Feldgrau.net

You persist in trying me on the public forum, even though I gave you a number of choices - by e-mail, and personal messages I even got out of my own and perhaps overly cherished personal cocoon of anonymity the Internet provides, by offering you both a meeting by phone (the mistake in the last digit...

Jason Pipes, in his last entry, has cast doubts about my overly full life. His privilege. I have asked him to contact me and visit me when he comes to the East Coast in the near future. I truly hope he comes and sees me, because I an no longer able to travel (I am in an electric wheelchair and airli...

I am glad I can set you straight: even though my parent unit was MAC-V, there were a lot of people who went all over the Republic and even beyond; Cambodga comes to mind, and Laos. While I never went even one step into these countries, I nevertheless was NOT an REMF, I went into the boonies as my jo...

Hi, Brandenburger, and welcome to this forum. From the epaulets, I am tempted to believe that they were a police unit, and I suspect that this might have been an officer(?) in one of the Baltic units. Just a guess, but those epaulets are intriguing and I cant think of anything else but police.... I ...

Speaking about my unit, the Hiwis were all in support roles. The entire kitchen help was Hiwis; we had a Russian as a cobbler who did a very good job of fixing boots and shoes; we had the luxury of a company barber, a Ukrainian. All of them deserted in October 1944 in Italy. Oh, yes, the "I-Sta...

Rudi:

Please accept my most humble gratitude for publishing this article. Being an immigrant myself, I can vouch for the truth of every word, more than any native born American ever could.

Danke, Rudi. Joscha

No, you aren't missing anything; your eyesight is fine.

The only difference would be that an "Unteroffizier" had an open bottom on his epaulettes, while the "Unterfeldwebel"had that opening closed. The Feldwebel hadone pip.

My 1.7 cents (US). Joscha

Sdras'tye, tovarish politruk! Just to give you a little bit to ponder: In the past week or so, there were at least four large cruise ships of various ownerships that had to report back to their harbors of origin that they had serious outbreaks of a viral intestinal infection. Horrible idea: could it...

Heidemann, you are dead wrong. That piece of rubberized whateveritwas worked just fine to keep you from being soaking wet when you had to sleep on wet ground, or in the snow. Didn't last very long, though.

My nasty 1.7 cents (US). Joscha ))

Hi, Balthasar! Just to be niggling: Munster is also the garrison city of the 2d German Army Panzer Training Center, and the city has a huge and truly fascinating military museum, specialising in (I wonder why?) Armor. I would give the left-must eyelid hair to be able to spend a week there and clambe...

Hi, Balthasar! Just to be niggling: Munster is also the garrison city of the 2d German Army Panzer Training Center, and the city has a huge and truly fascinating military museum, specialising in (I wonder why?) Armor. I would give the left-must eyelid hair to be able to spend a week there and clambe...

Sergey, slushay: neither of these words makes sense by themselves .In German, in many cases you can make sense only when the word is in clear context within a sentence. Having said that, the "Leiterhaus" could be a storage building for fire brigade ladders. The "Runenhaus"(that m...

Very briefly: drafted in August 1940, I went through 4 months of old-time Prussian Basic/AIT, then learned how to drive, was sent to a transportation unit of the assembling 100th LID, trained as an infantry man, volunteered for pratrooper training, and broke both thighs on the qualifying jump; the j...

One thing is curious: How could a PVT, the lowest rank in the Army anywhere (different titles, OK), be a liaison officer at the staff of a high ranking general officer, and that throuighout the war. As a private, he might have driven the motor cycle as a means of traveling quickly from point A to po...

Suggest you check out http://www.lexikonderwehrmacht.de. They have award requirements you might be interested in.

My best. Joscha