Front Aufklärungs Kommando

[dan_pol12]

Hi Robert,

The Soldbuch has entered 19 Close Combat days entered for a Sonderunternehmen „Scholle“ from 19.03-13.04.1945. You don’t have by any chance any confirmation if this Unternehmen really took place ?

All entries are signed by a Lt. Loewen, as the „Einheitsführer“ I‘m trying to confirm it but haven’t had much luck so far.

Best regards
Daniel

[Tamari]

Hi Dan,

Wow! Amazing, you have a very interesting document. Unfortunately I'm not able to confirm Unternehmen Scholle. Maybe it is mentioned in the files about Gotthard Gambke and Hans Raupach, but I'm not sure.
I will check it.

Best regards

Robert

[dan_pol12]

Thanks a lot Robert,

It would be amazing to get any confirmation. In all the sources I found Loewen was written with oe in stead of ö which would usually be used in german, could it simply be related to translating errors ? Or was he indeed written with oe?


Best regards
Daniel

[Tamari]

Hi Daniel,

that is a good question which I had also asked myself. I don't know it for sure but I strongly believe that his name is Loewen.

In addition I add a screenshot from British National Archive.

KV-2-3015_1 Gambke page 47.JPG (19.58 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

Best regards

Robert

[Tamari]

Hello,

here come additional screenshots mentioning Moritz/ Loewen.

KV-2-3015_2 Peters page 50.JPG (35.71 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

KV-2-3015_2 Peters page 51.JPG (15.79 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

Best regards

Robert

[Tamari]

Hello Daniel, hello to all of you,

unfortunately I haven't found something about Unternehmen Scholle,but below I will share additional screenshots about Streifkorps of the FAK II and Leutnant Moritz alias Loewen.

KV-2-3015_3 page 2.JPG (75.46 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

KV-2-3015_3 page 2 b.JPG (41.66 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

KV-2-3015_3 page 3 Moritz Loewen.JPG (41.83 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

KV-2-3015_3 page 4 explanation Streifkorps.JPG (46.18 KiB) Viewed 1506 times

http://www.cegesoma.be/docs/Invent/AA_1 ... erches.pdf page 31;Fdw Moritz Unternehmen Schamil

From file KV-2-1493_1 Josef Matl, page 46:
Erhard Lange brought from the caucasus region the Lieutenants Dr. Moritz, Thomasius and Flagel with him to Albania.

from file KV-2-1493_2 Josef Matl, S. 1:
Im März 1944 startete das Sonderkommando Lange/ Albanien einen Angriff gegen die britischen Militärstab unter Brigadier Edmund Frank Davies, der 33 km östlich von Tirana per Fallschirm abgesetzt worden war. In dem Feuergefecht wurden zwei Briten getötet, während Davies verwundet und 12 Mann gefangengenommen und durch Erhard Lange und Leutnant Moritz in Tirana verhört wurden.


On the pages 171 -173 in Perry Biddiscombes "SS Hunter Battalions" Leutnant Dr. Loewen/ Moritz is also mentioned.



I will do a further research on Unternehmen Scholle.


Best regards

Robert

[dan_pol12]

Hello Tamari,

Sorry for my late reply, I was a bit busy lately. But thanks a lot, that sheds definitely some light onto Dr. Loewen.


Best regards
Daniel

[Tamari]

Hi Daniel,

no problem,I have quite often the same problem concerning other assignments and a general lack of time.

I would like to share additional pieces of information about Leutnant Dr. von Loewen alias Moritz. The souce is Biddiscombe, Perry: „The SS-Hunter Battalions. The hidden history of the Nazi resistance movement 1944-45”, Tempus, Stroud/ Gloucestershire 2006 pages 171 -173.

Von Moritz efforts in Albania under Hauptmann Günter Eggers command

Perry Biddiscombe SS Hunter Battalions page 171.JPG (64.39 KiB) Viewed 1384 times

Von Moritz critics regarding Eggers assessement about about the nationalists capabilities

Perry Biddiscombe SS Hunter Battalions page 172.JPG (55.31 KiB) Viewed 1384 times

Moritz was reassigned to the Eastern Front

Perry Biddiscombe SS Hunter Battalions page 173.JPG (60.87 KiB) Viewed 1384 times

And in Günter W. Gellermann book "Tief im Hinterland des Gegners" there is also a part within about Unternehmen Schamil which offers some information about Feldwebel Moritz' action in the Caucasus region.

