Kampfgruppe Dirnagel

[Ian Jewison]

Here's a little I found about his Kampfgruppe.

SS-Kampfgruppe Dirnagel

Formed 25.3.1945 under command of SS-Obersturmbannführer Dirnagel.
The Kampfgruppe consited of the following:
SS Flak Ausbildungs und Ersatz Regiment in München

DRK: WD 474
167 missing in action, the most in Munich and environment, some in Hungary, Berlin area, Stettin area isolated Süddeutschland (Nordhagen, Bad Mergentheim, Crailsheim, Würzburg, Mainz)

/Ian

[Jason von Z.]

Dear John,
Sorry, I left some things out of my previous post. This is also taken from "Die Flugabwehrverbände der Waffen-SS", which has more than 40 pages of detailed information on SS-Flak-Abteilung "Ost". As an SS-Hauptsturmführer, Dirnagel was CO of 2. Batterie/SS-Flak-Abteilung "Ost". He was listed on command rosters as CO of the 2nd battery from September 16th, 1941 through August 28th, 1942. The 2nd battery was the 3.7cm flak battery of the battalion. The battalion was actually not a part of "Das Reich" (although it was initially supposed to be), instead at the end of September 1941, after several months of training, the battalion was transported to the area of Tossno (in the northern sector of the Eastern Front) and was attached directly to the 2. SS-Infanterie-Brigade. It remained attached to the 2. SS-Infanterie-Brigade through the middle of August 1942, when it was separated and incorporated into the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade (soon to be SS-Kavallerie-Division). It appears Dirnagel left the battalion when it was detached from the 2. SS-Infanterie-Brigade. The book goes into a lot more detail about the operations of SS-Flak-Abteilung "Ost", but I thought a brief summary might help.

Jason

[WWIIBuff]

Rick, Jason, Ian - You guys are awesome. This is great information. I really appreciate it. I'm working on all the leads you've given me and I'll be ordering all the books suggested too. My German is limited but that is half the fun - especially with translation software.

This thread is the perfect example of how great this forum can be.

Thaks again guys. I'll post more pics soon too.

John

[Tommy]

About Kampfgruppe Dirnagel i think they fought in the XIII SS Korps in the south of Germany... they fought by Bad Mergenth.

This is in the Book: Endkampf zwischen Mosel und Inn.Page 182 ff

[WWIIBuff]

More pics

Here is another picture of Obersturmbanfuhrer Dirnagel. Anybody know who that is with him?

[WWIIBuff]

More Pics

Here is another shot and a closeup for Rick. Hope you can make out the ribbons on the bar.

John

[WWIIBuff]

For Rick

.

[WWIIBuff]

For Rick

The best I can do Rick. Hope it helps.

[WWIIBuff]

For Adrian

Well Adrian I haven't found any shots of him wearing his Flak badge yet, but here is a shot of two of his officers and one is wearing it.

John

[WWIIBuff]

For Adrian

Best I can do.

John

[WWIIBuff]

Mystery location

Anybody recognize this building? It must be some place important to his unit as he has used a blow-up of this picture to cover one of his albums.

John

[erichcraciun]

John, at first I was going to say that foto might be of Wewelsburg Castle. That was my first guess, but now I am not sure.

It is also interesting that the one SS officier in the above foto is wearing the Lw. Pattern Flakkampfabzeichen.

Erich

Anybody recognize this building? It must be some place important to his unit as he has used a blow-up of this picture to cover one of his albums.

John

[Rick Research]

Dirnagel is wearing what must be his Flak badge as the Big White Smudge closest to his buttons in post #8's photo.

Oddly enough, in the last couple above he is NOT wearing an "Old Fighters" chevron!!!!!!

Unfortunately those South German style ribbon bars are awful to try and ID from even clear photos, with the stripes all doubled and twisted, and his is blurry. I thinkhe has "SS" runes for a 12 next to last on the bar, dark ribbon with "white" smudge on it. That's guessing.

I'll go see if the Gruppenführer is anyone I can identify from Mark Yerger's excellent books. He may be wearing a "former police" Old Fighter's chevron like the ancient SD Obersturmführer at right, "pip" over the chevron.