Luftwaffe Rare Fallschirmjäger Grouping

[Gordon Williamson]

Ewald Nickel qualified as a Paratrooper in 1940

[Gordon Williamson]

Serving with 14 Kompanie. FJR3 he saw action on the Eastern Front and was wounded. At the time he earned the badge, his unit was in the middle of some very heavy combat on the Neva front.

[Gordon Williamson]

I assume going by the date being so close to the award date for the Wound Badge, the EK1 may well have been for the same action

[Gordon Williamson]

What makes the group special is that he subsequently moved from the Regiment to the parent Division and served in the Feldgendarmerie, winning the Ground Combat Badge. Needless to say, documents to Fallschirmjäger Feldgendarmerie are exceptionally rare.

[Gordon Williamson]

And the icing on the cake - a photo of him with all his awards being worn, and the Feldgendarmerie cuffband on his Fliegerbluse.

Only other shots I have seen of Fallschirmjäger Feldgendarmerie are the well known shots in Normandy but where all are wearing smocks so no insignia other than the gorget can be seen. This is only the second shot I have seen of Luftwaffe Feldgendarmerie in the Fliegerbluse with all insignia visible.

[Chris Boonzaier]

wow... what a great group!

And what a slip down the bitter slope... from an honourable job as a soldier to being an MP! ;-)

[spanferkel]

Beautiful document grouping and quite rare indeed to find a well decorated member of the Feldgendarmie.

Regards

Jeremy

[PKeating]

This is one of the best FJ groups I have ever seen. So rare! Plus the photo with the cuff title!

P

[Gordon Williamson]

Glad you guys like it !

Also interesting, to me at least, is the Waffenfarbe colour of the collar tabs. Clearly not the normal Golden Yellow of Fallschirmjäger, but predating the introduction of regular Orangerot for the Luftwaffe's Feldgendarmerie, so almost certainly the blue Waffenfarbe of the Nachschubtruppe to which the Luftwaffe Feldgendarmerie was subordinated at this point.

[Brian R]

Very nice group, Gordon. I wonder where he won his EK2 - perhaps in Crete as part of the Western Group.

Glad you guys like it !

Also interesting, to me at least, is the Waffenfarbe colour of the collar tabs. Clearly not the normal Golden Yellow of Fallschirmjäger, but predating the introduction of regular Orangerot for the Luftwaffe's Feldgendarmerie, so almost certainly the blue Waffenfarbe of the Nachschubtruppe to which the Luftwaffe Feldgendarmerie was subordinated at this point.

[Gordon Williamson]

Very nice group, Gordon. I wonder where he won his EK2 - perhaps in Crete as part of the Western Group.

Sadly, the EK2 doc is missing from the group. The photo is dated 1942 so it may be that it was taken before the Kreta cuffband was issued so the photo doesn't give a clue as to whether he served on Crete. Entirely possible though, maybe even likely as he was certainly a trained Para prior to the attack on Crete and we have no evidence to suggest that he was in any other unit prior to FJR3.

[hucks216]

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..

Edited October 12, 2010 by hucks216