First person persona

[Greg Hamilton]

Gentlemen,

I am attempting to move to a new place in reenacting and trying to fully develop a first person persona. I will be charting unknown territory as I don’t believe anyone in my organization or unit has done this yet (we are a relatively young organization here in the Pacific Northwest)

I am trying to create a FJ NCO with an emphasis on Afrika and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>. (NCO by <st1:State w:st="on">Normandy</st1:State>)

Starting from the beginning, I’d like to enter service late 41, maybe Sept/Oct,

Be assigned I. 3.FJR, re-designated I. Lehrbataillion, XIth Flying Corps

Go to jump school Mar/Apr 42

So here are some starter questions:

If I entered service from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Austria</st1:country-region> where would I go to basic?

How long was Basic? (what did they actually call it?)

Which jump schools were open then, which would I go to?

Does anyone have a jump log book for anyone that was at Training at Gross Born, <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Camp</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Linde</st1:PlaceName> (Lager Linde) April 19 – May 5? This was supposed to include combat training with new weapons and equipment, and lots of jumps with new gear and weapons in hand. I was wondering how many jumps guys made during this time frame?

I want to collect all this info (and a lot more!) for my soldbuch also. I don’t know anything about soldbuchs, I’m starting at ground zero. I assume German military school started on Mondays. Would a guy sign in early? Do they end on Fridays, or like US military schools end on Thursday to allow for travel. I’m assuming these kinds of thing are necessary for soldbuch entries.

Did the Luftwaffe use there own NCO schools or use the Heers? How about Pionier training? Does anyone know where either was located? How long were the courses, etc.?

Along the way you can point me to resources I’d love to do my own digging. I’ve already done a lot of my own but don’t know were to go to get in deeper detail.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[paulmfjr2]

Hi Greg, I may be able to help as I fill in the soldbuch for the members of my unit along with a Fallschirmjager veteran who helps me with the details. Basic training I think was 14 weeks, cut down to 6 or six as the war progressed. The training ground would be done at a specific ground for the regiment. I will have to look up what is specific for you.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[Daniel Murphy]

Of course, a persona is more than just your military service, it is who you are. Where are you from, What are the names of your family members? Mother, Father, brothers and sisters, girlfriend, fiance, wife (or all of the above ), children as well. What did you do before the war, were you a student, a miner, a factory worker, a civil servant? Hopes for the future, what do you want to do after the war? True, most of this is not put in a Wehrpass, but it is part of the whole. You are portraying a living breathing man in the military,he was not born when he joined the service and he will not die when he leaves it. Everything that happened before the war, during the war and everything you want to happen afterward is your persona as well. You can take you life as it is and convert it to to pre 45 German standards and changes the names to German or you can start from scratch and make what you want. That is the beauty of it. Here is mine I hope this helps:

I am Dieter Karl Wachelevski, I was born on 9,8,1888 to Heinrich and Dora Wachelevski in Dambrau, Schlesien. I have a older brother Stefan and two younger sisters Dora Anne and Wendi. Like the rest of my siblings, I only went to school til the 9th grade since my parents could not afford the Gymnasium. At the age of 14 I went to work in the coal mines with my brother and in 1908 I reported for my required military service at Oppeln, the garrison city for the 4th Oberschlesien Infanterie Regiment Nr. 63. I served my two years becoming a Gefreiter in the 6th Komp. and was passed to the reserve in 1910. I went back to the mines eventually becoming a foreman and served as a reservist of my regiment. In 1911 I married my fiance Viktoria Levinski and was so proud when my first son Heinrich was born in 1913. All of this was interrupted when I was called up for mobilization in August 1914. I was then assignd to the 3rd Komp. Having fought since 1914, I consider myself lucky I have never been wounded, but I have had many close calls. After the Battle of the Somme, ( in which I lost many friends)I was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class by our regimental commander. In April,1917, I was slightly gassed and after being treated and given leave (ah, a chance to see my "Vicki"), I was not returned to my old comrades. I was assigned to the 8th Komp. of a new regiment then being raised, Infanterie Regiment 459. Now I have fought with this regiment for some time and it is 1918. The company commander has seen me assisting with and even taking over the MG08s when the crews were killed and he wants to send me to the Maschinengewehrschule. But I see that they get killed off so fast so I do not want to go. Due to the horrors I have seen in this war I tend to drink too much when out of the line and have been disciplined for this. So I am still only a Gefreiter. Now I have another son, Karl and I have never seen him except in a photgraph and my Heinrich would be five by now. When will this madness end? I only want to live and go back to my family.

See how easy it is?
Dan Murphy

[Greg Hamilton]

Thank you. I know there is more to a persona than the technical information, but I don't need help figuring that part out. What I was asking for help with was the parts that are not easy. Things you cannot make up. Or I should say in my case things I do not WANT to make up.

i.e. where did the luftwaffe run it waffenmeister schule. How long was it? Did it have specialities like small arms, cannons, aircraft guns, etc.?

What battle days where entered for awards for combat by 1st Fallschirm pionier battalion in Sicily and Italy on real award requests and soldbuchs?

These are things I would like to have be accurate. I am researching every movement, every battle, etc. that I would have participated in. I have made good headway on a lot of it, but the training stuff I don't know anything about.

I don't know how it worked for Austrians. Did they do RAD service? If so, how long? How many Austrians served in the military during peacetime? I don't especially want my persona to have had peacetime service but if everyone did and I was of age I would need to take that into account.

If I was prior service would I have been recalled and then transfer to the luftwaffe, or would I have been able to volunteer for the luftwaffe before returning to my old unit?