SS Penal battalion 500/600:Paratroopers

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:13 am

I think that the author of the book to which you refer has made a number of mistakes. Unless he is referring to some barely known operation by, perhaps, the Brandenburg Division's 15 (Fallschirm) Kompanie, which I doubt, the parachute assault upon an Italian Army HQ sounds like the jump on Monte Rotondo by II./Fallschirmjäger-Rgt 6. The only airborne operations on Greek soil in that time frame were Operations Eisbär and Taifun, the capture of the islands of Kos and Leros late in 1943. As for the assertion that Rendulic jumped from a plane, this is pure fantasy. Lothar Rendulic was 55 or 56 years old at the time and was not parachute-trained.

PK

Regiment Norge · Post by **Regiment Norge** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:08 pm

Hi!

About the norwegians in the SS-FJB 500/600, there was 5 altogether. All of them joined the Btl. after they received sentences from SS courts.

Only one of them surveived the war, but he was condemned to death penalty in Norway and executed in 1947 after service in Norway with the Gestapo in the torture of resistance soldiers.

The norwegians were:

- Hans EGEBERG executed in 1947
- Gunnar BAARDSETh KIA 17.09.1944 as laying wounded in hospital in Braunschweig. An western allied airraid hit the hospital and he died.
- Andreas ØVERGAARD KIA 18.12.1944.
- Reidar THORSHEIM KIA 16.08.1944 as with the 3./SS-FJB-600.
- Thorleiv MØRCH KIA 16.07.1944 Rumsiks

Regards

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:10 am

Hallo!

I have "Reidar Thorheim" from Bergen killed in action at Raseien while serving with 3./SS-FJ-Btl 500. It's a German reference so they may have misspelt his name. I knew that Gunnar Baardseth died during the war but I was told once that he went to the Ardennes with Leifheit's force as part of Panzerbrigade 150. A number of Western volunteers served in the Ardennes with the SS-Jagdverbände despite the general policy of keeping them away from confrontation with the Western Allies.

PK

Regiment Norge · Post by **Regiment Norge** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:28 am

Hi!

The information about Reidar Thorheim came from the Deutsche Dienststelle in Berlin and shows that he was with the 3./SS-FJB-600 when KIA in August 1944.

Regards

Regiment Norge · Post by **Regiment Norge** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:31 am

Hi!

For general interests there were at least two other norwegian serving as Luftwaffe paratroopers - both were KIA. Axel CAPPELEN was KIA in february 1945 and the other whos name I must find again died in 1944 and are buried at the Sandweiler friedhof in Luxembourg.

Regards

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:36 am

It's a minor point but the German records are mistaken because SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600 was not formed until October/November 1944. Perhaps the entry is a typing error, which is easy enough to make.

PK

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:47 am

Blasius Wolbank was not Norwegian but did serve with the Norge Regiment and is still remembered by veterans in Norway. Wolbank was killed in action with 3./SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600 on the Oder Front in 1945.

Wolbank arrived in Neustrelitz in November 1944, when SS-FJ-Btl 600 was forming up. Unlike SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 500, SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 600 was placed under the operational command of Otto Skorzeny's Friedenthal organisation, becoming part of the SS-Jagdverbände.

Anyway, i thought you might like to see this, since we're talking about 3./SS-FJ-Btl 600 casualties.

Regards,

PK

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:58 am

Øvergaard's obituary states that he died on the Eastern Front in December 1944, which suggests that he was no longer serving with the SS-Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon. Another former Norge man who ended up in SS-FJ-Btl 500 was an Uscha Fischer. He was with 10/.Norge and was sent to the SS-FJ-Btl late in 1943 after being convicted of theft. I do not know if he was Norwegian but the name suggests a German or and Austrian.

PK

Regiment Norge · Post by **Regiment Norge** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:55 am

Hi!

Thanks for the correction to Reidar THORHEIM and ØVERGAARD. Uscha. FISCHER (german or austrian not norwegian) was indeed in the 10./Norge and maybe even from the 2./Nordland as I have him om several pictures at Auerbach and Grafenwör Truppenübungsplatz during the formation of the Regiment Norge.

From a diary of a norwegian in the 1. Zug 10./Norge from Croatia is an episode written about him and a theft of a watch during a search party in a village. It was after this incident that FISCHER left the unit and later came to SS-FJB-500.

Thanks again for the copies of the Soldbuch to WOLBANK. Do you have any information on where and when he died and are buried?

Regards

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:27 pm

SS-Uscha Wolbank was killed in the Schwedt Bridgehead on 9.2.1945. He has no known grave but his death was recorded in his home town in Austria on 17.9.1948. I believe his name is inscribed on a memorial there as one of the town's Fallen but I am not absolutely sure.

PK

Björn · Post by **Björn** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:59 am

Hello!

The "Gräberfürsorge" lists Øvergaard as killed 21.12.1944 in Zvolen.

B.

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:24 pm

Slovakia.

PK

Björn · Post by **Björn** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 1:45 am

Hello!
Yes, Zvolen is in Slovakia.

B.

Regiment Norge · Post by **Regiment Norge** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:56 am

Hi folks,

somewere I have a letter from WASt about the fate of Anders ØVERGAARD and also his last known unit. Be patient I have to dig through over 10 years of correspondence with WASt.

As I can remember his last units were not the SS-FJB-600 but some SS-regiment I do not recall at the moment.

Regards

Paddy Keating · Post by **Paddy Keating** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:02 am

Part of SS-FJ-Btl 600 was in the Ardennes in December 1944 while the rest of the new battalion was forming up in Neustrelitz. Øvergaard may have been with one of the Waffen-SS units tasked with attacking the Slovakian rebel stronghold in Zvolen. I don't know which units these were but someone here must know.

PK