Servus,
Can someone tell me what the mission or composition of such a unit would be. I have found mention of a FSG Abt 1 which saw action outside Warsaw in October '44.
Obviously it must be some kind of Penal Unit. what kind of offenses would one have to commit to be sent to such a unit vs any of the other myriad of German penal units?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Regards,
Helmut
Feldstrafgefangenen-Abteilung
Moderator: Tom Houlihan
Feldstrafgefangen Bataillone
Here's what Christoph Awender wrote about 18 months ago on this same website:
Many false and fantasy information about such units is out there. Types of "Probation-"units (Bewährungseinheiten).
A) (Feld-) Strafgefangenen-Abteilungen which consisted of soldiers which were condemned to prison for longer than 3 months (for a list of reasons). These Abteilungen were used for hard, dangerous labour for example in partisan endangered areas.
B) Strafvollstreckungszüge of divisions and armies consisted of soldiers condemned to prison under 3 months. There were always strict regulations what kind of crime the soldier did to come into such a unit.
C) Infanteriebataillone z.b.V.500, 540, 550, 560, 561, 609 consisted of soldiers which were condemned to probation. These units were supplied and treated nearly as normal units but used for special dangerous "missions". Usually these soldiers had to make their probation in their field unit and were transferred to these Inf.Btls.z.b.V. when their unit was not at the front or did no actions where the soldiers could stand the test.
D) Feld-Sonder-Bataillone consisted of soldiers fullfilled their prison time but are not accepted in their field unit again because of deficiencies in character.
E) The "999" units are not such units because they consisted of soldiers who were not "worthy to serve" (Wehrunwürdig) - so they were not condemned by a court in prior.
F) The Waffen-SS had also probation units (SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 500, SS-Sturm-Btl 500, SS-Brigade ''Dirlewanger'') which consisted of soldiers from Straflager und Wehrstraflager. In these Straflager and Wehrstraflager (comparable to a KZ) they had to do very hard labour without being supplied properly and if someone survived them he was "endangered" to get into one of these units like the Brigade Dirlewanger.
Many false and fantasy information about such units is out there. Types of "Probation-"units (Bewährungseinheiten).
A) (Feld-) Strafgefangenen-Abteilungen which consisted of soldiers which were condemned to prison for longer than 3 months (for a list of reasons). These Abteilungen were used for hard, dangerous labour for example in partisan endangered areas.
B) Strafvollstreckungszüge of divisions and armies consisted of soldiers condemned to prison under 3 months. There were always strict regulations what kind of crime the soldier did to come into such a unit.
C) Infanteriebataillone z.b.V.500, 540, 550, 560, 561, 609 consisted of soldiers which were condemned to probation. These units were supplied and treated nearly as normal units but used for special dangerous "missions". Usually these soldiers had to make their probation in their field unit and were transferred to these Inf.Btls.z.b.V. when their unit was not at the front or did no actions where the soldiers could stand the test.
D) Feld-Sonder-Bataillone consisted of soldiers fullfilled their prison time but are not accepted in their field unit again because of deficiencies in character.
E) The "999" units are not such units because they consisted of soldiers who were not "worthy to serve" (Wehrunwürdig) - so they were not condemned by a court in prior.
F) The Waffen-SS had also probation units (SS-Fallschirmjäger-Btl 500, SS-Sturm-Btl 500, SS-Brigade ''Dirlewanger'') which consisted of soldiers from Straflager und Wehrstraflager. In these Straflager and Wehrstraflager (comparable to a KZ) they had to do very hard labour without being supplied properly and if someone survived them he was "endangered" to get into one of these units like the Brigade Dirlewanger.
Abbott: This sure is a beautiful forest.
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
More from Jason and Russ Folsom
N/t
Last edited by Doug Nash on Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Abbott: This sure is a beautiful forest.
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
More from Jason and Russ Folsom
This is from an article about German Penal Units written about 4 years ago by Jason Pipes and Russ Folsom. Hope this helps ----
"In a number of cases, front line commands disregarded official formalities in sending soldiers to the far-rear for proper military-judicial discipline, and simply put disciplinary cases in pre-designated Feldstrafgefangenabteilungen (FstrGAbt.) and Bewährungsabteilungen (Field-punishment and probationary detachments) which performed dangerous engineer and assault functions at the blunt edge of attacks, and anti-partisan operations - ie. the dirty work of clearing mines, fighting partisans, and other so-called Himmelsfahrtkommando type duties. (Literally translated, Himmelfahrts
Kommando means "Journey-to- heaven-mission" and describes any operation with extremely high risk, although not necessarily suicidal. This colloquialisme is sometimes used in civil connotation also, like for mine or bomb clearing. The term is in reference to a specific type of mission, and not a unit type, such as penal battlion, although members
of penal units were often sent on these types of missions. Generally, in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, this black-humor term was understood to mean a mission where the chances of survival were practically nil. Examples were rearguard actions of small groups to cover the retreat of a larger unit by holding a position and delaying the enemy as long as possible until it usually was too late for their own withdrawal, or reconnaissance and commando raids far behind enemy lines.)
