some Westfront stuff 553.VGD

[matthias_AC]

Hi Hans. I am not disapointed ! It is a great pleasure to read that youstart collecting at 14 - i did the same - also as a digger ! (by the Way, the 553. was well equipped with STG and Gew.43, found a lot a magazin, some of them marked "MkB42".... And now you start collecting Papers, that's a good evolution ! There are a lot of things to learn by digging, and taht is exactly the same with Paperstuff ! You are very Young and you will have plenty of Opportunities to find good paperstuff... Money is not all.... passion and patience are important Weapons too !

So... I did not forget that the 20 years old collectors from now will probably buy the collections from most of us in the Forum in (hopefully) a couple of decades ! As I told before, be patient !!

More by MP tomorrow ! Lionel.

wisely said!

[Brian R]

Here is my contribution... a letter to the mother of a soldier who earned his EK2 during the fighting in the Vosges. Ernst Schröter belonged to 13./Fallschirm-Jäger-Ersatz- und Ausbildungs-Regiment 3 - his EK2 was processed on October 30, 1944 (while he was with 9. Coy) by 553. VGD at division headquarters. The letter was sent about a month later from Celle, the home base of the regiment.

I have been under the impression that the regiment was fighting farther to the north at the time, but maybe III. Btl. was detached from the rest of the group and attached to 553. VGD. My guess is he earned his EK when the division was defending the Saverne Gap after relieving 15. Pz. Gren. Div. I would love to know more if anyone has anything.

B

[Lionel H.]

Hi Brian ! Fallsch.Jaeg.Ers.u.Ausb.Rgt.3 was created in april 44 and located in TOUL and VERDUN / Lorraine. It was several FJ-training Units located in Lorraine who took part (as Kampfgruppen or "unterstellte Einheit") to the fightings in Lorraine, especially during Fights AROUND the city of Nancy in september 1944. I had once 2 or 3 relating SB's, one of them KIA in Maxéville bei Nancy, but I part with them because the LW is not my Area, and collecting everything is no more possible.... I once had a List from the "Volksbund" from german Graves in departement MOSELLE 1944.... This Unit is never mentioned, so I mean their engagement was limitated in departement MEURTHE ET MOSELLE, once more, around Nancy. Just my Opinion, it needs confirmation. Lionel.
Do you have "only" this document, or also the Award document attached ?? Would be glad to see it !

[matthias_AC]

unfortunately i cannot contribute documents, but at least a translation of brooks piece of paper (as demanded):

"on sept. 20th 1944 between 11am and 1 pm the 1st platoon of the 6th battery - deployed with 2 guns on the road 1km southeast of morey - repelled attacks of about 30 americans coming from bois de buzion on their position in close combat. fully left alone, both crews fought against the enemy who suddenly appeared behind them, using rifle grenades, machinepistoles and hand grenades, and forced the rests to retreat.

the same platoon had been honored by the commander of the 2nd bataillon/1121 (captain schönberger) one day earlier for their spirited [in the sense of disciplined] shooting performance. using 40 he-grenades, the platoon had in the afternoon forced an american company which came from landremont to retreat, inflicting heavy casualties on them."


quite an interesting document actually, giving a good insight in the brutal conditions both sides had to face!


all the best,


matthias

[brooksbz]

Thank you!!!!!

[Brian R]

Lionel - Here is the EK citation. I have been saving this for another project but figured I could post it, especially as I have yet to thoroughly research it. Given the date, I think it is related to the fighting in the vicinity of Nancy and that I jumped the gun with the Saverne gap reference - that was a bit later. It is signed by Bruhn.

[Brian R]

unfortunately i cannot contribute documents, but at least a translation of brooks piece of paper (as demanded):

"on sept. 20th 1944 between 11am and 1 pm the 1st platoon of the 6th battery - deployed with 2 guns on the road 1km southeast of morey - repelled attacks of about 30 americans coming from bois de buzion on their position in close combat. fully left alone, both crews fought against the enemy who suddenly appeared behind them, using rifle grenades, machinepistoles and hand grenades, and forced the rests to retreat.

the same platoon had been honored by the commander of the 2nd bataillon/1121 (captain schönberger) one day earlier for their spirited [in the sense of disciplined] shooting performance. using 40 he-grenades, the platoon had in the afternoon forced an american company which came from landremont to retreat, inflicting heavy casualties on them."


quite an interesting document actually, giving a good insight in the brutal conditions both sides had to face!


all the best,


matthias

Fine job translating, Matthias. You made it read very well as it is often difficult to translate from German to English without it sounding a bit dry (these guys were writing to report their actions and not for our entertainment/research years later). Indeed, this a great resource and a fine example of the tough fighting these men faced at the time.

