ehrentitle Posted September 10, 2007 Posted September 10, 2007 Had the day off so I was cleaning up the "bunker" (garage) this AM. In the process I ran across this German Ammo box that I used to ship professional books back from Berlin when I was stationed with the Berlin Brigade almost 20 years ago. I had almost forgotten about it.I looked up the markings today on the internet and it appears to be a shipping crate for 20 Sprengriegel/R.Mi. 43 or Riegel mine 43 which was a particularly nasty German steel cased anti-tank bar mine used in WWII. Here are a couple of photos of the crate.This crate was used to ship SS records to the Berlin Documents Center after the war and ended up the the Supply and Services Division of the Berlin Brigade with several hundred others for use is shipping and storage.I'm not familiar with WWII crates, so if anyone has an idea as to value and rarity I'd be most appreciative.Kevin
ehrentitle Posted September 10, 2007 Author Posted September 10, 2007 Photo of Lid. I believe Pol Div is Political Division:
ehrentitle Posted September 10, 2007 Author Posted September 10, 2007 The other end of the case with a close up of the somewhat cryptic SS records group label:
ehrentitle Posted September 10, 2007 Author Posted September 10, 2007 Inside of crate. Inside looks fresh, like it was made yesterday.
ehrentitle Posted September 10, 2007 Author Posted September 10, 2007 Long story short...the case came for the Supply and Services Division of the Berlin Brigade and along with hundreds of others that were used for decades for storage and shipping within the Brigade and S&S Div. I worked for this organization at the time I left Berlin and asked my German workers if they could bring me a strong box which I could use to ship professional books. The next day this crate appeared. I asked about it's origin and was told that these crates were used to ship Nazi party and SS records to the Berlin Document Center. From Jul 45 until Oct 53, captured Nazi Party records were consolidated at the BDC. After they were no longer of use to the Center they were shipped to the S&S Div. This particular crate has a cryptic marking "SS Group" which I assume means that it contained SS records shipped to the center.I had a tour of the Berlin Document Center when I was stationed in Berlin. It's housed on an underground installation that was used by the Gestapo to monitor all calls in and out of Berlin. For a bit more on the BDC see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Document_Center
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