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02-12-2021 03:41 PM
# ADS
Circuit advertisement
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At first I was unsure wether his unit might have been - Feldstrafgefangen abteilungen (FstrGAbt) and Bewährungs abteilungen (Field-punishment and probationary detachments), especially because of the similar abbreviation, along with the 500 designation.
But the unit on the casualty card has been confirmed as 2./Fernsprech abteilung 500. So this still leaves me trying to establish what the 500 designation is.
Here is information about the 500 designations -
The 500 series Bewährungs or probationary unit in which an enlistedsoldier, NCO, or Officer who had dishonored himself by minor infractions of the military code could be given the chance to, in the words of a 2.4.1942 Hitler-decree: “..an der Front bewähren, und eine Amnestie verdienenKönnten.” (ie. “…prove oneself by service at the Front, and thereby earnan amnesty.”). In other words, it was a unit where officers and men convicted bycourts-martial of minor infractions and currently in disciplinary straits couldredeem their soldierly honor by participation in hazardous duties andoperations.
The 500 series numbering system was also shared by the Heer, but should not to be confused with the post-1940 500 series designated divisional units, which were also to be found resurrected in the July-August 1944 Heer 28th, 29th and 31st mobilization waves of Grenadier and Volksgrenadier formations. Somebattalion sized unit numbers of the 5xx series had also been former Bewärungs units (z.b.V.- zur besondern Verwendung – for special employment) of the Heer (also, Waffen-SS and Polizei) employed on the Eastern Front and integrated into new Grenadier formations in the course of, in this case, the July-August 1944 reorganization of the Feldheer.
Besides the 500 series units for probation, the Heer also exclusively employed both 300 series .z.b.V. units, and 999 series designations for Bewährungstruppen; though the latter units were considered soldaten Zweite-Klasse (second-class soldiers), composed of more hardened disciplinary cases that the 500 series would normally not consider for rehabilitation.
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 theseverity of sentence in one of the luckless punishment details.
SS-Fallshirmjager-Batallion-500 - Feldgrau
Last edited by Willmore; 02-12-2021 at 06:46 PM.
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