[matthias_AC]

thanks brian, i appreciate your appreciation! i am always more than happy to help...

stunning fallschirmjäger-ek2-doc, by the way!! i certainly would love to see the result of your research on that one when you are finished!


cheers! keep the discussion going, guys!

[brooksbz]

I find the parachute units in the Lorraine fascinating. There is a good section in Panzer Battles (von Mellenthin) about these actions!

[Lionel H.]

Brian, your E.K.II Document, in relation with the doc. translated by Matthias is really an historically much desirable one ! I envy you ! And most of all : thank you for sharing it!

[HanSSturm]

Thank you for sharing Brian, very nice document
Very interesting.

To the EK2-FJ-document: in this map

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...n_of_Nancy.jpg

the unit is located west of Nancy and is the neighbor-unit of the 553.VGD.

So it's pretty sure that the paratrooperunit worked together with the 553.VGD. Maybe the soldier was dispersed and came to the 553 until the battle were over.

Thank you Lionel for your nice posting, great Soldbuch too.

[HanSSturm]

Maybe some day it will be possible to reconstruct the staffing of the 553.VGD

[Brian R]

Thanks for the comments, guys and it's great to see that map, Hans. I would imagine that the regiment or parts of it were subordinate to the division at one time or another, either as part of the battle and/or during its retreat from the area. This information is a nice baseline for a future write-up.

I do find Western Front documents from late 1944 to be very interesting. As much as guys like Normandy related stuff, I think awards related to the border battles are much more attractive. I have a number of EK citations related to this fighting - Market Garden, Aachen, Alsace, Lorraine, Vosges Mountains and even the Bulge and the retreat that followed. I guess that part of my interest is that much of this fighting was against US troops, so there is good info out there in English.

Here is a document that is included in my book, and most likely related to the fighting in the Vosges (against the French) or the initial retreat from the south. It's 189. ID and not 553. VGD but is interesting nonetheless. The signer, Zorn, was later killed in the Colmar pocket.

[HanSSturm]

Nice EK2-Doc, Brian! The 189th - Thank for sharing.

I forget to note in my first post, that the signature from the ISA-doc is from Oberst Bandelow, Regimentskommandeur since 02.01.1945 . He was before at ErsatzBrigade GD, later in Führerreserve before he leads the 1119th.

And here some Information about holders of high awards, I will if possible post their curriculum vitae, too in the next time.

Holders of the German Cross in Gold (5)

- Hölscher, Walter, 13.01.1945, Oberstleutnant, Gren.Rgt. 1119
- Hoppe, Gerhard, 20.01.1945, Hauptmann, I./Gren.Rgt. 1120
- Mitzlaff von, Hans-Jürgen, 27.01.1945, Major, 553. Volks-Gren.Div.
- Zimmermann, Werner, 11.02.1945, Feldwebel, 2./Pz.Jäg.Abt. 1553

- attached:
- Wick, Rudolf, 26.03.1945, SS-Obersturmführer, Fhr. 1./Jagdpanzer-Abteilung von Lüttichau

Holders of the German Cross in Silver (1)

- attached:
-- König, Oskar, 21.02.1945, Schirrmeister, Jagdpanzer-Abteilung von Lüttichau

Holders of the Honor Roll Clasp of the Heer (1)

- Stiefenhofer, Josef, 15.02.1945, Leutnant, 13./Gren.Rgt. 1120

Holders of the Knight's Cross (3)

- Möller, Ernst 30.04.1945 Major Kdr Div.Füs.Btl 553
- Starck von, Wilhelm 23.10.1944 Hauptmann d.R. Führer I./Art.Rgt 1553

- attached :
-- Wimmer, Alfred 16.01.1945 Oberleutnant Führer III./Gren.Rgt 3 Oberrhein / 553. VGD

Source: http://www.axishistory.com/axis-nati...adier-division

[HanSSturm]

A nice one.... Signed Hans-Juergen von Mitzlaff (german Cross 27.1.45). The fact that a simple Major signs a E.K.II Award is not common, but the most surprising is that no formel such "i.V." (in Vertretung) od "F.d.R." (Fuer die Richtigkeit) is employed. Until the end of the War, Iron Crosses / KvK's documents had to be signed by the divisional commander. How many days or Weeks this Major and Adjutant signed the Awards docs, that would be interesting to know !!

Matthias ! I am OK to show more, but I first wait that our new Friend Hans show some good catches from his Collection ! Especially documents with "Nahkampftagen" in my Area Autumn 1944 !

The KVK-doc is signed by Major Hans-Jürgen von Mitzlaff - he got the German Cross in Gold on 27th Janaury 1945