Help needed on EK Cert. signature.

[andya]

Hi
Can anyone tell me who signed this certificate? thanks in advance
andy

[Rincewind]

The signer is Vizeadmiral Heinz Nordmann
he had following decorations:
1914 EK I, 1914 EK II, Ehrenkreuz f******252;r Frontk******228;mpfer, Wehrmachtdienstauszeichnung IV. bis I. Klasse, Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse mit Schwertern, Kriegsverdienstkreuz I. Klasse mit Schwertern, Finn. Freiheitskreuz I. Klasse mit Schwertern: 15.04.1944

K.

[Hank C.]

Vice Admiral and Commanding Admiral of the Norwegian Polar Coast Nordmann.

-edited-

best
Hank

[Simon O.]

Aha, so you bought it? Troms******248; is my home town so i tend to notice when things from here pop up for sale

As you can see it's a stamped signature, it seems Nordmann was a heavy user of stamps, rather than hand signing his docs.

You didn't ask the most important question! whether or not the pencilled 6113 at the top of the doc means anything...well it does! It's the ship the man belonged to Vorpostenboot 6113 of the 61 Vorposten Flottille

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg...e/vfl51-61.htm

Here's a photo from my collection of Nordmann (on the left) in conversation with Dietl taken ca. May\June 1944 at Kirkenes.

[Simon O.]

I had a quick scan through the war diary of the Admiral of the Norwegian Polar Coast for late 1943 to see if i could find any specific mention of 6113 but it wasn't mentioned. However i can tell you that ships from the flotilla were used as escorts, minesweepers, picket boats and general jacks of all trades. For the coastal forces of the KM this part of the world was anything but a safe place to be. Along the stretch of coast closest to Russia German\Norwegian shipping was under constant attack from Soviet aircraft, MTBs and subs, further along the coast, closer to Tromsø and the Royal Navy took over. Subs lurked off the coast and occasional forrays by carrier based aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm made sure that the KM were kept busy for the 5 years they were here.

[Simon O.]

Got it. Looked further through the war diary as i noticed that 6113 wasn't listed at the end of the war, ie. she was sunk at some point.

Well, at 00:29hrs on the 11th May 1944 V 6113 was sunk by Soviet aircraft off 'Makkaur' on the East Finnmark coast. The war diary records that she was hit by an aerial torpedo and the crew were rescued. A Boston and an IL-2 are listed as being shot down, 2 Bf-109 from 7./JG5 are listed as being shot down over the area on this day too.

[andya]

Fantastic-Many thanks indeed for this information
regards
andy