Article about: Hey gang....here's one of my fave helmets - it's an early drop tail DD LW M35. I guess what makes this one most special to me is the tag I found inside the helmet - under the liner. Took som
Hey gang....here's one of my fave helmets - it's an early drop tail DD LW
M35.
I guess what makes this one most special to me is the tag I found inside the helmet - under the liner. Took some work but I was able to find out quite a bit of info on the unit: where it was during the war and what type of equipment it used.
Alas.....no info on the name - 95% of LW records were destroyed in May of '45 and in German War Graves I found 60 "Rosteck" KIA's....but couldn't find what units they were with.
In any case - still a cool helmet with a nice history behind its unit - involved from the start of ww2 straight until the end.
Here's the history of the unit....This unit formed in 1938 in Konigsberg under Lt. GeneralJohannes Lentzsch.
In September 1939, it was dispatched to support the 10th Panzer Division in Poland.
In May 1940, it was in France again with 10th Panzer.
In April 1941, it was sent to the balkans
In June 1941 it was part of Barbarossa supporting the 11. Pz.Div. (Central Russia)
This unit stayed in central Russia until 1944
By 1944 it found it's way to Beresina
And ended the war in EastPrussia (Ostpreussen) Brandenburg in 1945.
As far as the specific equipment used for this "soldat"....
The "2." means 2d Battery, and of that I'm certain. The "8." definitely refers to something that was "within" or a "part of" 2d Battery, and my educated guess would be a Trupp (squad). Since a Flakbatterie (usually around 160 men) rarely (if ever) had 8 Züüge (8 x c. 42 men = 336 men),
then Trupp is the logical deduction. Each Trupp (flexible, but usually not more than 10 men)
would have probably crewed one or two guns. With the info I have received, this is a leichte Flak-Abteilung.... so we are talking about 20mm Flak, Vierling Flak (quad 20mm mounts) and 37mm Flak, all or most of which were vehicle-mounted.
There you go 71st Leichte Flak-Abtg, 2nd battery 8th squad - awesome! (each squad had about 10 soldiers).
more pics....In the adler decal pic you can see that this type of decal is the First Pattern Snake Leg variant. There are also straight leg types of these drop tail decals. The shell is obviously ET made but it's hard to see the numbers - it's a 66cm shell.
You'll notice the tag under the liner - it's the best shot I could take as I didn't want to untie the liner string and I was being really careful with the liner too.
My pleasure Lars! Glad you like it. I'll try and post more of my lids as time permits!
Cheers!
Rob
Thanks Rob, I´m sure we all will enjoy to see some more of your collection, I´m sure I will Items with a history to tell just give the collecting part an extra dimension
Cheers
Lars
Thanks guys! Glad you like it! I too prefer battlefield type lids over minty ones. That is not to say that I wouldn't like one. I just like the type that saw action as they have more character.
Cheers!
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