The first paramilitary unit to have the abbreviation SS (German: Schutz Staffel) in its name was the personal protection of the dictator of the Third Reich called Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, which was officially formed in 1933. From 1934, the SS was an independent formation headed by Heinrich Himmler. With time, further SS units were formed, including the SS-Totenkopfverbände and the SS-Verfügungstruppe. It is worth adding that the latter was trained similarly to regular Wehrmacht infantry units. On a relatively small scale, SS units were used in combat during the fighting in Poland in 1939 and in the French campaign in 1940. The first units intended from the beginning to fight at the front were created in mid-1940, giving them the name of the Waffen SS. Initially, they were recruited on a voluntary basis, also among non-German people, but over time, compulsory recruitment began to apply. Within the Waffen-SS, many divisions of different combat value were formed. Nevertheless, a few of them (e.g. the 1st SS LAH Panzer Division, the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division or the 12th SS Hitlerjugend Panzer Division) can be considered elite units, with very high combat value and often equipped with the best available equipment. They demonstrated their considerable advantages not only on the Eastern Front (1941-1945), especially during the battles near Kharkiv in 1943, but also during the battles in France in 1944. Another thing is that the quality of the commanding staff of these units was in many cases debatable, and many Waffen-SS soldiers committed war crimes during World War II.
The German army had experience in fighting enemy armored vehicles from the period of World War I (1916-1918). After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the development of anti-tank weapons was hindered, but in 1928 the gun was put into mass production 3.7 cm PaK 36 which at that time was one of the most modern anti-tank guns in the world. However, with time, especially in the 1930s and with the development of own armored weapons, the problem of anti-tank weapons was treated in the German army rather of secondary importance. As a result, the German army entered World War II, still having the P aK 36 caliber 37 mm, which turned out to be completely insufficient against the French Char B1 Bis or the Soviet T-34 and KW-1. Moreover, with the development of fighting on the Eastern Front, the problem of destroying Soviet armored weapons became more and more urgent, which led to the introduction of new 50 and 75 mm anti-tank guns into the line. From 1943, the Panzerfaust recoilless rifles were introduced on an increasingly larger scale, which were used to saturate their own infantry units as much as possible. For example, in 1943, the German infantry division had 108 recoilless guns and 35 towed and self-propelled anti-tank guns.