Help to Identify Owner of Tunic

[Bob Hritz]

I have an early war white officer tunic, complete with awards. This tunic has Lieutenant Colonel rank shoulder boards with numeral 5 mounted on each. The waffenfarbe is golden yellow for cavalry/recon. The 5th cavalry was broken up in 1939. Is it possible to find the records of officer staff in 1939? I would like to identify potential former owner if this tunic.

Any help or leads are appreciated.

Bob Hritz

[Michael H. Pruett]

Kav. Rgt. 5

Bob,
This may be a start point.

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/...nter/KavR5.htm

I Have a couple of other sources I'll take a look at.

Best regards,
Mike

[Bob Hritz]

Thanks, Michael. I had looked at that and wondered if the previous owner was Oberstleutnant Helmut ( Helmuth) Wachsen. However, Wachsen was not awarded a German Cross in Gold or Silver. I could find very little of him and wonder if he served in Spain and could have been awarded a Spain Cross. Or, perhaps a Turkish award for WWI service.

Bob Hritz

[Michael H. Pruett]

Best Guess

I am leaning strongly towards the original owner being

Oberstleutnant Helmut v.d. Chevallerie who was a Kav. Rgt. 5 guy and was awarded the German Cross with Schützen-Regiment 86 on 19. 4. 1942.
It was not uncommon for officers to sometimes wear shoulder boards from a previous unit, especially if that unit was considered an "elite" and they were proud of their former service with that unit. A prime example being Major Gerd v. Fallois who continued to wear 'A' & number 3 on his shoulder boards while commander of the Panzeraufklärungs-Lehr-Abteilung 130.
Still have some more books to take a look at.
Will report if I find anything.
All the best,
Mike

[Archi]

Hello Bob !

I have looked at your post, and wasn't sure about the following :
You are looking for an Oberstleutnant of pre war Kav.Rgt. 5, who later earned all the awards, that are shown ?!

Or:
Is it possible, that the tunic is prewar, but that the shoulder boards refer to a later time frame (just as the awards) ?!
(e.g. there was a Reiter-Rgt. 5, part of 4. Kav.Brig./ 4. Kav.Div.).
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/...KavBrig4-R.htm

This later unit had a bearer of DKiG, Maj. Hubertus Bischoff, who could have been promoted later on ?!
http://en.ww2awards.com/person/2236

If it helps, I can scan you the Stellenbesetzung of Kav.Rgt. 5 from 3.1.1939.
(but is in Suetterlin).
However, just as you, I checked the 3 or 4 Oberstlt. and Maj. and found none of them in the DKiG list.

Best regards,

Archi

P.S.: Excellent info by Michael, sorry I didn't notice his post. Likely, a much better explanation !

[Michael H. Pruett]

Kav. Rgt. 5

Thank you Archi for adding to this. The Panzer Assault badge on this tunic (and I assume it is/was in bronze) leads me to Schützen/Panzergrenadier.
Kav. guys usually got a General Assault badge IMHO.
I think the Germans did this shoulder board switch-a-roo just so they could mess with the minds of collectors/researchers 70 something years later!
Thanks a lot!

[Michael H. Pruett]

Late War Wear of the white Summer Tunic

Something else to consider on Bob's tunic is these were still being worn well into the final days of the war. RKT with oak leaves winner Otto Carius wearing this style tunic for his formal award photograph 27. 7. 44.
Best regards,
Mike

[Bob Hritz]

Thank you all for the leads. I must trust the former owner that these awards are those that originally came with the tunic. The German Cross is a late 134 marked piece. It is not impossible that the awards were switched around or played with. However, all the loops look to be standard wartime made.

The tunic is the 'wartime cut' with only five buttons. The earlier tunics normally had eight or six buttons. I thought the tunic may have been later, but this is only a thought. The Fifth Cavalry had a great tradition and I agree thwt the shoulder boards were probably kept as as a source of pride.

Bob Hritz