hucks216

I wonder if they ever caught him.

Someone did as he is listed in the Volksbund Database - the Date Of Birth matches.

There is another WP from this unit here: http://forum.axishis...p?f=50&t=174737

That would be my one.

I am glad that you have been able to add some meat to the bones as other than what is mentioned on the campaign pages of Gordon's one I have not been able to find much information as to its movements. I think someone, somewhere has sold off their collection of such Wehrpasses as there is a third one listed for sale here to the same unit...

https://www.history-...Otto_77277.html

The criteria was for 3 seperate assaults on three different days. As the badge wasn't brought into service until March 1942, these days were backdated to encompass Crete.

For me it has to be William Slim. Placed in command of a demoralised and beaten army and turned it by force of leadership, professionalism & personality into a force capable of beating the largest Japanese Army in the Asian/Pacific theatre despite problems with supply and reinforcements. Down to earth & loved by his men - and respected by his peers and superiors - he even got on well with Vinegar Joe Stilwell - which was no mean feat considering that Stilwell was just as big an Anglophobe as Ernest King.

And finally a piece of paper that lists the days of combat which went towards the Luftwaffe Ground Assault Badge (backdated) and shows that Günther Komorowski fought at Maleme Airfield and Hill 107 on Crete, with 2 of those days being noted as close combat days.

Two final pieces of paperwork with the group - firstly this document showing that Günther Komorowski attended a course on the quick release parachute in 1941.

Here are the Campaign entries showing his service in Crete, Russia and Italy. While he was with 4 FJ Division from late 1943 (when it was being formed), during the period of the Allied landing at Anzio he was assigned to its Kampfschule. At the moment I don't know if those at the Kampfschule were used during the German attempts to contain the Allied Bridgehead, although the rest of 4 FJ Division did see action there.

Here are his other awards, inluding the EK II & cuffband for Crete. He received the Wound Badge In Black in September 1941 for a wound he received at Crete on 25th May 1941. The signature for the Cuffband entry is that of Kurt Wolf who won the DKiG on 8th March 1942 in Russia.

As can be seen here, he was awarded his Fallschirmjager Badge in December 1940.

As can be seen he joined the IV Battalion of LL-Sturm Rgt 1 before its exploits at Crete and he effectively remained with it until July 1944 during which it underwent various name changes and re-assignments until it eventually became 14./FJ Regiment 11 of the 4 Fallschirmjager Division.There is nothing in the WP that indicates why his service stopped in July 1944, and he is not listed in the Volksbund Database as being KIA/MIA.

Due to a yawning gap in both my Award Urkunde & WP/SB collections for items associated with the Fallschirmjager I decided that the primary aim for 2011 would be to obtain items related to FJ to fill that gap, at least a little. One thing I can not get excited about when it comes to Soldbucher/Wehrpasses are those ones that relate to men being assigned to the elite units very late in the war when the need for manpower outweighed the need for sufficient training etc and so men from the Kriegsmarine & Luftwaffe found themselves assigned to the Para's, Grossdeutschland, W-SS units in the last 6-8 months of the war, the so called barrel-scraping recruits. And so I was lucky enough to see this Wehrpass listed on a dealer site to a Fallschirmjager (Oberjäger Günther Komorowski) who joined the Paratroopers late in 1940 and was assigned to Luftlande-Sturm Regiment 1 just three months after that units exploits at Eben Emael.

So he got the EK2 and EK1 as a member of a flak unit. I am surprised that he did not get anything for seven arial victories, as a pilot.

He wasn't a pilot, he was an air gunner.

There is a photo in the first post of this thread in the mans wehrpass.

There is a load of information on JB741's crash here....

http://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/raf1944/baker.html

Nice WP - I like that the combat entries have still been filled in. I haven't been able to find much information on the movements of such units so to have those entries in your WP is a big plus.

If he was with the unit as a supervisor/guard what would his status of been within the military - would he still be considered a regular soldier or was he a prisoner but trusted to be capable of extra responisbility (i.e. armed)? It seems that while such units were deemed extremely hazardous for the prisoners it couldn't of been much fun for regular soldiers to of been assigned to them either.

Nice citation with a nice clear stamp. Pity you weren't able to get the mans Assault Badge citation as well but not surprising considering the prices the seller was listing them at.

A very nice WP with some not often seen entries. It is one of those WP's that gets more & more interesting with each & every viewing.

And here is some basic information about 3 Sperrbrecherflotille which Sperrbrecher 18 belonged to... http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=8783

There is some basic information/figures about Sperrbrecher 18 listed here... http://www.navypedia...r_conc_mdv2.htm

...and it mentions at the bottom of the listing - Sperrbrecher 18 was badly damaged by Allied aircraft 12/3/1945 at Hamburg and never repaired.

Fantastic soldbuch - so rare to see one related to an Aux.Cruiser, especially with an Aux.Cruiser badge entry. The Feldpost Number in the stamp at the top of the awards page is 34510 which is for that time period... (Mobilmachung-1.1.1940) Minen-Hilfskreuzer 22, dann Handels-Schutzkreuzer 7, dann Schiff Nr. 45 - and Komet was indeed HSK 7 / Schiff 45.

Finally the gorgeous eagle and the striking blue of the collar tabs.

One of the shoulder boards showing the grey underlay to the blue waffenfarbe, indicative of a Reserve officer

Thanks to DonC I now have this stunning Medical Hauptmann d.Res Waffenrock in my possession. In hand the waffenfarbe is striking as is the eagle. This is the first time I have had to put an aiguilete on a tunic so if anyone spots anything wrong with the way I have done it just let me know!

The ribbon bar loops seem to spaced for a 5 or 6 piece bar but the one that I have ordered hasn't arrived yet so a 4 piece one will do for now.

I've just realised that the colour profile is the actual aircraft your man flew in. That was flukey!

These are handy sites...

http://www.cieldegloire.com/njg_004.php

http://www.michael-reimer.com/CFS2/CFS2_Profiles/ETO_AXIS_Luftwaffe_NJG4.html

Leutnant Joseph Springer of 8./NJG 4 is credited with one night victory and one day victory.

According to the books I mentioned before, there were only 2 kills credited to NJG 4 on the night of 31st Aug/1st Sept 1943 and both were claimed by Major Wilhelm Herget of Stab I / NJG 4 for his 42nd & 43rd kills.

I've been able to find this colour profile for an aircraft belonging to 7./NJG-4 dated for 1943/44 from http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/318/2/0