hucks216

In 1939 & 1940 he was serving as a Major (E) in the Wehrbezirkskommando Reid (Innkreis). He is listed in the 1944/45 Rangliste as an Oberstleutnant with a seniority date of 01.08.1941.

That is great Chris, thanks - so he did race against the eventual Bronze medalist.

Unfortunately I have no idea. I am not a follower of athletics so wouldn't know where to look for the runners in his heats in the Olympics or European Championships or who was and wasn't famous.

I don't collect EK's so I don't often have much to contribute to this section but recently I was able to obtain some items that belonged to a Battalion Commander who won both the EK II & I in World War 2. Unfortunately the EK II wasn't part of the set but along with his Wehrpass and some photos I was also able to obtain what military medals there were. Although they were all de-Nazified there were two EK I's with one having a pin fitting and the other having a screw fixing (unfortunately the screw plate was missing) with the latter having the marking of L54. What is especially interesting is that the soldier, who finished the war as a Major, was an athlete and pre-war he competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, losing in the Semi-Finals of the 400m. He also competed in the 1938 European Championships where he won Gold in the 4x400m Final. After the war he worked for the pastry company 'Heinemann' which was founded by his sister and her husband.

Many thanks for that Bernhard. That's one for my files!

Thanks for posting. I can't say I have seen one of these before, I wonder who the signature belongs to?

This looks like your man.

It certainly is a labour of love. Good luck in looking for everything else as I doubt it will end when the TDB arrives! : )

This link might be of help... Major Reck

Great photo. It looks like he has a set of Bulgarian aviation wings just above his EK I & Luftwaffe badge. Can only agree with Bernhard with regards to the transport units - and from a collecting viewpoint they are very under-rated.

Recently I managed to obtain a handful of Kriegsmarine Soldbücher including one for a crewman on the Tirpitz. But the one I was really pleased to get was to a flak crew member who served on the floating battery 'Thetis' which was used to provide additional AA support to Tirpitz both in Altafjord and Tromso. Thetis was originally built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1896 as a cruiser for the Norwegian Navy, serving under the name of Harald Haarfagre. When the Germans invaded Norway in 1940 they captured the ship and converted it into a Flak ship to be used at the main fleet anchorages in that country. Thetis was present at all the air attacks on the Tirpitz while she was at anchor and was present for the final attack that capsized her. In fact the sailor received the EK II on 4th November 1944 which would tie in with the attack by 9 & 617 Squadrons on 29th October 1944 (operation Obviate). this attack saw no direct hits with the Tallboy bombs due to cloud cover, but just 8 days after his award of the EK II the Tirpitz was finally sunk by multiple Tallboy hits when 9 & 617 Squadrons returned. During his service he was also awarded the Minesweeper Badge & the Coastal Artillery Badge. Judging by a slip of paper fixed into the Soldbuch he served with Marine-Flak-Abt 709 which was stationed on Thetis. The Soldbuch contains the signature of Otto Messtorff who commanded Marine-Flak-Abteilung 709 as well as the signatures of two of the Commanding Officers of Thetis - Helmut Steib and a Kapitänleutnant Spott. I have also been able to find two photos on the internet ( http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/miscellaneous/tirpitz_kaafjord_then_and_now/tirpitz_kaafjord_then_and_now.html ) that show Thetis in close proximity to Tirpitz in Kaafjord providing a duty that would today be called a Goalkeeper role in the Royal Navy.

It is a facsimile - the signature on the left is the hand signed one.

That's interesting. I can't say I have seen something like that before. As an aside, I own 3 Waffenrock's and one of them is for Pz.Abw.Abt 20.

Good shout. I can see that name in the signature.

That is a great effort. Hopefully you will be able to find the items that you are looking for.

Only via WAST and even then they might not release the information.

The way to attempt that is to contact the WASt and ask for the service details of Heinz as we know his date and place of birth (whether they would give that information out to non-next of kin is doubtful but they do sometimes do that). Then that could show the unit he was with when killed and then maybe try and find if the writer served as a officer in that unit. There is an Oberleutnant Adolf Müller who won the DKiG in 1943 and another Oberleutnant Adolf Müller who won the Ehrenblattspange in 1945 (assuming they are two different people).

In this case, Gruppenführer refers to someone in command of a group of soldiers as opposed to being the SS rank. Heinz Lüders was a Feldwebel.

I have to agree. I think it is indeed Adrario.

RK & DKiG winner

For 1929 I have found a Hauptmann Schaumberg in command of 4.Kompanie (no idea if he was a 'von' or not as the signature suggest that signer is.)

You'll need to post that one in the Unidentified Heer Signatures thread. Hans Rössing - Ehrenpokal

No information on him but I have seen his signature on prelim RK citations before.

Many thanks for that Richard.

I would go with some sort of early/pre war burial. Is that a coffin in between the two soldiers at the front? If it was nearer the end of the war I'd imagine that the Germans would be wearing more awards, especially the flyer in the front - or no awards at all.