Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

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Alain Verwicht
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Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#1

Post by Alain Verwicht » 08 Apr 2015, 07:41

Hi Guys !
Please do you known this Ustuf of the '' Skanderbeg '' ?

Image

With the Cross of order German Eagle... :o

Thanks !

Peter
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#2

Post by Peter » 08 Apr 2015, 15:18

It is strange to see the NKS (Silver ?) without other combat awards.


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Ivan Ž.
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#3

Post by Ivan Ž. » 08 Apr 2015, 15:22

Hello, Alain Verwicht

May I ask for the source which classified him as a "Skanderbeg" member?

Cheers,
Ivan

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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#4

Post by tim will » 08 Apr 2015, 16:30

I believe Charles Trang has used another photo of this officer in one of his Dictionnaire de la Waffen SS series books. I'll check and see what I can find. Or maybe Charles can chime in on this one. (by the way, hi Charles)
tim

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Alain Verwicht
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#5

Post by Alain Verwicht » 08 Apr 2015, 18:57

Ivan Ž. wrote:Hello, Alain Verwicht

May I ask for the source which classified him as a "Skanderbeg" member?

Cheers,
Ivan
Hi Ivan
Because with this set of PK reportages ( PK Zwilling ) we have SS-Oberführer August Schmidhuber, his Staff and troops of '' Skanderbeg '' ( with Offiziere and Unteroffiziere of '' Prinz Eugen '' )
Regards.

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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#6

Post by gunter83 » 08 Apr 2015, 19:42

tim will wrote:I believe Charles Trang has used another photo of this officer in one of his Dictionnaire de la Waffen SS series books. I'll check and see what I can find. Or maybe Charles can chime in on this one. (by the way, hi Charles)
tim
In his 3rd volume published other photo of the same SS-Ustuf. but also without his name.

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Charles Trang
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#7

Post by Charles Trang » 08 Apr 2015, 19:52

I am not 100% sure about his belonging to Skanderbeg but other officers of the same series of photos, who belong to Prinz Eugen, have the Odal rune on their collar patch. This is why I think this SS-Untersturmführer belongs to Skanderbeg. Probably a veteran from the Prinz Eugen division, anyway.

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Ivan Ž.
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#8

Post by Ivan Ž. » 08 Apr 2015, 20:09

Thank you very much for your replies. There were no strict collar insignia regulations in the Balkans SS divisions; "Prinz Eugen" officers wore Odal rune equally as SS runes and some of those transferred from Totenkopf units also kept the Totenkopf patch. So the unit of this officer cannot be determined by his collar patch. But can his decorations be significant clues to his ID?

- Order of the German Eagle 3rd class Neck Cross with Swords
- Close Combat Clasp
- Honour Chevron for the Old Guard

Ivan

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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#9

Post by Charles Trang » 08 Apr 2015, 22:02

He does not look very young. He probably was a former SS-Unteroffizier promoted to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer "on the field". And Peter is right, it is quite rare to see a man wearing the Nahkampfspange (in Silber ?) without being decorated at least with the iron cross 2nd class.

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Ivan Ž.
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#10

Post by Ivan Ž. » 08 Apr 2015, 22:25

I think the Order of the German Eagle might be the most important clue here; as far as I understand, it is a medal not really often seen hanging around the necks of low ranking Waffen-SS officers. Something else is confusing here: on one side the Honour Chevron for the Old Guard indicates that he is German/Austrian, but Order of the German Eagle should indicate that he is a non-German, right? I must admit I really don't know many details about decorations.

I'd also like to propose the possibility of him posing with someone else's neck-decoration, for showing off or for fun (he actually has that kind of facial expression here, as if some joke is in question). Does he wear it in the other photo/photos you mentioned? And notice that he is also not wearing his belt. Plus the Close Combat Clasp solo (there's again a possibility that it's not his). It's just... something's not right.

Ivan

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Alain Verwicht
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#11

Post by Alain Verwicht » 09 Apr 2015, 04:01

Hi
SS-Oberführer August Schmidhuber ( with the same set of films ) :
Image
I think during Operation '' Draufgänger '' ( July 1944 )
Regards.

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Ivan Ž.
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#12

Post by Ivan Ž. » 09 Apr 2015, 16:21

Alain Verwicht wrote:SS-Oberführer August Schmidhuber ( with the same set of films )
Thank you very much for sharing. This photo session is unknown to me, it's nice to see it.

Cheers,
Ivan

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Alain Verwicht
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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#13

Post by Alain Verwicht » 09 Apr 2015, 18:33

Ivan, I have 100 photos of this Operation...
Regards.
Alain

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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#14

Post by Charles Trang » 09 Apr 2015, 20:44

This series can be ordered at the ECPAD for just under 3,00 Euros per photo if you don't use them in a publication. Fees are much more expensive if you decide to publish them. I selected a few of them (about 20) for my volume 3 of "Dictionnaire de la Waffen-SS". In the ECPAD, you can also find very rare and excellent photos of SS-StuG.Abt.1007, probably dating from the autumn of 1944. I used them for my Dictionnaire as well.

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Re: Skanderbeg: Unknown SS-Ustuf. Help !

#15

Post by G. Trifkovic » 10 Apr 2015, 00:43

Thank you very much for sharing. This photo session is unknown to me, it's nice to see it.
I believe I also haven't seen any photos from the "Draufgaenger" until now. As Ivan said, thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

G.

P.S. Any chance of seeing thumbnails or low-res version of these photos on ECPAD's website? If yes, are there any keywords which could speed up the search? Thanks!

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