hucks216

Soldbuch 3

Soldbuch 2

Soldbuch 1

Robert Mikuska with s.Pz.Abt 507

Another recent addition and already one of the favourites of my collections, my first grouping to a Panzer crewmember, who went on to be a Tiger & King Tiger tank commander with s.Pz.Abt 507.

Taken for his small biography in the book The Combat History Of schwere Panzer Abt 507...

Robert Mikuska was born on 1st October 1916 and was assigned to the 3./Pz.Rgt 4 on 1st December 1938 at Weiner-Neustadt. As a result, he was one of those "from the Old Reich." His drill sergeant at the time was Fritz Schoeck. Mikuska had participated in almost all the campaigns with him: Poland,France, Rumania & Russia. (Until August 1943 he was in the 2./Pz.Rgt 4, where he served as a radio operator in a Panzer II & Panzer III. After that he was a Tiger tank commander in the 2./s.Pz.Abt 507.)

Awards: EK II / Panzerkampfabzeichen / Eastern Campaign Medal / Wound Badge In Black (head wound at Temjruk). He entered Russian captivity on 12th May 1945 with s.Pz.Abt 507. He was able to flee on 3rd July 1945 along the Hungarian-Rumanian border. He reached Vienna on foot on 17th July 1945. One month later he traveled on to Sarstedt, where he continues to live today (as of 2003).

As can be seen from the following images, all his citations remain together with his soldbuch and along with those the group also consists of a photo album showing the movements of Robert Mikuska & Pz.Rgt 4 from his training to the Rumanian Campaign. There are also some loose photos showing Mikuska's Tiger - 211. There are also a couple of additional photos of Tiger 211 in Tigers In Combat Vol 1 by Wolfgang Schneider.

It was s.Pz.Abt 507 that US General Rose of the 3rd Armoured Division surrendered to and was then shot... (taken from... http://www.2ndarmore...lonwheels.com/D ... ry_27.html )

After ambushing Task Force Welborn, with disastrous results for the 3rd Armored Division, the 507th Battalion CO, Major Fritz Shoeck, gave orders to withdraw to the area near Dorenhagen. It is believed that it was Koltermann's 3rd Zug (Platoon) 3rd Kompanie with orders to deploy and withdraw to Dorenhagen who confronted General Rose on the road. Attempting to escape eminent capture, Rose's jeep had passed two Tiger tanks going in the opposite direction in the dark on a narrow road when the third tank blocked his jeep. General Rose dismounted, surrendered and became a POW.

The tank commander, of the third tank in road march formation who remains unidentified among the names listed above, had blocked Rose's jeep and was standing in his turret. After shouting unclear commands in German to General Rose, he aimed his M38 Schmeisser machine pistol, set on Dauerfeurer (full automatic) with the 32 round magazine, and without justification, fired repeatedly at General Rose, who had his hands raised in surrender; striking him fourteen (14) times, resulting in his instantaneous death.

For the record, neither the 507th Headquarters Kompanie nor the 2nd Kompanie tanks were any where near the road location where Rose was machine gunned.

Signatures on the paperwork include - Rudolf Veiel (2 Pz.Div Commanding Officer) / Fritz Schoek (2./Pz.Rgt 4 & 2./s.Pz.Abt 507 Commander and eventually s.Pz.Abt 507 Commander) / Erich Schmidt (s.Pz.Abt 507 Commander) / Heinrich Jahn.

Very nice grouping. I am just looking through the 2 Volume history of FJR 3 and there are certainly a few photos showing 14 Kompanie including interesting ones of the parachutes of the Kompanie over Crete with their PAK 3.7cm guns floating down amongst them on the end of 5 parachutes, in Chania and the 14 Kompanie memorial Plaque showing those KIA at Crete..

Another recent pick-up - the EK I citation for Kapitanleutnant Heinz-Ehlert Clausen of U-403. He took U-403 on 7 war patrols from June 1941 to June 1943 and sunk 2 ships. The first of these, Empire Howard, carried the Convoy Commodore of PQ 14; the Commodore (Cdre E Rees) was not one of the 37 survivors after the ship sank in under a minute.

This EK I represents the highest award he won during WW 2.

This is his entry on Uboat.net - http://www.uboat.net...anders/167.html

It is certainly possible. I think a letter to the U-Boat Archive might be in order to see if they have anything on him.

Thanks for the comments guys. I have checked the Volksbund database and there are just 9 Helmut Welsch's listed as being KIA during the course of the war but none of them are sailors, and there is no mention of any of them being on the U-Boat memorials at Kiel & Laboe.

And finally, taken from U-Bootwaffe.net and showing the first 4 war patrols of U-18.

1st October 1938 Medal Citation - not bad for a landlocked country!! No doubt a 'percentage' award.

EK II Citation dated for 22nd November 1939. I am assuming that the EK II would of been awarded for the 3rd patrol when U-18 was used as a decoy for U-47 while that boat was on her Scapa Flow mission and would of been a mass award to the boats crew, or a percentage of them, and would of been awarded when they returned from the 4th patrol.

U-Boat Badge citation dated 19th October. U-18 completed her third war patrol on this date having sailed on the 2nd October.

