Gebirgs Panzer!

[joelhall]

Joe

first thing is to forget any notion that mountain infantry fought only in the mountains, Most didn't and all mountain divisions had an anti-tank battalion as well as each GJ regiment having an anti-tank company.

Part of the 44 type gebirgs division included a stug or hetzer armed company of 10 or 14 vehicles. As the panzerjäger were regarded as panzertruppe that could account for the photo above.

As far as panzers in Scandinavia are concerned there were 2 units, Pz.abt. zbv.40 and pz.abt.211. although i've seen evidence of the bergmütze being worn i've not seen anything to suggest the wearing of an edelweiss.

The wearing of the edelweiss by units not authorised to do so did happen and i've seen orders clamping down on the practice.

Try not to get too focused on division level, there were mountain corps as well as the 20 Gebirgs Armee which included gebirgs heerestruppen ie. mountain units not attached to a division but independent and operating at corps or army level. Gebirgs Nebelwerfer abteilung 10 is one example.

thanks simon

[Simon O.]

Another possibility is that this guy could be from Sturmgeschütz Abteilung 243 which was attached to the 1. Gebirgsdivision during the drive across Ukraine. StuG.Abt. 243 painted the Edelweiss emblem on the sides of their StuG III's.

Gebirgspanzers vor!

But they were sturmartillerie and would have thus worn fieldgrey along with red waffenfarbe.

[joelhall]

The wearing of the edelweiss by units not authorised to do so did happen and i've seen orders clamping down on the practice.

Try not to get too focused on division level, there were mountain corps as well as the 20 Gebirgs Armee which included gebirgs heerestruppen ie. mountain units not attached to a division but independent and operating at corps or army level. Gebirgs Nebelwerfer abteilung 10 is one example.

two other thoughts though - which units wore the edelweiss without entitlement, and what was the reason behind this? was is due to location or because they were attatched previousl to a gebirgs unit?

also if the latter was the case with units operating independently, would this account for this matching of insignia? i ask because it seems it may be possible for 'hybrid' units to have popped up as and when need arose (like many types of ss unit), which would more thn likely have been independent and wondered if there were any other unusual uses of insignia like this that anyone has?

[stonemint]

Found this tucked away on my hard-drive--maybe you WH historians can confirm this headgear configuration.