Feldgrau Author: John P. Moore

Discussion, background, reviews, and critical analysis of works by Feldgrau.net members who are published authors.
John P. Moore
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Post by John P. Moore »

This photo was taken in October 1992 during a visit to Gerd Knabe’s home near Kassel. Knabe is on the left, then the former Untersturmführer Friedhelm Kathagen, who served most of the war in the signal battalion of the “Wiking” division and was publisher of the “Leitheft” periodical. On the far right is the former Obersturmführer Herbert Escher, a signal company commander in “Hohenstaufen”, who had been a Hauptscharführer in the Kradschützen Battalion “Das Reich” in 1941. Escher had been a member of the SA and was one of the founding members of the SS-Nachrichtensturmbann in Berlin-Adlershof in February 1935. We had been looking over photos and other interesting documents around the coffee table earlier. They provided many of the original photos that were used in the book along with plenty of advice over several years.
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John P. Moore
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Post by John P. Moore »

I visited Gerd Knabe’s home again in 1995 after the book was published. He wanted two copies, one of which he placed in the German museum for the Cabaret. He also gave me a box of some of his military memorabilia that can be seen in the photo below.
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Mark C Yerger
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Post by Mark C Yerger »

John

I always especially enjoyed talking with the early VT members, a somewhat blank history period compared to the wartime years. I never knew any of the SS/VT early signals members you met. I only knew Sylvester Stadler from that first VT unit to be formed. Within my interest for "Das Reich," the Krads Btl was in my opinion among the best and bravest with an almost hard to believe combat record in 1941-early 1942. Its often overlooked by the better known regiments, many of its personnel later having higher positions and/or decorations including Tychsen and Fick among others.

Mark
John P. Moore
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Post by John P. Moore »

Thanks for those comments Mark. I suspect that most people don't know that Sylvester Stadler started out as a signal officer before transferring to the infanty after mid-1940. Herbert Escher was with the Kradschützen Btl. "Das Reich" until he was hospitalized with pneumionia in December 1941.

After bringing Gerd Knabe's wartime memorabilia back to the USA I mounted it on the wall in my den and sent Knabe a photo. He must have been pleased as he included the photo in his February 1996 newsletter.

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John P. Moore
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Post by John P. Moore »

To further digress, some people may not know that the Funkkompanie (radio company) of an SS panzer division had tracked vehicles. Therefore, the members of that company wore the black panzer uniform. This photo shows the Funkkompanie “Hohenstaufen” marching thru Amiens, France in 1943 where they were training. Herbert Escher is on the right in the front row while Gerd Knabe is directly behind him on the far right.

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Jason Pipes
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Post by Jason Pipes »

That is very interesting John! I had no idea that was the case. Thank you for sharing. Fantastic photo as well.
John P. Moore
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Post by John P. Moore »

Besides the tracked radio companies, the engineer and reconnaissance battalions of the SS panzer divisions also had tracked companies whose personnel wore the black panzer uniform. Below is a painting of SS-Obersturmführer Kurt Imhoff from the SS-Pionier Btl. "Hohenstufen". Imhoff was a tremendous help to Mark Yerger and I for many years. As an Untersturmführer he was a platoon leader in the engineer company of SS-Infantry Rgt. 7 of the "Nord" division during 1942.

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Tom Houlihan
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Post by Tom Houlihan »

John P. Moore wrote: As an Untersturmführer he was a platoon leader in the engineer company of SS-Infantry Rgt. 7 of the "Nord" division during 1942.
I thought that name sounded familiar!
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John P. Moore
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Post by John P. Moore »

Another good thing to do is to have the subjects of your books review what you have written about them before the book goes into publication. I was fortunate to have been able to do so in many cases with the result that corrections could be made and sometimes additional interesting information was given to me for inclusion. But especially valuable was Eugen Schlotter acting as a proofreader of everything. This was back in the days before good English-German spell checkers existed for use in MS Word. I made the typical mistakes of one whose native language is English in attempting to include German words in the text and reversing the order of the letters "i" and "e", but I also made a few English spelling errors that my German friend caught. Below is an example of some of the errors that Eugen Schlotter brought to my attention.
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John P. Moore
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Re: Feldgrau Author: John P. Moore

