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Hello Gene,
Thank you for your question and I will try to give you a decent answer as follows:
It has been my experience that during wartime, unless it was a tailor or custom made piece name tags were not usually placed on a tunic, jacket and so on.
When I saw the photos of Bill’s new haul and that the Panzer wrap was for the 505<SUP>th</SUP> and in the rank of Major I knew this had to be a one of the Abteilung commanders. Schwere Panzer-Abteilung (Tiger) commanders were usually of Major or Hauptmann rank.
I next turned to one of my favorite books on Tiger units, Wolfgang Schneider’s Tigers In Combat I. On page 279 this book mentions that v. Beschwitz was the Abteilung Kdr. from 9/43 to 11/44. He was awarded the DKiG as a Oberleutnant with 7./Panzer-Rgt. 3 on 12/15/41 and the Ritterkreuz with schw. Pz.-Abt. 505 on 07/27/44.
I then remembered that I had seen photos of v. Beschwitz in the book TIGER by Kleine/Kühn and several shots in the Jörg M. Hormann book, UNIFORMS OF THE PANZER TROOPS. When I saw the portrait shot of v. Beschwitz on page 90 of this book (large 505 shoulder board numbers, same cut to lapels and collar of the wrap and same National Emblem) and the RK award photo on page 301 of the TIGER by Kleine/Kühn book I knew this had to be same wrapper!
Should you need further information I will be happy to help!
Best Regards
Mike
Hello Gene,
Thank you for your question and I will try to give you a decent answer as follows:
It has been my experience that during wartime, unless it was a tailor or custom made piece name tags were not usually placed on a tunic, jacket and so on.
When I saw the photos of Bill’s new haul and that the Panzer wrap was for the 505<SUP>th</SUP> and in the rank of Major I knew this had to be a one of the Abteilung commanders. Schwere Panzer-Abteilung (Tiger) commanders were usually of Major or Hauptmann rank.
I next turned to one of my favorite books on Tiger units, Wolfgang Schneider’s Tigers In Combat I. On page 279 this book mentions that v. Beschwitz was the Abteilung Kdr. from 9/43 to 11/44. He was awarded the DKiG as a Oberleutnant with 7./Panzer-Rgt. 3 on 12/15/41 and the Ritterkreuz with schw. Pz.-Abt. 505 on 07/27/44.
I then remembered that I had seen photos of v. Beschwitz in the book TIGER by Kleine/Kühn and several shots in the Jörg M. Hormann book, UNIFORMS OF THE PANZER TROOPS. When I saw the portrait shot of v. Beschwitz on page 90 of this book (large 505 shoulder board numbers, same cut to lapels and collar of the wrap and same National Emblem) and the RK award photo on page 301 of the TIGER by Kleine/Kühn book I knew this had to be same wrapper!
Should you need further information I will be happy to help!
Best Regards
Mike
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