That is not to say that these local punishments were officially any better or worse than soldiers in a rear-area punishment camps, digging trenches or peat-bogs, cutting wood, or doing the dog construction work of the Organization Todt labor details. It can be conceivably stated that life in the dangerous environment of the front only exacerbated the punishment. Depending on the severity of the individual cases, and at the discretion of the Commanding officer, these hapless men would be stripped of rank and decorations, be refused mail and packages from home, and also the ability to write home and to take leave. Another aspect of the duty in these Army, Corps, and divisional Strafabteilungen or penal-detachments is that depending on the gravity of the offense,
the individual soldiers paybook (Soldbuch) was usually stamped "no decorations, awards, or promotion allowed." A good example of frontline punishment for disciplinary infractions from early on in the Russian campaign, is that of the 20.Gebirgsarmee (fighting in the far north of Finland, the Kola, and Karelia) setting up three notorious camps known as Feldstraflager I-III, whose harsh wintertime conditions can only be
imagined to have somewhat increased the severity of sentence in one of the luckless punishment details."
"In a number of cases, front line commands disregarded official formalities in sending soldiers to the far-rear for proper military-judicial discipline, and simply put disciplinary cases in pre-designated Feldstrafgefangenabteilungen (FstrGAbt.) and Bewährungsabteilungen (Field-punishment and probationary detachments) which performed dangerous engineer and assault functions at the blunt edge of attacks, and anti-partisan operations - ie. the dirty work of clearing mines, fighting partisans, and other so-called Himmelsfahrtkommando type duties. (Literally translated, Himmelfahrts
Kommando means "Journey-to- heaven-mission" and describes any operation with extremely high risk, although not necessarily suicidal. This colloquialisme is sometimes used in civil connotation also, like for mine or bomb clearing. The term is in reference to a specific type of mission, and not a unit type, such as penal battlion, although members
of penal units were often sent on these types of missions. Generally, in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, this black-humor term was understood to mean a mission where the chances of survival were practically nil. Examples were rearguard actions of small groups to cover the retreat of a larger unit by holding a position and delaying the enemy as long as possible until it usually was too late for their own withdrawal, or reconnaissance and commando raids far behind enemy lines.)
That is not to say that these local punishments were officially any better or worse than soldiers in a rear-area punishment camps, digging trenches or peat-bogs, cutting wood, or doing the dog construction work of the Organization Todt labor details. It can be conceivably stated that life in the dangerous environment of the front only exacerbated the punishment. Depending on the severity of the individual cases, and at the discretion of the Commanding officer, these hapless men would be stripped of rank and decorations, be refused mail and packages from home, and also the ability to write home and to take leave. Another aspect of the duty in these Army, Corps, and divisional Strafabteilungen or penal-detachments is that depending on the gravity of the offense,
the individual soldiers paybook (Soldbuch) was usually stamped "no decorations, awards, or promotion allowed." A good example of frontline punishment for disciplinary infractions from early on in the Russian campaign, is that of the 20.Gebirgsarmee (fighting in the far north of Finland, the Kola, and Karelia) setting up three notorious camps known as Feldstraflager I-III, whose harsh wintertime conditions can only be
imagined to have somewhat increased the severity of sentence in one of the luckless punishment details."
Abbott: This sure is a beautiful forest.
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
More from Jason and Russ Folsom
This is from an article about German Penal Units written about 4 years ago by Jason Pipes and Russ Folsom. Hope this helps ----
"In a number of cases, front line commands disregarded official formalities in sending soldiers to the far-rear for proper military-judicial discipline, and simply put disciplinary cases in pre-designated Feldstrafgefangenabteilungen (FstrGAbt.) and Bewährungsabteilungen (Field-punishment and probationary detachments) which performed dangerous engineer and assault functions at the blunt edge of attacks, and anti-partisan operations - ie. the dirty work of clearing mines, fighting partisans, and other so-called Himmelsfahrtkommando type duties. (Literally translated, Himmelfahrts
Kommando means "Journey-to- heaven-mission" and describes any operation with extremely high risk, although not necessarily suicidal. This colloquialisme is sometimes used in civil connotation also, like for mine or bomb clearing. The term is in reference to a specific type of mission, and not a unit type, such as penal battlion, although members
of penal units were often sent on these types of missions. Generally, in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, this black-humor term was understood to mean a mission where the chances of survival were practically nil. Examples were rearguard actions of small groups to cover the retreat of a larger unit by holding a position and delaying the enemy as long as possible until it usually was too late for their own withdrawal, or reconnaissance and commando raids far behind enemy lines.)
That is not to say that these local punishments were officially any better or worse than soldiers in a rear-area punishment camps, digging trenches or peat-bogs, cutting wood, or doing the dog construction work of the Organization Todt labor details. It can be conceivably stated that life in the dangerous environment of the front only exacerbated the punishment. Depending on the severity of the individual cases, and at the discretion of the Commanding officer, these hapless men would be stripped of rank and decorations, be refused mail and packages from home, and also the ability to write home and to take leave. Another aspect of the duty in these Army, Corps, and divisional Strafabteilungen or penal-detachments is that depending on the gravity of the offense,
the individual soldiers paybook (Soldbuch) was usually stamped "no decorations, awards, or promotion allowed." A good example of frontline punishment for disciplinary infractions from early on in the Russian campaign, is that of the 20.Gebirgsarmee (fighting in the far north of Finland, the Kola, and Karelia) setting up three notorious camps known as Feldstraflager I-III, whose harsh wintertime conditions can only be
imagined to have somewhat increased the severity of sentence in one of the luckless punishment details."
