Die Deutsche Wochenschau – Newsreel No. 726 – 03 August 1944

1. Germany.

– State funeral of Colonel General Aviation Günther Korten, former Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, were seriously injured during an assassination attempt on Hitler.

– He will be buried in the mausoleum of Tannenberg.

– Awards deceased.

– The coffin covered with flag.

– Göring expresses condolences to the family of the deceased.

– He lays a wreath on behalf of the Führer.

– At the funeral, there Keitel, Doenitz.

– Göring at the tomb.

– The coffin was carried out of the mourning hall.

2. Germany.

– Hitler visited by employees and officers of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht suffered during an assassination attempt on the Führer on July 20, 1944., In the hospital.

– Among them General Scherff, Senior Lieutenant Borgman, Captain Assmann, Rear Admiral Karl-Jesko Puttkamer, General Walther Bohle infantry.

– Nurses and doctors welcome „miraculously escaped“ the Führer.

– Hitler sent to the council.

– NSDAP party and government leaders congratulate the Führer before the council.

– Reich Minister of Economics Walther Funk shakes his hand, Weimar Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel, Reich Minister Albert Speer, Dr.

– Sauer, Reich Minister Hans Lammers.

– Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler and the police, and Colonel-General Ferdinand Schemer in the yard.

– Hitler comes with Göring, Goebbels is suitable to them.

– Colonel-General Heinz Guderian and Wilhelm Himmler.

– Goebbels speaks with Reichsleiter Martin Bormann and Colonel General Alfred Jodl.

– The Führer passes Goebbels powers to the defence of Berlin.

3. Germany.

Berlin.

– Major Otto Ernst Remer, the commander of the honour guard battalion in Berlin, raised to the rank of colonel for his services during the assassination attempt on the Führer July 20 bypasses the formation of soldiers of his battalion.

– Remer makes a speech to the soldiers („Today, we are soldiers and political front.

Our political slogan says - the safety of our living space, protection of our German homeland, protect our national-socialist ideas. And we will fulfil this political slogan in all circumstances until the final victory”).

– Battalion march past by freshly baked colonel.

4. Germany.

– Hannover.

– Mobilization of the Landwacht in Hannover.

– The march of men together with the soldiers of the Wehrmacht, the parade takes Gauleiter Lauterbacher.

– A solemn meeting of the local population.

– Lauterbacher speech about the readiness to defend the fatherland to the last.

5. Norway.

– Writer Knut Hamsun with his wife pays a visit to the crew of the German submarine, talking to divers.

– Hamsun and his wife, the ladder down to the shore.

6. USSR. Eastern Front map points Kovel, Lemberg, Vitebsk.

– Since the beginning of large-scale offensive Bolshevik's been more than 30 days.

– War requires destroy that German troops restored over the years after the Russian retreat.

– Of retreat and defensive operations of German troops.

– The rapid retreat of the troops in some areas has not diminished defence power.

– Fragments of hostilities.

– German tanks, motorcycles, German soldiers.

– Trucks.

– Burning houses near the railway station.

– Anti-aircraft gunners defending the road that leads to the retreat.

– Sappers undermine the railroad.

– They are at work.

– The soldiers in the trenches.

– German soldiers on the streets of the village.

– Arson and destruction of buildings during the retreat.

– Burning buildings.

7. USSR. Eastern Front.

– Arriving trains with fresh reserve troops, tanks and guns.

– Unloading of tanks, artillery, sending them to the front.

– Tanks in the attack.

– A German officer with a map.

– Marines on vacation, they are smoking.

– Close-up of a young soldier in the neck machine-gun belts.

– Construction of trenches.

– German infantrymen occupy new positions.

– Start a fight.

– Shooting German guns.

– Tanks and infantry in the attack.

– Skirmish with the enemy.

– German tanks.

8. Western Front.

On the roads of Normandy.

– Farmers moving their livestock to safety.

– German tanks, camouflaged with branches.

– Fragments of fighting.

– Aircraft in the air.

