WWII German Wehrmacht Soldbuch Grouping Uffz Hamm – Kampfgruppe von Luck – Iron Cross – Normandy 1944 – Mentioned in Saving Private Ryan!!!

Description

Soldbuch Grouping to Robert Hamm ( Born in Schellweiler 1919) issued in October 1940 with Grenz Infanterie Panzerjäger Ersatz Kompanie 125.

https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/InfErsBat/InfErsBat125-R.htm

Frontline Units

Grenz Infanterie Panzerjäger Ersatz Kompanie 125.

In the Field: April 1941.

Stab / Panzer Abteilung 223

Promotion: December 1942

Set up on July 15, 1942 in Versailles.

The unit was set up from captured tanks with 2 companies, first the 1st Company was created from the captured tanks. After the formation, it was placed under the command of the 22nd Infantry Division as a divisional force. Deployed in the Crimea, Ukraine.

On January 10, 1943 they were incorporated into the 100th Panzer Regiment as the 1st Abteilung.

Panzer Regiment 100 – 21st Panzer Division

Equipment Issued: April 1944

Re-established on December 8, 1942 as regimental staff Panzer Brigade 100. The II. Abteilung was established on January 8, 1943. The I. Abteilung was established on January 10, 1943, mainly from Panzer Division 223. The II. Abteilung was formed from Panzer Replacement Division 100, the Panzer Company of the LXXXI Army Corps, the Panzer Company of the LXXXII Army Corps and the Panzer Company Paris.

In July 1943, the regiment replaced Panzer Regiment 5, which had been destroyed in Tunis, and joined the newly formed 21st Panzer Division. At the beginning of June 1944, the regimental command post was in Aubigny.

The divisional command post of the I. Abteilung , under Major Wilhelm von Gottberg, was in Jort. The divisional command post of the II Abteilung, under Major Martin Vierzig, was in Fresné-la-Mère. The regiment was badly damaged in Normandy in the summer of 1944 and was subsequently destroyed at Falaise and Caen and was never re-established.

Sonderstab F – 21st Panzer Division

Stab / Panzer Artillerie Regiment 155

“Kampfruppe von Luck”

Promotion: 10.1944 – Sonderstab F – Hauptmann Füssel (1)

Shortly before D-Day, Panzer Regiment 100 broke into different Battle Groups. They were stationed in the area around Caen and Falaise. Battle Groups were formed to counter attack the landings north of Caen on the Juno and Sword beachheads.

Three regimental battle groups had very distinct flavours and roles – Oppeln retained the bulk of his Panzer Regiment and was thus the main armoured fist of the division. However, he had gained some armoured and motorised infantry from Luck. Rauch meanwhile, remained an entirely infantry formation (albeit with some armoured support elements and personnel carriers), and was thus intended to operate in close support of Oppeln. Luck on the other hand, had a well-balanced force of infantry, panzers and assault guns and was therefore quite capable of reasonably independent action. Whether by accident or design, their dispositions on 6th June reflected these divisions in role – Rauch performed a classic infantry/antitank holding action north of Caen while Oppeln prepared to support him and launch his own armoured counter-attack against the bridgehead. Luck meanwhile, operated east of the Orne against British and Canadian paratroopers, divorced from the rest of the division by the nature
of the terrain.

21. Panzer-Division adopted combined-arms battlegroups immediately following the Allied invasion of 6th June. The three battle groups were formed using the Panzer and Panzer-Grenadier regiments as the nuclei. Panzer-Artillerie-Regiment 155 was split equally, with a battalion of artillery being attached to each group.

The Soldbuch owner was sent to the Stabskompanie of Panzer Artillerie Regiment 155, attached to Kampfgruppe von Luck.

