Wehrmacht The Wehrmacht was a German - derived expression commonly used on Earth in the 1930s - 1940s to indicate the combined regular German military , consisting of the army ( " Heer " ) – one of its most senior officers having been " Generalfeldmarschall " Erwin Rommel ( ) – , navy ( " Kriegsmarine " ) and air force ( " Luftwaffe " ) of Nazi Germany , not including the armed ground forces ( ) of the Nazi Party ' s own " " Schutzstaffel " " ( SS ) force . Its emblem was in German parlance called " Balkenkreuz " ( translated as " beam cross " ) , and was carried on all vehicles of the organization on Earth , as well as on of its 23rd century derivative on the planet Ekos . Alternate timeline Wehrmacht . In an alternate 1944 caused by the Temporal Cold War , the Wehrmacht army forces , alongside the SS , were able to conquer Europe and the eastern sea board of the United States . Their occupation was fiercely fought against by the American Resistance . The resistance ambushed a small prisoner convoy that consisted of an Ford Model 51 truck that transported Captain Jonathan Archer from a field hospital for questioning , and escorted by a BMW R75 motorcycle and a Wehrmacht Volkswagen Kübelwagen ( though driven by a SS soldier ) , carrying the license plate " WH - 52552 " . All vehicles were damaged during the attack and their German occupants killed . ( ) Concurrently , a Wehrmacht " Generalmajor " , arriving in a Sd . Kfz . 251 half - track vehicle , was stationed at the occupied American White House as liaison officer in order to relay orders from Adolf Hitler to the Na ' kuhl , who were purportedly developing advanced weapon ry for Nazi Germany . Under orders to provide the Na ' kuhl with resources , the misguided general belatedly realized that they were following their own agenda and was subsequently killed by the Na ' kuhl leader Vosk . ( ) This timeline was later averted by Archer and his crew of from 2155 . ( ) Luftwaffe . The German air force branch of the regular Wehrmacht military , the Luftwaffe , also maintained a presence during the occupation of the eastern United States in the alternate timeline . Its air force operations in the occupied territories were overseen by a Luftwaffe regional command . One of the airplane s the Luftwaffe operated , was the Stuka dive - bomber plane . A squadron of these planes , retrofitted with by the Na ' kuhl provided plasma cannon s , were stationed at an air base north of Manhattan and were later used for attacking the " Enterprise " over New York City in order to prevent it from in turn destroying the temporal conduit the Na ' kuhl were constructing . ( ) Another airplane type employed by the Luftwaffe had been the He 111 bomber , several of these seen by Jonathan Archer in the time stream , as the proper timeline was realigning itself , due to his and his crew ' s actions . ( ) " The Stuka was also operated by the mirror universe counter part of the Luftwaffe . " ( , opening credits ) Ekosian Wehrmacht . In the mid - 2200s , the historical German Wehrmacht was recreated on the planet Ekos as a result from an ill - advised attempt by historian John Gill to reform Ekosian society , which was in the throes of anarchy , along the lines of a modified form of National Socialism . Originally dispatched by the Federation to serve as a cultural observer " only " , and in clear breach of the Prime Directive , Gill believed that by establishing a passive version of the Nazi state , but complete with such organizations as the SA , SS , Wehrmacht and their accouterments – resulting in a severe case of cultural contamination – , he could quell the upheaval on Ekos , setting himself up as Führer after his role model , Adolf Hitler . However , with power surreptitiously usurped by Deputy Führer Melakon , Gill ' s social experiment quickly went awry and started to emulate what had happened on Earth in the 1930s - 1940s . In 2268 , a publicly shown newsreel showed Ekosian Wehrmacht armed forces gearing up for an aggressive campaign against the Zeon s , immigrants from the neighboring planet , and by that time a much persecuted minority . Shortly thereafter a solitary Ekosian Wehrmacht " Generalmajor " was present at a rally , a bit lost amid a crowd of party , and SS officials , where Melakon and Gill presented their " Final Decision " for the " Zeon problem " . Interference by the Ekosian and Zeon underground alliance , aided by the crew of who were sent to Ekos to investigate , resulted in the death of the two Führers and their intentions were thwarted for now . However , it is not known whether or not the Wehrmacht and SS organizations continued to exist on Ekos afterwards . ( ) Background information . Though the expression " Wehrmacht " ( translated in the English language as " defense force " ) was , and to date is , almost universally used , even among Germans themselves , to indicate the army branch , its proper usage was to denominate the entirety of the regular ( as opposed to the SS ; see background note for that organization ) German military , thus including the air force ( " Luftwaffe " ) as well as the naval forces ( " Kriegsmarine " or " Marine " for short ) . The correct German word for army is " Heer " and the correct full , formal , official and bureaucratic usage is " Wehrmacht Heer " , hence the " WH " on the license plates carried by their vehicles ( " WL " and " WM " respectively for the other two branches , and , obviously , " SS " in runic script for that organization ) . In reality , the Luftwaffe , which in English translates as " air weapon " , was commanded by " Reichsmarschall " Hermann Göring , who actually can be spotted in the newsreel of Hitler ' s visit to New York City in " Storm Front , Part II " . Nevertheless , this was not established as canon in the episode . The Luftwaffe had also been the primary opponent of the British Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain ( in which the