Post by John P. Moore »

I'm conducting a test in the For Sale section of Feldgrau. There is a 30-day price reduction of USD $10 available to Feldgrau members only for my Waffen-SS signal officers publication that has been discussed here in recent months. See the link below for details.

viewtopic.php?f=61&t=28895

John
ghost
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Re: Feldgrau Author: John P. Moore

Post by ghost »

In my view, the significance of the contribution John P Moore has made to the published history of the Third Reich, cannot be overstated. His exceptional personal commitment has resulted in his work 'Fuhrerliste der Waffen-SS' which is the most exhaustively detailed and valuable reference work on that subject which has appeared to date, and sits comfortably on my bookshelf alongside other archetypal works such as German Rule in Russia by Alexander Dallin.

It is our good fortune that in addition to having produced such a wonderful and useful research tool, John has a fundamentally altruistic nature and is clearly happy to share important information with us by regularly posting some excellent material on this site from his archive that will be of great benefit to many.

A true scholar and a gentleman. What a truly wonderful combination!

Mike Melnyk
Charles Trang
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Re: Feldgrau Author: John P. Moore

Post by Charles Trang »

I must say that the Führerliste is undoubtedly one of the greatest reference work I know so far. I rate it at the same level than Georg Tessin's volumes on the german Army order of battle. How could John produce such an immense amount of work really puzzles me ! I have to write that I have a debt towards John : when "Totenkopf" was about to be published, John offered me very kindly to take any of his photographs which were in his CD's, for free ! I chose one of them, showing Simon, Stieglitz and Baum. Unfortunately, for some internal reasons to Heimdal which are a bit too long to explain here, the photo was not credited to him and the "Führerliste" was also omitted in the bibliography. The english version of "Totenkopf" is out now and this big mistake has not been rectified. The shame is on me as I did forget to do it. So, on page 198, the photo showing Simon, Baum and Stieglitz comes from John's collection.
Mansal D

Re: Feldgrau Author: John P. Moore

Post by Mansal D »

Very interesting all the research you have. I would be interested to see whats in all those binders! Must be from the MANY years of research you have done compared to me. :wink:

I now see you have some stories of a veteran who was at Narwa. I'd also be VERY interested in this as well. PM sent yesterday, but this can be included in the topic :wink:
John P. Moore
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Re: Feldgrau Author: John P. Moore

Post by John P. Moore »

Charles - Thanks for your kind words. I am currently reading your LAH book and so far it looks very good.

k98_man - Thanks for your comments. The best way to learn what is in those binders or more about details of participation in the Narwa battle is to purchase Part 1 of my "Führerliste der Waffen-SS" publication or the signal officer CD set alrady discussed. Another very good resource that should be of interest to you is Mark Yerger's new book about the "Nordland" division DKiG holders.

John
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dblmed1
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John Moore & SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter

Post by dblmed1 »

Dear Colleagues, I would also like to offer my heart felt 'THANKS" to John P. Moore. First, for his wonderful Book/CD's and secondly for his kind and personal assistance to me regarding his friend, SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter.

Coincidentally, at about the time of John's publication transition from Book Format to CD's, I had the outstanding good fortune to be able to acquire SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter's 1936 SS Chained Dagger. John assisted me in knowing which CD held 'many, many' pages of information regarding SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter, and John also sent me additional photos and information regarding Schlotter. John expressed his happiness that another collector, who also revered SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter's historical contributions, had acquired the only Schlotter item which John did not possess himself. John is a unique man.

Over the course of time, I also had research performed on SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter, by two noted sources who do this sort of thing only - and I was pleased to find that John's research was the most accurate and most complete by far! Simply outstanding documentation.

John P. Moore is a very special man.
He is a writer, a scholar, a historian, and a friend whom I treasure. ...... Best, Dave/dblmed1
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SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter's 1936 Chained Dagger
SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Schlotter's 1936 Chained Dagger
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