BW FJ Wehrpas

[Mike Yokum]

Hi gents,

I normally hang out in the 57er section, but have an item that may be of interest to you good folks. Our sections are very closely linked I feel.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the Wehrpas to be seen here. >CLICK<

I only have the pics from the seller at the moment. When it arrives I will post some high-res scans.

[Gordon Craig]

Mike, An interesting wehrpass. Looks as though the entries were copied from his war time book. Too bad you couldn't have afforded to keep the whole grouping together. I am assuming the lot comprised uniforms etc? I would love to have seen that and been able to bid on it! Do you have any pictures from the auction that you could post here?
Too bad his history before his time in Festung Brest is missing. The writing was probably too poor to read in the WWII book although in your book it is quite legible. The information might also have been missing because wehrpass were often lost and reissued and hence lacked some of the possible information.
Ramke was the commanding general in Festung, Brest in 1944 and with some work you should be able to figure out what unit within 2.Fallschirjagerdivision your man was in when he won the EKII and the EKI. He probably went into captivity after Festung Brest fell.
There is another thread that was started in this forum a few days ago by someone trying to trace units listed in two BW wehrpass belonging to WWII vets. It might be worth your while to have a look at them. Thanks for posting your wehrpass. Very nice to see they are out there and available.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Mike,

I've done some browsing in my library and the listings in your wehrpass on the "Orden Ehrenzeichen und Anerkennungen" page makes sense. You mentioned in the other thread that your man had been in North Africa. That would fit as Ramke led a Parachute Brigade in North Africa. Those men from the Ramke brigade who escaped capture in Africa, including Ramke, were assigned to 2.Fallschirmjaegerdivision when it was formed in March of 1943. Generalmajor Ramke as the commanding officer. Your man's Luftwaffe Ground Combat badge was awarded while he was part of 2.F.J. Div. Oberst. Pietzonka (slight spelling difference between the wehrpass and my reference book-the wehrpass may be the more correct spelling), who apparently signed the EKII award document, was a Major and the commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, F.J. Rgt 2, in 2.F.J. Div. when it was first formed in 43. The EKI was awarded on 18.9.44 and Ramke surrendered Festung Brest to the Ameicans on 20.9.44. To me the wehrpass looks good.
As a side note, 2.F.J.Div had been fighting in Russia since 1943 and during the time your man's Ground Combat badge was awarded the division was moving from there towards Brest. It wasn't until late July of 44 that all of the division had reassembled in France. Your man's GCB could have been awarded for action in Russia, and probably was, or for the fighting which took place as the division tried to get to the Brest area.

Regards,

Gordon

[JeremyJ]

FJ BW Wehrpas

Mike,

Very nice piece.

I have a few Bundeswehr WP as well (as Gordon alluded to in his earlier post) in my collection and they are a nice link to the post WW2 history of these soldiers.

His awards which are listed were confirmed based on his soldbuch (as noted) and his award documents for the former entries. You can tell this due to how specific they were entered i.e. name of officer issuing/signing the award documents. Wartime Soldbuchs and for that matter Wehrpas would rarely show this information, namely the name of the awarding officer or number of the badge in the case of the FJ Abz.. Nice also to see at leaast some of his wartime units listed this I have not found in any of mine however I have the WW2 documentation to confirm this information.

Regarding his lack of specifics for his WW2 service either the individual entering the information choose to simply list his branch of service throughout WW2 or he may possibly had a Zweitschrift SB (second issue etc.) he was pulling info. from which may not have listed his entire service career based on when the SB was opened.

Nice item.

Cheers

Jeremy

[Mike Yokum]

Thank you Gordon and Jeremy fo ryour thoughtful analysis! I'm grateful to you both.

Gordon, there were no uniform items offered by the seller, although I am in contact with him to see what else, if anything, remains from the FJ's possessions. I will post pitures of the other items offered by the seller.

The many Bundestreffen items offered are all for FJFtR/FJR5. There was a mug commemorating Normandy, a grave sleeve, a mini-medal bar and mini-medal chain.

Here are a few pictures of the other items...

[Mike Yokum]

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[Mike Yokum]

I won't post all of the Bundestreffen items unless requested as there are many.

If the seller has more items and will deal, I'll be sure to post them here.

Thanks again for the assessment of the Wehrpas gents!

[Gordon Craig]

Mike,

Thanks for posting the additional pictures from the auction. The ribbon bar and the miniature chain would have been a welcome adition to any BW collection.
I've done some research on the units your man served while in the Bundeswehr. Here they are in order as listed in the book.

1 - 16.11.55 - 31.7.58 - S.d.H. Kóln - Stammdienststelle der Heeres - at this point in time there were three different command organizations - SDH (army), SDL (air force) and SDM (marine). Your man served somewhere in the army section. Later, after he left S. d. H., they were combined into one overall structure. The shield for S.d. H is posted below.

2 - 1.8.58 - 15.9.63 - KTV Bad Godesberg - Kommando der Territorialen Verteidigung - Command of the Territorial Defence Force - as I understand it, the Territorial Defence Force was composed mostly of reservists who were to support the BW active service in time of war.

3 - 16.09.71 - STVERSKpBMVidg, Bonn - I could not find any reference to this Supply Company.

Regards,

Gordon

[Mike Yokum]

Gordon,

Thank you VERY MUCH for this information! What a fine moderator and fellow collector you are!

Indeed the mini-bar and mini-chain would have been excellent additions. I am very pleased and grateful to have been able to add the Wehrpas to my FJ collection! If you like, when you have a moment, look at the last picture posted in this THREAD to see my FJ tribute.

Here are some RARE pieces as well. Note the wide pins.

A few more RARITIES here.

I hope you enjoy these New Form pieces.

Thank you again for your kind contributions on the Wehrpas! I will post more pictures when it arrives.

Best,