new grouping - just in

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Here is a grouping i just collected from the postal office.This small grouping is obtained directly from the veterans family.

More to follow => detailed information, for certain a novum for my humble collection as i never tought (and cerainly never trusted a Kurland cufftitle as offered on most dealers webpages) i would own a Kurland. But hey => here it is alive and well and i am the first one to have it after the person who received it

Needles to say => me very happy

Cordial greetings,

ps: more to follow (can take a while)

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And here we have the center piece => crude but lovely at the very same time

The award date (as entered in the WP was 20.04.1945). This cuff. was folded all the time in the inside of teh Wehrpass.

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

ANd here we have the reverse => it is quite grey from colour (instead of white => dirty ?) + not one as mostly encountered (machinewoven).

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And here we have the KVK 1 e Klasse with Swords. It is a nice worn Tombak piece and bears the maker mark : L/11 (Deumer / L?denscheid).

Cordial greetings,

[Hendrik]

Well done Stijn !!! Very nice little group Looking forward to learning more about the original recipient ...

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Avitas]

How lucky you are for coming across such a nice set! I wish more of those would pop up here in Western Canada! Alas, not much chance, but it is nice to see a complete piece of history like this set. The Kurland Cuff Title is excellent!

Pat

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Thank you both fine gentlemen for the reactions => i also like it very much and i do propose to learn who this recipient was, etc ... and lets kick off with the picture as found in his Wehrpass.

We do see our Oberfeldwebel in full award dress and look how nicely the war merit cross does shine on his breast besides the Infantery Assault badge.

More to follow ...

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

This person did earn the following awards during his wartime periode :

Here we have his units => as we can see he was a proffesional soldier and volunteered in 1934 + did go through the complete war as started against Poland in 1939.

More to follow ...

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And as we can see, he did manage to survive the war and went into battle on : 01.09.1939 and did make it through untill 08.05.1945 (where he went into captivity according towards his family => i do doubt this date as he should have been only less then 3 months in Russian captivity, and knowing the Russians they rather had the use of keeping these POW a bit longer. I think he might have been able somehow to escape captivity and make it back towards Germany.)

He went through:

1) Poland (1939)

2) France (1940)

3) Russia (1941-1945)

Here is his first page with battleentry's. (all help in deciphering is offcoarse very welcome )

Cordial greetings,

[Gary B]

Dear Stijn,

Great and RARE grouping. Congrats.

Gary B

[Bryan Poon]

Thanks Stijn, a very nice grouping you had.

Cheers

BP

[Paul R]

Agreed! Splendid grouping! What cannot make out what other awards he received. Can you please list them? That Kurland title is something special. Did this grouping come from the veteran himself or from his family member?

Paul

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Here are some more battle pages

@ this grouping comes directly from his direct family (you have to search into the son, daughter region ), they have no interets at all in this stuff. and i was lucky to know a few veterans in there area who have known the soldier. Thats how i ended up with these persons etc ... and finally the grouping did make it into my collection (took me over a year).

Hint: the good lookers will see the relation of how i ended up with these persons, there is clear tip on the show pages

He earned a total of 7 awards (alle entered in the WP !!!) => only 2 of these survived untill these days (being the KVK & class and the Kurland cuff) , so stay tuned

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And now lets go towards his awards as entered in the WP.

Cordial greetings,

[Paul R]

Awesome! I have not seen too many documented cases of enlisted personel(especially Infantry) being awarded the KVK1!!! Thanks for sharing your grouping!

Paul

[Hendrik]

He earned a total of 7 awards

Mmm, I counted eight based on the recipient's picture posted earlier :

four in the ribbon bar :

EK II

Sudeten Medal

Eastern Front Medal

LS Medal

three on his chest :

IAB

KVK I

Wounded badge

and, not visible in the picture, award no. 8 : the Kurland cuff title ! Or does this not rate as a proper award ??? As Paul suggested earlier, a picture of the listing of the awards in the WP would be a nice addition to this thread

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Hendrik]

Stijn,

That was very quick !!! Even ahead of my asking for it

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Thank you noth fine gentlemen, i drink one upon more such discovery's and might each one of you have the same luck one day and find a untouched grouping

Indeed, indeed counting the Kurland in does make 8, however as he was also a holder of the "Reichssportabz. Bronze" that would make 9 (sad thing for me is that i do not have a award date for this one).

Well here is another entry

Cordial greetings,

[Stijn David]

Hello,

And the cherry that go's with the cake => the entry of the cufftitle

Cordial greetings,

[Paul R]

Beautiful!!!!

[Hendrik]

... the ribbon bar :

EK II

Sudeten Medal

Eastern Front Medal

LS Medal

Gents,

Apologies ! I notice I made a mistake in the identification of the ribbons in the picture : no. 2 is not the Sudeten medal but the KVK II with swords ! As per the 1941 entry in the Wehrpass.

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Avitas]

I thought i was a better man, but I am jealous. I hope to see more complete groupings like this, and they tell the whole story so well. Again, kudos on a great find, and to see documentation like this with the hardware is something else...

Pat

[Stijn David]

Hello,

@ Hendrik: indeed => but it is a good sign you have found the small mistake, no problem offcoarse at all

@ Avitas: each collector has its portion of luck for sure, so i am certain and i do hope you might be lucky also in the future.

Thank you both for the comments.

ps: hendrik, you might see this small grouping pop-up one day at a SKF meeting in the form of eitehr a presenatation or a article

[webr55]

And as we can see, he did manage to survive the war and went into battle on : 01.09.1939 and did make it through untill 08.05.1945 (where he went into captivity according towards his family => i do doubt this date as he should have been only less then 3 months in Russian captivity, and knowing the Russians they rather had the use of keeping these POW a bit longer. I think he might have been able somehow to escape captivity and make it back towards Germany.)

That's interesting. Do you know how many children he had?

I ask because I got the following story from a relative whose father was also in the Kurland army: Just before the surrender, a local commander in Kurland decided to let all those with three or more children board their last intact ship and sail across the Baltic sea to Holstein, where they surrendered to the British - and got home quite soon.

[Stijn David]

Hello,

Never heard that before, but sounds like a human deed. I guess we will never know why officially he only spent approx. 3 months as POW. However thank you for the info

Cordial greetings,