Earliest Lappland shield entry

[Simon O.]

Just received this rather interesting and enigmatic pair to a stabsgefreiter with the stabs schwadron of Aufklärungs Abteilung 112, the recce battalion of the 6 Gebirgs Division.

Apart from getting a KVK1 which is relatively unusual for a soldier in the mannschaften group of ranks the really interesting thing is the date of the Lappland shield award. 1st of March 1945. This is the earliest i've seen by a long way. These were all awarded after the 8th May however on some rare occasions back dated awards can be found but these have always been between 1 and 8 may. as we know, the shield was only suggested in february 45 and officially instituted on the 1 May 45.

So what's going on?

[Simon O.]

Clearly he qualified for the shield, of that there's no question. Could the entries be fake? No, i see no evidence of that. It's clearly a backdated award, but why that date when every other award i've seen to the 6 Geb Div. (though i haven't before seen any to A.A.112) are dated to the middle of or late july?

the stamps are too faint unfortunately to see if the swastika had been removed.

[Simon O.]

I know for sure the entries weren't made when the books were checked and signed on 8th july 45 as the pencil used is the same throughout on that date. I noticed that the units served was closed by another officer and schwadron chef.

[Simon O.]

I also have the records of the 6 GD's IIa from 1944 and 1945 up until the end. These inlcude all promotions and postings of officers and amongst them i found this Rittmeister Berner's promotion to oberleutnant from the 10.2.45 with the promotion coming into effect from the 1 Nov.44 these orders were issued roughly every 2 weeks and the last one is from 16.4.45, promotions are roughly 2-3 months behind when published so i think his final promotion was either in the pipeline as the war ended or he had been promoted and it hadn't been published yet. I looked through all the orders from sept 44 to the 8th may and this is the only time he's mentioned.

It could even be that he was promoted rittmeister on the 1 March 45, which would eventually have been published about may 45, this is about the only possible reason i can think of for using this date, the officer picked the date of his final promotion as an arbitary shield award date in order to make it look valid as a pre-8 may award.

[Edward]

Nice set Simon. Interesting that he was on his 3rd issue of a Wehrpaß! I have no problem with the Schild entry. Looks good. Just a guess, but it could very well be just a case of administrative error. Entering 1.3.45 instead of 1.5.45.

[JUNGCO]

It had to have been back dated, as he was a Rittmeister when the award was entered in the Soldbuch and Wehrpaß.
Jeff

[Eric JB]

Nice grouping Simon.

And yes that is a very early dated shield entry, first time I see such an early dated one.

Could be an error, or as Jeff mentions : back dated.

I see no red flags in your booklets.

Thanks for showing.

yours friendly

Eric-Jan

[Simon O.]

I think that this may even be something particular to this one schwadron as Major Helmuth Breuker (RK) who took over the abteilung in late april 45 is listed as having been awarded his lappland shield on the 21 july as was normal for the 6 GD. Perhaps they simply misread the order instituting the shield as of 1.5.45..who knows..

So, date range wise now i've seen the earliest now with a date of 1.3.1945 and the latest 25.10.1945. The vast majority being awarded in july and early august.

[Simon O.]

In a strange irony, just this last Sunday i found these two equipment tags to this abteilung, the first time i've found something to this particular unit.