[Dr.Mauser]

These are links showing a breakdown of Waffenamts, I haven't seen a thread like this, hope it helps:
http://home.scarlet.be/p.colmant/waffenamt.htm
http://mauser98k.internetdsl.pl/kodyliczen.html

 

[rogerbutthead]

Your avatar reminds me of a variation of Kurt Meyer's photo once used by MrFarb.

Chappelle rules

 

[Dr.Mauser]

Kurt Meyer is a hero of mine...because of him my Opa survived the war.

 

[Poot]

These are already listed on the FAQ section of this sub-forum, but good lookin' out anyway.

 

[foxmanmt]

Give us a rundown on how he saved your OPA, interesting story...my Uncles on my mothers side ( German War Bride) fought, one was regular Wehrmacht on the Russian front, got hit by a grenade and was sent home for guard duty( lucky) and the other uncle was a fanatical brown shirt Nazi.

 

[Dr.Mauser]

Towards the end of the battle of Caen, Kurt Meyer allowed my Opa's platoon to be one of the first through the lines (seeing as they only had 5 men left) as he and made a fighting withdrawl. He was worried about losing anymore men to the artillary bombardment, bombing, and the advacing Canadians so he helped my Opa's small unit through in order to save lives. There was also an instence outside of Kharkov during a patrol, he and the patrol were pinned behind the soviet line and kurt meyer showed up with machine gun and mortar refielf so they could pull back just a few moments before they were out of ammo overrun. There are tons of other things Kurt Meyer did that more than likely saved my Opa's life not directly but indirctly through his courage to do what was right instead of what he was orderd to do.

 

[mike webb]

Kurt Meyer is no hero in Canada. He was was tried and convicted of allowing the murder of 18 Canadian POW's are Abbaye Ardenne in Normandy in 1944 as well as inciting his SS troops to take no prisoners after D-day. He was originally sentenced to death but the sentence was reduced to prison time by the allies. He was also alleged to have been responsible for the total destruction of a village in the U.S.S.R. and the murder of it's inhabitants. There are still people alive who detest seeing anyone praise these murderous SS scumbags. These criminals had no concept of what was "right"!!
So Kurt Meyer was responsible for saving your grandfather's life in WW2, WELL IF IT WEREN'T FOR PEOPLE LIKE KURT MEYER WW2 WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!! Meyer was an unrepentant Nazi until the end of his life and he should have been hanged for his crimes.

 

[Dr.Mauser]

History is writtnen by the victor and all of these are allegations and have never been truly proven if they would have been, Herr Meyer would have been sentenced to death...you've never read his book have you, its a real eye opener, and if you read something from the German prespective it might help you to see how many things that have been written and said about the German isn't very true...oh and by the way thank you for reffering to my Grandfather as scum. He fought for Germany, and not a Swastika, you have to keep in mind soldiers of the Waffen SS were lucky to get 15 days of leave a year again if they got lucky...these men were constantly at every hot spot of the war yet are still held responsible for the many attrocities such as the Holocaust.It would be ignorance to say war crimes were crimes were not committed, but it was war crimes were committed by ALL sides, to say that the Allies didn't commit a single war crime is pure ignorance. My point is some, of the Waffen SS 'scum' would NEVER consider themselfs Nazis, they consider themselfs Germans. For example after my Grandfather heard about the concentration camps and what Hitler had created with the country he loved, he felt disgraced and left Germany..

 

[Peter S]

Kurt Meyer is no hero in Canada. He was was tried and convicted of allowing the murder of 18 Canadian POW's are Abbaye Ardenne in Normandy in 1944 as well as inciting his SS troops to take no prisoners after D-day. He was originally sentenced to death but the sentence was reduced to prison time by the allies. He was also alleged to have been responsible for the total destruction of a village in the U.S.S.R. and the murder of it's inhabitants. There are still people alive who detest seeing anyone praise these murderous SS scumbags. These criminals had no concept of what was "right"!!
So Kurt Meyer was responsible for saving your grandfather's life in WW2, WELL IF IT WEREN'T FOR PEOPLE LIKE KURT MEYER WW2 WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED!! Meyer was an unrepentant Nazi until the end of his life and he should have been hanged for his crimes.

Yeah right....the allies were all angels and never executed prisoners.....I don't think so

 

[eastbank]

i,m waiting to hear how the germans were beset by the poles and invaded by the french along with the rest of the countries bording germany and alot that were not. my uncles and dad fought from the start of the war,to the end.(U.S.). i,m glad your grandfather made it tru the war alive,but at the time i,m sure my relitives were trying to kill him and if they had i would not have been sad.my thinking is to be in the S.S. you had to be a *****. hitler took the whole german people for a terrible ride and most got on willingly. eastbank.

