I believe the orders allowing the recruitment of Hillfswilligen for the supply troops dates to the 29th October 1942 and the recruitment was to be controlled by the Oberkommandos der Heeresgruppen in their areas. By April 1943 this had been formalised such that the OKH Generalstab d. Heeres/Gen d Osttr/Org.Abt Nr. II/5000/43 geh. started with "National auxiliaries in the east - volunteers definition of terms Volunteers (Russian: Dobrovolez, Plural: Dobrovolzi) are voluntarily reporting members of peoples of the Russian area, who are assigned to an existing German troop and after the solemn swearing-in, permanently belong to this troop." The 20 plus page document goes on to included two pages that listed the maximum authorised clothing that each Hillfswillege was to be issued.
Depends on the level and what the order meant. AOK 6 issued an order earlier on 6 October, it is quoted in Rutherford & Wettstein "The German Army on the Eastern Front", and they refer to divisional files showing hundreds of Hiwis being recruited in 1942. So I'm guessing the OKH order of 29 October just tried to impose order on the freewheeling recruitment of lower level commands. All the best Andreas
Of course there is also the problem of which type foreign unit is meant - Hilfswilliger (unarmed support troops) or Freiwilliger Osttruppen (armed volunteer troops). As early as 22 August 1941, AOK 18 issued orders to detach German "Rahmenpersonal" (cadre) for the formation of four Estonian security battalions. AOK20-18/1154 „Aufstellung von estn.Btln.“, AOK 18 IIa 575/41, 22.8.41 On 21 January 1942, AOK 2 reported it had formed nine "Hundertschaften" (100-man units) from Cossack and Ukrainian volunteers, also for rear area security. RH20-2/28 “Sicherungs-Hundertschaften aus Landesinwohnern und entlassenen Kriegsgefangenen“, Aok 2 O.Qu./Qu. 2, 21.1.42 Those could be said to be some of the earliest recorded Ostruppen. The Hilfswilliger (HiWi) are more problematic and use of "volunteer helpers" appear to have begun from the earliest days of BARBAROSSA. They were mostly unregulated it appears until sometime in June 1943, when AOK 2 published orders probably promulgated by OKH in RH20-2/636 “Landeseigene Hilfskräfte im Osten – Hilfswillige”, AOK 2 Ia/Kdr. D. Osttruppen zbv 720 427/43, 17.6.43. Those orders forbade direct recruitment by units and instituted a requirement for "probezeit, vereidigung, Kennbucher, und in Zukunft nur freiwillige" (a probationary period, swearing in, each to have an identification book and only volunteers in future). It is obvious that by 1 January 1943, HiWi were a critical part of the Ostheer. On that date, HG Nord reported a fehlstellen (shortfall) of 16,562 HiWi in AOK 16 and 29,347 in AOK 18. RH19-III/519. Eingetroffene. By 5 April 1943, AOK 2 reported 7,940 HiWi on hand and a Fehl of 12,492. RH20-2/636 „Beurteilung den Kampf- und Einsatzwerten der Hilfswilligen“, AOK 2 Ia/Kdr.d.Osttr. zbv 720 143/43, 28.4.43. However, the Ostruppen proved even more problematic. On 1 July 1943, the organization of new "Landeseigenen Verbände" (armed Osttruppen) was forbidden. The reasons are obvious, about the same time, AOK 2 reported cases of individual mutinies among its Osttruppen - RH20-2/636. AOK 2 Ia 2749/43, 9.8.43 - and later two companies of Osttruppen were reportedly unreliable - RH20-2/636. AOK 2 Ia 1165/43, 24.8.43. Then on 12 September, AOK 2 was forced to use Sturm-Btl. AOK 2 to deal with “Mehrfache Meutereien und Fluchten von Osteinheiten” (multiple mutinies and desertions by Eastern units). One of the incidents was recorded by HG Mitte involving Turk-Feld-Btl. I/389, which had been organized in the fall of 1942. It mutinied on 12-13 August 1943 and two of its companies, under Uzbek officers, killed their German cadre personnel and marched off. RH20-2/558 ”Bericht über die Meutereien in der Nacht vom 12. zum 13.9.43“, 16.9.43. Shortly afterwards it was determined to ship all the Osttruppen units to the west and replace them with "German" (or at least Volksliste III) personnel from HG B and HG C. RH20-2/558 ”Verlegung von Landeseigenen Verbänden“ AOK 2 Ia 989/43, 30.9.43.