Page 114 - 115:
When German troops had arrived the area of Maikop, Feldwebel Moritz sub-group of Unternehmen Schamil was offered by Abwehr II to the Army Group A. Oberleutnant Erhard Lange had allowed the "mis"-use of his sub-unit and so Feldwebel Moritz was dropped in the night of the 6th of August 1942 by parachute in an area of thick jungle and lost a lot of equipement like W/T-sets.The whole operation of his unit was a disaster. When Moritz arrived back at the German lines days later in an area held by a German battalion he was treated as a spy because nobody was informed about his actions. Moritz' information about a small soviet oil refinery behind the german advanced positions was not taken seriously. When he was allowed to advance with his volunteers the refinery was destroyed by retreating Soviet forces.

According to the war diary of Oberst Erwin von Lahousen, Moritz was five days long imprisioned by German troops. It seems that this was once again an example of bad coordination between Abwehr and the Front commands.

I would also like to add some names of members of FAK 202 under which auspices the Streifkorps Schill idea of the Ic of Army Group A / Mitte Oberstleutnant Konrad Stephanus was implemented first.

FAK 202 1944/45
Major Dietrich F. Witzel alias Kirn Kommandoführer (since 1944)
Hauptmann Heilmann
Hauptmann Baum

Dr. Hans Raupach
Oberleutnant Masuhr
Oberleutnant Josef Müller
Leutnant Eugen Heinrich Weyde (send to FAK 206/ FAT 213)
Leutnant Dr. Moritz alias Loewen Streifkorps-Schule
Leutnant d. R. Martin Skierlo
Leutnant d. R. Dr. Werner Markert (since December 1944)
Leutnant Heinrich Strobl
Leutnant Menner
Leutnant Hinrich „Boy“ Christiansen
Unteroffizier Walter Hoesch
Feldwebel Max Zwiener
Unteroffizier Albrecht Bauer
Obergefreiter Johann Haugeneder



Best regards

Robert

[Tamari]

Hello,


I would like to add something about a Frontaufklärungskommando in Denmark and its three subordinated Frontaufklärungstrupps.
Source: British National Archive KV-2-3302 Robert Karl Friedrich Sauber

Frontaufklärungskommando Thöring was named after its leader Oberstleutnant Thöring and was formed from the Abwehrstelle Kopenhagen's Gruppe I (I Heer, I Luft, I Marine) which was disbanded in early 1944.


Frontaufklärungskommando Thöring

Frontaufklärungstrupp 141 (Aarhus and later Vyborg)
Leader: Oberleutnant Robert Karl Friedrich Sauber

Frontaufklärungstrupp 142 ()
Leader: Hauptmann Roessler

Frontaufklärungstrupp 143 ()
Leader: Korvettenkapitän Bendixen

Bendixen was a former member of Gruppe I of Abwehrnebenstelle (Nest) Antwerpen => https://www.nisa-intelligence.nl/PDF-be ... Dierks.pdf


It seems that Oberstleutnant Thöring was at the beginning of the war head of Referat I H West 1 in the Abwehr Headquarters at the Tirpitzufer in Berlin.
https://www.westervoort1940.nl/abwI.html



Best regards

Robert

[steve248]

This is a typical short report on a FAK (from UK National Archives)

IMG_1174.JPG (109.3 KiB) Viewed 1253 times

IMG_1175.JPG (114.82 KiB) Viewed 1253 times

[steve248]

This is a typical example of a longer report on a FAK (from UK National Archives). Incidentally, these reports were assembled by British and American intelligence officers and the same copies will be available in US NARA:

IMG_1198.JPG (102.76 KiB) Viewed 1252 times

IMG_1199.JPG (118.78 KiB) Viewed 1252 times

IMG_1201.JPG (114.62 KiB) Viewed 1252 times

[Tamari]

Hi Steve,


thank you so much for this interesting pieces of information. As far as I understand these documents are still not digitalized, aren't they?

Thank you also for your very helpful advice in another thread here in this forum that BNA in Kew offers at the moment downloads of documents for free. I had conducted larger shopping tours in the last couples of days


Do you have other documents available maybe about FAK 202 and "Streifkorps Schill" or FAT 214 ("Einheit Konrad") with the obscure Leutnant Reinhard Kopps because I haven't found much information about this rather disgusting person until now.


One comment about Leutnant Biedermann of FAT 201 (picture 4).

Leutnant Biedermann hails from the Ukrainian-Romanian border region of Bukovina and because of his "services to the Reich" he was assigned a farm in Poland. Until autumn 1944 he was a member of FAT 201 under the leadership of Hauptmann Schlegel in Hungary. He was sentenced by the court martial of the superordinate Army Group South to 10 months in prison and a loss of rank due to criminal offenses such as looting and looting subordinates and is said to have defected to the Romanian units later.
Biedermann was replaced by Leutnant Baumann.