– Residents leave destroyed the Anglo-American bombing of the city.

– Refugees with their belongings.

– Women driven carts.

– The Anglo-American prisoners in Paris.

– The column of prisoners walking down the street.

– The population shows acts of hostility towards the prisoners.

– German fighters take off into the sky.

– Fragments of air combat with the British.

– The bombardment from the air of the American colonies.

– Military action south of the city of Caen.

– Infantry in the trenches.

– German artillery shelled positions allies.

– Shooting guns.

– German tank.

SS Division soldiers in the attack.

– SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann on the tank.

– Shot gun German tank.

– Destruction and damage to the Anglo-American military equipment.

– Shoot tanks.

– Gunners, infantrymen.

– Flamethrower.

– Marines among the ruins.

– Shooting guns.

Adolf Hitler – Two Proclamations, April 1940

To the War Winter Aid Work for the German Red Cross

For seven months, the German soldier has been risking his life on land, on water and in the sky for the protection of the homeland. He expects in exchange that, if he is wounded or becomes ill, the homeland will give him the best care and take care of him. The men and women of the German Red Cross, equipped with the best experience and technical means, stand at the disposal for this task day and night. As manifold as the activity of the German Red Cross is, so great is also the need for means. I have hence ordered for the coming months the carrying out of the War Winter Aid Work for the German Red Cross and appeal to the German folk to prove themselves worthy of the soldier’s sacrifices through donations.

Berlin, April 17, 1940.

Adolf Hitler

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On April 20th, the German folk celebrates the Führer’s 51st birthday.

On April 21st. the land link from Oslo via Kristiansand to Stavanger is established, Gjoevik and Lillehammer are taken.

On April 24th, the British airforce opens the air war against undefended towns through the bombardment of non-military targets on the island of Sylt.

On April 30th, German troops establish the land link Oslo-Drontheim.

On the same day, the Führer directs the following order of the day to the troops fighting in Norway.

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The Führer’s Order of the Day to the

Soldiers of the Norwegian Theater

Soldiers of the Norwegian theater!

In irresistible advance, German troops have today established the land link between Oslo and Drontheim. The intention of the allies to nonetheless still force us to our knees through a late occupation of Norwegian soil had thereby been definitively thwarted.

Units of the army, of the navy and of the Luftwaffe, in exemplary coordination, have brought about an achievement that in its daring brings the highest honor to our young German Wehrmacht.

Officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted men! You have found in the Norwegian theater against all the hardships at sea, on land and in the air and against the resistance of the enemy. You have solved the tremendous task that I had to put to you in faith in you and your strength.

I am proud of you. The nation expresses its gratitude to you through me.

As outward sign of recognition and of this gratitude, I bestow upon the supreme commander in Norway, General v. Falkenhorst, the Knights Cross to the Iron Cross.

I will also decorate the bravest among you upon suggestion by your supreme commander.

The highest reward for you all, however, may now already be the conviction that you have made a decisive contribution in our folk’s most difficult struggle of fate for existence or nonexistence.

I know you will also continue to fulfill the task put to you.

Long live our Greater Germany!

Berlin, April 30, 1940

Adolf Hitler

SS Artillery Regiment 27 - 27.SS-Frw.Pz.Gr.Div. Langemarck (Flemish Nr.1)

Published in „Siegrunen“ Magazine – Volume 8, Number 3, Whole Number 45,

October - December 1987

At the beginning of October 1944, SS-AR 27/“Langemarck“ began forming in Komotau, a small village on the fringe of the Erz Mountains along Autobahn Nr. 7, which led to Chemnitz. The nucleus for the regiment was the 88 mm Flak Battery from the disbanded 6. SS-Sturmbrigade „Langemarck,“ which had been situated in the nearby town of Strichkow. Hundreds of Flemish refugees, mostly from para-military organizations, were assigned to the new regiment, but very few had had any experience handling artillery. Therefore, a comprehensive training program had to be undertaken. The first regimental commander was SS-Obersturmbannführer Schavabacher (sp.?), who was succeeded in December 1944 by SS-Sturmbannführer Holger Arentoft.

