Luftwaffe Festung Battle of the Bulge 1944 with SS

[Malatee]

Dear.
I can trade different Soldbuch.
All are complete no missing pages, perfect states no denaeified.
Very nice for collection.
But I no have any idea about the value now ?
Can you give me a little bit of your time please and say me the maximum value ?
Your sincerely Malatee.

[Malatee]

More photo the best.

[Marcel Banziger]

I am not an expert but the EK II entry looks cramped in and fake to me. Looking forward to see what the more knowledgeable people have to say.

I see he's buried in Henry Chapelle. Worked there for a long time. Still lots of ammo in the ground overthere.

[Malatee]

Hello any informations are Welcome.
Here is my true and history a very bad experience for the collection please take care ! (Ralf Haas and Lutz Saeger).
Now I do Soldbuch after have lose a lot of money with Ralf Haas and the copy helmets with warranty certificate !!!! (thank you to Kelly Ickx for his help and support)
Belgium justice have say me to return all to his fome with tracking and photos with my lawyer.
I have do, and Ralf Haas send me a email as he have all receive my 16 helmets paid to him and him sale for return me the money.
After one year nothing move, just photos with Ralf haas and his new car ans new wheels, him say as the business work good.
I contact again my lawyer and Ralf Haas is arrested by police on Ciney, and with a traductor him say, : I have return the helmet to him but I have lose the papers, and the sold is paid cash with the seller as I forget his name ? And I have also have lose the receive !!!!!!!!!
Belgium justice have close the complaint to Ralf Haas and now I see the helmets return to Ralf Haas on sellers shop on France, Belgium, Holland and Germany !!!!!!
I open again a complaint but for the justice photos are not proof !!!!!!!!
Than bye my money. ?
Now I'm take care with the soldbuch and I need help.
Your sincerely Malatee.

[Hank C.]

As you have learned, Ralf Haas is a criminal who's well known in our collecting community.

I also think the SS EK2 entry is fake. No stamp & crammed in between the other 2 entries. There's no reason for it to be that way.

Good luck with everything else.

Best
H

[Luft 76]

Agree! In my opinion, this is a low value Sb. In particular with its fake award entry.

[matthias_AC]

I've been looking at the EK2 entry now for ages and I don't see why it would look cramped... also, a missing stamp in a Soldbuch does not necessarily indicate a fake to me; I bought a Soldbuch from Peter Janssen (probably the most reliable source for authentic paperwork on the internet) earlier this year and neither the EK2 nor the EK1 entry inside has a stamp.
I am on holidays at the moment and thus don't have my books within reach, but as far as I remember this LW Festungsbataillon fought under 2. SS Panzer by that time. So historically it would match. But anyone can research that information, of course...

So far the only reason for me to question the EK2 entry is the fact that the Soldbuch comes from a highly "questionable" source...

I would really like to hear more opinions on this Soldbuch, although it's not mine!

[hoover]

, but as far as I remember this LW Festungsbataillon fought under 2. SS Panzer by that time

was the Lw-Festungsbataillon XI been attached to the 2. SS or not? There are many contrary informations in the net. Some said no, they were planned but it was not done.

[matthias_AC]

I am pretty sure Carlsen, who wrote a scientific book on the LW Festungsbataillone, says this Bataillon was attached to 2. SS Panzer for a while. I checked all his information on LW Festungsbataillon XI because I have an award citation of this exact unit.

I have Carlsens book at home, but again, I am on holidays at the moment, so have to wait until I get home next week.

[Archi]

Hello !

This is my first post on the new Forum and I hope it will work.

I fully understand that everything related to "SS entries" raises some interest/questions
(and also makes those entries suspicious, as possible fakes).

Hank, if you say Ralf Haas is well known as faker/criminal to the community, was he one of those very clever ones ?

