SS-Sturmmann Alves, Erich SS-Div. “Das Reich”

[Ricardo Silva]

While doing a research about portuguese volunteers on the eastern front, i've come upon an SS-Sturmmann with an odd name, Erich Alves. Alves was serving in the 2./Pz.Jäg.Abt. of the "Das Reich" during the battle of kharkov (Feb.- Mar. 43) where he scored a few russian tanks with a marder.
Alves is a portuguese name, and while this man is not portuguese (for all the obvious reasons), his name surely is, so, i consider the possibility of him having a portuguese ancestry.
Does anyone have any info about him or knows where i can find it?
Also, any info about portuguese serving in any branch of the wehrmacht will be welcome.

[Ricardo Silva]

I've found new info about SS Sturmmann Erich Alves, he was awarded an Iron Cross on the 08/01/1942, more than a year before fighting in the battle of Kharkov. By the 21/02/1943 he had already managed to destroy 13 soviet tanks and was "working" hard just southwest of Kharkov. There is a photo of his Marder in the book "Last Victory in Russia - The SS Panzerkorps and Manstein's Kharkov Counteroffensive, February-March 1943", by George M. Nipe Jr., on page 104, and the Marder had for nickname...Alves.

[John P. Moore]

There is an Alves listed in Otto Weidinger's Volume V "Division Das Reich". It says he received the Ehrenblatt des Deutschen Heeres in 1942 as a Sturmmann in the 2./SS-Pz.Jg.Abt. "DR". This listing can be found on page 604 of the first German edition from 1982. There is also a St.OJ. Erich Alves, born 19.10.1920, listed on a 29 March 1945 transfer list from the 19 KJL at Klagenfurt to the SS-Sturmgeschütz Schule. I suspect that it is the same person as the "DR" Alves from 1942.

John

[Ricardo Silva]

Thanks for the input John,
indeed, i agree with you, it's most probably the same Erich Alves, and this are clues i'm going to follow.