Unknown tank killer not unknown anymore?

[shunt]

Hello Patrick. Thank you for your response here and on the email. I hope we will finally get to the bottom of this research with your help and everything that might still be out there.

Heinz Treptau military file from march 1944 states of him having a son,...so your father must have been born in nov. 1943 and not later.

I'll try to find out tomorrow tomorrow right away my dad's exact date of birth and let you know. I am getting more and more confused, because I was always told that my dad died at the age of 40 in 1985.

Sorry, one would think I should know the date of my dad's birth, but I haven't really been close to my dad's side of the family apart from the odd family meetings.

[Lionel H.]

KC = Knight Cross = Ritterkreuz des eisernen Kreuzes
TDB = Tank Destruction Badge = "Sonderabzeichen fuer das Niederkämpfen von Panzerkampfwagen durch Einzelkämpfer" meist "Panzervernichtungsabz." abgekuerzt, oder "Panzerknacker".

[jmark]

I'll try to find out tomorrow tomorrow right away my dad's exact date of birth and let you know. I am getting more and more confused, because I was always told that my dad died at the age of 40 in 1985.

Sorry, one would think I should know the date of my dad's birth, but I haven't really been close to my dad's side of the family apart from the odd family meetings.

Patrick, welcome to the forum. Your input in this case is crucial to solving it.
Jason

[Ludwig]

By the way, Patrick Treptau, how come you found this forum?

[germanmedals]

I think i found Patrick on page Ancestry.co.uk where i saw his post that he is making a research about his grandfather Treptau and the birth dates were the same. All complete coincidence. It seems that for reward of doing so much research on this, the stars arranged all this to be possible. I cant find the post i wrote on that site though.

[Ludwig]

Wow! What a coincidence! Almost hard to believe...

[germanmedals]

Oh here it is,...he was making the research for his family tree:

http://boards.ancestry.ca/surnames.treptau/2/mb.ashx

[shunt]

By the way, Patrick Treptau, how come you found this forum?

I was in Munich last week visiting my aunt (Heinz A. Treptau's daughter) and after that I thought I would do some research about my grandad and googled his name - that's when this thread showed up and I was, obviously, very surprised to find all the information in here.

So.....here is some more info:

I managed to talk to my aunt last evening and here is some additional info: My dad was born indeed Nov 1943 and the Ritterkreuz medal apparently was originally awared to a certain "Max Treptau", but I don't know the relationship to my grandpa. My grandpa Heinz Treptau has claimed for most of his life it was his (as confirmed with my aunt) and most of the time deliberately signed his first name very close together to make it look like "Max". However, both the tunic and the medal are definitely NOT his. All I got from my aunt is that he was a lower-ranked driver. I am not even sure, he was indeed in Africa, but I think his military record could somehow confirm this. I would really be curious who this Max Treptau is - his brother or any other relationship?

My aunt also doesn't think that he was indeed a PoW, maybe for a very short time? After the war, he somehow seemed to have gotten a recipe for chocolate making from the Americans and manufactured a few years chocolate that he named "Treptau Schokolade" (chocolate), before going bankrupt some time in the late 50s. After that, he was a salesman for trucks, however he claimed publicly that he was a high-ranking engineer working at Mercedes - which is also definitely not true.

My aunt is also a little puzzled how the items and photos got sold. She has not sold or given away anything and she is the only bloodline relative, apart from me, She thinks that friend of his somehow got hold of the items and sold it? However, noone from the immediate Treptau family has sold the items.

Haha, this is getting more and more bizzare by the day.

I hope this helps a little bit? I am very curious what else you guys can find?

[Ludwig]

This is very strange and confusing. The tunic we are talking about can be seen in at least one of the war time (group) photos.

[germanmedals]

Thanks Patrick for some additional info. I dont know if you have read threw all the written posts on this forum about Treptau but here are the facts that are 100% sure:
- Heinz Treptau was serving in Africa untill early 1943
- in 1943 he was transfered to France/Normandy
- his military file goes up to May 1944
- the placement of most medals is the same as he is wearing on his return from Afrika and those are 100% wartime pictures
- in his album is written that he was promoted to Captain (Officer rank) Hauptmann in Feb. 1945
- there is a big hole of what happened with him from may 44 until end of the war
- pictures where he is wearing this exact uniform are marked December 1944

This date would make your father 13 months old to match December 1944

If this pictures are supposed to be taken in December after war (Dec 1945) he would have 2 years and 1 month.

The only way that we can say when they were taken is to somehow figure out how old your father is on this picture with his mom and dad (Heinz is wearing this exact uniform here)

[germanmedals]

And here are some strange facts:

On the picture he is of rank Oberleutnant which he was until feb. 1945,...(shoulderboards have n.7 + 1x star)
The tunic now is of rank Hauptmann and without n.7 (2x star on shoulderboard). So the pictures would need to be taken prior to promotion and based on all the facts they were 100% before februar 1945 so they are wartime.

From my perspective, your father on the picture (baby) is not more than 1,5 year old, and certainly not 2 years old.

So in worst case scenario if your grandfather was really such a joker as your aunt says, he would have pulled this jokes during the wartime. But lets not forget, this is not something you try one time and go back to old as it was,...the 3 panzervernichtung badges are still placed on the same spot as are on the picture, all other badges are on the exact spot as they were in 1943 when Heinz is pictured with all other soldiers except he is wearing the dark model of Africa band on the right sleve, on the picture with all extra decorations he has yellow Africa band, and the tunic is also promoted to Hauptmann.

Let us dont forget the document where Ritterkreuz and Heinz Treptau is written.

[naxos]

And here are some strange facts:

On the picture he is of rank Oberleutnant which he was until feb. 1945,...(shoulderboards have n.7 + 1x star)
The tunic now is of rank Hauptmann and without n.7 (2x star on shoulderboard). So the pictures would need to be taken prior to promotion and based on all the facts they were 100% before februar 1945 so they are wartime.


Let us dont forget the document where Ritterkreuz and Heinz Treptau is written.

You are still making up stuff and call it FACTS

Here are some real facts:

FACT: Oberleutnant Treptau is officially listed missing in action since Summer 1944 and never heard of until after the war.

FACT: He returned home from captivity in August 1945

FACT: There is absolutely no, zero, nada record of his promotion to Hauptmann - rank pip added and cipher 7 removed after the war.

FACT: He was never awarded the Ritterkreuz

FACT: The fragment of the document regarding his Ritterkreuz is a poor fantasy fake - there are several mistakes that give it away as a fabrication.

I feel I'm wasting my time on this.


.

[shunt]

I forgot to mention one thing: My aunt told me that he temporarily used his wife's surname (Schmid) near the end of the war. Why? Noone knows? Maybe someone caught up on his fake story?

She also mentioned that his wartime items were valued at one time. There were a lot of medals, some of them quite valueable, but some of them were not his. Also, there was a tunic that was not his as well. I am not saying it is the one he's wearing in the pictures, just there was one that wasn't his. There are apparently documents from this assessment that my aunt has. She said she'll forward it to me.

I forwarded this thread to my aunt as well - she might have more insight.

[dutchcollector]

http://das-ritterkreuz.de/index_sear...chword=treptau

this would be the Max Treptau you are referring to Patrick?