Feldgrau.net

My wifes grandfather faught for the Germans in WW2.He left us with alot of photos.

I have couple that I need help identifying..Anything would be of help



As for this one,what rank is this officer and can I have a time frame?



Is this one a party member group shot?



Here is Opa..any idea what unit he was with?

Here's something to get going with!

The photo of your wife's grandfather shows him to be an army (Heer) private. I can't quite make out the number on the shoulder board, but if it's a '64', then he will have served with a regiment of that number. The colour of the piping on the tabs on his collar would determine the branch. They don't look white (infantry), but if they are then he could have been with Infanterie Regiment 64:
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gli ... r/IR64.htm
If they're red, he might have served with Artillerie Regiment 64:
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gli ... g/AR64.htm

The white stripe at the shoulder end of the shoulder board probably means something too - I'll have a look in a book I have and get back to you tomorrow.

As a guess, I'd say the group shot was of a student club with Nazi affiliations, two of whose members appear to be in the SA.

In the first photo, you have two Heer officers, taken, I'd say, pre-war.


The best course of action to determine your opa-in-law's military service is to submit a query with the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) at their website: http://www.com-de.com/wast/

You'll need his date and, if possible, place of birth. It takes about six months for a reply.

Also, if you have any Feldpost numbers from letters written by or to him during the war, these can be decoded and will give the unit he was with. The numbers are five digits long and could be hand-written or stamped on the envelope.

In the meantime, I'm sure there are lots of Feldgrau members who'll be able to pick out more info for you from these three photos!

Thank you for your help.I am somewhat positive that he was not arty though..here are a couple of more pictures of him







I know he was wounded twice during the war.I believe the second time he was wounded (Poland '43) was enough to send him home.

As a side note he was an alternate for gymnastics for the Olympics in 1936.

I suspect its infantry. Looking at the other pics some of the guys have an Infantry Assault Badge, and 1 photo shows a possible training for an MG. Well thats my opinion :)

I think the number on the shoulder board is "63" instead of the 64 K-pp proposed.
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gli ... r/IR63.htm
IR.63 was reformed to Panzergrenadier-R63 and was part of the 17. Panzer-Division. In '43 they were part of Army group South in the Donez, Isjum area.
Are you sure he was wounded in Poland in '43? Not really much to do there with the 6th army struggling to survive all the way up to Stalingrad.

A higher resolution scan of the medals of the other guys should give exclusion what medal it is exactly. Plus a high-res scan of the shoulder board should give more info in the number. (in photoshop I can rescale it)

I had a look at Brian Davis's book on German army uniforms but couldn't find a reference to that white stripe on the shoulder board. There is a photo of a private in 1944 who has it, but unfortunately the author was fixated on an officer standing next to him.

As a guess, maybe it was worn by soldiers after they had recuperated from a wound but had not been sent back to an active unit (i.e. they were in reserve).

???

Thanks for sharing your photos! Here is some additional information:

1. The group of people posed around the plaque of Adolf Hitler are all SA members. They all look to be wearing the SA sports badge (even the men in civilian clothes), my guess is the photo was taken right after they were all awarded their SA sport badges (as they were usually not worn with civilian clothes). Looks to be a pre-war photo, back before all these lads would all have got called-up into the Army.

2. The white strip on the end of the shoulder strap looks like an aspirant NCO insignia, see the information below from the excellent Deutschesoldaten website (many thanks to Michael Dorosh):

http://www.deutschesoldaten.com/

"The status of NCO candidates was denoted by the wearing of tress loops on their shoulder boards. Up until 10 November 1943, NCO candidates were called Unteroffizieranwärter. On the 10 November 1943 they were renamed Unteroffizierbewerber (NCO applicants).
Only Mannschaften (those between the ranks of Schütze and Stabsgefreiter) could be NCO candidates (Unteroffizieranwärter)."

Examples:





Let's see what else turns up!

HD

I am pretty sure he was wounded in Poland,who knows it may been by partisans.At anyrate,thats what my father in law told me.I never had the chance to meet the man.My wife is from Germany (Pirmasens),and when I met her her Opa was allready passed away.

Thank you all for your help,I will post a few more pictures none the less..








The first pic is of one of Opas friends.The last is of Opa and Oma.

The pics are locked away in a safe now,Ill try to get some better scans of them when I can,but it may take a while.

From what I was told,his uniform and medals are also locked away,and they are in Germany,and I live in Seattle,so I cant get a pic of those right now.Hopefully I can get over there sometime and take pics of them.

Herr Doktor is right about the white stripe. I found a reference to it after all in Brian Davis's book.