The planned structure for SS-AR 27 was as follows:

Regimental staff and staff battery

I.  Abteilung (Detachment) with staff battery and three field batteries all equipped with six 7.5 cm anti-tank guns.

II. Abteilung with staff battery and two field batteries, each equipped with six 10.5 cm field howitzers.

III. Abteilung (identical to II. Abt.).

IV. Abteilung with staff battery and two field batteries, each with six 15 cm field howitzers.

In sum total there were supposed to be five staff batteries and nine field batteries, but given the extreme armament shortages that existed at the time along with the pressing military situation, this was clearly an impractical arrangement.

The initial selection of Abteilung commanders looked like this:

I. Abt. - SS-Stubaf. Felix Deron

II. Abt. - SS-Stubaf. Jef De Bruyn

III. Abt. - SS-Hstuf. Zink

IV. Abt. - none listed

SS-Ostuf. Clem Meulemans, CO Light Detachment Staff Battery.

 SS-Ustuf. Bert de Wit, CO 3rd Battery/Light Detachment.

It would appear that the formation of IV. Abt. never seriously got off the ground. In the course of October 1944, numerous Flemish officers, many of whom had arrived at the regiment from the Vlaamische Waacht (Flemish Guard - sort of a planned nucleus for a Flemish Army), and SS-Junkerschule „Tölz“ were sent to weapons training courses held at the SS Artillery Schools I and II in Beneschau near Prague. Major De Bruyn, the infantry commander of the Flemish Guard Brigade that had fought the „Allies“ during the withdrawal from Belgium and around Arnhem, transferred into the Waffen-SS at this time with the rank of SS-Standartenoberjunker (officer designate). He was soon commissioned a Sturmbannführer. Due to his experience with the Belgian Army Artillery he was penciled in to command first the II. Abt. and then the I. Abt. of SS-AR 27. he eventually ended up as a technical/tactical officer when the regiment was reformed for combat duty in 1945.

While other portions of the „Langemarck“ Division were rushed to the Eastern Front on an emergency basis, SS-AR 27 continued its training around Komotau until 10 February 1945. On this day the regiment left by rail to join the bulk of the „Langemarck“ Division on the Lüneburger Heath in Northern Germany. At this time the troop strength for SS-AR 27 was roughly 650 men, but this would be augmented in the days ahead by detached troops who were returning from various specialty (including signals) schools. Planned further advanced training with 10.5 and 15 cm field howitzers at the SS Troop Training Grounds „Bohemia-Moravia“ now had to be scrapped, due to the fact that most of the training personnel were being converted into combat troops.

On the Lueneberger Heath the detachments and batteries of SS-AR 27 were stationed in the following villages surrounding Visselhoevede: Witdorf, Ottingen, Reipholm, Hiddingen and Jeddingen. The signals platoon was quartered in Hiddingen, while the regimental HQ was in Wittdorf with its staff battery (10.5 cm field howitzers commanded by Ustuf. Jos Meurens, a veteran of the old Legion Flandern), stationed in Jeddingen. While SS-AR 27 was in this area a British bomber crashed close to the nearby village of Geddingen. The crew members were killed on impact and they were given military burials by the Flemish SS men.

SS-Ustuf. Nest Osselaer, Orderly Officer, Light Detachment.

 Flemish MIA: Emiel J.M. Carette. Born Antwerp, 6 March 1906; SS Pi. Btl. Dresden; missing 12 January 1945.

 SS Legion Flandern on the Volkhov Front.

