Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

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pintere
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Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#1

Post by pintere » 11 Apr 2018, 06:20

I'm currently trying to gather as much information as I can about the actions that led to awarding of the Knight's Cross for all services including the Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and Waffen-SS.

I'm not looking for a picture book, or a list of names with basic biographical info. My focus is on the specific actions that led to the Knight's Cross being awarded to particular individuals (i.e. a simple "he got it for his bravery, outstanding leadership, etc." is too vague for my purposes), and I'm willing to pay a high price for that kind of detail. If such books include Vorschläge or excerpted newspaper articles in particular that would be just what I'm looking for.

I've found some books that deal with the following groups of Ritterkreuzträger
- Eichenlaubträger
- Fighter pilot Ritterkreuzträger
- StuG Ritterkreuzträger
- Ritterkreuzträger from the Großdeutschland units
- Ritterkreuzträger from Saxony and the Saarland

My question basically is what other literature is available on Knight's Cross recipients that actually detail how they came to receive the award? There are a few books I've seen in particular that I've seen and am wanting more info on.

- Die Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht series

- Die Hamburger Ritterkreuzträger 1939-45
https://www.amazon.de/Hamburger-Ritterk ... reuzträger

- Die Ritterkreuzträger der Luftwaffe 1939-1945 Band 2: Stuka- und Schlachtflieger
https://www.amazon.de/Ritterkreuzträger ... +obermaier

- Die Ritterkreuzträger der Kampfflieger - Band 1 & 2
https://www.amazon.de/Die-Ritterkreuztr ... ampflieger

- Ritterkreuzträger of the U-Boat force
https://www.amazon.de/U-Boot-Krieg-1939 ... ger+u-boot

Any comments on the level of detail of these books (or others) would be most appreciated.

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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#2

Post by krichter33 » 11 Apr 2018, 09:32

....It's really late now, I'm going to bed, but I'll try to respond tomorrow....do you read German?


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pintere
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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#3

Post by pintere » 11 Apr 2018, 15:15

krichter33 wrote:....It's really late now, I'm going to bed, but I'll try to respond tomorrow....do you read German?
Mine isn't the best but yes, I can read German to a degree. Especially if it's in a military context.

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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#4

Post by krichter33 » 12 Apr 2018, 07:04

Alright, where to begin! Obviously you already picked up some good books. The Eichenlaubtrager books, maybe the ones by Dixon, or the German ones by Stockert, maybe the Jagdflieger one by Obermeier, the Stug ones by Scherzer, Grossdeutschland by Tegethoff, the two Sachsen volumes by Schindler (I don't think the 3rd one came out yet), and the Saarland one by Nietrug. I own all of those books and they are quite excellent, some better than others. The other ones I own are as follows...The entire Biblio Verlag Ritterkreuztrager der Deutschen Wehrmacht series is the best. It definitely includes a lot of information about each winner including descriptions of actions that won them the RK, some descriptions better than others. Ritterkreuztrager im Mannschaftsstand by Huss is one of the best! It details the bios of all the enlisted winners of the RK with excellent descriptions of their actions. The Stuka one by Obermaier is similar to the Jagdflieger one, not that detailed, but with pilots they received their awards primarily for planes shot down or missions flown, which this book details. Now the two volume Kampfflieger series is excellent, in German and English! Each recipient has a pretty detailed biography, much more detailed than the Obermaier books. Mooney's series Waffen SS Knight's and their Battles is one of the best! It goes into great detail about each winner's RK and how they received it. The book The Face of Courage, about the winners of the RK and the CCC in Gold is one of the best biographical books that you could find. Finally, probably the best series of them all that includes translations of countless Vorschlages for the DK as well as the RK, is Mark Yerger's German Cross in Gold of the WSS series. I have never seen any series of books that includes as many awards recommendations as this series.......anyways I hope this helps, I too am interested in Vorschlages and would greatly love to read more of them!

