hucks216

Sounds like a good item to have - and certainly to start off that line of collecting - if it is such a scarce piece. I look forward to seeing your future items.

I can't say that I have ever seen one of these before so thanks for showing.

As you know, an Ehrenblattspange was won by a Hauptmann Weiss while serving with that battle group in 1945 so it would seem that he was assigned a front line command in the last days of the TR. He is listed in the 1943 & 1944 DAL as an Oberst. He is the only one listed with the surname of Erdmann-Degenhardt.

First letter looks like it could be a V. Based on the FpNr the unit is Stab u. 1.-5. Kompanie Bataillon 807 d. Kaukasisch-mohamedanischen Legion.

The SA Sports Badge in Bronze.

Here are two wartime Wiking documents that mention Wolferseder. The first is a Dienstaltersliste dated for June 1941 and the second is a Führerstellenbesetzung dated for July 1943.

With the second signature in the post above this one, I can only find two 'Oess' in the Führerliste with only one of those with that rank at some point - Heinrich Oess. But by July 1941 he was with SS-Inf.Rgt Deutschland.. The one under that is August Wolferseder who ended up commanding Wiking's supply units. I wonder if that is him just pending the first two letters of his surname on the first form?

For images 4, 7 & 8 you will need to show more of the document so people know what the signers unit is that they need to look for.

Thanks for that Bernhard. That is actually a nice little entry all by itself.

Thanks for the additional scan Jock but apart from the first part of the word I can't make out the rest of word.

LW Flak units don't seem to be the most collectible of units but I don't know why they get overlooked so often as they still saw action, a lot of the time against air raids obviously but also in ground combat. Even during air raids they suffered losses from time to time. This man seems to have got around a bit, starting in Germany and ending up in Greece and the retreat from that region. One of his units was in Africa but for some reason he remained in Germany at that time, although he was only with them for a month. Can you make out what the circled word is? Is that an entry making a note of a shot down aircraft? I can see that it starts with 'Feind....'

I do like these types of promotion/appointment citations. Although I can't recognise this particular example sometimes you get a signature in the bottom right of a leading TR personality such as Speer, Ribbentrop, Goering etc.

That's great. Thanks for the prompt reply and all the additional information. Regards KEViN

I am wondering if anyone can help to identify this medal please? I acquired a few Soviet era badges & medals for one of my nephews and this medal turned up among them. I collect German WW-2 paperwork so this is a totally unknown field for me and don't know what it is, what country it belongs to or even if it is genuine.

There's nothing in the 2nd Tactical Air Force books about attacking seaborne targets on the day of his death which could help to rule out some squadrons related to how he died. It might be worth trawling through this linked page to see if they mention any attacks on any of the VP boats in his flotilla for that date... January 1945 Seekrieg

I seems to have one broad part in the middle with a border on either side of a different colour(s). I was going to suggest the Anschluss Medal but I think the border colours for that have the border parts in a different order, i.e. white, black, white on either side but the image seems to suggest black, white, black (or rather dark, light, dark).

As the photo mentions Crete in 1943 I wonder if he is a member of 22 (LL) Infanterie-Division as I know they fought in the Crimea and some components (Gren.Rgt 47 and II/Art.Rgt 22) fought in Africa as part of Kampfgruppe Buhse?

Very nice. clear portrait. I'm afraid I can't help with the ribbon though.

Taken from a WAF post dating from 2002 - information from Rick (Research) Lundstrum... Boit was a career regular officer in the Imperial navy, 1 April 1913 to 24 November 1919. Leutnant zur See 14.10.17/ern. 18.9.15 charakterisiert Oberleutnant zur See außer Dienst 24.11.19 As of the February 1918 Marine Rangliste, he held the EK2. (that was often far from current on awards!) Served on "Viktoria Luise" to November 1914, then a platoon leader in Matrosen Regiment 5 in Flanders to Decmber 1914. He was a Watch Officer aboard torpedo boats "G8," "G11," and "G9" in that undated order, 10th Half Flotilla/Vth Flotilla to June 1918, then a Watch Officer aboard torpedo boat "S113" in XIIth Flotilla to the end of the war. Married before 1928, member # 3015 of the Marine Offiziere Verband. Between the wars he earned a Diplom Ingenieur ("Dipl. Ing." title in front of his name) and served as an engineer with the city of Hamburg's Wasserbaudirektion and Strom-und Hafenbau Baubehörde. He is listed as Oberleutnant zS dR in the 1937 MOV Directory, but there was never any public list of reserve naval officer commission dates under the Third Reich. Without his personnel file it might not be possible to find out why he won the DKiG. It could of been for a single action or for leadership abilities.

Interesting pass and background story. It is interesting to see just how big a part 'awards' seemed to play in the prestige of some soldiers. If his personnel files are at NARA they will be in A3356 Roll 659 which covers the names POHL - POKRANDT. If his file is there then it could shed light on his service from WW-1 to the end of WW-2 (each roll costs $135 to copy and ship to the UK, so it might be cheaper to contact a researcher such as Digital History Archive who might be able to just copy his file rather than getting the whole roll).

Nice item. I'm usually not a fan of late war Zweitschrift's but that is a nice example. Great to see that the photo has stayed in it. The signature on Page 2 and the awards page is that of Paul Steinecke who finished the war as the Adjutant in Totenkopf's Divisional Staff.

There seems to be a few of those FB pages popping up at the moment so any indication as to what one would be good. The bogus stamp has been very well done and like you say, if used in the right SB could easily add authenticity to an otherwise bogus award entry. The problem is that it is so easy to make a good stamp - you just need a good clear image of an original (taken from any number of dealer or forum sites), a basic knowledge of Photoshop and some acetate sheets.

Likewise to what has been mentioned I also think the last two awards and the Nahkampftage are dubious entries. The only places that those stamps are seen are in relation to those two areas even though there are other entries in the SB covering those time frames which have different stamps. I think they have been used to disguise the entries and bogus signatures. The first Close Combat Day is original I believe with all the others being possibly bogus - Numbers 2 to 12 all seem to have been done in the same ink and yet span a period of almost 18 months.

Taken from the Sturmgeschütze vor website... Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 911 Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 911 (Feb 44) Heeres-Sturmartillerie-Brigade 911 (Dec 44) Feb 43 - formed at Neiße and later transferred to Jüterbog, with three batteries Mar 43 - 1./911 detached to Corsica/Sardinia and replaced Mid-Mar 43 - transferred to the Kharkov-Poltava area of Russia Jul 43 - XXXXVIII Panzer Corps, 4th Panzer Army, Army Group South (22 StuG III and 9 StuH 42) Jul 43 - 25 vehicles operational and 12 under repair Jan 44 - assigned to XXXXVII Panzer Corps, 8th Army, Army Group South, Kirovograd Jun 44 - Sixth Army, Army Group South Ukraine (Kishniev) Aug 44 - XXXXIV Corps, Sixth Army, Army Group South Ukraine; destroyed in Romania and reformed at Lüneberg (Lohburg) with 3 StuG batteries and one Infanterie-Begleit Batterie Dec 44 - assigned to Führer-Grenadier-Brigade (Cottbus) after rebuilding with 34 StuGs Jan 45 - attached to Führer-Grenadier Brigade with three batteries (10 StuGs each)

Unfortunately I can't find anyone with that name in the Volksbund although I did find a Karl von Hörsten (Born 27 Jan 1919 in Hörsten) as having been killed 23 Sept 1944 - brother perhaps?. I don't see his brother's name on the Memorial Card either but by the time that was issued he would of been dead anyway so maybe they left his name off or maybe he was a cousin so wasn't mentioned.