Towards the end of March 1945, SS-AR 27 was ordered to proceed by rail to the Oder Front where it was to join the rest of the combat ready portion of the 27th SS Division in Kampfgruppe „Langemarck.“ The regiment was still far from fully formed and was only about half-developed, with seven artillery batteries in shape to use, as opposed to the 14 intended batteries. Therefore, the regiment was reorganized into a more realistic format before it proceeded to the front. The combat structure of SS-AR 27 looked like this:

HQ and Staff

Commander: Stubaf. Arentoft

Heavy Detachment

Commander: Hstuf. Zink

Medical Officer: Ostuf. Dr. Moelaert

Supply Officer: Ustuf. Flor Stuyck

1st Battery: Ustuf. Haase

2nd Battery: Ustuf. Cesar Geerts

3rd Battery: Still in initial stages of formation

Staff Battery: Ostuf. Clem Meulemans

Armaments: 150 mm field howitzers, three per battery, horse-drawn transport.

One heavy howitzer battery, led by Ustuf. Karel Beeckmann was eventually fully motorized (possibly 3rd Battery?). It participated in the last defensive battles on the Oder and helped hold off the Soviets during the withdrawal to Schleswig-Holstein before surrendering at Eutin with all equipment still intact.

Light Detachment

Commander: First a Dane, then a Hungarian Sturmbannführer.

Tactical/Technical Officer: Stubaf. Jef de Bruyne, former CO of II.Bn./Flemish Guard. An ex-Belgian artillery officer, he would lead Wehrmacht and Labor Service artillery detachments and rocket mortar elements in the last days of the war.

Orderly Officer: Ustuf. Nest Osselaer

Signals Platoon: Led by a German Untersturmführer from 12th SS Pz.Div. „Hitler Jugend.“

Staff Battery: Ustuf. Jos Meurens

1st Battery: Ustuf. Rudy Berg

2nd Battery: Ustuf. Schoolmeesters

3rd Battery: Ustuf. Albert de Wit

Other Flemish SS Officers attached to SS-AR 27 at this time (positions unknown):

Ustuf. Bob Velleman

Ustuf. Marcel Elbers

Ustuf. Jans

Ustuf. Karel Beeckman

 Flemish SS artillery „spotters“ in training at Knowitz Camp, Bohemia, 1944.

 Flemish SS man somewhere on the Eastern Front.

At the end of March 1945, the make-shift SS-AR 27 left Visselhoevede by rail for Angermuende, where it disembarked some time later and proceeded to the vicinity of Schwedt on the Oder. The only weapons transported with the regiment were six light field howitzers and two heavy field howitzers; other weaponry was supposed to be provided from depots near the front.

The Light Detachment/SS-AR 27 took up positions in early April 1945 in a triad of villages, Bartz, Tantow, Greifenhagen, near Mescherin. The HQ Staff, staff battery and supply section were all quartered in Tantow. As of 10 April 1945, the Heavy Detachment/SS-AR 27 was situated around the town of Damitzof. During this period of time, the Oder River Front was still quiet.

The storm broke loose on 16 April 1945, when the Soviets began their great spring offensive: objective Berlin. For a few days only minor inroads had been made across the Oder, with the most serious penetrations coming on 20 April. Two days later the entire front collapsed and the Reds began advancing at will. The artillery pieces of the Flemish SS batteries had the grand total of about 20 shells each to expend and once these were gone, the weapons had to be spiked (the exception apparently being Battery Beeckman, which kept on functioning). With their weapons gone the troops from the Light Detachment/SS-AR 27 were converted into instant infantrymen. The Heavy Detachment, led by Battery Beeckman, seems to have remained intact.

SS-AR 27, or what was left of it, subsequently retreated to the west through Sommerfelde, Radikow, Tantow, Starkow, Penkun, Schmoell, Prenzlau and Neusterlitz. On 24 April 1945, Stubaf. Arentoft relinquished his command to an unknown German Stubaf., a purely superficial gesture at this juncture! SS-Artillery Rgt. 27/“Langemarck“ Division surrendered to American troops at Schwerin on 3 May 1945.

„Langemarck“ light artillery in action.

SS-Artillery Regiment 27/“Langemarck“

Order of Battle and Field Post Numbers, December 1944

Regimental Staff and Units [05 814]

I. Abt. with lst-3rd Batteries [07 534]

II. Abt. with 4th-6th Batteries [06 939]

III. Abt. with 7th-9th Batteries [06 124]

IV. Abt. with 10th-12th Batteries [07 944]

Principal References

- Vlaanderen in Uniform, Vol. 7 by Jan Vincx.