 

[Dr.Mauser]

Keep in mind Hitler brain washed an entire nation that was improvrished and embarassed from the first World War with promises of wealth, prosperty, and land. And if you knew how wars were started you would know that its politicians that start wars not soldiers, so no...'Men like Kurt Meyer' had nothing to do with the outbreak of the second world war.

 

[eastbank]

you are right they did not start the war ,but the waffen SS was hitlers tool to kill all the jews and so call undesirables in germany and all invaded countries. they did not swear to germany,but to hitler alone. and there is so much written information,personal accounting and film of the dastardly acts commented by the SS on unarmed civilians that it can,t be denied. and when you investgate the information that is readly available to any one who cares too,it will make you sick to your soul. eastbank.

 

[Dr.Mauser]

That's true, for the SS but what most fail to understand, is that the SS and the Waffen SS are not the same thing..Within many German military units death squads or Einsatzgruupen were attsched these were members of the SS not Waffen SS and were attached in someHeer divisions as well. Now I'm not saying war crimres weren't commited, but should all of the members of the Waffen SS be considered butchers because of the acts of a few? If that's the case, then should we group US Marines in the same boat because of the massacres and village burnings during the Vietnam war? The logic is flawed. And again look at the facts as well most of the crimes commited were by the Death Sqauds of the SS, SD, and Einsatzgruppen..that was their job. The Waffen SS's job was to be soldiers...and the best at that.

 

[gremlin1945]

So how many deaths were Hitler and Stalin RESPONSIBLE for at the hands of those under their command?And yeah all the so called innocent German civilians who lived near the concentration camps didn't know what was going on.They thought the smell coming from them were just weekend pig roasts done for the residents.And the total disregard for human life by the Nazis and Russians on their marches back and forth through the fields of battle.And yes some of the allies did some cruel things to the opposition but the scale compares to a air pistol compared to a German rail gun.War really is hell but in some cases it brings out the worst in
mans crualty to man.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

 

[eastbank]

AND THE BEST AT THAT,for the first half of the war the germans didn,t fight any one ready or willing to fight.only the great expanse of russia saved the russians untill they could get up to speed with a little help from lend lease, after that the germans were on the run,and after D-DAY they were on the run again and only mounted one more great attack, battle of the bulge and that didn,t last very long.just look at the countries they attacked in the first half of the war closely,poland,france,norway, belgium,the balkens and england only from the air and that failed.i know i missed alot of the countries that germany invaded,but none were a match for hitlers army. to me the only hero,s to come out of germany during the war are the ones who tried to kill hitler knowing if they failed they would die and thats what they did. eastbank.

 

[gremlin1945]

Reminds me of the saying "Germany,good at beer,bad at war".

 

[Poot]

Anyone else want to discuss German Mauser rifles...???

 

[Dr.Mauser]

Your right...sorry kinda got outta hand

 

[WilliM1940]

No, thank you for the story, you were asked to tell it and obliged. I had been curious about German troop movements between the fronts during 1944, which I think you have confirmed with this one story. Specifically related to my well used 1941 rifle which was supposedly a GI capture. But its use seems to say it was in the East. Neat thing, one day I was looking at the rear sight ramp, it shows regular use with distinct marks in the bluing up to 900 yards. Oh, and the entire Wehrmacht made an oath to Hitler, not just the SS. This was considered one of the definitive blunders of the German army High Command. No one should think their country is above this kind of antagonism. Hitler took his model for the conquest of eastern Europe from the glorified conquest of the American west. Anyway, how can anyone collect this rifle without a thought towards its historical place in the events of the time? It is a product of the Third Reich, and maybe the most definitive one.

 

[PavlovianCanine]

Anyway, how can anyone collect this rifle without a thought towards its historical place in the events of the time? It is a product of the Third Reich, and maybe the most definitive one.

I think this is the most important point to be made. As even my lowly Yugo reworks' parts were toted around by no less than 6 really horrible nasty German soldiers that towed the fanatical line for a horrible shell of a human (who doesn't even deserve that level of "praise"). I look at K98s as the treasures of battle to the victors. No matter where they come from, be they "pure", bring-backs, RCs, Yugo reworks, whatever. There's a story to be told in these rifles. And that story needs to be told, else we repeat history. There's a reason people collect old battle rifles and other assorted militaria. Some people go for the "cool" factor, sure. (And some even more less savory people may still be enamored by "those" factions,) But I like to think (maybe naively or altruistically) that most of the people collecting these items, keeping them running and in good condition, are genuinely interested in the history behind them. Even if they were made by murderous cretins, they were still just tools.