Sources: KV-2-2138_2 Murad Ferid, S. 22 and

https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/ ... ect/zoom/7 und KV-2-2138_2 Murad Ferid, S. 22 und KV-2-2138_3 Murad Ferid, S. 42


As I had mentioned in this thread Leutnant Günther Schlegelberger was the son of State secretary in the Ministry of Justice Franz Schlegelberger viewtopic.php?f=45&t=80130&p=2294714&hi ... r#p2294714

Schlegelberger, Dr. phil. Günther (Leutnant)
Günther Schlegelberger was born on September 29, 1909 in Berlin as the son of Franz Schlegelberger, who later became the State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Nuremberg legal process.
Günther finished high school at the Fichtegymnasium Berlin-Steglitz and then studied history, economics, philosophy and law at Berlin. In 1935 he was awarded the title "The Princess Daschkowa, A Biographical Study of the History of Catherine II" as a Dr. phil. PhD. From 1937 to 1939 he studied in Budapest at the Loránd Eötvös University. From 1940 to 1942 he was employed as a research assistant in the Foreign Ministry of Joachim von Ribbentrop. From 1943 he served in the Wehrmacht:

Liaison officer of the FAK 206 to Hungarian units.

Schlegelberger was also a member of FAK 205 in Slovakia.

In 1951 Schlegelberger was taken back into the foreign service. From 1955 he headed the cultural department of the Foreign Office. From 1958 to 1963 he was Consul General in Kobe/ Japan. From 1965 to 1968, as Counselor 1st class, he was permanent representative of the Ambassador in Rio de Janeiro. From 1968 to 1971 he was the permanent representative of the ambassador in Bern/ Switzerland.

Schlegelberger died on March 23, 1974 in Panama City, where he had represented the Federal Republic of Germany as ambassador.

Sources: „Der standhafte Bock” vom 26.03.1958 in DER SPIEGEL; Biddiscombe, Perry: The SS-Hunter Battalions“; KV-2-2138_2 Murad Ferid, S. 17 und 27


Major Erwein Graf von Thun-Hohenstein (Picture 4)
Erwein Graf von Thun-Hohenstein was born on April 4th, 1896 in Hietzing near Vienna and comes from the long line of a Tyrolean noble family. He already served in World War I and took part in the so-called Kapp Putsch, an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic.

He was leader of the motorcycle rifle company of the Lehrregiment zbV 800 (Brandenburger). Source: Paterson, Lawrence: „Hitler’s Brandenburgers“, S. 70

At the end of 1940, Thun-Hohenstein took part in the preparations for the "Operation Felix", which was about the conquest of Gibraltar. He was supposed to lead a commando unit, but the mission did not get beyond the planning.
In mid-1941 after the attack on the Soviet Union, he was given the task of recruiting volunteers (mostly Ukrainian nationalists and Cossacks) from the Soviet prisoners of war. From this volunteer unit he put together shock troops and sabotage units. Then he commanded a company of the Ukrainian battalion "Nightingale" of the Legion of Ukrainian Nationalists. Thun-Hohenstein took part personally in most of the missions. In the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, members of the “Nightingale” battalion were heavily involved in a massacre of the city's Jewish residents.


In October 1943 he was promoted from Rittmeister to Major with retroactive effect from August 1, 1943 (Source: KV-2-526 Wolfgang Abshagen, S. 19).

Until summer 1944 Erwein Graf von Thun-Hohenstein was leader of FAK 212 (cover-name: Pioniersonderstab 212) in Italy but he was replaced by Hauptmann Reuter alias Runge and FAK 212 was send to the Eastern Front without its subordinated Frontaufklärungstrupps. The performance of FAK 212 under Thun-Hohenstein's leadership was evaluated by superior authorities like Otto Skorzeny as not very impressive.

In November 1944 Thun-Hohenstein was commissioned to set up a special unit to fight partisans in Slovakia. The Slovak national uprising had just failed there and many members of the army had joined the partisans. The unit over which Thun-Hohenstein received command was called Abwehrgruppe 218 "Edelweiss". It was around 300 strong and consisted of Slovaks, Caucasians, Cossacks and Germans. Thun-Hohenstein used the code name “Benesch” because of its resemblance to the president of the Czech government in exile, Edvard Beneš.

