Chris Boonzaier Posted March 12, 2014 Posted March 12, 2014 Some time ago I mentioned that I thought Cross collectors all to often seperate the crosses from "History" and concentrate too much on makers marks. This was a bit unfair to the cross collectors as just as often Document collectors seperate the documents from "History" and just go for nice print variations.... That can of course work to my advantage. i just picked these up on ebay for about what most dealers would charge for just the EK1 doc... It is not a great Print variation.... 2 pretty ugly docs..... but they are soooooooooo interesting... full of history.... there is just one thing after another that comes up when you reasearch the dude.... even just googling... Here is clue one..... he wrote his Regimenatl History... which I still have to get.... Can anyone find anything else?
Bernhard H.Holst Posted March 12, 2014 Posted March 12, 2014 Hello Chris. W/out Googling the name strikes me as being the later General Stahel charged with the defense/ retaking of some ( more than one) strategicly important places during WW II. Highly decorated. Died while a prisoner of war in the then Soviet Union. Bernhard H. Holst
Chris Boonzaier Posted March 12, 2014 Author Posted March 12, 2014 Thats a good start indeed... but even his further service in WW1 and between the wars will excite a certain group of collectors....
arb Posted March 12, 2014 Posted March 12, 2014 Rainer Stahel went on to become a Luftwaffe Gen.Lt. I think Chris is getting at his service as a Finnish officer from late Feb 1918-1934, in both an active and reserve status. He was commander of the Finnish JB 27, 2. Jäg. R. and Jäg. Brig. 3, as well as a division chief of staff during the last year of the war and later a Schutzkorps commander. He remained a Finnish reserve officer until December 1934. Not many men "enjoyed" such a varied military career as this man. Andy
Bernhard H.Holst Posted March 12, 2014 Posted March 12, 2014 Hello Chris and Andy. As Andy noted quite a career in Finnish service. In WW I several times wounded and severe illnesses. Feb. to May 1917 detached to Sturmbataillon Rohr, he seemingly specialised in M.G. service. He had the Finnish citizenship. He died shortly before returning home in soviet camp Woikowo on 30 Nov.1955. Bernhard H. Holst
Chris Boonzaier Posted March 12, 2014 Author Posted March 12, 2014 Indeed, commanded the MG Company of the Finnish Jägers from mid 1916 before that... and then , as Bernhard says.... his WW2 stuff is nothing to sniff at either!!
Chris Boonzaier Posted March 13, 2014 Author Posted March 13, 2014 recieving the oakleaves and swords.....
Chris Boonzaier Posted March 13, 2014 Author Posted March 13, 2014 - Ritterkreuz (397): am 18.01.1942 als Oberstleutnant und Kommandeur des Flak-Regiment 34 - Eichenlaub (169): am 04.01.1943 als Oberst und Kommandeur einer Luftwaffen-Kampfgruppe im Kampfraum von Stalingrad - Schwerter (79): am 18.07.1944 als Generalmajor und Kommandant Fester Platz Wilna - 1914 EK I: 24.03.1915 - 1914 EK II: 12.10.1914 - Finn. Freiheitskreuz III. Klasse: 08.05.1918 - Finn. Freiheitskreuz II. Klasse: 29.05.1918 - Verwundetenabzeichen, 1918 in Silber - Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer - Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. bis III. Klasse - Spange zum EK II: 16.07.1941 - Spange zum EK I: 18.09.1941 - Flakkampfabzeichen - Medaille “Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/1942” - Wehrmachtbericht: 14.07.1944 List of awards courtesy geocities.com
