An Assault Gun unit marked bayonet

[Douglas]

Bayonet from Panzerjäger Abteilung 43
June 1942 - Marder II
August 1944 - Sturmgeschütz III

Bayonet marked:
S/155G
6588 b

Scabbard marked:
DURKOPP
38

4116
c

Frog marked:
2/Pz.A.A.43 I (2nd Company - Panzer Abwehr Abteilung 43 or Anti-Tank Department 43)

Panzerabwehr Abteilung 43 was formed on November 10, 1938 in Spremberg and was initially subordinate to the 3rd Light Panzer Division but was soon subordinated to the 8th Panzer Division on October 16, 1939. Prior to it’s participation in the German invasion of France, it was renamed Panzerjäger Abteilung 43 on April 1, 1940.
As a unit of the 8th Panzer Division, Panzerjäger Abteilung 43 was transferred to the west and fought in the Battle of France, in May 1940 and the German invasion of the Balkans in April 1941 where it participated in the attacks on Belgrade and Sarajevo.
Soon after the division advanced towards Leningrad under Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa, and would remain on the eastern front for the remainder of the war. Staying on defensive fronts, it saw action in the relief of Kholm in 1942, Orel and the withdrawals of Army Group Centre in 1943, until transferred to Army group South.
The division then fought in a series of retrograde movements, back through the Ukraine, into Hungary and finally into Silesia and surrender in May 1945. Remnants were able to reach the American lines at Brno, avoiding the Russian gulags.

[TWS]

Interesting on a few levels.

Nice bayonet. It's unfortunate the bayonet and scabbard are not numbers matching.

It's also neat to see the frog unit marked. However, in the standard Heer nomenclature Pz. A.A. would stand for Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung - Armored Reconnaissance, not Anti-tank.
Normally and especially early when they bothered to mark equipment like that, Panzer-Abwehr would have been abbreviated Pz. Abw.

Now, here's where it becomes a little perplexing: To my knowledge, there was no Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 43...

[Anderson]

A tidy E & F Horster bayonet, 1935 with Durkopp 1938 scabbard, not uncommon but the unit marked frog is interesting and may date for that same period. Later and during the war frogs were not unit marked as an obvious security risk.

[BlackCat1982]

Does appear to be marked to the 2 Kompanie of Panzer Aufklärungs Abteilung 43 but as said this unit doesn't exist, neither is there a 48 Pz A.Abt.

[Douglas]

Hello TWS, Anderson and BlackCat1982,

Yes, this unit marking is unusual. As TWs and BlackCat1982 stated, there is no record of a Panzer Aufklärungs Abteilung 43 existing and Panzerjäger-Ausbildungs-Abteilung 43 was not created until September 1942, long after unit marking of equipment was stopped as Anderson stated.

I have found that unit abbreviations on equipment was not always consistent which made this frog an interesting item to research. This may come down to the individual who set up and used the stamping equipment at the time.

Thank you for the feedback,
Doug Bohannon

[Frogprince]

A tidy E & F Horster bayonet, 1935 with Durkopp 1938 scabbard, not uncommon but the unit marked frog is interesting and may date for that same period. Later and during the war frogs were not unit marked as an obvious security risk.

True enough, you only have to look at the coding systems they used for the bayonets themselves to know that they were security conscious. Undated that I can see, the aluminum rivets and steel tie strap stud (?) can to some extent help in dating. Speaking generally, unit markings for the Luftwaffe frogs that are a lot more prolific than the Army (Heer), fell off sharply at some point presumably because of all the reorganizations that were taking place during the expansion phase before the war started. Some more/research still needed (IMO). Best Regards, Fred

[AndyB]

As mentioned on other forum, the frog is nice, could be well used from start with this scabbard, the bayonet unfortunally is a missmatch here. Pz.Abwehr Abteilung nr.43 was renamed 1940 into Pz.Jaeger Abt.43.

[Sleepwalker]

Hello,

From the context it can only be the 2. Kompanie der Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilung 43. The clear but also longer abbreviation was Pz.Abw.Abt. - Pz.A.A. represents this in a nutshell.
Such troop stamps were only applied before the war until very shortly afterwards. This also coincides with the time frame for the renaming.

Regards