Due to his aggressive, personal leadership of the Edelweiss Special Command (but in the recommendation for the Knights-Cross he was mentioned as a member of Panzerdivision Tatra), a proposal was made for the Knight's Cross, but this was prevented by his superior in MilAmt D, SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny (Source: Smith, Stuart: „Otto Skorzeny“, S. 146).

FAT 218 is believed to have committed numerous crimes in the last months of the war in Slovakia. Mainly one operated against partisans, but also the persecution of Jews was part of their activity. The Thun-Hohenstein unit is said to have killed around 300 Slovak partisans and taken 600 prisoners. Most of them were sent to concentration camps.
A member of FAT 218, Ladislav Nižňanský, was charged in 2004 in Munich with the Ostry Grun massacre in Slovakia. The role of Thun-Hohenstein was also examined during the trial.
FAT 218 was also involved in the arrest and extradition to the Einsatzgruppen of the security service of a group of Anglo-American liaison and reconnaissance officers. They were deposed in Slovakia as part of a joint operation by the English SOE ("OPERATION WINDPROOF") and the American OSS ("MISSION DAWES") and were supposed to support the partisans. The English and American officers were later deported to Mauthausen, tortured and shot. see also: https://www.casematepublishers.com/thro ... ADPXHwxnIU

At the end of the war, Thun-Hohenstein, now in the rank of major, was taken prisoner by the Soviets. On January 18, 1946, he was sentenced to death by a Soviet military tribunal. The sentence was carried out on February 12, 1946 by shooting in the neck.


Best regards

Robert

[steve248]

I just had another look at this UK NA file, WO 204/12925, they are reports on FAK 202 and FAT 214.

FAK reports: 361, 103, 104, 102, 176, 180, 124, 205, , 206
FAT reports:168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 177, 204, 129, 133, 131, 128, 357, 352, 197 (L)

No mention of Schill or Kopp.

Ferdinand Thun-Hohenstein is probably related to Erwein T-H; Ferdinand worked for the Abwehr Italy and detained in Milan, end April 1945. His interrogation is in MI 5 name file KV 2/3424 at UK NA which can be downloaded for free during its covid closedown on their website (got to register first, simply name and email address and password created).

[Tamari]

Hi Steve,


thank you very much for your reply. I had downloaded Ferdinand Thun-Hohenstein's BNA-file in 2019 and it is correct that in this document another Thun-Hohenstein is mentioned but it isn't clear if really Erwein was the one who is mentioned in KV-2-3424.

The Ferdinand Thun-Hohenstein (*15.12.1898 in Maribor) of file KV-2-3424 was an officer of Abwehr III in Italy and had lived in 1949 in Berlin-Adlershof in East-Berlin (GDR). But there exists also another Ferdinand Thun-Hohenstein (*05.01.1893 in Trient) who was after the Second World War a diplomat of the Maltesian order and who had a different birthday date than the officer of Abwehr III with the same name.

see also: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=76131&p=2313709&hil ... e#p2313709 and Christoph Franceschini/ Erich Schmidt-Eenboom: "Spionage unter Freunden", page 55


Regarding the topic Frontaufklärungskommandos and -trupps the BNA-file KV-2-2660 offers information about Unteroffizier Ulrich Martin Feldhahn (*03.06.1910) who was an Obergefreiter of Abwehrtrupp 301 (Oberleutnant Wolff) which was in February 1943 subordinated to Abwehrkommando 301(Major Suckow) in Simferopol.

Abwehrtrupp 301 in Spring 1943 Kuban bridgehead

KV-2-2660 Ulrich Martin Feldhahn page 23.JPG (88.67 KiB) Viewed 1152 times

Best regards

Robert

[Tamari]

Hello to all of you,

here you can find some information about Frontaufklärungskommando 102 and 104 and the naval component FAK 166 (M).

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/documen ... 098d5094b5


FAK 102
Officer commanding in Autumn 1944 was an Oberstleutnant Hopf.

The commanding officer of the training camp was Major von Riesen who was probably later in the war an instructor at Lehrregiment Kurfürst in Kamenz/ Saxonia.

The HQ of FAK 102 was located 30 km south of Tallin.


FAK 104
Officer commanding was Oberstleutnant Schimmel who was succeded by Hauptmann Siegfried Graber.
Graber was later the deputy of Leitstelle für Frontaufklärung I Ost under Hermann Baun and after the war head of Bundesnachrichtendienst's espionage department against the Sowjetisch Besetzte Zone (SBZ/ known as GDR).

FAK 104 was subordinated to the Ic of Heeresgruppe Nord.



Best regards
Robert