Chris Boonzaier Posted March 13, 2014 Author Posted March 13, 2014 Ditto for source... Entered the Army as an Fahnenjunker, Platoon-Leader and Battalion-Adjutant in the 130th Infantry-Regiment (01 Apr 1911-31 Jul 1915) Detached to the War School in Hersfeld (01 Oct 1911-00 Jul 1912) Company-Leader in the 130th Infantry-Regiment (01 Aug 1915-30 Apr 1916) With the Replacement-Battalion of the 130th Infantry-Regiment (01 May 1916-14 May 1916) Detached to the Training-Troops Lokstedt (15 May 1916-30 May 1916) Chief of the MG-Company of the 27th Jäger-Battalion (31 May 1916-08 Jul 1917) Detached as Artillery-Observer (18 Feb 1917-28 Feb 1917) Detached to Assault-Battalion Rohr (18 May 1917-26 May 1917) MG-Officer with the Staff of the 27th Jäger-Battalion (09 Jul 1917-19 Feb 1918) Released for Service in the Finnish Army (02 Mar 1918-11 Apr 1918) Retired (11 Apr 1918) Commander of the 27th Finnish Jäger-Battalion (19 Feb 1918-09 Mar 1918) Commander of the 2nd Finnish Jäger-Regiment (10 Mar 1918-31 Mar 1918) Commander of the 3rd Finnish Jäger-Brigade (01 Apr 1918-05 Jun 1918) Chief Of Staff of the 1st Finnish Division (06 Jun 1918-05 Sep 1918) Commander of the 1st Finnish Baltic-Sea-Regiment, Helsingfors (06 Sep 1918-05 Nov 1919) Retired (05 Nov 1919) Entered Service with the Finnish Border-Police as Commander of the Finnish Protection-Corps Turku (Abo) (15 Mar 1920-31 Jul 1925) Retired (31 Jul 1925) Finnish Reserve-Officer (22 Feb 1922-19 Dec 1934) Employed by the German Army (Territorial-Officer from 01 Mar 1934) as Advisor Wa Prw. 2 in the Army Weapons Office (HWA) (Development of On-Board-MG for Aircraft and for Heavy MG) (06 Nov 1933-31 May 1935) Transferred into the Luftwaffe as a Supplemental-Officer (Activated in 1941) and Advisor for the Development of light Flak-Weapons, RLM (01 Jun 1935-14 Nov 1938) Battery-Chief in the 73rd Light Flak-Battalion (15 Nov 1938-25 Aug 1939) Commander of the 731st Light Reserve-Flak-Battalion (26 Aug 1939-18 Feb 1940) Commander of the 226th Reserve-Flak-Battalion (19 Feb 1940-30 Apr 1940) At the same time, Course for Battalion-Commanders at Flak-Artillery-School I (26 Feb 1940-20 Mar 1940) Commander of the 151st Reserve-Flak-Battalion (01 May 1940-31 Jul 1940) Luftwaffe-Control-Officer with the Control-Commission I in Unoccupied France, Bourges (01 Aug 1940-24 Mar 1941) At the same time, Acting-Chief Of Staff of the Luftwaffe-Control-Commission I, Bourges (10 Jan 1941-24 Mar 1941) Commander of the 34th Motorised-Flak-Regiment (25 Jan 1941-14 Apr 1942) Commander of the 99th Flak-Regiment (15 Apr 1942-25 Sep 1942) Delegated with the Leadership of the 4th Luftwaffe-Field-Division (Formation-Commander) and for a time, Commander of Luftwaffe-Battle-Group Stahel (25 Sep 1942-31 Jan 1943) Detached into the Service-Area of Air-Fleet-Command 4 (01 Mar 1943-20 May 1943) Commander of the 22nd Flak-Brigade (21 May 1943-05 Jun 1943) Proposed Service with the Reichsführer-SS and Chief of Special-Staff Stahel but command did not become effective (01 Jun 1943-16 Jun 1943) Delegated with the Flak-Security of the entire North Coast of Sicily (28 Jul 1943-1944) At the same time, Commandant of Rome (10 Sep 1943-00 Dec 1943) Commandant of Fortress Vilna (07 Jul 1944-11 Jul 1944) City-Commandant of Warsaw (25 Jul 1944-25 Aug 1944) Battle-Commandant north of Bucharest (26 Aug 1944-29 Aug 1944) In Soviet Captivity (28 Aug 1944-30 Nov 1955) Died in Soviet Captivity (30 Nov 1955)
turtle Posted March 14, 2014 Posted March 14, 2014 This is an amazing set of documents with this type of background!!
jonsey2001 Posted March 22, 2014 Posted March 22, 2014 Nice breaking bad reference. And a good read, i should be sleeping.
