Heer Another little Feldgendarmerie set.

[Gordon Williamson]

Fairly basic awards, just the Black Wound Badge and War Merit Cross. Feldgendarmerie-Trupp 272 was the Military Police detachment for 272 Infanterie Division ( later 272 Volksgrenadier Division). During the period in which the War Merit Cross was issued 272 Inf Div was on security duty on the French/Spanish border. It was sent to the Invasion Front in Normandy after the allied landings and saw action at Caen and Falaise where it was virtually destroyed. The remnants were reformed as 272 VGD and remained on the Western Front where it eventually surrendered in the Ruhr pocket.

[Gordon Williamson]

The intresting part of the group was the inclusion of several other documents including these two "safe passes" requesting that he be assisted in making his way home to Hamburg after being released from Prisoner of War Camp.

First in French/English.

[Gordon Williamson]

And in Russian ! Issued by the MIlitary Authorities in Berlin, they refer to his release from the POW camp in Rudersdorf, a small village on the Eastern approaches to Berlin.

One wonders how a soldier serving in a DIvision which served and ended the war on the western front ended up in a POW camp in the Soviet zone east of Berlin. Also, how a member of the Feldgendarmerie was released by the Soviets as early as July 1945, when most who fell into Soviet hands ended up in Labour camps in the Soviet Union for many years- assuming the returned at all.

Love these intriguing little docs that pose more questions than they ever seem to solve !

[hucks216]

Great little set to a unit that has become more desireable to some collectors since the release of Doug Nash's book 'Victory Was Beyond Their Grasp'. As to his being captured, I wonder if his wounding in July saw him being posted elsewhere after a brief stay in the lazarett system? Or maybe he found an opportune moment to slip away in the dying weeks of the war before the Division were caught in the Ruhr Pocket (can't imagine the authorities would of gone easy on him for that if he had of been caught considering one of his duties would of been to catch people like that). i would say the wounding & subsequent posting would be a good bet.

Edited March 17, 2011 by hucks216