WWI – Reichswehr – Generals Secret Marked Folder – Oberst Werner (RK) – Violent Patrol Operations Flanders 1917 – Reichsarchiv Berlin – Hans von Grieffenberg (RK) Rare

Description

The file was prepared by Oberleutnant Werner for a German Ary Book he worked on. He studied the Battles carefully and published.

Werner who signed this folder multiple times, his picture on Lexicon Der Wehrmacht.

Paul-Hermann Werner joined the Imperial Army as a soldier around 1912. He came to Railway Regiment No. 2. He was promoted to lieutenant with a commission dated August 20, 1912. Even before the start of the First World War in the summer of 1914, he was still a company officer in Railway Regiment No. 2. On December 18, 1917, he was promoted to first lieutenant. In the First World War he was not only wounded several times, which was reflected in the awarding of the wounded badge in silver. In the First World War, in addition to the Knight’s Cross of the Royal Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern with swords and both Iron Crosses, he was also awarded other awards. After the war he was accepted into the Imperial Army as a first lieutenant with his old seniority. In the 200,000-man transitional army in the spring of 1920, he was part of the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 3. When the 100,000-man army of the Reichswehr was formed, he was assigned to the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment as a company officer. On October 1, 1921, he was transferred to the 5th (Prussian) Cavalry Regiment as a squadron officer. He was probably assigned to the staff of the 2nd Division of the Reichswehr in Stettin for two years to train as an assistant commander. From the spring of 1924 at the latest he belonged to the 4th (MG.) Company of the 5th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Stettin. In 1924/25 he was transferred to Schwerin (Mecklenburg) as a company officer in the 2nd company of the 2nd (Prussian) motor vehicle department. In 1925/26 he was transferred to the staff of the 2nd (Prussian) Motor Vehicle Department in Stettin. On February 1, 1926 he was promoted to captain. In 1927/28 he was appointed head of the 2nd company of the 2nd (Prussian) motor vehicle department in Schwerin (Mecklenburg). He then held this position for several years. In the spring of 1931 he was transferred to the Reichswehr Ministry (RWM) in Berlin. There he was employed as a clerk in the inspection of the traffic troops (In 6). For the next few years he was deployed there to the staff of the motor force under Major General Lutz. After the expansion of the Reichwehr into the Wehrmacht, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1937. As such, he was then deployed as commander of the anti-tank division 20 in Hamburg. In the fall of 1938 he took over the position of commander of the anti-tank troops X in Hamburg.

After the Polish campaign, he became a colonel and commander of the 31st Panzer Regiment of the 5th Panzer Division. He then led his unit with particular skill in the western campaign in the spring of 1940. He always led the regiment, which at that time stormed the Loretto Heights north of Arras, “from the front”. For his outstanding achievements he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on June 3, 1940. In the second part of the western campaign, he forced his tanks to cross the Somme near Amiens. He captured Ruon and closed the pocket near St. Valéry with the entire 7th Panzer Division.

After a forced march of 360 kilometers in two days, he was the first officer of the Wehrmacht to reach the military port of Brest on June 19, 1940. In the course of a swimming accident in the Atlantic, Colonel Werner died of a heart attack just a few days later on June 30, 1940. After the funeral service took place in the Hamburg Hanseatic Barracks on July 5, 1940, he was buried the following day in camps near Schwerin.

The Pictures in the folder are ordered and show the frontline, they are marked Secret (Geheim) and made by the Bildstelle der 2 Division.

Area are – Reserve Infanterie Regiment 229 Positions on the 31st of July 1917 in Flanders. (Area – Langermark – Poelkapelle). For Which the Commander of the unit was awarded the Pour le Merit.

One letter from an Oberlt in the K.A.2 sends Generalleutnant a.d Schwarte (Berlin, Charlottenburg).

There is a signature of Generalleutnant a.d Schwarte 

More about Schwarte: Schwarte had been an officer in the Prussian Army since October 14, 1880. Before his military career, he worked as a teacher at the War Academy in Berlin from 1902 and as a department head in the General Staff from 1906. From August 15, 1912 to January 26, 1913, Schwarte was commander of the 4th Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 63 in Opole. He was then transferred to Wesel as commander of the 79th Infantry Brigade and was promoted to major general. At the beginning of the First World War, he led his brigade, consisting of Infantry Regiments No. 56 and 57, as part of the 14th Division on the northern Western Front. Schwarte took part in the battles of St. Quentin and the Marne. From November 23, 1914 to February 13, 1915 he commanded the 17th Reserve Division and since February 16, 1915 the 10th Infantry Division. In this capacity, Schwarte was promoted to lieutenant general on June 6, 1916 and was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class, with oak leaves and swords in December 1916. On April 30, 1917, Schwarte was recalled.[5] From 1919, Schwarte was editor of Wehr und Waffen. Technology in the World War. He was also the author and editor of a large number of military history books and essays. The historian Ulrich Herbert places Schwarte alongside Friedrich von Bernhardi, Joachim von Stülpnagel and Kurt Hesse among the four military men or military writers whose interpretation of the First World War was crucial for laying the foundations of the political and ideological formation of National Socialist Germany: “the war was not a teacher of peace, but as a teacher of the next war.” Schwarte’s contribution to this in his book about the war of the future was the demand to bundle the military and civil areas for future warfare, in the sense of a necessary “industrialization of the entire people Purposes of warfare”, in which there can no longer be protection of the civilian population under international law.

One Air Picture shows – 50th Reserve Division – Operation Wilhelm – 19/29 July 196 – Res.Inf Regiment 229. Spetember 1916.

Another shows – Stab. Res. Inf Regiment 220 in 1917

One Tactical Blue Page shows – Infanterie Regiment 200 and is marked Secret – Reserve Infanterie Regiment 229 – Attack Regiment in Flanders 1917

Mention of General von Hüpeden, Oberst Marx, one signature from Berlin T4 from later Knighscross holder General Hans von Greiffenberg

Hans von Greiffenberg (12 October 1893 – 30 June 1951) was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Hans von Greiffenberg was captured by American troops in May 1945, and was released in 1947.

Interestingly he has signed with T4 -Tiergartenstraße 4, Berlin. A short while after the horrible program of murder of the disabled population stemmed from this address and is now a memorial to those murdered.

Final Comments

This is for sure an interesting folder, and deserves further research. Its an interesting mix of interwar German Military History, as the debate the moves made in WWI Werner would later go on to earn the Knightscross. I would assume his signature is quite hard to find and he has vairous letters and many signatures in this folder. His Knightscross was sold recently on another Military webpage.