Chris Boonzaier Posted April 14, 2015 Author Posted April 14, 2015 Does no one esle see the breaking bad resemblance? :-)
Brian R Posted April 18, 2015 Posted April 18, 2015 Awesome set and research, Chris. The seller did not know "what" he/she had?
Chris Boonzaier Posted April 18, 2015 Author Posted April 18, 2015 Hi, it was on ebay.... and as we know... most folks dont care about WW1 paper.... ;-) thousands of potential buyers did not bother to google ;-) His whole document group must have been split at some stage... I guess the 32 and 32a were numberings used with his personal papers....
Deutschritter Posted July 11, 2021 Posted July 11, 2021 (edited) Here we have Rainer Stahel 1925 in the Finnish Zivil-Garde. He also received, besides the liberty cross III. and II class, the Jägerkreuz des Jäger-Bataillons Nr. 27 (Steckorden), the Finnische Erinnerungsmedaille für den Freiheitskrieg 1918 mit Gefechtsspange „Karjalan R.“ (Vapaussodan – Karjalan rintama) and the Bronzenes Kreuz für Verdienste der Zivil-Garde (Verdienstkreuz der Zivilgarde; Suojeluskunta Rautainen ansioristi). On 12/03/2014 at 11:49, Chris Boonzaier said: Some time ago I mentioned that I thought Cross collectors all to often seperate the crosses from "History" and concentrate too much on makers marks. This was a bit unfair to the cross collectors as just as often Document collectors seperate the documents from "History" and just go for nice print variations.... That can of course work to my advantage. i just picked these up on ebay for about what most dealers would charge for just the EK1 doc... It is not a great Print variation.... 2 pretty ugly docs..... but they are soooooooooo interesting... full of history.... there is just one thing after another that comes up when you reasearch the dude.... even just googling... Here is clue one..... he wrote his Regimenatl History... which I still have to get.... Can anyone find anything else? Hello, Chris! I am pretty sure, these two documents are NOT for Rainer Stahel, surely for his younger brother Heinrich (same Regiment), who fell as Leutnant und Führer der 11. Kompane on 31 March 1918. Rainer was in February 1916 already Oberleutnant, he received EK II 1914 and EK I 1915. What do you think? Edited July 11, 2021 by Deutschritter
Chris Boonzaier Posted July 11, 2021 Author Posted July 11, 2021 28 minutes ago, Deutschritter said: Here we have Rainer Stahel 1925 in the Finnish Zivil-Garde. He also received, besides the liberty cross III. and II class, the Jägerkreuz des Jäger-Bataillons Nr. 27 (Steckorden), the Finnische Erinnerungsmedaille für den Freiheitskrieg 1918 mit Gefechtsspange „Karjalan R.“ (Vapaussodan – Karjalan rintama) and the Bronzenes Kreuz für Verdienste der Zivil-Garde (Verdienstkreuz der Zivilgarde; Suojeluskunta Rautainen ansioristi). Hello, Chris! I am pretty sure, these two documents are NOT for Rainer Stahel, surely for his younger brother Heinrich (same Regiment), who fell as Leutnant und Führer der 11. Kompane on 31 March 1918. Rainer was in February 1916 already Oberleutnant, he received EK II 1914 and EK I 1915. What do you think? Hi, they are indeed his. The documents were issued in 1916 but the awards were earlier. All these XVI Armeekorps from this date were for awards 1914-1915... the Korps only introduced the document at the beginning of 1916. They also have the rank of the person on the date of the award, so Lt in 14-15. ? 1
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now