Waffen SS Soldbuch issued to Russian born (11.1918 – Orthodox Religon) Waldimar Makarow. The Soldbuch was issued with the SS Hauptamt (SS Main Office) in Berlin Germany, the specific department corresponding with the stamps: A I 2 – Personnel Department. Issued in Berlin on the 1st of September 1944. Makarow was assigned to the XIV SS Kossak Kavallerie Korps Unit History  The XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps (German: XV. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps) was a World War II cavalry corps of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party, primarily recruited from Cossacks. It was originally known as the XIV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps from September 1944 to February 1945. During the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), Cossack leaders and their governments generally sided with the White movement. After the Soviets emerged victorious in the civil war, a policy of decossackization was instituted between 1919 and 1933, aimed at the elimination of the Cossacks as a separate cultural and political group. Cossacks in exile joined other Russian émigré groups in Central and Western Europe, while those in Russia endured continual repression. In October 1942, the Germans established a semi-autonomous Cossack District in the Kuban. This put them in a position to recruit Cossacks from these areas and mobilize them against the Red Army. This was in contrast to soldiers of the ROA, who had been recruited from POW camps and Red Army defections, most soldiers of the German Cossack units had never been citizens of the Soviet Union.[ In the summer of 1944 Heinrich Himmler and the SS became interested in gaining control of the 1st Cossack Division under Helmuth von Pannwitz. In July 1944 Himmler discussed the organization of a Cossack fighting unit in the Bialystok region and requested from Hitler, that the Cossack Division would be placed in the organizational structure of the SS. On 26 August 1944 he met with Pannwitz and his Chief of Staff. Himmler planned to gather all Cossack units to form a second Cossack division and proposed the transfer of the 1st Cossack division to the SS. All units were to be placed under von Pannwitz’s command. Though initially reluctant, Pannwitz eventually agreed to place his division under SS administration. Both German cadre and Cossack troops would retain their traditional uniforms and their Wehrmacht or Cossack rank. Pannwitz hoped to raise his unit’s low morale and to receive more supplies and better equipment. The Cossacks did not wear the SS runes or receive any ideological indoctrination. In September 1944, the XIV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps was established on the basis of the 1st Cossack Division. The Cossacks fought an engagement against the Red Army on 25 December 1944 near Pitomača to prevent them from crossing the Drava River. The commander of the 5th Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st class after the battle. In November 1944 the 1st Cossack Division was taken over by the Waffen-SS. The SS Führungshauptamt reorganized the division and used further Cossack combat units from the army and the Ordnungspolizei to form a 2nd Cossack Cavalry Division. Both divisions were placed under the command of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps on 1 February 1945. With the transfer of the Volunteer Cossack-Stamm-Regiment 5 from the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division on the same day the takeover of the Cossack units by the Waffen-SS was complete. According to Samuel J. Newland, the Corps, composed of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Brigades and the 1st and 2nd Division, was actually formed on 25 February 1945, when it was officially created by the High Command. The Corps was initially subordinated to the Army Group F in Croatia, and since March 1945 to the Army Group E in Croatia. During their time there, they were known by the locals as “Čerkezi” (“Circassians”), despite the Corps’ Cossack ethnic makeup. The Corps supported the German offensive Operation Spring Awakening in Hungary by launching an offensive against a Soviet bridgehead at Valpovo on the Drava. During April the Corps was engaged in minor actions and then began to withdraw from Yugoslavia on 3 May 1945. The superior officers had concluded that the Corps should fight their way back to Austria in order to be captured by the British. According to one source Pannwitz felt that the West would have great use for the Corps as a military anti-Bolshevik eastern formation. The 2nd Division covered the withdrawal of the 1st Division against partisan forces. Unaffected by the German surrender on 8 May and partisan demands to surrender, the Cossack units continued fighting on their way to the British zone. On 10 May Pannwitz surrendered to the British, while the last Division elements reached the British zone on 13 May 1945. Interesting entries in the Soldbuch:  Walther PP Pistol Interesting entry, from SS Hauptamt that the owner of the Soldbuch is allowed to wear a Uniform of the Wehrmacht with the rank Oberfeldwebel. Comes with a photo of Marakow wearing Cossack insignia. Very rare photograph. Final Comments Incredibly rare document, this is one of small minority of IDs issued to members of the Cossack Volunteers. The Units page – under the paper it seems the same thing is written underneath. I do not think we will ever have another one of these in stock. If you are anyway a serious Cossack / Volunteer Collector/researcher then this is likely one of your only chances to get anything like this, many patches and insignia were produced, but hardly any of these IDs have surfaced or survived.    

