Generaloberst Dietl's Guestbook and Himmler's visit

[Ian Sayer]

For many years I have been in possession of Colonel General Dietl's Scandinavian guestbook. The book was originally presented to him at his Command HQ at Rovaniemi by the Finnish Liason staff. Various senior German and Finnish personnel visited Dietl's HQ and their signatures are duly recorded in the book which was amusingly illustrated by a German Sergeant who worked in the Quartermaster's Office. After Dietl's death the book accompanied the 20th Mountain Army to Norway. Signatures were still being added in July 1945!
The late Chief of the General Staff Anton Freiherr von Bechtolsheim gave the book to Sven Dysthe as a mark of the contribution he made in assisting members of the Norwegian Resistance and helping to facilitate a peaceful handover of power by the German occupiers.
In 1972, after 27 years Dysthe , tracked down the book's illustrator , Rolf Laufer, and the two men finally met in Ulvoysund. Dysthe was the subject of a book , dealing with his wartime experiences, entitled 'Gestapo Kameraten by Oddvar Munksgaard which was published in 1973 and contained an illustration of the first page of Dietl's guestbook within it.
Dysthe died in 1988 . I can't remember when but I purchased the book sometime in the 1980s from a German auction house. In 2006 I posted several pages from the book. As a result, in 2008, the illustrator's grandson got in touch with me and asked for copies of his grandfather's work. I have spent quite a long time on this project which is now nearing completion. I have tried to identify as many of the signatories as possible and now I can go no further.
It has occurred to me that I can do one more thing before finalising this project. I know that some of you are highly knowledgeable about this particular theatre so I wondered , if I were to post the signatures a page at a time, whether anyone would be interested in helping me to try and identify the names and ranks of those (mostly) Finnish and German officers who still remain unknown.
My suggestion would be for me to post a page with all the signatures numbered and then a list of all those I have identified. Undoubtedly at least a few will be wrong but with your assistance I am sure some of them could be corrected.
Anyway this is just an idea at the moment so I will welcome your views. In the meantime I will post the first page so you can get an idea of what the book pages look like.

Thanks in advance

Ian

003 24th March 1942

2 Heinrich Himmler 1900-1945 Reichsfuehrer S.S.
3 Unidentified (See 1) Finnish Liason Officer
4 O.J Willamo Colonel. Chief of Staff Finnish Liason HQ Rovaniemi
5 Juho Ahonen Lt.Colonel Cdr Sissi Battalion 3 (Finnish Army)
6 Gunter D’Alquen 1910-1998 Chief Editor SS weekly Das Schwarze Korps
7 Iwan Heunert 1886-1977 Lt Gen. Commander of Rear Area 525.
8 Unidentified
9 Unidentified
10 Unidentified

[Mangrove]

Interesting book indeed. Have you though about donating the book to the Finnish/Scandinavian National Archive? If it is too much for you I'm sure they could spare some money from their annual funds for buying it.

Tenth looks like M. Höbert for me.

[Ian Sayer]

Thanks Martti,
No I hadn't thought of donating it to the National Archive but I shall be making a DVD of it so it can be shared with as many people as possible including, of course, the family of the Illustrator. Thanks for the info on 10. Would anyone else like to have a go?
Regards
Ian

[Regiment Norge]

Hi!

Interesting book, have you tried to locate the KTB to Dietls 20 Geb.Korps in Norway. I assume that these visitors are mentioned in the KTB as the dates are visible in the guestbook.

This german handwriting is hard to read. How many pages are there in total with autographs?

Regards

[Mikko H.]

Number 3 could be Kaarlo Hillilä, governor of the Province of Lapland. As the governor he acted in many respects as the liaison of the Finnish civilian government to the Wehrmacht authorities in the Finnish Lapland. When important guests like Himmler came for a visit, Hillilä naturally was also present.

I have to admit that the surname doesn't look much like Hillilä, but people can mangle their signatures in surprising ways. Everything else fits: first name, surname starting with H, the elevated position as the person after Himmler. Does anybody have Hillilä's signature to compare?

[Ian Sayer]

Hi Regiment Norge,
I haven't tried to locate the KTB but I'm sure you're right in at least some of the visitors would be mentioned. However there are many relatively low ranking staff members of the 20th as well.
There are about 60 pages of signatures. There are over 600 with quite a few duplications.
Regards
Ian

[Ian Sayer]

Hi Mikko H,
Thanks for the contribution. You could be right and everything fits although, as you say, the surname doesn't look much like it so I hope somebody may be able to provide a signature for comparison.
In the meantime here's another page.
Regards
Ian

004 19th April 1942


11 Carl Mannerheim 1867-1951
Field Marshal. C-in-C Finland Defence Forces 1939-1945
12 Eduard Dietl 1890-1944
Col. Gen. C-in-C 20th Mountain Army
13 Unidentified See 1 and 3
14 Viljo Einar Tuompo 1893-1957
Finnish Lt.Gen. Cdr Border Guards
15 Ragnar R Groewall
16 Unidentified F or T Peitsara?
17 Juho Ahonen See 5 Colonel. Finnish Liason Officer.
18 Viljo ? Finnish
19 Ferdinand Jodl 1896-1956 General. Chief of Staff - 20th Mountain Army.
20 Kurt Bingler 1888-1972
General. Senior Medical Officer 20th Mountain Army.
21 S Frey
Lt Colonel on Finnish General Staff
22 Iwan Heunert See 7
23 Unidentified See 8

[Mikko H.]

