One of my hobbies is to collect documents from obscure or unknown/undistinguished divisions of the Heer. While I've seen dozens of Soldbuchs and Wehrpasses from the more famous formations, such as 2.Pz.Div. and Grossdeutschland, I've seen relatively few from some other not-so-well known divisions. I know that this is partly a function of the number of men who cycled through the better-known divisions, since they took part in so many battles and took correspondingly a high number of casualties. For example, something on the order of 50,000+ men cycled through the GD during the war, so it would stand to reason that a lot of documents would be available (and even more if you count the GD offshoots). But for some divisions, such as 156th, 230th, 237th, 301st, 311th, and the 325th Infantry Divisions, I've seen very few - only the 156th, of those above. So for a collector, it's very frustrating to seek these obscure units (of no particular distinction) but have no luck at all in finding them. One reason is that so many of these remained obscure is that they were active for only a short period, were on backwater fronts, or were activated very late towards the end of the war. Others, such as the 201st Sicherungs Division, were by their very nature made up of units transiting through the division while conducting counter-partisan warfare. Lastly, some units, such as the 606th Infantry Division, were activated so close to the end of the war, they may have existed solely on paper and no documents were ever created that can be traced to them. Has anyone had a similar experience in looking for these divisions? If so, I wouldn't mind seeing some scans of them. Thanks ---
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Hello Doug
You are undoubtedly one of the very few collectors like that ! When most of the people are looking for especially or only elite units. We have common points, because of my interest for all the "obscure" or modest WH and WL units who where on Normandy front... They were many !
To see some of them, by example, have a look to : http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=600519 -
Grouping to Generalmajor Goltsch from 606 ID. (zbv) is currently on e-stand.
No soldbuch or Wehrpass, but really nice.Comment
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A division, obscure? I don't think i'd use that word, little known to the English speaking collector community perhaps.
Take the 7 Inf.Div. how many would consider this division 'elite'? and yet in terms of the number of high awards given to its members it was right up there with the 'star' divisions. Almost as many RK awarded as TK and more DKiG awarded than DR. but its 'just an infantry division' no sexy name or magical Pz.SS,FJ associated with it.
If we're talking obscure then to my mind we're talking of the myriad of independent units of kompanie, bataillon and regiment size, some of which were unique to their type.
to take a few from my area of interest that i'm always on the hunt for.
Nachrichten Aufklärungs Abteilung 11
le.Gebirgs Beobachtungs Abteilung 18 and 38
Beobachtungs abteilung 60
Feldhundstaffel 550
Gebirgs Nebelwerfer Abteilung 10
Panzer Abteilung 211
Panzer Abteilung zbv 40
And to take a divisional sized unit
560 VGD, the only VGD to be raised in Norway.Collecting German award documents, other paperwork and photos relating to Norway and Finland.Comment
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I am almost agree. It's the reason why I used also the term modest. But in french language, obscure can also be employed like "anonymous". And many divisions or little german units can be considered like that. With no elite members and no distinguished commitment : they have done their "job" without brightness, at their simple level.Originally posted by Simon O. View PostComment
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Obscure Divisions
Thanks for the tip on Generalmajor Goltsch - Tony LeTissier writes about the 606th, but there really isn't that much information available.
I wouldn't say that the 7.Inf.Div. was obscure - quite the contrary, given the fact that they were mentioned in the dispatches rather frequently (and I have 3 SBs or WPs from that division already). But it's the ones that guarded the front, did their job, got no credit and sank into obscurity even before the war was over that I'm interested in. Take Festung Division Rhodos - didn't do much but guard coastline in the Med for a couple of years, and right before the end of the war they were thrown into battle and virtually wiped out overnight. (I have that one too, by the way). I have literally scoured thousands of listings here, on ebay, and everywhere else in between looking for the ones I mentioned and have come up empty handed. When I do see one listed, it's usually been sold a few weeks before and the seller never bothered to update his listing. Another holy grail type SB or WP would be from the Spanish Blue Division - granted, the Spaniards didn't normally get issued those documents, but the several hundred Germans were served with that division as advisors certainly did. And I've neer seen one of those.Comment
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You're not the only one, i like strange/rare units as well
But mostly late-war units and kampfgruppen.I'm collecting anything related to the towns Castricum and Bakkum during WWII.
Also soldbucher from 116pzdiv. And 1944-1945 eastfront pockets, kampfgruppe and Oder front.
My website: Gotrick.nlComment
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I also seem to have several late war units/kampfgruppen.
I do have one soldbuch to Division zbv 608, it has an extra page added dated in April 1945 with the unit being Grenadier-Regiment z.b.V. 95. I will try to post it when I dig it out.Comment
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Div. zbV 606
Lee,
Do you mean Div.zbV 606? Can't connect the dots with Gren.Rgt. zbV 95 --- must have been a very late war regiment.
Thanks -
Doug
PS: Could you send me a PM?Comment
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Doug, using the search function on Lexikon der Wehrmacht , the regiment was attached to the 608th and is listed as grenadier alarm regiment 95 part of the Ninth Army.Comment
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z.b.V. 608
That just goes to show how little I know! I didn't even know Div.z.b.V. 608 was even in the AOK 9 area of operations! And all this time I was looking for Div.z.b.V. 606...Comment
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