Soldbuch issued to Paul Löffler (Second edition), displays him in the front cover in the Waffen SS Panzer Wrap with Totenkopf Skull with the rank of SS Unterscharführer.  The Soldbuch was issued in December of 1943 with the Werkstatt Kompanie, of SS Panzer Regiment 3.  He had served in the unit since this date and  Issued:  11.1944 – Winter shoes and a winter vest  98K Rifle & Luger Pistol P08 as well as a Erma MP in June of 1944.  Führergeschenk – type of moral boosting parcel, with often meat, smokes and other goodies.  Security Stamps:  Three security stamps all signed by SS Officers.  Awards: 30.1.1943 – War Merit Cross with Swords Second Class  30.1.1945 – War Merit Cross with Swords First Class Wounded on the 17.2.1945 – arrived at SS Feldlazarett 504 with a code 14 (STD) he just had a 10 day leave prior according to his leave – Sonderurlaub –  realised on the 31.3.1945 and back to the unit.  The Wehrpass Issued in tübingen in 1940, according to the entries, Löffler joined the SS Panzer Ersatz Abteilung in August of 1942 in Weimar – Buchenwald. He was sent in September to the end of the war with SS Panzer Regiment 3 – Wekstatt Kompanie  Löffler was trained on the MG34, K98 and MP. He did a training how to be a tank mechanic in Friedrichshafen.  His Battle Calendar displays he was in France from November 1942 till early 1943 on the Atlantic Coast with the Totenkopf Division.    Divisional History: In February 1943 the division was moved back to the Eastern Front as part of Erich von Manstein’s Army Group South. The division, as a part of SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser’s II SS Panzer Corps, took part in the Third Battle of Kharkov, blunting the Soviet offensive. During this campaign, Theodor Eicke was killed when his spotter aircraft was shot down. Hermann Priess succeeded Eicke as commander. The SS Panzer Corps, including the division, was then shifted north to take part in Operation Citadel, the offensive aimed at reducing the Kursk salient. It was during February 1943 that the 3rd SS Panzer Regiment received a company of Tiger I heavy tanks. The attack was launched on 5 July 1943 with the II SS Panzer Corps attacking the southern flank of the salient as the spearhead for Generaloberst Hermann Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army. The division covered the advance on the left flank of the II SS Panzer Corps, with the SS Division Leibstandarte forming the spearhead. With the advance slower than had been planned, Hausser ordered his II SS Panzer Corps to split in two, with the Totenkopf crossing the Psel River northwards and then continuing on towards the town of Prokhorovka. In the early morning of 9 July, 6th SS Motorised Regiment Theodor Eicke attacked northwards, crossing the Psel and attempted to seize the strategic Hill 226.6, but failed to do so until the afternoon. This meant that the northern advance slowed and the majority of the division was still south of the Psel, where elements of 5th SS Motorised Regiment 5 Thule continued to advance towards Prokhorovka and cover the flank of the Leibstandarte. By 11 July, elements of the division crossed the Psel and secured Kliuchi. In the afternoon of 12 July, near the village of Andreyevka on the south bank of the Psel, the Soviet forces launched a major counterattack against Regiment Thule and the division’s battalion of assault guns during the Battle of Prokhorovka. Elements of the division engaged lead units of the 5th Guards Tank Army, halting the Soviet advance and inflicting severe damage to the Soviet forces, but at the cost of the majority of the division’s remaining operational tanks. While the II SS Panzer Corps had halted the Soviet counteroffensive, it had exhausted itself. Citadel was called off on 14 July. Along with the SS Division Das Reich, the division was reassigned to General Karl-Adolf Hollidt’s reformed 6th Army in southern Ukraine. The 6th Army was tasked with eliminating the Soviet bridgehead over the Mius River. The division was involved in heavy fighting over the next several weeks. During the July–August battles for Hill 213 and the town of Stepanovka, the division suffered heavy losses, and over the course of the campaign on the Mius-Front, it suffered more casualties than it had during Operation Citadel. By the time the Soviet bridgehead was eliminated, the division had lost 1,500 troops; the Panzer regiment was reduced to 20 tanks. The division was then moved north, back to Kharkov. Along with Das Reich, Totenkopf took part in the battles to halt Operation Rumyantsev