Hello
We all know that there is the stupid (sorry) myth that Waffen-SS soldiers did this mysterious "live ammo training" shooting at each other which made them harder and better like any other soldier on earth. We also know that this is absolute nonsense and nobody was able to bring just the faintest proof for this claim.
Of course I wondered if there is something that started this story. Maybe someone who saw training manuals missinterpreted (misstranslated) or wanted to missunderstand some other training methods.
In this document for example they use "lebende Ziele" (living targets) for practicing the fast shot in close combat. Someone who does not know the additional regulations and paragraphs could think that they really shot at each other. The background of this marked practice is that the training NCO orders "swing targets" or "living targets" to show up surprisingly and then he takes the time how long the soldier needs to fire with his stopwatch.
Nevertheless this training is done with blank ammo (training rounds). The same practice is done with live rounds but on "swing targets".
What do you think could this be one of the reasons of this stupid myth?