Afrika Schützen Regiment 963 (Afr. Schtz. Reg. 963) and V.

[NicolasEll]

Hi all,

I have been making some advances in my research about my grandfather Lt. Ludwig Preller and would like to make accessible here the information I have gathered on Afr. Schtz. 963 later to become Festungs Infanterie Bataillon 999, as well as linking to the related information that is available in this forum. A lot is to be found in discussion threads in German in the Forum der Wehrmacht. I have also gathered my information on my blog WWII Objects, Places and Family Stories.

But to start with I would like to mention an impressive set of photographs from III./963 which just recently sold on Ebay!

A series of fotos taken by a certain Leutnant Gmelin, advertised on the website as "soldier of Afrika Schutzen Regiment 963" were recently sold on Ebay.de

They show the training camp of Heuberg and the the trip through the Balkans (Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje) and Athens in July 1943, including the repression of a protest (allegedly a 'communist uprising' on 22 July according to the comments written by the officer).

Here some retrieved links to some of the ebay-posts:

Belgrade train station:

http://thumbs4.picclick.com/d/l400/pict ... hn-Lok.jpg

An open air concert in Athens:

http://thumbs1.picclick.com/d/l400/pict ... r-Oper.jpg

German soldier-tourist in front of an orthodox church in Athens:

http://thumbs3.picclick.com/d/l400/pict ... -Athen.jpg

The German officers' residence in Athens:

http://thumbs3.picclick.com/d/l400/pict ... enland.jpg

The start of a protest (in front of the university?) - described as an 'ELAS uprising':

http://thumbs3.picclick.com/d/l400/pict ... enland.jpg

[NicolasEll]

The Thread title was meant to be:
Afrika Schützen Regiment 963 (Afr. Schtz. Reg. 963) and V. Festungs Infanterie Bataillon 999
but I guess that was too long!

I would be interested to know if anyway knows more about those "communist unrests" of July 1943 in Athens?

Cheers
Nicolas

[David W]

Does anyone know why the unit has "Afrika" in it's title?

[NicolasEll]

Hi Dave,
Yes, that's because the 963 ASR was put together in Heuberg beginning of 1943 to be sent to Afrika/Tunisia with the 961 and 962 ASR as part of the 999. Afrika Division, but weren't ready to be set there on time before the German defeat in Tunisia. So they were sent to Greece instead...
Nicolas

[David W]

Nicolas.

Thank you so much, that explains it.

[NicolasEll]

Hi Dave,

Yes, so to re-cap: the III Bataillon ASR 963 as other 999 punishment units initially destined to Africa were then send to Greece instead, where the first elements arrived in June or July 1943. The file and rank soldiers of these units where either so-called common criminals (at least in the views of the NS regime) or political prisoners. The common version is that the proportion was about 1/3 political the rest 'criminal' but there can be some overlap between the categories. However in my grand-father's statistics for III/963 it was closer to 50%/50%.
Now you have to imagine these 'reformed' solders among the political ones, many of whom communists and social-democrats, arriving in Athens in July 1943 and seeing the brutal repression of that demonstration as shown in some pictures from Leutnant Gmelin. The protest wasn't a communist uprising as Lt. Gmelin's comment in his album would have it. Although there were communists participating this was a non-violent demonstration by Greek citizens in general who were protesting against the German decision to give away the North of Greece to be annexed by Bulgaria. I am told by a local historian that this mass demonstration gathered 400 000 people and is known to be the largest public protest to happen in occupied Europe. As a result the Germans withdrew from their plan! ... but the repression was cruel, 30 people were shot, 200 injured and 500 arrested. One young woman, Panagiota Stathopoulou, an 18 year old student who stood fast in front of a tank was just run over by it.
Now think of those ex-political prisoners, some of whom were drawn directly out of concentration camps in to these "Bewaehrungs-Bataillone" witnessing this: no wonder quite a few of them then went over to the partisans!

[NicolasEll]

Hi all,

More pictures from the Afrika Schützen Regiment 963 were being sold on Ebay-Germany. This time I manage to get a couple of them! Here the links to the pictures on Ebay, I'll post copies of the originals without copyright scribbles once I receive them:

Foto Soldat Afrika-Schtz.-Rgt. 963 Beute LKW PKW über Argos Griechenland #53
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Foto-Soldat-Afri ... Y/$_57.JPG

3x Fotos Soldat Afrika-Schtz.-Rgt. 963 Kommandeur Belgrad Serbien Offizier #69
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/3x-Fotos-Soldat- ... N/$_57.JPG