Here is a very early U-Boat Badge grouping. They all belonged to Mechanikermaat Helmut Welsch of U-18 from U-Flottille 'Lohs' (which was renamed 3 U-Flottille.)

The U-Boat Badge citation is dated for 19th October 1939 and as the badge was instituted on the 13th October 1939 I am assuming this citation would be a backdated one. The Service Award IV Class bears the signature of Doenitz while the 1st Oct 1938 Award citation is signed by Hans Eckermann.

The ranks of Ableseaman, Leading Seaman & Petty Officer still exist. For the first two it just depends on the trade of the person for their version of the rank. For example, a Warfare Specialist would be AB & LS but the equivalent for engineers would be ET & LET (Engineering Technician & Leading Engineer Technician), whereas for Petty Officer they would all carry that rank with the trade following afterwards so a Petty Officer in an engineering branch would be Petty Officer (ET) rather than a Petty Engineering Technician. The Rate of Ordinary Seaman no longer exists, it is AB 2 now with an Ableseaman (as you would understand it) being AB 1.

As for the RNR branch, I am not sure as I haven't seen any. The only time I have come across RNR's that were recalled from civilian life in time of conflict were all posted into shore billets so that the regular sailors in those billets could be assigned to ships. I am sure there are exceptions to that rule, especially in the Mine Warfare role, but an ex-Radar or Electronic Warfare operator (for example) being recalled to the fleet after 5,6 or whatever years in civilian life would be very very rusty, out of date of current procedures and possibly not trained on the current equipment so it would be easier (and cheaper) to stick him (or her) into a shore billet where there is a regular sailor who does have those current knowledge & skills and assign that said sailor to a ship.

OM(W)1 is (or rather, was) the equivalent rank of an Ableseaman. OM (W) = Operator Maintainer (Warfare). The Navy brought in the OM branch around 1993 to combine the Weapon Engineering & Operations branches. It wasn't a success and in the past few years it has reverted back to being two separate trade branches, Warfare Specialist and Engineering Technician (Weapons Engineering).

This is the book:

Die deutsche Feldpostübersicht

by Norbert Kannapin

3 Volumes, a complete list of Feldpostnummern, Biblio-Verlag 1980, ISBN-10: 3764811838

Try this website...

http://www.stampsx.c...l-datenbank.php

...put your FpNr in the box marked ' oder Nummer eines Nummernstempels' and press Return. However it doesn't list the numbers under 10000.

The database is also available on cd-rom and as a stand-alone computer programme, but for the books & cd-rom you are looking at a few hundred £££'s.

Thank you Gordon for the information. For a relatively small unit (I recently read somewhere - can't for the life of me remember where - that the unit consisted of approx 100 men, including helpers) they seemed to of had a daunting amount of tasks & responsibilities.

I have a Wehrpass to a member of GFP Gruppe 560 which was assigned to 6 Armee during Operation Barbarossa. I was wondering if any member can tell me if it would of fallen under the GFP areas of responsibility to investigate the bombings in Kiev caused by Russian laid booby traps after the Germans had occupied the city etc, and to hunt down any of the sabateurs? Also, would it of been possible that this GFP could of been involved with the round-up of the Jewish inhabitants that were murdered at Babi Yar at the end of September 1941?

In the campaign entries (see below) there are mentions of being at Kiev at around that time although there is a 3 day gap for the period of the Babi Yar massacre - would the GFP of moved off with units of 6 Armee during this gap or is it reasonable to assume that they would of still been in the city?

I realise that there isn't a great deal of information available (at least in the English language) on the various GFP units so any thoughts, opinions & reasoning is welcome.

Hi Hucks,

Oh I see. I suppose gone are the days, when no one wanted nuclear ships in their harbours.

Gordon.

There are still countries that don't allow such vessels alongside. New Zealand springs to mind.

Ten months at sea doesn't actually mean 10 months at sea continuously, not for the current Royal Navy anyway. It refers to the time spent away from base port. In those 10 months she would of called at various ports to change crew members, receive stores (including food), conduct maintenance, R & R etc

It is certainly possible. While there is a ratio for 'sea:shore' time it is only a guideline. He could be scheduled to be on one boat for 30 months (for example), then become eligable for promotion after a year so leave that boat and spend a couple of months on course and on finishng the course join another boat. And when he was due shore time someone with his trade skills might be needed to take the place of someone on a boat so he could then be crash-drafted back to sea again before he thought he was due to - it happens alot! Or he might of just been loaned to a specific boat for a few months for whatever reason.

Many thanks for confirming that it is indeed Soviet/Russian.

I can't remember if the pin badge with the wings at top right was Russian or given to me at some other point in time from a US or Canadian serviceman, but thought I'd include it here just in case it is Russian...

Not a collecting interest but down the years I have acquired these items from various meetings with Russian sailors so I just thought that I'd show them here.

The side cap & shoulder boards were acquired when I spent a day at sea onboard the Udaloy I class destroyer Admiral Levchenko in 2006 for which I exchanged a Royal Navy cap tally, while the pin badges were obtained from various sailors of the Soviet Union as good will gifts.