Heer Rare Police/Military Police set.

[Gordon Williamson]

Dienstausweis for Willi Haas. As the Ausweis shows, Haas was a Wachtmeister of the staff of the Police Headquarters in Pforzheim.

[Gordon Williamson]

He earns the "Anschluss" Medal

[Gordon Williamson]

And the Sudeten Medal with "Prager Burg" Clasp.

[Gordon Williamson]

So how does a member of staff of Police HQ in Pforzheim win these awards ?

Here is his Police Soldbuch, issued in May 1943, still at Police Admin HQ in Pforzheim.

[Gordon Williamson]

The awards page , showing also the Police 8 Yr LS Medal and the KVK2 and KVK1

[Gordon Williamson]

The clue lies in his ID Disc number.

The Feldgendarmerie was only formed as a permanent branch on mobilisation in 1939. Prior to this, when large scale troop movements were required ( such as during the Anschluss and in the occupation of the Sudetenland), civilian Policemen were sent to the Army on detached duty to act as MPs on a temporary basis. They wore Police uniform but with the yellow on green Feld=Gendarmerie armband.

Hass was one of these and earned his "Flower Wars" Medals as a MP with the army, making him one of the very first members of the Feldgendarmerie.

On the outbreak of war, Haas then served with the Feldgendarmerie through to 1944. According to his own postwar statement, he served as a Feldgendarm from 1937 to 1944.

[Gordon Williamson]

Award document for the KVK earned by Haas and of course made out in his military rather than Police rank, as a member of Feldgendarmerie Trupp 296, serving on the Eastern Front.

Quite apart from the interest in his being one of the rirst MPs, it is also interesting that he came from a Police Admin post, as the bulk of those transferred in to the Feldgendarmerie came from the Motorisierte Gendarmerie.