Bunch of stuff! - Cutouts, photos, death cards....
Article about: Hi everyone, I'd like to share my upcoming purchase, which a friend has put together for me. It's a mish mash of stuff, photos, a newspaper cutout and 2 death cards. I'll just run through wh
Bunch of stuff! - Cutouts, photos, death cards....
Hi everyone,
I'd like to share my upcoming purchase, which a friend has put together for me. It's a mish mash of stuff, photos, a newspaper cutout and 2 death cards.
I'll just run through what there is:
The newspaper cut out is from a WW2 German Newspaper and has a photo of Das Reich RKTs on it, there is then 3 photos, one is of a Fieldpolice man with his armband, the other is of a knocked out Pz 4 Ausf. J, and the last is of aNuremberg Rally, all of which are private unpublished photos, but someone may have copied them along the way.
There are 2 death cards, one is of a man called Gefreiter Josef Forster, who was killed in Metz in 1944! And the other is a man called Willi Kletzmeyer, who was in the SS Standarte Deutschland, and then Das Reich after the amalgamation of the SS-VT, he was killed on the Mius Front in Aug 1943, during what I'd expect to be the Donbass Offensive?
Nice score, Hetzer...These are always great for enhancement of your display...I use such pieces as "fillers" between the various items in my curio-cabinet...Well done!
The best thing about Paper Items is that they're plentiful, affordable, and the variety is literally endless...
cheers, Glenn
Thank you for the response Glenn! I've come to like death cards due to their affordability and the fact you can tell a lot about the solider due to the info on it! And they're very affordable and display well and easy!!
I've planned to put together a document/paper album and display these inside, maybe get HJ stuff etc to show what it was like back then at an affordable price you know?
My friend has it packaged up and I also plan to buy some other stuff such as a DR death card from a guy who was killed near Oradour Sur Glane! Partisanen I believe!
All in all though, cheers for the nice response!
Hi Matt, glad to know there's someone young like me who enjoys collecting and is enthusiastic, death cards are very interesting as you say, this is another one I just bought down below, as well as the ones in the pictures, it's the Das Reich one I mentioned in the comment above.
It's a shame their story is lost to history, but sometimes that's the way it is. You canreally only learn from what it says on the death card, and the info it provides, but not much about them, shame, but very poignant indeed.
Hi Matt, glad to know there's someone young like me who enjoys collecting and is enthusiastic, death cards are very interesting as you say, this is another one I just bought down below, as well as the ones in the pictures, it's the Das Reich one I mentioned in the comment above.
An interesting date of death. Judging by the date he died he was either part of the force that went to Guéret on 9th June to rescue the encircled German garrison and was wounded on that day, to die of his wounds a day later or he was wounded on the 10th and died the same day. What is interesting about those dates and actions is that the action on the 9th June at Guéret was when SS-Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe was captured and executed by the Resistance and was the catalyst for the atrocity at Oradour-Sur-Glane.
And if he was wounded (and died) on the 10th June he could well of been one of the soldiers that got into a fight with the famed SOE agent Violette Szabo during the action where she was captured.
Taken from the Battleground Europe Das Reich book (a sort of military history tour guide)... Leaping from their car, ANASTASIE opened fire from the left hand side while Violette leapt to the right and, taking cover from a tree (which is no longer there, an electric pylon having replaced it) opened fire with her Sten gun. Jean Bariaud had already taken to his heels. The Germans fired back using rapid fire Schmeissers. They were 400 strong, part of Das Reich, making a sweep through the countryside in protection of the main column advancing north to Limoges, or possibly, part of the Deutschland 1st Battalion searching for Sturmbannführer Kämpfe who had gone missing the night before – accounts vary.
On 10 June 1944 he [a young boy] was playing in an open barn opposite the farmhouse when he heard running feet and the whizz of bullets, having previously been alerted by the screeching tyres of a car coming suddenly to a stop in the road beside the barn. Leaping the gate into the field, the two fugitives took off across the field towards a small stream. Running into the farmyard, the SS presented a gun to his father and demanded: ‘Terrorist or Frenchman?’ ‘Frenchman’ came the reply.‘Setting their machine-gun up on the gate they opened fire again’, volley after volley pursuing them as they plunged into the ripening corn. Violette received a flesh wound in her left arm. Zig-zagging their way, to avoid leaving a clearly defined trail, they ran up the steep hill towards the trees. Suddenly, Violette fell, her ankle twisted. Fighting off ANASTASIE’s attempts to pick her up and carry her, she shouted to him to make his getaway. Dragging herself to the edge of the cornfield, she struggled to an apple tree and clamped in another magazine.
Firing her Sten gun she held off the advancing Germans enabling ANASTASIE to escape. The shooting lasted about half an hour. One corporal was definitely killed, possibly others, and some wounded. Finally, her ammunition ran out and, kicking and struggling, she was overcome by two men who dragged her to the top of the hill and down the lane towards the railway.
Bunch of stuff! - Cutouts, photos, death cards....
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I too find death cards very interesting. I have yet to pick one up, but currently working on it.
by HetzersGonnaHetz
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