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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#5

Post by pintere » 13 Apr 2018, 05:26

krichter33 wrote:Alright, where to begin! Obviously you already picked up some good books. The Eichenlaubtrager books, maybe the ones by Dixon, or the German ones by Stockert, maybe the Jagdflieger one by Obermeier, the Stug ones by Scherzer, Grossdeutschland by Tegethoff, the two Sachsen volumes by Schindler (I don't think the 3rd one came out yet), and the Saarland one by Nietrug. I own all of those books and they are quite excellent, some better than others. The other ones I own are as follows...The entire Biblio Verlag Ritterkreuztrager der Deutschen Wehrmacht series is the best. It definitely includes a lot of information about each winner including descriptions of actions that won them the RK, some descriptions better than others. Ritterkreuztrager im Mannschaftsstand by Huss is one of the best! It details the bios of all the enlisted winners of the RK with excellent descriptions of their actions. The Stuka one by Obermaier is similar to the Jagdflieger one, not that detailed, but with pilots they received their awards primarily for planes shot down or missions flown, which this book details. Now the two volume Kampfflieger series is excellent, in German and English! Each recipient has a pretty detailed biography, much more detailed than the Obermaier books. Mooney's series Waffen SS Knight's and their Battles is one of the best! It goes into great detail about each winner's RK and how they received it. The book The Face of Courage, about the winners of the RK and the CCC in Gold is one of the best biographical books that you could find. Finally, probably the best series of them all that includes translations of countless Vorschlages for the DK as well as the RK, is Mark Yerger's German Cross in Gold of the WSS series. I have never seen any series of books that includes as many awards recommendations as this series.......anyways I hope this helps, I too am interested in Vorschlages and would greatly love to read more of them!
Thanks for your help Krichter!

Concerning the RdDW series I have a couple questions... is it still ongoing? The guy at the bookstore I met in Germany talked like it had been discontinued or something. Also, is there a webpage or something where I can see all the existing books in the series?

The Ritterkreuzträger im Mannschaftsstand book you mention looks really interesting, and not a bad price either! From the description it sounds like they would all be from the Heer and Waffen SS, I presume?

I like Obermaier's book on the Jagdflieger because it provides exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. The kind of descriptions I'm looking for don't have to be exhaustive, as long as they are specific. A book on fighter pilots seems in many ways perfect because it appears that fighter pilots would win the Knight's Cross after shooting down a certain no. of planes, simple as that. Does the Stuka book, in the majority of cases, at least mention overall scores of material destroyed?

About the Kampfflieger book, do most recipients have an actual description of their Knight's Cross related actions? I say this because in some books (especially Florian Berger's the Face of Courage) though the biographies are quite impressive the details on the reason they received the Knight's Cross are minimal.

Lastly, do you know anything about what to expect in the other book I mentioned (Die Hamburger Ritterkreuzträger 1939-45)?

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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#6

Post by Michael Kenny » 13 Apr 2018, 06:36

pintere wrote:
About the Kampfflieger book, do most recipients have an actual description of their Knight's Cross related actions?
mar2018072n.jpg
mar2018072vb.jpg

Reigo2
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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#7

Post by Reigo2 » 13 Apr 2018, 07:14

Biblio Verlag Ritterkreuzträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht: Die Ritterkreuzträger der Infanterie includes often detailed decriptions but sometimes it is very vague (only like "bravery during retreat" etc). Unfortunately the Infanterie-series is only at letter F (Band 7) and I don't know if the authors are continuing to write the series. Possibly not because the Biblio Verlag sold a large RK archive some years ago when quitting business:
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic ... g#p2029804

I have been trying to locate awarding descriptions related to Narva front in 1944. Many of them can't be found in published books so I have tried to find them in BAMA (no success) and in German wartime front press (with some but limited success).

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Re: Which Ritterkreuzträger books contain detailed award information?

#8

Post by Denis » 20 Apr 2018, 23:46

Hello

I am also a collector of all the books related to KC holders. As Krichter wrote it, the Biblio velrag has sadly stopped but Veit Scherezer has written 2 extra volumes covering RKT from Pioniertruppe. Covers of these books and presentation are identical to original Biblio Verlag serie. Sole difference was it was published by VDM since Biblio Verlag has stopped business. In the foreword of these books, Mr Scherzer thanks Wolfram Zeller, the owner of Biblio Verlag to let him use material cominf from his archives.

From my side, I would love to consult primary sources coming from German Military Archives. I think this primary info is the RK Karteikarten on which each recipient info is listed. Here is below a good example.
You will see that all main Awards bestowal date are listed but also dates for the KC preliminary document, the relevant Armee Korps/Armee/Heeresgruppe. LAst but not list, most of these Kartei Karten bears the bestowal number (here 4,200th recipient for Heer/WSS).

Would anybody know how to access to such information?
Ditter_Hans_RK-Karteikarte1_IBV.jpg
Ditter_Hans_RK-Karteikarte1_IBV.jpg (54.91 KiB) Viewed 9868 times
Thanks
Denis

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