A Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. F of the 2nd SS Panzer Division ‘Das Reich’ in the Kursk salient.
A Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III) Ausf. G (early production) of the Third SS Division ‘Totenkopf’ riding past a 21 cm Nebelwerfer 42 (21 cm NbW 42) in the Kursk Salient.
A rare shot of the Alkett production facility, this is the final assembly area and Sturmgeschütz Gs as well as Sturmhaubitze 42s can be seen in the staging area.
A StuH 42 (Sturmhaubitze 42, Sd.Kfz 142/2) in the Krusk Salient.
In 1942, a variant of the StuG III Ausf. F was designed with a 105 mm (4.1 in) howitzer instead of the 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/43 cannon. These new vehicles, designated StuH 42 (Sturmhaubitze 42, Sd.Kfz 142/2), were designed to provide infantry support with the increased number of StuG III Ausf. F/8 and Ausf. Gs being used in the anti-tank role. The StuH 42 mounted a variant of the 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer, modified to be electrically fired and fitted with a muzzle brake. Later models were built from StuG III Ausf. G chassis as well as StuG III Ausf. F and Ausf. F/8 chassis. The muzzle brake was often omitted due to the scarcity of resources later in the war. 1,211 StuH 42 were produced from October 1942 to 1945.
Doesn’t that one Soldat with the pipe remind you of our beloved Gebirgsjäger Reparations?
The post arrives. This was always a long awaited moment among the troops. The men who served in SS-Battalion “Reitz”, who formed the core of SS-IR 9 “Thule”, had not taken leave for more than a year.
MARTIN STANGE
Stange joined the SS on March 14, 1933, with the 3./V./20.SS-Standarte in Kiel and became an SS-Mann on November 9. That following April he began training with the first cadet class of SS-Führerschule Bad Tölz commanded by Paul Lettow. Promoted to SS-Obertruppeführer on December 20, 1934, he was commissioned as an SS-Untersturmführer April 20, 1935. He was married on June 1, 1935, he and his wife had two daughters and a son. Stange was then posted after graduation to 13./Germania in Munich as a platoon leader until April 1, 1936.
Returning to the SS Officer school system, he served as a platoon leader in the teaching detachment at the SS-Junkerschule in Braunschweg as well as being a heavy weapons instructor. Following a recovery from an illness he was posted as adjutant to the commander of SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig (Paul Hausser) for almost two years until the start of April 1938. Stange was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer on April 20, 1936, and returned to “Germania” as a platoon leader with 15.Germania.
When the armored car platoon (Panzerspähzug) of the “Germania” was established, Stange organized and then assumed command until on July 1, 1938. He served as a company commander during a training course at the Army cavalry school in Hannover. Stange led an armored car platoon of “Germania” until replaced by Rudolph Lehmann in May 1939. From September to December 1938 he was detached for training and assined to Infantry Regiment 116 as commander of a replacement company where he was recommended to command a company until his return to the SS.
Stange transferred to the artillery regiment of the SS-Verfügungstruppe in late May 1939 and was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer on August 25 that same year. With the Artillerie Regiment SS-Verfügungstruppe he served as commander of the 6.Batterie and won the EK.2k. for actions in Poland on October 2, 1939.
When the “Totenkopf” Division was formed in Early October 1939, Stange and his unit were transferred as cadre and he became commander of that Division’s 7.Batterie. With that unit he won the EK.1k. in Russia July 12, 1941, and the Infantry Assault Badge on December 10, 1941. Stange took command of I.Abteilung in August 1940. Well liked and highly evaluated by artillery regiment commander Hermann Preiss, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer on September 1, 1941. For actions as detachment commander he was awarded the German Cross in Gold on September 19, 1942, having left the front in May and being succeeded by Fritz Haas.Stange returned SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz in mid-January 1943 as a lecturer and in mid-June took command of a teaching group. At Bad Tölz he was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer on November 1941. Stange was then transferred 16.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division “Reichsführer-SS” as an artillery regiment commander. He remaiend with the Division until April 1945 when he was succeeded by Carl von Oberkamp and became the last commander the 38.SS-Grenadier-Division “Niebelungen” that was formed around the final cadet class at Bad Tölz. Personally brave and a good experienced artillery officer who contributed a significant amount of his career to duty with the SS officer schools, Martin Stange lives in retirement, He continues to maintain contact and assist comrades belonging to the veterans association of “Totenkopf” and “Reichsführer-SS.”
Photo: Martin Stange while on training exercises.
Victory on Kreta
Fallschirmjager:
Nice picture of the Splinter b smock in step in pattern.
The coolest incarnation of a captured Universal Bren Carrier EVER! Look how effin awesome this thing is…three Panzerschrecks, and two Panzerfaust!
A Fallschirmjäger Feldwebel with Fallschirmschützenabzeichen (Para jump qualification jump badge), Eisen Kreuz 1st and 2nd class, Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen (General Assault Badge in gold), Ritterkreuz des Kreigsdienstkreuz(War Merit Badge) ribbon bar and the German Cross in Gold.
This portrait of a paratrooper exemplifies one of the best types of soldiers in Normandy. A jump-qualified senior private in his early to mid-twenties, he is identified by his insignia as an NCO candidate with ground combat experience on the Russian Front dating back to 1941/42. Such men were typical of the cadre of Col von der Heydte’s 6th Paratroop Regt, 3,500 strong with an average rank-and-file age of less than 18 years, which was one of the few German units to react decisively to the Allied airborne attacks in the early hours of 6 June. Although by 1944 the mass of the Fallschirmjager regiments were paratroops in name only — i.e. they were never deployed by parachute, being used simply as elite light infantry — the fact that they were volunteers, most of whom had passed jump training, ensured that they were some of the best human material still available to the much-diminished Wehrmacht.
I just wanted to add a little bit to this, The Men of FjR6 were actually the VERY first to fight the allies during the invasion of Normandy. A handful of American 101st Pathfinder Paratroopers had landed between St-Come du Mont, Baupte and Carentan, in order to direct the Paratroop landings that followed. Those men of the Pathfinders put up a huge fight, and several were captured.
Something else to add to this, some men of FjR.6 were part of Unternehmen Stösser, which would be not only the last jump the Fallschirmjäger made, but also their only operational night jump they ever made.
A Fallschirmpioneer of the 7th Flieger-Division attached to Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 3, awaits his transit to Neva, Russia, 1941.
Fallschirmjäger Kreigsberichter in Vordester Front.
5.SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking”
To drive home the combat effectiveness of the 5.SS Pz.Div.”Wiking”, which can be testified by the number of Knight´s Crosses of the Iron Cross awarded to its members. A total of 54 such gallantry awards were made, a figure surpassed only by 69 for the 2.SS-Panzer-Division “Das Reich.”
Notice of combat casualty dated 2.3.1940, and issued by Carl Gustaf Mannerheim:
It is my painful duty to inform you that Gustaf Karlsson has fall on the field of honor. May the knowledge that his death occurred as a result of his heroic struggle for Finnish and Nordic independence, for all that which is dear to our hearts, be of some consolation. As a participant in your sorrows, I ask that the Almighty will grant you the strength to carry this burden.(source: Krigsarkivet Finlandskommitten, 1939-1940)
Fegelein in the dress uniform of SS Standartenführer after being awarded the Knight’s Cross for his leadership in the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade.