and to prevent the Soviet capture of the city. The city was abandoned on 23 August due to the threats on the German flanks. In October 1943, the division was reformed as a Panzer division. The Panzer battalion was officially upgraded to a regiment, and the two motorised regiments were given the titles “Theodor Eicke” and “Totenkopf”. The division, along with other Axis formations, continued its retreat towards the Romanian border. By November, the division was engaged in fighting against Red Army’s attacks over the vital town of Krivoi Rog to the west of the Dniepr. Warsaw In January 1944, Totenkopf was still engaged in heavy defensive fighting east of the Dniepr near Krivoi Rog. In February 1944, Totenkopf took part in the relief attempt of German troops encircled in the Korsun Pocket. In the second week of March, after a fierce battle near Kirovograd, the Totenkopf fell back behind the Bug River. Totenkopf took up new defensive positions. After two weeks of heavy fighting, again alongside the Panzer-Grenadier-Division Grossdeutschland, the Axis forces were retreated to the Dniestr on the Romanian border near Iaşi. In the first week of April, the division received replacements and new equipment, including Panther tanks. In the second week of April, Totenkopf took part in fighting against a heavy Soviet Army attacks towards Second Battle of Târgu Frumos. By 7 May, the front had quietened…

An original made Estonian Red Army Guards Badge  These are extremely hard to find. The former factory of Roman Tavast, a pupil of  the well known Russian jeweler – Faberge. Therefore, all insignia made for RKKA in Estonia are famous for their quality. End of war or early postwar made badge.  The screwback is marked: Roman Tavast – Tallinn . The badge is made of copper and covered with gilding.  Story behind Roman Tavast  Roman Tavast was born in Tallinn in 1895. He was born into a fisherman’s family. Tavast graduated from Niklasen’s 4-year private school and studied engraving as well as goldsmithing in E. Treder’s workshop. He had also worked for the goldsmith Julius Lossman, learned the art of gilding, and later completed courses at an art school. He graduated from evening high school to get a general education. Tavast then started his independent activities after the Estonian War of Independence. In 1920, Roman Tavast had provided himself with a one-seater goldsmith’s workbench, and in 1921, a wire rolling machine. In 1923, at the age of 28, he opened his own independent company for the production of badges, medals and other honors and awards – VMT Roman Tavast. Following the occupation of Estonia and the creation of the Estonian SSR in 1940, the factory and the residential building with the store were nationalized in 1940. Karl Johanson was appointed as the new director of the factory. Roman Tavast worked as a technical manager at the factory until June 1941, when he was deported to the Vorkuta camp system in the Russian North. Roman Tavast was sentenced to death and shot in 1942 in Sosva, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union

Soldbuch to Krankenträger / Gefreiter Rolf Schmidt  From Leipzig, Germany, he was born into aa protestant family and in his civilian life he was a sales man.  Soldbuch issues in October of 1942, after a period of training he was send to the Grenadier Regiment 187 of the 87th Infanterie Division.  He was wounded with Shrapnel in Witebsk in Belarus, and was sent via hospital train to another Hospital in Prag.  His injury must have been very bad, as it is entered in as 31b (shrapnel) and 26 – which is nerve and mental illness. Maybe Shell shock?  He spent the rest of the war in a Wehrmacht Hospital in Vlašim (German: Wlaschim) is a town in Benešov District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic – where he sat out till the end of the war and he was discharged on the 24.04.1945.  Schmidt had a FN 6.35 (FN Baby Browning)  and was given multiple times a Führerpaket (usually with some food/wine and small goodies to boost moral.  Also included are: Armband is hand made. Both of his Wound Badges are included in the lot.  His Dog Tag is complete with drawstring and is matching to the Soldbuch as per Page 1.  Wehrmacht Driving license with nice photo Red Cross ID – issued on the 25th of April 1945 (one day after he was dismissed)  Three Photographs Comments:  This is a nice set to a German Medic, wounded in combat. This was not a put together lot and came as is. Not easy to find such little trinkets of history today with all the medals, tag, armband etc.