"In a number of cases, front line commands disregarded official formalities in sending soldiers to the far-rear for proper military-judicial discipline, and simply put disciplinary cases in pre-designated Feldstrafgefangenabteilungen (FstrGAbt.) and Bewährungsabteilungen (Field-punishment and probationary detachments) which performed dangerous engineer and assault functions at the blunt edge of attacks, and anti-partisan operations - ie. the dirty work of clearing mines, fighting partisans, and other so-called Himmelsfahrtkommando type duties. (Literally translated, Himmelfahrts
Kommando means "Journey-to- heaven-mission" and describes any operation with extremely high risk, although not necessarily suicidal. This colloquialisme is sometimes used in civil connotation also, like for mine or bomb clearing. The term is in reference to a specific type of mission, and not a unit type, such as penal battlion, although members
of penal units were often sent on these types of missions. Generally, in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, this black-humor term was understood to mean a mission where the chances of survival were practically nil. Examples were rearguard actions of small groups to cover the retreat of a larger unit by holding a position and delaying the enemy as long as possible until it usually was too late for their own withdrawal, or reconnaissance and commando raids far behind enemy lines.)
That is not to say that these local punishments were officially any better or worse than soldiers in a rear-area punishment camps, digging trenches or peat-bogs, cutting wood, or doing the dog construction work of the Organization Todt labor details. It can be conceivably stated that life in the dangerous environment of the front only exacerbated the punishment. Depending on the severity of the individual cases, and at the discretion of the Commanding officer, these hapless men would be stripped of rank and decorations, be refused mail and packages from home, and also the ability to write home and to take leave. Another aspect of the duty in these Army, Corps, and divisional Strafabteilungen or penal-detachments is that depending on the gravity of the offense,
the individual soldiers paybook (Soldbuch) was usually stamped "no decorations, awards, or promotion allowed." A good example of frontline punishment for disciplinary infractions from early on in the Russian campaign, is that of the 20.Gebirgsarmee (fighting in the far north of Finland, the Kola, and Karelia) setting up three notorious camps known as Feldstraflager I-III, whose harsh wintertime conditions can only be
imagined to have somewhat increased the severity of sentence in one of the luckless punishment details."
Abbott: This sure is a beautiful forest.
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
Costello: Too bad you can't see it for all those trees!
-
mightythor99
- Enthusiast
- Posts: 473
- Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:55 am
- Location: Indiana, USA
88th motorized artillery regiment straf unit...............
I have a group of feldpost, from a man, who was in charge of the unit for his regiment, which was the 88th motorized artillery regiment, which was part of the 18th panzer division. He was an oberleutnant, and was an artillery teacher in Prague, unitl the fall of '42, which is when the letters begin. He was put back with his original unit, (named above), and the letters start when he hit the "frontier", as he called it,....Warsaw, Poland, via train. He arrives in Orel, and rejoined his unit, and was then made the commander of the penal unit, but he does not name it specifically in the letters, and the feldpost number just comes up as the 88th Artillery, so even though it was part of this unit, it did not get a different feldpost number. These men were not allowed to have firearms, and built many bunkers out of logs, and digging. He talks about the men in some of the letters,.............basically, they just didnt want to be there, and hated the army,....imagine that,..........and were very disrespectful, lazy, etc. They were not doing commando missions on the front lines, although they were right up there on the front lines. He (The officer) hated this job, and kept requesting to join his old battery as a battery commander, and, after many months of begging, volunteering, and pleading, his higher ups allowed him to switch jobs. He had several sgt's under him, but he was the only officer. He got moved back into his old battery, and,........as luck would have it,.........operation Citadel happened, and he was killed when his unit was overran by Russians a few months later..............he was killed july 12th, '43.
On the other hand, my mother is German, and one of her friends' relatives was a General, and, at a party, he and a few other men got really drunk, and drowned a bust of hitler in a bath tub. someone told on him, and he was busted down to private, and shipped to the front lines. he was reported mia/kia within two weeks,...............he didnt make it into any special unit,.............who knows, he may have been shot when he hopped off of the train. no one knows for sure.
On the other hand, my mother is German, and one of her friends' relatives was a General, and, at a party, he and a few other men got really drunk, and drowned a bust of hitler in a bath tub. someone told on him, and he was busted down to private, and shipped to the front lines. he was reported mia/kia within two weeks,...............he didnt make it into any special unit,.............who knows, he may have been shot when he hopped off of the train. no one knows for sure.
I am interested in buying / trading for photo albums, photo groupings, diaries, feldpost groupings,etc, from any country in the world, any army/navy, etc, mostly 20th century!!