aforementioned He 111 served as the Luftwaffe ' s primary bomber ) , recreated by Miles O ' Brien and Julian Bashir as a favorite holodeck program , who played RAF pilots in the simulation , as established in the episode . The Luftwaffe , which had historically lost the battle , was however , not referred to by name in that episode . The immediate predecessor of the Luftwaffe had been the First World War - era " Imperial German Flying Corps " ( – " air combat forces " – , at the time merely an Imperial German Army branch , much like its contemporary American United States Army Air Corps counterpart was ) , in which Göring himself had served as a pilot , becoming a fighter ace in the process , and on whose remnants the Luftwaffe was founded . One of its fighter aircraft appeared in the opening credits of the mirror universe " Enterprise " episode " In a Mirror , Darkly " , indicating was manufactured on mirror universe Earth as well . The Stukas seen in " Storm Front " were entirely created as CGI by Fred Pienkos at Eden FX , whereas those seen in " In a Mirror , Darkly " was historical footage , as was the footage of the HE 111s seen in the reset time stream . While the Ekosian general was a clearcut reference to the Wehrmacht , the references in the Ekosian newsreel were more tentative , though still there nevertheless . The reel contained especially produced footage for the episode , intercut with clippings of actual , historical German news , or propaganda footage . In the late 1930s prior to the outbreak of World War II , the military branch of the SS , the " Waffen - SS " , was at the time still very small and as " amateurs " despised by the regular German military . Developing somewhat sequestered from German society and military alike in that era , they , excepting two very limited and near unnoticed , small unit actions in the 1938 " consensual " Austria and Sudetenland annexations ( actually meant to be their baptisms as a military unit ) , did not partake in any open military maneuvers until the September 1939 Polish campaign , the actual start of the war . The above and the to the right featured parading soldiers in the reel , lacking any discernible SS insignia ( on the uniform collars in particular ) , were from a newsreel of the April 1940 Wehrmacht occupation of Denmark , and in which the Waffen - SS had not taken any part , they instead amassing at that time on the western border in preparation for the May 1940 Blitzkrieg campaign in the West . The tank clipping , in either Belgium or northern France during the Blitzkrieg campaign , unequivocally showed Wehrmacht tanks . The very first SS tank unit only became operational at the start of 1942 , well into the war . As a privileged part of the Nazi party , the SS was given preferential treatment , and had first pick of the very best and most modern weapon ry German manufactures had to offer at any given time , which the tanks featured in the reel – two s and a tank – were most definitely not . Already obsolete at the start of the war , both machines were by 1942 in an advanced state of being phased out for operational duties , and neither had ever served with any SS armored unit . The Luftwaffe has also been alluded to in the Ekosian newsreel as the launch of a V - 2 rocket was also featured . Historically , it had been the Luftwaffe that was the Wehrmacht branch assigned the operation of this kind of weaponry . World War II - era German soldiers were in the " Star Trek " television franchise , aside from " Patterns of Force " and the two " Storm Front " episodes , also featured in the fourth season two - part episode . But for reasons that can only be guessed at , " Star Trek " producers had , the two generals excepted , invariably chosen to portray only soldiers belonging to the SS . This seemed a bit incongruous as the Wehrmacht had been the larger organization by far ( enlisting approximately 18 million soldiers during its existence , whereas the SS in its entirety , non - combat units included , had comprised of approximately 1 . 2 million volunteers ) , having carried the brunt of both combat , as well as occupation duties . The Kübelwagen and the general in the two " Storm Front " episodes , as well as the more ephemeral references in " Patterns of Force " , were the only allusions " Star Trek " has ever made to the regular German army . The SS counterpart of the Wehrmacht brigadier general would have been an " SS - Oberführer " or an " SS - Brigadeführer " – one of each actually seen in the by the Ekosion Generalmajor attended rally – sporting different insignia on both their uniforms and headgear . In post - war Germany itself , the matter of showing Nazi – as in SA and SS – uniforms on television in an entertainment production was a sensitive one , resulting that " Patterns of Force " became the only " Original Series " episode not to be aired in its two original runs on the public ZDF network in the mid - 1970s and on the private Sat . 1 network in the late 1980s / early 1990s . Only in 1996 was the ( dubbed ) episode finally shown as " Schablonen der Gewalt " on German pay TV , shortly after it first time German - language release on VHS the year previously , and included on all subsequent DVD / Blu - ray Disc season sets . On 4 November 2011 it was finally shown on the public network channel ZDFneo as well . ( ; TOS Season 2 DVD - special feature , " Red Shirt Logs : Bjo Trimble on censorship " ) The " Kriegsmarine " has never been alluded to in " Star Trek " , save for the Starfleet vessel , referenced to in and named after several cruiser s having served in the German navy , including in the " Kriegsmarine " , as well as for the appearances of U - Boat s – the most ubiquitous type used by the " Kriegsmarine " in World War II – in the title sequence of the two " In a Mirror , Darkly " episodes . These clippings constituted recycled footage from the 2000 Universal Studios war movie .