hucks216

Thank you for that snippet.That is interesting and may well also explain why so many WW-2 examples survived as such procedures would of been overtaken by the collapse of the Third Reich.

Does it state anything about what happens when they complete their service, such as hand it back or keep it?

There must be some explanation for the distinct lack of examples seen. 

Thank you, I've seen that set but what I meant was for the WW-1 era. WW-2 era General/Admiral examples are pretty common, even the Soldbuch of Hitler's Naval Adjutant is available if you have the money for it and it is a lot more then the von Obstfelder set.

Well, to put the question another way what is the highest ranked Soldbuch or Militärpaß someone has seen?

6 hours ago, Bayern said:

Hello : Here in Argentine is current to give to generals at their retirement a copy of the personal file and record of services , in the course of a public ceremony . perhaps the german army of WW 1 era used to do the same. 

But that might be because they don't carry a record of their service around with them during their service time whereas a Soldbuch was carried on their person at all times and the Militärpaß was kept at a HQ. But if they were handed in and archived were the majority destroyed during any one of the Allied bombing raids?

This is just a question to satisfy my curiosity. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places and being a TR paperwork collector that is entirely possible but do WW-1 Soldbücher or Militärpaße exist in collections or come on the market for high ranking officers? I am not looking to buy any but in the past few years I have seen tons of TR related General rank related equivalents but not one for a WW-1 General/Admiral ranked officer. Were they even issued such a thing (I would imagine so as they obviously didn't start off as a General) or did they hand it in when they reached a certain rank and get issued something else?

Same goes for major Naval units - do any ever appear for sailors who served on the heavy units at battles such as Jutland, Dogger Bank, the coastal raids etc?

If you are still interested in the Wolf are you aware of this Militärpaß that is available..

SMS Wolf

The one on the bottom left is the Medaille für den Italienisch-Deutschen Feldzug in Afrika. 

The one on the right of the middle row is a Bundeswehr sports award.

11 hours ago, dpast32 said:

......Just maybe Gobel's  daughter will decide to contact me & I may be able to learn some details as to his EK.2 award ?...

     Best,   Dom

Or she might ask/demand to have the citation returned to her.

I must admit that I was surprised that he still discounted it after learning of the signature but fair play to him for doing so.

I wonder if this particular man was aware of the conspiracy overtones in the Abwehr and considering the signature he obviously had contact with certain members of it, and if so what were his feelings towards it and were those feelings reinforced after seeing what happened at Dulag 121 or was he completely in the dark about everything (maybe he was viewed as untrustworthy by the conspirators) and Dulag 121 just strengthened his beliefs in favour of the regime?

I saw this listed. Very nice item with a historical significance both for the signature and the man's postings.

It has been revealed in the latest issue of Britain At War that the Tiger Exhibition will be in place for 2 years.

Don't think it is a flotilla emblem, at least not U-boat flotilla. Could be a U-Boat emblem but over 800 U-Boats had emblems so narrowing it down could be difficlut. Alternatively it cold be the emblem chosen by a Cadet course after they had joined the Kriegsmarine.

Here is a list of the U-Boats that are known to have had an emblem...

http://www.uboat.net/special/emblems/listing_boats.html

Try getting hold of a copy of Schnellboote by Lawrence Paterson. It's on Amazon and is in English. But to be honest, the website I posted a link to earlier goes into more depth than any book on the subject I know.

S-188 belonged to 4.Schnellbooteflottille.

Look in the top left corner of the EK citation - that could well be his E-Boat (S-188). While the KM didn't always type the man's unit like the Heer did, they did often write the unit in the top corner in pencil.

Taken from the link I posted previously (I've put in bold & underlined the two relevant parts, i.e. the date and the boat mentioned)...

During the night 09./10.06.1944 the boats had the same orders. The 5. and the 9. SFltl, however, were stuck in an escort circle off Cape Barfleur, while the 4. SFltl could lay mines on the convoy route and was involved in fights with destroyers. "S 188" reported a toprdo hit on a ferry of 5000 BRT. "S 172" and "S 187" reported hits on two freighters of 2000 BRT each. "S 190" and "S 180" transfered from Vlissingen to Boulogne with the 8. SFltl. In so doing "S 190" took a mine hit, which caused no harm to her personnel and no leakage. But the boat had to be docked, that is why the unit went to Rotterdam. The 2. SFltl reported the sinking of two freighters of  900 and 1500 BRT respectively and entered the harbour of  Le Havre.

S-188 was sunk on 14th June 1944 in Le Havre...

During the night 13./14.06.1944 the boats were again to attack the landing fleet, the 5. and the 9. SFltl were to sail to Cherbourg afterwards because of the concentration of boats on Le Havre. Wind from northwest with force seven forced the boats of the 4., 5., and 9. SFltl to call off the operation and to return to Le Havre. The radio traffic was intercepted and decifered and the Allied attacked the boats in the evening of the 14.06.1944 by 221 Lancaster-bombera escorted by fighters and Mosquitos. 14 S-boats ("S 84", "S 100",  "S 138", "S 142", "S 143", "S 144", "S 146", "S 150", "S 169", "S 171", "S 172", "S 173", "S 187", "S 188")  and three of the four torpedoboats in harbour were sunk, only "S 167" escaped by leaving harbour.

He could of got the EK II for a single act or more likely for a combination of missions and surviving the sinking. EK's weren't just awarded for acts of bravery. They could also be awarded as a percentage, i.e. such & such unit is to award 10% of their men with an EK II and 2% with an EK I.

The research keeps getting better. With that IWM record you'll be able to trace his WW-1 service and experiences.

By the end of May 1944 9.Schnellbootflottille was stationed at Cherbourg before returning to Hoofden by 1945.

From April 1942 to the end of the war Rudolf Petersen was Führer der Schnellboote. From April 1943 to war's end the commanding officer of 9.Schnellbootsflottille was Götz Freiherr von Mirbach.

Chances are that the EK was won for one of the many actions carried out by the flotilla against the Allied ships off of the coast of Normandy during June 1944. See here for a comprehensive coverage of those operations:

English Channel 1944

This is an example of his signature that I have on file.

The Volksbund lists his MIA date as 1st June 1944 but this is just a generic date which they use and he would of gone missing after that date. For similar examples for Stalingrad they use 1st January 1943. What it does indicate is that they don't have any further information about him after that date. The chances are that he was caught up in the encirclement of Brody during the Operation Bagration/Lvov–Sandomierz Offensives and went the same way of many thousands of other German troops caught up in the twin offensives.

The DRK Volumes show that the vast majority of men reported missing from s.Art.Abt 841 went missing in Brody & Tarnopol in July 1944.

And there is a photo of Mr Schlett so you now know what he looked like.

Nice photo. Is there a name on the reverse?

It is hard to make out what is said on page 34 as when I zoom in the image resolution makes it hard to distinguish some letters. The first hospital is Reserve-Lazarett Bad XXXXXXX, and for the second one I can make out Kp 1./104 which is a Kompanie but I can not make out the words before that.

I have no idea where to find the definitions for the codes on page 35.

Medical Code 34 in a Heer/Luftwaffe Wehrpass would indicate an accident or self-mutilation.

His training would be noted on a different page, usually page 21.

I keep coming back to this thread to see these documents. They are a great piece of history and fascinating how the have survived this long. Outstanding items.

Major Siegfried Hagena

Born: 07 Jun 1906

Highest rank reached: Oberstleutnant

Kdr III/KG zbV 1

Kdr III/TG 1

Lufttransportführer Stab/Luftwaffekommando Südost 

Stab/Lufttransportführer Ägäis

Kdr Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 24