Cool little grouping from the weekend

[90th Light]

First up a Wehrpass,

This guy (note the bleached WH trop. M40 cap or unbleached KM trop. M42 ?) finished his time in Afrika fighting in "Afrika Artillery Regiment 2" from Sept 1942 until Feb 1943. However before that he was fighting in Afrika from late 1941 to 1942 as part of the little known "Heerskustenartillerie Abt. 523"

After further fighting in Italy and then advanced training, he was fighting with "Pz.Art.Rgt.73" ( Oct 43 to May 45) wearing a field grey panzer wrap like the Austrian soldier in Matt's photo.

Note the same type of field grey wrap collar patch being worn except it has the rarer dark bottle green backing. His awards are the German-Italian Afrika medal, EK2 and the General Assault badge but no Afrika CT ?

Chris

[90th Light]

Next a Soldbuch,

now this guy did not make it out of Afrika. I am un-clear if the New Zealand soldiers took him prisoner or he was KIA. Either way his fighting finished in Afrika fighting with "Afrika Artillery Regiment 1" in (last entry 28 Oct 1942). Before that he was fighting in Afrika with another little known "Heerskustenartillerie Abt. 529 from late 1941. The check of his tropical uniform and equipment is dated 4 July 41. To any collectors frustration, the award page has been headed up but has no further entries,

Chris

[afrikasandman]

Very interesting! I have never heard of those units... Afrika artillery could be a far reaching possibility but the picture looks to me to be an early wrapper instead of a late one.

I'm am interested in these Afrika artillery units though, makes sense they would utilize the captured guns. Always learning something new. Matt

[Waffenreich]

Nice pick-up Matt

Any chance you can post a large scan of the photo? I'd like to take a crack at his "Überschübe" as this may help with the Afrika connection.

Regards!

Bob

[afrikasandman]

Bob,

I'll try to post a bigger shot up tomorrow. I make out a 19 on the left board and maybe a 7 on the other. Matt

[NickG]

Great research as usual Chris. This turned into a great educative thread!

[afrikasandman]

I make out a 1 and a 8 or a 9 on the left board and the other one is really up to anyones guess. Thoughts? Matt

[90th Light]

I make out a 1 and a 8 or a 9 on the left board and the other one is really up to anyones guess. Thoughts? Matt

Hard to say with any certainity Matt,

but "73" for Pz. Rgt. 73 might also be possibility as my post numbers 15 to 17 allude to.

Of course "Pz. Rgt. 73" is nothing more than one viable possibility as you have rightly pointed out. However, at least we do know that several of members of that unit served in Afrika and wore a field-grey wrap afterwards in the period/ fighting of 1943-45 (I have more than one Wehrpass confirming this),

Chris

p.s. thanks NickG for the kind words

[Johnny R]

I do not think the numbers can be read with any certainty. That is too bad.

[afrikasandman]

Johnny,

I broke out my loop and I think 1 is truly about the only one that makes sense and then who knows. Its frustrating as I would like to be certain either way.. Ah well thats part of the fun of collecting. Im going to just sell it all together since its how it came in. I think you guys will dig my latest pickup as of monday.... Matt