13. Tuompo was at the time the command chief (komentopäällikkö) of the Finnish Supreme HQ, i.e. the general responsible for the personnel matters
15. Ragnar Grönvall, Mannerheim's senior ADC, his rank at the time was either major or lieutenant-colonel
16. most probably Lieutenant-Colonel Tapio Peitsara, but just now I can't say what was his position at the time

[Ian Sayer]

Great. Many thanks Mikko. Any ideas about No.18?
Regards
Ian

[Ian Sayer]

Here's another page

005-6 April 1942


24 Dr.Schneider
25 Friedel Blanke 1906 - Major 1c
26 Wilhelm Hess 1907 - Colonel
27 Unidentified von ?
28 Hillenberg Colonel
29 O J Willamo See 4 Colonel Finnish Army
30 ? A Vaananen Captain.Finnish Army.
31 Unidentified
32 Unidentified
33 Unidentified
34 Unidentified
35 Hugo Sittmann 1903 - Colonel
36 Muller-Heinemann
Military Courts Martial Officer
37 Unidentified H Wiktel ?
38 Kurt Herrmann
Lt.Col (Later Col.) Adjutant & IIA . (AOK 20)

[Mikko H.]

16. Tapio Peitsara, chief of ground forces office (maavoimatoimiston päällikkö) of the operations department at the Finnish supreme HQ. His rank at the time was either major or lieutenant-colonel.

21. Lieutenant-Colonel Sixten Frey, chief of staff of the Finnish liaison staff Roi (= Finnish Defense Forces liaison staff with the Wehrmacht forces in northern Finland).

30. Best match is Major Akseli Olli Väänänen, who was chief of staff of the liaison staff Roi in 1943-44. Around 1942 he was battalion commander in JR 12, acting commander of Er.Os.P and commander of Kev.Os 3.

33. One possibility is Lieutenant-Colonel Aaro Heikki Rautiainen, CO of JR 15.

My thanks to Harri, who has shared his extensive notes about Finnish wartime officers with me.

[Ian Sayer]

Mikko,
Thanks very much and I would also like to thank Harri for his input.
Here is another page

011 19th April 1942


54 H Roos
Colonel on Finnish General Staff. Chief of Transportation at Finnish HQ and Director General of Finnish Railways.
55 S Frey
Lt Colonel on Finnish General Staff
56 Unidentified
Captain on Finnish General Staff
57 Walter Schmidt 1908-
Major(Later Col) 1a 7th Mountain Division
58 Unidentified. Leitner?
An official of the Reichsarbeitdienst (German Labour Service) Possibly Area 27.
59 Unidentified. Sperling?
60 Unidentified. Dr. Kech? Medical Doctor

[Mikko H.]

54. Colonel Harald Roos

56. possibly Major Mauno Linnakorpi, unfortunately I don't know what position he held in 1942.

[Ian Sayer]

Thanks very much Mikko. Here is another page.
Best
Ian

012 20th April 1942


61 Unidentified. Mardinck? Died 1942
62 O J Willamo (See 4)

63 Unidentified (See 31)
64 Akseli Olli Vaananen (See 30)
65 H P?aatsala Finnish Army
66 Matthias Kleinheisterkamp 1893-1945
SS General. Cdr SS Mountain Division ‘Nord’
67 Konrad Benze 1914- Major
68 Unidentified

[Ian Sayer]

And here's another.

014 29th April 1942 to 9th May 1942

72 Frhr von Reitzenstein
Lt Col. (Later Col) W M A Marienbad
73 Unidentified Anton Waerner?
74 Unidentified Giessler?
75 Unidentified
76 Unidentified
“I met an eagle, and knew from that things would really be hot for me”
“(sgd) H Wasra? Lt 10th May 1942”
77 Unidentified H Wasra ? Lt.
78 Unidentified Capt.
79 Rolf Carls 1885-1945 Generaladmiral
80 Unidentified Lt.Col
81 Unidentified Naval officer
82 Unidentified Lt.Col
“For me there is ONE Army Command HQ Lapland. Thanks for the friendship shown to visitors”
83 Unidentified
Lt.Col Adjutant Luftflotte 5