasser was able to ee toCzechoslovakia. Having already made preliminary plans for a Black Front stronghold in Prague, Strasser left Austria and


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established himself in Prague. However, even in Czechoslovakia,Strasser was not beyond the reach of his enemies. Gestapo agents,

posing as Prague police, attempted to arrest Strasser, giving up onlywhen they were deceived by Strassers phony German passport.

Given a respite, Strasser continued to publish and smuggle anti-Hitler literature into Germany. Stickers produced in Prague

bearing the symbol of the Black Front were likewise smuggledinto Germany, there to nd their way onto walls, posters and

even the desks of Nazi of cials. The continuing agitation by theBlack Front caused the Gestapo to make another attempt on theorganizations leader.

In March, 1934, a wealthy man calling himself Mr. Frankapproached Otto Strasser in Prague. Claiming to represent anAmerican anti-Nazi organization, he offered to nance Strassersefforts to the tune of sixty thousand crowns in exchange for a ve-thousand copy circulation of The Secret Sender. Three monthslater, Mr. Frank, actually a Gestapo agent named Wenzel Heindlapproached Strasser about attending an important meeting with hisemployer in Paris, lacing his invitation with vague whisperingsof upcoming political turmoil in Germany. Upon arrival in Paris,

however, Strasser was told by Heindl that his employer had goneto Saarbrucken to meet with the anti-Nazi author Konrad Heiden.Strasser agreed to go to Saarbrucken, but upon meeting with his oldfriend Heiden he discovered that the writer didnt know anythingabout Heindl or any American anti-Nazi group.

Suspecting a trap, Strasser made his excuses to Heindl and slippedaway before any SS men who had crossed over the German frontier

could arrest him. The Gestapo, however, was persistent and wouldtry again.

On June 30th, 1934, Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich and Goeringorchestrated the Blood Purge against the leadership of the SA.On this Night of the Long Knives, the remaining elements of the socialist arm of the NSDAP were exterminated by the SSand Gestapo. Many Nazi leaders were executed, including SAleader Ernst Roehm, some like Berlin SA chief Walther Stennes

managing to escape into exile. Gregor Strasser, Ottos brother andan early rival of Hitlers within the NSDAP was another victim of the Blood Purge. Having remained in Germany where for severalyears he published an anti-Hitler weekly newspaper titled TheBlack Front; Strasser was arrested by the Gestapo in Berlin. OnJune 30th, 1934, Gregor Strasser was murdered in his cell whenGestapo agents shot him through the window.

When Heindl reappeared in Prague, he used the Blood Purge asevidence of an anti-Hitler movement within Germany and chidedStrasser for not helping it succeed. He again invited Strasser toconfer with his employer, this time in London. The plane, Heindlsaid, could be piloted by Strassers friend, a Jewish-German exile

named Dr. Mahr. Still suspicious, Strasser asked the Chief of Police in Prague to check on Heindl. The Gestapo agent ed before

police could question him, but interrogation of Dr. Mahr revealedhis complicity in the plot to abduct Strasser. Another trusted Black Front operative, Alfred Franke-Griksch, was implicated in theearlier Paris plot, but escaped to Switzerland before he could betaken into custody. He would return with German forces in 1939to help the Gestapo hunt the back streets of Prague for Black Frontagents.

Along with The Secret Sender, Otto Strasser was able to establish a private radio station, broadcasting into Germany three times a dayfrom Zahori, southwest of Prague. This would be the Voice of theBlack Front. He was aided in this endeavour by Rudolf Formis, aradio-technician who had sabotaged transmission of several Hitler speeches before eeing to Czechoslovakia. For many months, theBlack Fronts radio station broadcast from the very doorstep of Hitlers Germany. All of that came to an end on January 26th, 1935when two SS men and a female accomplice assassinated Formisand destroyed his equipment.