I am asking because :
1) Matthias is right and Lw.Fest.Btl. XI fought some time under (the remnants) of 2. SS-Pz.Div.
at the Westwall. In addition to the Carlsen book, there are other independent confirmations of that.
(However the connection from EuABtl. 105 to Lw.Fest.Btl. XI might be much less known and less obvious
and would require some very serious research (at least IMO).)

2) I had some doubts myself, based on various entries done by Lw.Fest.Btl. XI.
But before going into details on that, I would be interested to know, what entries HankC and Luft 76 consider fake ?
Only the EK 2 entry (this is not so obvious to me) or are there other fake entries as well ?

=> As Matthias, I would be interested to discuss this Soldbuch in some detail and learn something.

To make a start for discussion, I thought we could discuss the award entries in detail :

If I read correctly, there are three entries :
1) - Flakkampfabzeichen by 21. Flak.Div. (active in WK XII area), dated 27.3.44
[signed y an Oblt u. Kp.Chef]]
This award he must have received probably as Flakhelfer, before he was drafted ?!

2) - EK II entry, dated 7.10.44, by 2. SS-Pz-Div. "Das Reich", signed by a Lt. u. Adjutant

3) - Inf.Sturm-Abz. (silber), dated 26.10.44, signed by a Lt. u. Adjutant

- First question :
There are 3 awards and 3 signatures, but only two stamps. I think we all agree, that the lower stamp was entered for
the Inf. Sturmabzeichen. But to which entry belongs the other stamp (to 1) or 2) ) ?

Is this so obvious ? Couldn't it be, that it was the Flakkampfabzeichen that was forgotten to be stamped ?
If you compare the signature on p. 15 (security check) with that of the first award entry, to me it looks like it
was signed by the same person (also rank and function: Oberlt. and Kp.Chef would match).
In that case, entry 1) would have been entered by the 4.Kp. EuA-Btl. 105 and the two stamps below
(both referring to Lw.Fest.Btl XI) would refer to the other two award entries below that.
In that case, at least the "missing stamp" argument would be wrong.
What do you think ?

- Second question :
Can someone make a guess on the signatures, so that I can try to compare to some known officers of Lw.Fest.Btl. XI
or the Ersatz units ?

To help with the above questions, it would be very useful to see some more pages of this SB, e.g. some holiday entries
or entries from p. 18/19 (or other entries).

- Last question :
What I think of this Soldbuch :
For me this is an interesting example of a very young soldier, drafted in mid 1944 to a Gren.EuA Btl. 105 and
sent to the front in Sept. 1944. He took part in some battles there (before he died too early).
Examples like these are cases I am interested in.

What I still don't understand : How much would the fact that he served for a few days under the HQ of an SS Division
would affect the price of this Soldbuch ?
Would it be treated as any other EK II entry or would it boost the price to double or more (because now this SB
is "somehow SS related" ?).

To understand the last question is of course mainly my own problem. (But some comments would be appreciated.)

But I think the other questions on this SB are worth a discussion in more detail !

Best regards,

Archi

[Malatee]

Thank for your description I'm also not certain as this is 100% original.

[Hank C.]

Archi, he preys on new collectors and doesn't honor returns. There's a good number of posts here on the forum about him. As I recall, he does/did have a militaria website with more than enough obvious fakes or reproductions listed as original. I can't speak to whether he is clever enough to know the unit specifics to fake this entry.

To me, only my opinion, the SS EK2 just doesn't sit well. I know entries sometimes lack stamps, that's not a problem. Just the fact that the 3 awards are all jammed together when there's no need for them to be. I'd trust your research ANY day of the week Archi, but if I were offered this book I wouldn't add any value for the questionable entry. Not without further documentation or proof.

All the best
H

[matthias_AC]

Short interjection: Regardless of the discussion on the EK2 entry, this Soldbuch has nothing to do with the Battle of the Bulge/Ardennes Offensive. LW Festungsbataillon XI saw action in the Hurtgenforest in late 1944 as an independent unit before it was absorbed by 344. Infanterie, but was never transferred to the Ardennes frontline.