A nice example of a OT Service book, this was issued in Brussels, July 1940. 5.1.1941 – OT Einsatz Westküste OBL Nord – Einsatzgeiet: Brest Frankr – Service in Breast France 11.1940 till 29.4.194 – 43903 (1.10.1940-27.2.1941) Organisation Todt Oberbauleitung Landau (28.2.1941-29.7.1941) Organisation Todt Oberbauleitung (Einsatzstab WestKüste), dann Organisation Todt Oberbauleitung Nord Brest. Interestingly, there is a stamp from Rovaniemi in Finland on page 19, and a stamp from Berlin Eichkamp Eastern Front Medal – 1.12.1942 A Führer package in 9.1.1944 – with 44803 – OT-Einsatzstab Finnland Condition is not the best, but still has desirable entries.    

A very rare photo identity paper known as the Troop Identity.  Issued to Oberwachtmeister Otto Wehring in the Reichswehr in 1923 with Artillerie Regiment Nr 5 –  He was one of the 100,000 standing army…  Interestingly the II Batt, that Wehring was in was in Bayern, and the Reichswehr took part in the downing of Hitlers Putsch in 9 November 1923. If Wehring was present, we will not know, but he certainly was in active service at the time in a very small army.  —–   Reichswehr (lit. ’Reich Defense’) was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army (Deutsches Heer) was dissolved in order to be reshaped into a peacetime army. From it a provisional Reichswehr was formed in March 1919. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the rebuilt German army was subject to severe limitations in size, structure and armament. The official formation of the Reichswehr took place on 1 January 1921 after the limitations had been met. The German armed forces kept the name ‘Reichswehr’ until Adolf Hitler’s 1935 proclamation of the “restoration of military sovereignty”, at which point it became part of the new Wehrmacht. Although ostensibly apolitical, the Reichswehr acted as a state within a state, and its leadership was an important political power factor in the Weimar Republic. The Reichswehr sometimes supported the democratic government, as it did in the Ebert-Groener Pact when it pledged its loyalty to the Republic, and sometimes backed anti-democratic forces through such means as the Black Reichswehr, the illegal paramilitary groups it sponsored in contravention of the Versailles Treaty. The Reichswehr saw itself as a cadre army that would preserve the expertise of the old imperial military and form the basis for German rearmament. Structure of the Reichswehr Arms limitations under the Treaty of Versailles In Part V of the 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty, Germany had obligated itself to limit the size and armaments of its military forces so that they could be used only as border protection and for the maintenance of order within Germany. In accordance with the treaty’s provisions, personnel strength was limited to a professional army of 100,000 men plus a 15,000-man navy. The establishment of a general staff was prohibited. Heavy weapons above defined calibers, armored vehicles, submarines and large warships were prohibited, as was any type of air force. The regulations were overseen by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control until 1927. Conscription into the German army had traditionally been for a period of 1 to 3 years. After they had completed their terms of service, the discharged soldiers created a large pool of trained reserves. The Versailles Treaty fixed the term of service for Reichswehr officers at 25 years and for all others at 12 in order to prevent such a buildup of reservists. Artillerie Regiment Nr 5  The regiment was formed on January 1, 1921 in Ulm from the Reichswehr Artillery Regiments 11, 13 and 14 of the Transitional Army. At the beginning of the 1920s, the departments in Ulm and Fulda exchanged their numbering. In the course of the expansion of the Reichswehr in 1934, the new regiments Artillery Regiment Ulm, Artillery Regiment Fulda and Artillery Regiment Ludwigsburg , each with five departments, were set up from the three departments of the regiment. On October 15, the Artillery Regiment Ulm was renamed Artillery Regiment 5 and placed under the 5th Infantry Division.    

A very nice and unusual pre award certificate for a member of the Air Protection Police, awarded during the Bombing of Berlin in 1944 by the Police section in Schöneberg.