In September of 1935, still headquartered in Prague, Otto Strasser was approached by a SS man named Heinrich Grunow. Grunowwas one of Hitlers bodyguards at Berchtesgaden but now wishedto join the Black Front, intent on avenging the death of ErnstRoehm. He had a plan that would present a perfect opportunityto kill Hitler. He informed Strasser that a new road was beingconstructed at Berchtesgaden and that its current condition wouldnot allow for fast driving. It would present a prime chance toassassinate Hitler. A marksman could hide himself at a particular curve and when Hitlers car slowed to take the turn

Strasser agreed to support Grunows plan. Along with a senior Black Front agent named Eitel Sturm, Grunow was sent back intoGermany to carry out his scheme. Hiding in the hills, armed withri es, the two assassins eagerly awaited the arrival of Hitler on hisweekend sojourn to the Eagles Nest. Tensely Sturm awaited theapproach of the car while the vengeful Grunow passed the hours


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as still as a statue, hate shining in his eyes.Finally the Fuehrers car appeared makingits way down the road. In the dim twilighttwo men were visible seated in the front of the vehicle. Without hesitation, Grunow rosefrom hiding and red two shots into the man inthe passenger seat. As the stricken man criedout and rose to his feet, Sturm sent a third

bullet smashing through his skull. Panicked,

the man behind the wheel of the car threw thevehicle into motion and sped away, the corpseof his passenger collapsed in the back seat.

Convinced he had murdered Hitler anddetermined never to fall into the hands of theGestapo, Grunow drew his pistol, thrust the

barrel into his mouth and blew his brains out.Sturm raced back to Prague to deliver the newsto Strasser. However, two days later a very different story emergedin the German newspapers. No mention of an assassination wasmade, but there was a report that Julius Schreck, Hitlers chauffeur,had died as a result of complications from an infected tooth. The

grim truth of what had happened was obvious to Strasser. For someunknown reason, Hitler had been driving the car and Schreck had

been sitting in the passenger seat. Instead of shooting Hitler, theassassins had murdered Schreck. Again, some perverse whim of fate had preserved the Fuehrers life.

Another chance at Hitler came to the Black Front in February of 1936. A German engineer, Franz Steinberg was entrusted withthis new mission to kill Hitler. He was informed that Hitler would

be leaving Berlin to celebrate the Rhineland occupation at theSpeyer Cathedral. The journey would be made by train and histrain would cross the Mannheim railroad bridge. Together witha railroad dispatcher named Wolfgang Eberle, Steinberg would

bring down the bridge and with it Hitlers train. The operationwas made more dif cult by the fact that Hitlers train was always

preceded by a guide train which would encounter any explosives rst, however the Black Frontfound a way around this problem. They wouldmanually detonate the explosives on the bridge,allowing the guide train to cross safely and then

bring down the bridge only when it was too latefor Hitlers train to stop. The plan was carried out

awlessly, however the Fuehrers luck held. Atroop train transporting soldiers to the Rhinelandwas allowed to go ahead of Hitlers train. Whenthe saboteurs blew the bridge, it was the transportthat was sent hurtling off the rails, not the traincarrying the Fuehrer. Both Steinberg and Eberlewere quickly captured and executed by the SS inthe woods near the Mannheim bridge.

With Austria annexed to Germany and with Naziforces ready to invade Czechoslovakia, OttoStrasser ed to France on October 1st, 1938.From a French villa, he began to operate a secondBlack Front radio station, transmitting orders tohis followers in the expanding German Reich.His stay in France was not a lengthy one. Almost

as soon as a new Black Front headquarterswas established in Paris, French authoritiesarrested Strasser to appease the Germanambassador. Strasser was soon released, butexpelled from France. He would spend mostof 1939 in Switzerland, uncomfortably closeto his enemies in Germany. The Black Front,however, now with strongholds in Paris andCopenhagen, would continue to operate

during the isolation of its leader.

