hucks216

Very nice grouping - it seems quite common for Kriegsmarine citations to have the man's unit pencilled in near the top, as seen by the marking of U-66 just under the writing at the top. Very thoughtful of them! Also interesting to think that just 2 months after signing the EK citation Lutjens would be at sea on the Bismarck.

Pity it is such a wide ranging entry. The P-47 & P-51 did carry rockets (I believe 3 under each wing), as did the Typhoon with 4 under each wing (and sometimes 6).

Possible interesting date on the Wound Badge citation. Is there any mention on the Lazarett pages of the soldbuch to show what his injury was? I'm just curious as the date on the citation for the mans wounding is 23rd December 1944 and I believe this was the first day of clear skies since the start of the German offensive which allowed the Allied aircraft to take off and play a part so I was just wondering if he was wounded by some form of air attack.(I've also posted this question on GCA for the Wound Badge citation).

Very nice group and worth the wait. Hopefully you will be able to uncover what other boat(s) he served on.

For your first point, 1 in 10 of the UK forces in Afghanistan are Royal Navy personnel, not bad for a country with no coastline. And the majority of US fast jet air ops over that country are from the aircraft carrier sitting in the Indian Ocean .As things stand the UK has just a handful of fast jets operating there. Have an aircraft carrier sitting in the Indian Ocean and you can have 40 or 50 strike aircraft available (refering to the future carriers). As for the Type 45, it doesn't matter how good the ship is or isn't, it can only take on a limited number of aircraft due to the size of its silo (which can not be reloaded at sea) and shooting in salvoes - and that is not including the possibility of the system not working when it is most wanted as happened to Seawolf during the Falklands Conflict in 1982, and 28 years later Sea Wolf still has defects - no system, no matter how good, works 100% of the time and Sea Viper has yet to be tested in anything but good weather.

Wound Codes: 33 - Freezing related disorders 31a - Bulletwounds 25 - Skin and connective tissue problems 31a - Bulletwounds 31b - Handgrenade, mortar, artillery (shrapnel) It looks like he was undergoing hospital treatment for 3 months for the frostbite injury from 30th December 1941 to 30th March 1942. He then spent just over 3 months out of the hospital before re-entering the Lazarett system for another 4 months with gunshot wounds.

The problem with relying on other countries is that it is assuming too much - what happens if a cause that the UK supports isn't one that fits in with an Allies agenda? Completely hypothetical - for the past few years the Spanish Navy have been operating their Harrier wing from one of our carriers (which is true), but what would happen if the Falklands conflict flared up again and we asked Spain for support with regards to embarking their Harrier wing on Illustrious? Would a Hispanic country in Europe help the UK in a conflict against another Hispanic country or remain neutral? During the Argentina sabre ratling last year the current US President was less than luke warm in his support for the UK's stand over the Islands, and Uruguay are also supporting Argentina. Now that the UK is drilling for oil off the Falklands coastline tensions are growing not subsiding and it wouldn't matter if the British Army was a million strong, without a Carrier Strike Force and a Fleet to transport them there and protect them from air attack / support their operations ashore it would be impossible to retake the Islands.

I have no doubt that if it were cheaper to cancel the carriers then at least one of them, and possibly both, would be cancelled. But I also think if that had of happened they would of still scraped Ark Royal and her Harriers, after all if you have no carriers in the future what is the point in having them now? There is no doubt that these Defence cuts were budget driven rather than an attempt to make the Forces a more efficient fighting force. And it didn't help that the previous Labour government decided to slow down the building of the new carriers to save money in the very short term which in actual fact pushed the cost up by £650m in the long term.

And further to my last - with the scraping of the Harrier what is going to happen to all the Fleet Air Arm fixed wing engineers, armourers etc and pilots? If those trades fall into the bracket for the 5,000 that are being made unemployed where is the experience going to come from in 10 years time, especially at the Senior Rate (NCO) level? And it isn't just the Ark - all 4 Type 22 frigates are going, Illustrious or Ocean are possibles to be mothballed, either Bulwark or Albion are to be mothballed and so is one of the RFA Bay class landing ships. And if no other wars flare up in the meantime, come 2015 the Army will have no major overseas commitments apart from approx 1000 troops down the Falklands while the Navy will still be expected to maintain standing patrols in the Falklands, Med, Indian Ocean, Gulf, Falklands & West Indies which is stretching the fleet now let alone with fewer ships in a few years time.

Not only Ark Royal but all the Harriers are being scrapped with immediate effect so the Royal Navy will not have a strike capability (or any fleet air defence capability) until 2020. HMS Queen Elizabeth is due in service in 2016 but fitted only for helicopters and when HMS Prince Of Wales comes into service in 2019/20 she will be fitted for aircraft and Queen Elizabeth will be mothballed and possibly sold after just 3 or 4 years service. And 4 frigates are to be taken out of service in the next 10 years bringing the Destroyer/Frigate figure down to just 19 in service. If I lived in the Falklands I would be very worried for the next 10 years. It doesn't matter which party is in government, the Navy has always been the easiest target and usually comes out of the Defence shake-up worse then the other forces. Meanwhile the UK donates £1 Billion to India per year as foreign aid while that country builds 2 aircraft carriers and buys the MiGs to go on them, not to mention their other fleet building projects.

Thinking about it I would agree with Busch. I base this on the last letter in his signature as I have seen other signatures where the 'h' looks like that.

Final pic...

Epaulette...

Recent addition to my collection is this stunning Waffenrock to a member of Panzerabwehr Abt 20. I only have 2 Waffenrocks in my collecton but I think they are a very underrated type of tunic compared to the other types.

Thanks for the comment Gordon. Considering that this is the first soldbuch grouping I have obtained to a Panzer crewmember it is hard to see how I could top it with the exception of getting a similar one to a soldier awarded the PAB 25/50, and such a set would be way outside my price range.

FINAL POST Photo Excerpts 5 - Mikuska's Tiger 211

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