The counter attack – According to the book by Hubert Meyer – The 12th SS: The History of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division – Page 84,

“Kampfgruppe von Luck consisted … I and II Abteilung of Art Reg 155 – Orders were to move to the area of Vaudeloges (five kilometers from Morteaux-Couliboeuf). During the move, it encountered Poles advancing toward Trun. They had already reached Norrey-en-Auge the previous evening. The Cromwell tanks of the 10th Polish Rifle Regiment (Reconnaissance) attacked from le Moutiers in the direction of Trun. They came under effective fire from Kampfgruppe von Luck.”

According to the book: Pegasus-Brücke und Batterie Merville – Zwei britische Kommandounternehmen – D-Day: Die ganze Wahrheit über den britischen Angriff auf die Hebebrücke über den Caen-Kanal By Helmut Konrad von Keusgen · 2024

During the movement to Ranville, Kampfgruppe von Luck came under heavy fire from the sea, von Luck stated,

“ Then an inferno broke out. We were shot at with the heaviest cannons from ships artillery, calibers till 36cm. Everything hammered down on us, also the fighters. I was there myself, and I seen the chaos. Our troops broke apart, even the radio communications. Everywhere lay wounded … “

Mentioned by Tom Hanks in the Movie, “ Saving Private Ryan” 1998 – after they secure the beachhead Hanks playing Captain Miller tells his superior Officer he met , “ von Luck Kampfgruppe, we took 23 Prisoners, and turned them over to MPs of the 29th.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6P9OKrpNxo – Marder 1 Footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGoD-g8m76E – D-Day – The German Counterattack 1944

Armeegruppe Blumentritt – 1945

The Armeegruppe Blumentritt was formed on 10 April 1945 from Armeegruppe Student. Established to control troops on the Weser River from Hameln to the Baltic Sea coast, Armeegruppe Blumentritt tried to delay the Anglo-Canadian advance to keep the Baltic Sea ports open as long as possible so German refugees could continue fleeing the Soviet advance in the east.

Commanders
General der Infanterie Günther Blumentritt (10 Apr 1945 – 8 May 1945)

It seems that Hamm survived the war. 

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Awards

1940 – West Wall Medal

28.10.1944 – Iron Cross Second Class 2nd – Signed by Generallt – Feuchtinger (2)

Tank Licence

Class 2 – Full Tank Licence – June 1942

Hospital Stays

4.1941 – 8.1941 – Pneumonia

24.7.1943 – November 1943 – Code 26 : Nerve damage (Reserve Hospital Paderborn)

Payments

Front Payments: June – July 1943 – FpnNr: 04723 & 03069 FI

Front Payment: July – August 1944 – 21st Panzer Div

Security Stamps

Feb 1943 – Pz Abt 223

Dec 1943 – Pz Reg 100

Sept 1944 – Sonderstab F – Signed Hauptmann Füssel (1)

Equipment & Supplies

Aug 1942 – Iron Rations

Signatures

(1) Hauptmann Füssel (DKiS) x 3

Füssel was a member of Sonderstab “F” – War Ministry for Equipment and War Production, Commanded by General Feuchtinger stationed in Paris in January of 1944. §121

Sonderstab Feuchtinger im Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion Paris

In file no. 129, only the Feuchtinger special staff is found, which deals with the Lorraine tractor conversions. It also states that the Lorraine tractors with 7.5cm anti-tank guns are all built at Alkett in Berlin. They are also otherwise assigned to the Becker construction staff.

(2) Generalleutnant Feuchtinger

Feuchtinger was commander of the 21st Panzer Division during the Normandy Invasion. Later in 1944 he was tried and convicted of treason by the Reich court, demoted and sentenced to execution. The sentence was commuted by the intervention of Adolf Hitler. Feuchtinger did not report to his next assignment, and avoided the German military police until he could surrender to the Allies.

Later in life, while a private citizen, Feuchtinger was pressured by the KGB into finding and disclosing secret information on the West German military and transferring this information to the Soviet Union. In 2008 his conviction by the Reich court in 1944 came up during a German national discussion on the review of war veterans convicted by the Nazi government of treason. His earlier conviction was not overturned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Feuchtinger