The November 8th, 1939 attempt toassassinate Hitler during a speech inMunich was immediately credited to OttoStrasser and the Black Front. A Swisscarpenter named Georg Elser over a periodof weeks had hollowed out a column inthe Burgerbraukeller. Every year, on the

anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch of 1923, Hitler wouldgive a speech to Nazi Party leaders and the old guard of the

NSDAP. On this occasion, Hitlers speech ran shorter than usualand the Fuehrer left the beer hall eight minutes before the bomb

went off. Eight people were killed in the blast and another sixtywere injured. Again, Hitlers incredible luck had allowed him toescape death by the narrowest margin.

Georg Elser was apprehended by the SS trying to sneak back intoSwitzerland. He was quickly connected to the bombing and detained

by the Gestapo. Despite the use of torture, drugs and hypnosis, theGestapo was unable to get Elser to give up the names of the twoaccomplices who had helped him in his effort to kill Hitler. TheSwiss origin of Elser, however, made it clear to Himmler who hadconceived the attack and given Elser the materials to implementthe plan. Leaving other German intelligence agencies to try and

prove the culpability of the British Secret Service in the bomb plot,Himmler focused his efforts on the Black Front and its leader, nowliving in Switzerland.


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Demanding the extradition of Otto Strasser from Switzerland,Heinrich Himmler forced the hand of the Swiss government. TheSwiss authorities allowed Strasser to slip across the border back into France. Now that the French were at war with Germany, hewould be safe there.

Strassers return to Paris was not a long one. French resistance tothe German invasion in 1940 crumbled with a speed that shocked

the world. With his name at the top of the list of German refugeesto be turned over to German forces by the French government,Otto Strasser was able to sneak into Spain on August 1st and fromthere into Portugal. With Gestapo agents hot on his heels, OttoStrasser was helped out of Portugal by the British Secret Service,setting sail rst to Bermuda and from there to Canada. In Strasser and his Black Front, the British recognized a resource they couldexploit in the war against Hitler.

Following the Night of the Long Knives, Otto Strassersorganization became a direct adversary of Hitlers regime. Itsranks swollen by Nazis who had escaped out of Germany beforethey could fall into the hands of the SS, the Black Front became

a vicious adversary of Hitlers New Germany, a vengeful shadowdogging the steps of a tyrant. Relocating to the Czechoslovakiancapital of Prague, Otto Strasser used the in ux of desperate,vengeful Storm troopers to change the Black Front from a voice of

political dissent to a criminal enterprise of sabotage and murder.Christening themselves as the Avengers of Roehm, Black Front operatives made frequent incursions back into Germany toassassinate SS men and take revenge upon the Nazi politicianswho had betrayed them.

Pragmatic and vengeful, the Black Front proved quite willing toco-operate with anyone provided they were an enemy of Hitler.Jewish refugees, communist exiles and even Soviet agentswere recruited by the Black Front to assist in their subversiveoperations. Hermann Hirsch, a Jewish exile from Germany, wasone such agent. Provided with two suitcases lled with explosives,Hirsch was sent back to Germany under false papers in December,1936. His mission was to blow up the Nazi Party Headquarters in

Nuremburg. Although the plot failed and Hirsch was executed bythe Germans in 1937, the audacity of the plot shook many Nazileaders. Josef Goebbels issued a bounty on Otto Strassers headof half a million dollars, naming him as Germanys Number OneEnemy.

The Black Front remains one of the most dangerous organizationsin Europe. Black Front cells operate across occupied Europe, oftenwith only the most remote supervision from the Allies. Whenhostilities broke out between Germany and her former ally theSoviet Union, many Black Front agents offered their services to theSoviets. Like the western Allies, the Soviets are wary of trustingthe Black Front too much. They know that these unrepentant Nazishave no loyalty to their foreign allies, caring only about exactingrevenge against Hitler for his betrayal of them. As such, the Black Front has a reputation for callously wasting the lives of Alliedsoldiers, sometimes misrepresenting the strength of a German

position simply to ensure the Allies will strike at it.

