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    Simon Orchard

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    Everything posted by Simon Orchard

    1. Priceless, judging by the writing, made by the same faker :lol:
    2. The stamp is bad i'm afraid. The same HPA stamp was used on other documents coming from that department, like prelim RK and DKiG docs. Compare it to the examples DDD posted in this thread over on WAF Link Line up the tips of the wings with the letters and you'll see it's completely different.
    3. You lucky man Jan Arne, i've been looking for an invasion of Norway zerstörerkriegsabzeichen award to a torpedo boat crew member.
    4. The writing is terrible and April '44 is really too late for a formal DKiG. Could you show a close up of the stamp?
    5. Ok Chris, many thanks for looking. Perhaps a civvy who died of disease then.
    6. Thanks Chris, it's quite a sad story it seems. He went out to SA in 1898, his father being a page to Queen Victoria at Windsor. Married in 1899, his son was born two months after his death but he himself only survived a year.
    7. I recently found that a relative of mine, Clarence Augustus Orchard died at Kimberley at the end of the siege on the 16th Feb. 1900 at the age of 29. given his age and date of death i wonder if he served in one of the militias and if anyone could shed any light on his possible service and fate?
    8. Now i'm home i can add a little more from the book 'Flyalarm, luftkrigen over Norge 1939-1945' which includes a chapter on the Condor in Norway. It states that 3./KG40 was the only remaining staffel from KG40 that remained behind in Norway from Nov.43, it continued with the armed recce flights out to Iceland and close to Greenland (which ties in with his FFS in gold). In June '44 KG40 transferred from France to Norway with 23 Fw200 going to Værnes and 28 He177 to Gardermoen (which is Oslos main airport today. The 5th Aug.44 saw 3./KG 40 dissolved followed on the 27th Oct by the rest of KG40 with the exception of the 8 staffel, being sent back to Germany for conversion to the Me262. whilst all the He177 were also transferred, all the Fw200 were left in Norway and concentrated in 8./KG40, around 30 aircraft. They were used as transport aircraft as part of the German pull out from Finland. On the 28 Dec. 44 the airfield at Våler had 28 Fw200. Over time these were transferred away from Norway and were used for example in the evacuation of Kurland, so that Transportfliegerstaffel Condor was dissolved on the 3 March '45 and only a handful Condors remained.
    9. Gordon When it comes to the LW in Norway, i'd go with the Norwegian researchers, like Olve Dybvig, Andreas Brekken and several others. These guys are seriously good. I could ask, occasionally you can find crewmembers. Years ago an Icelandic researcher provided me with operational reports from a crew from KG40 based on an EKI document i have, so it's not impossible. If you note the stamp on the FFS in gold doc, Fliegerführer Nord (west) you can see he's clearly in North Norway in feb. 44 and as the staffel remained here, its not unreasonable to assume he did too, the june 45 doc is quite typical of post-may 45 'norwegian' documentation, though not exclusive to it of course.
    10. Hi Gordon If you look through the various strength returns for the luftwaffe in Norway at www.luftwaffe.no you will find 3./KG 40 and it's successors. Also worth a look is the linked Nordic aviation losses site which tabulates all the LW losses in Norway\Finland. I know the owner of the site, and i know that his information is straight from original LW returns.
    11. Ah, so that's where the group went. Been with Weitze for quite a while, i kept thinking about getting it but something else always came up. Actually, 3./KG 40 remained in Norway, at Trondheim Værnes and continued to operate the Fw-200, one of the last staffels to do so. sometime after July '44 and before Oct '44 it ceased to have that designation as airworthy aircraft and fuel restricted operations. By the end of the war it was reduced to the name of 2. aufklärungsschwarme Condor, there was also a Transport staffel Condor which i believe had most of the Norwegian condors in the final months. Judging by the small note from June '45 which lists his awards and is included in the group he clearly survived the war, but i can't quite make out the de-nazified stamp. something like Kdo d. ........ d. LW. and Stab d. .... .... gr. ??
    12. And for a lowly gefreiter this early in the war you can be sure this 'sani' really earned it. when you realise that by this time only 2 soldiers of mannschaften rank class had got the RK you can see that this guy might well have done something pretty outstanding.
    13. Yes, i'm familiar with that site. The point is, the painting shows a man with both the 12 and 4 year long service medals and a KVKII. Are any of those present in the photos?
    14. Rick Having seen these docs it seems even more unlikely Horn is your man. Neither painting shows hom wearing a Hindenburg Cross, if he joined the KM in '36 then he couldn't have qualified for a 12 year long service medal
    15. I can imagine how popular these guys were with soldiers on leave in the eternal city.
    16. Something like a kompanie can be very hard to pick up in references, i can give you dozens and dozens of examples of small kompanie or zug sized korps or armee level units that simply never appear in secondary sources. For this i would want to see a proper original gliederung but the clue is in the mention of the division having one prior to the creation of the korps, when elements of the division were used to create the Korps stab. Incorrect, what you see is the abbreviation I.A or Im Auftrag. Perfectly correct when an officer is signing on behalf of a higher authority. Forget the begleitbataillon Reichsmarschall, it's nothing to do with this group and you've turned it into a red hearing. Forget the colour of the EKII signature, it's a poor scan with bad contrast\brightness Just because the LW PKA is extremely rare doesn't mean it was viewed as anything other than a normal combat badge like the Heer PKA, in fact this is only a LW version of a bronze panzerkampfabzeichen. In other words, Schmalz was the right person to sign the EKII because that was the correct authority to do so. The Korps Adjutant (IIb, apologies if LW ground formations used different abbreviations for their staff officers but the job is the same) would be the right person to deal with the lesser award for something like an escort company attached to korps HQ. There's no problem at all in the apparent use of the same typewriter coming from the same headquarters. In short the group hangs together perfectly well.
    17. Rick Do a search for Schmalz on Huesken's site, you'll find a signed photo and an EKI Link Also, PD HG included personnel from the Heer, Bergengruen for example, the Ia i mentioned was a Heer general staff officer who never transferred to the LW.
    18. Prosper, you actually argue for the documents with some of the things you point out. As you say, FPD HG is known to have had a begleit Kp. and as you also rightly state, elements from the division were used to form the Korps elements of the new expanded formation, quite logical the begleit Kp get moved over to korps HQ level. I think you may have your wires crossed as to the position held by this adjutant. A divisional Ia was not an adjutant, he was the chief of staff and usually held the rank of Major i.G or Oberstleutnant i.G. For PD HG in '43 it was Oberstleutnant Hellmut Bergengruen from june 43 to june 44. The two adjutants were the IIa and IIb and i think we're likely seeing the IIb here as he's an OR. Again it makes perfect sense for the man to have been a Hptm. IIb with the division, then doing the same job at korps as a major.
    19. Both docs look good to me off the face of it. As both were issued from the same office there should be no surprise if the same typewriter was used within less than 5 months of each other (remember these are european format dates not american), differences in abbreviations are also no problem. I find no issue with the combination of awards. Notice that it's the black version of the panzerkampfabzeichen which is pretty much the same as the bronze version for the army, ie. not for tank crews, had it been in silver then the point would be valid. If you can find the Kstn for for this kompanie i'm sure you'd find it included at least one flak zug of 20mm or 37mm, perhaps towed but i'd think more likely self-propelled on half-tracks. Otherwise i'd suggest finding the names of the Korps IIa\IIb officers. they're almost certainly the ones that signed these.
    20. Gratulere! I remember you showing them to me last year and saying one day you'll meet the seller again. Your patience has paid off!
    21. I posted a bunch of them over on the samlerforumet a while back Link
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