Luftwaffe Luftlande-Sturm Rgt 1 Fallschirmjager Wehrpass

[hucks216]

Due to a yawning gap in both my Award Urkunde & WP/SB collections for items associated with the Fallschirmjager I decided that the primary aim for 2011 would be to obtain items related to FJ to fill that gap, at least a little. One thing I can not get excited about when it comes to Soldbucher/Wehrpasses are those ones that relate to men being assigned to the elite units very late in the war when the need for manpower outweighed the need for sufficient training etc and so men from the Kriegsmarine & Luftwaffe found themselves assigned to the Para's, Grossdeutschland, W-SS units in the last 6-8 months of the war, the so called barrel-scraping recruits. And so I was lucky enough to see this Wehrpass listed on a dealer site to a Fallschirmjager (Oberjäger Günther Komorowski) who joined the Paratroopers late in 1940 and was assigned to Luftlande-Sturm Regiment 1 just three months after that units exploits at Eben Emael.

Edited February 4, 2011 by hucks216

[hucks216]

As can be seen he joined the IV Battalion of LL-Sturm Rgt 1 before its exploits at Crete and he effectively remained with it until July 1944 during which it underwent various name changes and re-assignments until it eventually became 14./FJ Regiment 11 of the 4 Fallschirmjager Division.There is nothing in the WP that indicates why his service stopped in July 1944, and he is not listed in the Volksbund Database as being KIA/MIA.

Edited February 4, 2011 by hucks216

[hucks216]

As can be seen here, he was awarded his Fallschirmjager Badge in December 1940.

[hucks216]

Here are his other awards, inluding the EK II & cuffband for Crete. He received the Wound Badge In Black in September 1941 for a wound he received at Crete on 25th May 1941. The signature for the Cuffband entry is that of Kurt Wolf who won the DKiG on 8th March 1942 in Russia.

[hucks216]

Here are the Campaign entries showing his service in Crete, Russia and Italy. While he was with 4 FJ Division from late 1943 (when it was being formed), during the period of the Allied landing at Anzio he was assigned to its Kampfschule. At the moment I don't know if those at the Kampfschule were used during the German attempts to contain the Allied Bridgehead, although the rest of 4 FJ Division did see action there.

[hucks216]

Two final pieces of paperwork with the group - firstly this document showing that Günther Komorowski attended a course on the quick release parachute in 1941.

[hucks216]

And finally a piece of paper that lists the days of combat which went towards the Luftwaffe Ground Assault Badge (backdated) and shows that Günther Komorowski fought at Maleme Airfield and Hill 107 on Crete, with 2 of those days being noted as close combat days.

[Paul R]

How many combat days did it take to get the badge? Really awesome grouping. I have never seen half of those forms before!

[hucks216]

The criteria was for 3 seperate assaults on three different days. As the badge wasn't brought into service until March 1942, these days were backdated to encompass Crete.

[Gew44]

A very impressive WP hucks216, thanks for sharing

[Chris Boonzaier]

Nice set.

Could he have been captured? Maybe with the date of the last entry it is possible to determine where he is likely to have been on the day of the last entry?

[joe campbell]

to use the vernacular of fine muscle cars,

this wehrpass is "cherry"!!!!

what a great find.

joe