Spanish volunteer relics?

[Sadurni]

Hallo all, Im very fond of battle filed archeology, but I have special interest in the spanish volunteers that served on the estern fornt on ther Wolchow front. Unfortuanltely, i ahev never heard if the remians of aniy spanish MIAs have been found, or is there any photogras of such. I am also very interested in the relis involved with this units.

Have any of you stumbled upon any relics of this unit??

[Dimas]

I have seen in the mid of 90's the 250 division dog-tags, I think they was found in the Ilmen lake area, probably they was found with the bodies. The helmets with Spanish flag from that area is also was seen by me couple of times

[Sadurni]

I have seen in the mid of 90's the 250 division dog-tags, I think they was found in the Ilmen lake area, probably they was found with the bodies. The helmets with Spanish flag from that area is also was seen by me couple of times

Dimas, hi there!!!

Thanks for the anecdote. Very interested, can you tell me the condition of the relic helemts or do you have any pics??

[Dimas]

No I do not the pics, the condition was not a perfect. But I know that they are exists

[Sadurni]

Thanks Dimas

[sitges1990]

Sadurni, there probably is not much left to find of the Spanish Blue Division. Only 45,000Spanish troops served the Germans, and of that number, only 4600 were killed in action. Those numbers are probably alittle low, but thery are close. Today, they have difficulty finding remains of the 35 million troops that died on the eastern front, so looking for one of those 4600 is like look for a needle in a haystack.

[Sadurni]

trye, but a lot of material was left abandoned, so there is still aglimer of hope

[Sadurni]

Some collectors have shared with me in the W-A forum, some original relics of the Blue Division, as you know, this is my area of specialty, these lids are original with solid provedence:

A nice hevy corroded DD with battle damaged:





Battlefiled found ID tag:



Next andother DD in fine condition found in an antitank ditch at Krasny Bor:





another ID tag:



This one has the benifit of the doubt so far, I more or less like the spanish decal, it has some of the characterisitics you want to see in an original, still i asked for a close up to confirm:





As you know only one type of decal was made for the spanish volunteers, and this one was applied by the soldiers themselves. This decal has very unique charcterisitics, but be careful, in the 50´s spain made a decal that is almost, and i mean almost identical to the original, I will not dsiclose the diferences in the open.

Some time ago, three helmets apeared in spain an M35and tow M42s with this post war decal and were sold as war time originals, so far after sudying this helmets for more than 5 years, I have only encauntered two original helmets in good condition and thre more relics apart from the ones shown above!!!

Below one of the originals in fine condition, which belongs toone of my best firends and is an advanced Blue Divsion Collector!!



Arriba España!!!!!!!

[Dimas]

The rusty helmet looks to me good, due of Heeres decal is good, too hard to make the both decals in the same condition, and I don't hear that someone will destroy original helmet, and for sure the rest of the helmet looks true to me.
Thanks for sharing with us!