hucks216

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.

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.