Where the Black Fronts role as gatherers of intelligence is

often suspect, their use as assassins and saboteurs is consideredinvaluable by the intelligence services of the Allies. The Black Front has been forging German money and documents for over adecade, becoming masters in the art. Armed with these papers anda native familiarity of customs and terrain no foreign agent couldever hope to match, Black Front operatives are able to move at willthroughout German-controlled Europe. Like snakes in the longgrass, they wait until their prey is in sight. When the operatives of the Black Front do strike, the symbol of the hammer and sword is

left behind a unique reminder to Hitler that his old enemies arestill lurking in the shadows to exact their vengeance.

Black Front avenger

Black Front Avengers represent the rank and le of theorganization. As likely to be Jewish refugees, Communistsympathizers, Catholic partisans or any other German subjected tothe tyranny of Hitlers regime as they are to be disaffected Nazis,the Avengers are usually tasked with the less sensitive operationsconducted by the Black Front. They are the ones sent to sabotageindustry, spread propaganda and execute inconsequential targets

such as regular SS men and low-level Nazi of cials. Avengers arealso the agents most commonly dispatched to assist Allied troopsin the eld, guiding them to objectives or helping scout the terrain.

Regular Specialist (Individual)Composition : 1 Vindictive German AgentEquipment : Kar98k, Grenades

Special Rules :

Hidden DeploymentApatheticSoloUnrepentant The agents of the Black Front are driven by hatredand revenge, not by any loyalty to the Allied cause. It is dif cultfor Allied commanders to make these men obey commandsgiven in the eld. It costs a model 2 AP to use Command on aBlack Front model.

Options :The individuals Training Level can be increased to Veteran.The individual may be designated a Hero.The individual may exchange his Kar98k for a MP40.

Black Front assassin

Black Front Assassins are hard-line Nazis who feel betrayed by theBlood Purge and have joined Otto Strasser in his quest to destroyHitler. Many of these men have been waging a war from theshadows since 1934, murdering their enemies in back allies anddeserted streets throughout Germanys great cities. The tirelessefforts of the Gestapo and SS have weeded out the careless andthe foolish. Those Black Front Assassins still at large in 1946 are

M RC CC A S DR W

3 4+ 3 3 2 4 2


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expert killers, human predators who stalk their prey and attack without warning before fading back into the shadows.

Elite Specialist (Individual)Composition : 1 Cold-Blooded German AssassinEquipment : 2 Pistols, Grenades

Special Rules:Hidden DeploymentLethalApatheticSoloCrack ShotUnrepentant The agents of the Black Front are driven by hatredand revenge, not by any loyalty to the Allied cause. It is dif cultfor Allied commanders to make these men obey commandsgiven in the eld. It costs a model 2 AP to use Command on aBlack Front model.

Pistolier A Black Front Assassin armed with pistols may re both weapons at the same time, effectively granting him a rateof re of 2:1. However, the simultaneous use of two powerfulautomatics diminishes the effectiveness of the Assassins aim,increasing the RC of both shots by +1.

Options :The individual may be designated a Hero.The individual may exchange his pistols for a Stg44 or MP40.

Using the Black Front in

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Any Allied faction may make use of the Black Front. TheseGerman renegades will as quickly work for the American OSS asthey will the Soviet Red Army. When building a detachment, anAllied commander may choose a Black Front operative if there isan available Specialist slot.

Black Front operatives may choose from any General or Germanhero types, including those hero types restricted to the SS and SD.As the war is prolonged, the Black Front continues to draw recruitsfrom dissatis ed Germans and old sleeper agents become active,

sometimes bringing with them the advanced science and arcanesecrets of their country when they defect.

Black Front operatives inspire Hatred from all SS and SD troops.An SS or SD model with Hatred gains +1 S in all close combatattacks against their hated foe and may charge into close combatwith the hated foe at +1 M.

M RC CC A S DR W

3 3+ 4 3 3 5 2

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