Very hard to find such a good Normandy related Soldbuch to this division, which came into action right on D-Day! Listing took from original sale is very well done and I have added to it below: Soldbuch to Unteroffizier Franz Münz. First issue from April 1940. Münz was trained as a Heeresflak soldier and then served with the 1. Kompanie of Fla-Bataillon 59, which fought with the 29.ID in the Western campaign. He took a bullet in his left lung in France during the Summer of 1940. His hospitals include Bourges and Orléans, and he was released from hospital in January 1941. The wound might have been considered an accident first, but January 1943, Münz was treated for this same wound again and he finally received a Verwundetenabzeichen. After a long time with reserve units and Landesschützen-Bataillon 604 in Frankfurt am Main, Münz returned to the front with Fla-Bataillon (mot.) 607, and then the 3. (Fla) Kompanie of Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 in 1944. His Kompanie was armed with 2 cm Flak guns, but other weaponry of the Pz.Jg.Abt.243 included fourteen Marder 38 and ten StuG III. With the 243.ID, Münz experienced D-Day on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy and very soon began fighting against the Allied paratroopers near Saint-Mère-Église alongside the 91. Luftlande division. The divisional commander was already killed on D-Day +1. After less than two weeks of intense fighting, the 243.ID was pushed back by the 9th US ID and the 82nd Aiborne and cut off from the main German force, retreating to Cherbourg and destroyed there by the end of June. On 27th of June, Münz earned the Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen for the fighting in Normandy. He then avoided capture or worse and was among the smaller parts of the division who escaped from the Cotentin encirclement through the south. He fought with the remains of the 243.ID combined with the 77.ID at Saint-Lô, and received a promotion to Unteroffizier on 1st of August and also the EKII on the same date for his actions in Normandy. Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 (Pz.Jg.Abt.243) : Kdr : Oberleutnant Franz Fallnich HQ/Gefechtsstand : La Commanderie Stab – La Commanderie (6 kilometers east of Les Pieux) (13 May) The Panzerjäger Abteilung had 14 Marder 38 and 10 StuG III.7 They had been sent to the division in March 1944.8 Also the battalion had a company with twelve 2 cm Flak guns.9 One of these was on tracked chassis, while two were motorized. Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 : (Oberleutnant Franz Fallnich – CP: La Commanderie) 1. Kp (CP: Aux-Petits) 2. Kp (CP: Le-Pont-aux-Moines) 243. Infanterie-Division formed as a Bodenständige-Division in 1941. (Strength on 1st May 1944 11,529 + at least 442 HiWis) Commanded by Generalleutnant Heinz Hellmich, on 1st May 1944 the Division’s strength was listed as 11,529 + at least 442 HiWis. Their heavy equipment, such as artillery pieces and anti-tank guns, tended to be obsolete models or captured Czech, French, and Russian weapons of varied effectiveness. Despite all the disadvantages listed, however, the Division had one thing on their side: many of the officers and non-commissioned officers were battle-hardened veterans from the Eastern Front, and their leadership would later prove worthy of the task set out before them. The division was formed in July 1943 in Döllersheim, Germany, and sent to Normandy in the autumn. Originally it was a static division, but it had been gradually upgrading its mobility and in May 1944 it had comparatively good mobility for a German infantry division in the west. By 23 July however, the division had only four depleted infantry battalions, eight heavy AT guns, three StuG and nine artillery batteries left was rated to have “Kampfwert V” which was the lowest assignable. It was decided 10 August that the 243. Division should be rebuilt using the 182. Reserve Division, but this was never carried out and the division was disbanded 12 September. Lucky Man As the 243.ID was officially dissolved, Münz joined his last Heeresflak unit, the Fla-Kompanie of Kampfgruppe 2/XIII that same autumn. This unit was also nicknamed “Kampfgruppe Gneisenau” and fought in northeast France, until it was absorbed by the newly erected 16. Volksgrenadier-Division in the Vosges mountains. Münz was wounded again on 5th of February 1945; these were critical days for the 16.VGD as they were nearly surrounded in the Vosges just west of Colmar, but they managed to escape east and cross the Rhine at Neuenburg. Münz was evacuated to hospital in Tirol and would not see action again; he was sent home on 1st of May and might have even avoided capture at the end of the war. The Soldbuch is in a very used (with loose pages) but still complete condition, including the portrait photo and an extra front cover. It really shows the wear of five years in his pocket, and is packed with entries, also including P.38 pistols, Czech rifles and a Tarnnetz in the equipment section. Münz received a total of four awards, also including a Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen in 1941: all were related to the Western Front. More links: https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/battle-of-normandy/forces/germany/243-infanterie-division https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=678