- Vlamingen Aan Het Oostfront, Vol. 2. §

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Flemish volunteers for the „Langemarck“ Brigade in training.

The Flemish W-SS volunteer, SS-Rottenführer Firmin Van Belle, a tank driver in SS-Pz.Rgt.2/2nd SS Pz.Div. „Das Reich“ was murdered by the so-called „resistance“ while on the last day of his home leave at Schoten, Belgium on 3 September 1943. He was a veteran of the hard battles at Kharkov and Kursk but still could not escape the bullet of a cowardly terrorist!

* * *

One of the volunteers in the first contingent of recruits to join the SS Legion „Flandern“ was Emil Pallemans. He was born in Antwerp on 28 March 1918. After distinguishing himself during the early actions of the Legion and being decorated with the Iron Cross, 2nd Class, the Infantry Assault Badge, and the Winter 1941/42 medal, he left for his first home leave in the summer of 1942. Immediately after his return to the Legion on the Leningrad Front he was killed by a Soviet sniper on 4 August 1942—an all too familiar story!

* * *

Pour le Mérite (1938)

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Directed by: Karl Ritter

Produced by: Karl Ritter

Written by: Fred Hildenbrandt, Karl Ritter

Music by: Herbert Windt

Otto Dobrindt (music editor)

Cinematography:    Günther Anders

Heinz von Jaworsky (aerial photography)

Edited by: Gottfried Ritter

Production company: Universum Film (UFA)

Distributed by: Ufa Film Company

Release date: 22 December 1938 (Germany)

Running time: 121 minutes

Country: Germany

Language: German

Starring:

Paul Hartmann: Captain Prank

Herbert A.E. Böhme: Gerdes

Albert Hehn: Lt. Fabian

Paul Otto: Maj. Wissmann

Fritz Kampers: Moebius

Josef Dahmen: surcharge

Willi Rose: frill

Carsta Löck: Gerda Fabian

Jutta Freybe: Isabel Prank

Gisela von Collande: Anna Moebius

Marina von Ditmar: Young Frenchwoman

Otz Tollen: Capt. Reinwald

Theo Shall: Capt. Cecil Wood

Wolfgang Staudte: Lt. Ellermann

Clemens Hasse: lancer

Walter Bluhm: hussar

Heinz Engelmann: cuirassier

Pour le Mérite is a 1938 film produced and directed by Karl Ritter for National-Socialist Germany. The film follows the story of officers of the Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Force) in the First World War who were later involved in the formation of the Luftwaffe. Pour le Mérite propagates the fact, which consigns the German military defeat in World War I to the treason in the homeland. At the same time, Ritter also glorifies the former fighter pilots as heroes of National-Socialism.

Plot

In 1918, German pilot Lieutenant Fabian (Albert Hehn), along with his fiancée Gerda (Carsta Löck) learn that he has been awarded the Order of Pour le Mérite („The Blue Max“), Germany’s highest award for valour. The next morning, Fabian and Jagdgeschwader 1 (the „Flying Circus“ of Manfred von Richthofen) is ordered back to the front.

On the Western Front, Fabian and other officers of the squadron continue the aerial fight. Their commanding officer, Captain Prank (Paul Hartmann) returns from homeland with the news that a revolution has broken out in Germany. Prank and his men fly their aircraft back to Germany, but the squadron becomes involved in disputes with the local workers and soldiers. With the squadron’s aircraft destroyed, the pilots and crew surrender, with only Moebius (Fritz Kampers) seemingly disappearing.

Postwar, the former officers successfully find work in civilian occupations, but, Prank cannot cope. Moebius suddenly reappears and takes Prank and his wife Isabel to his estate, where Moebius has hidden his former warplane. He plans to start a flying school, but, a communist group attacks, and his aircraft is destroyed. During the attack, Isabel is killed. Prank is arrested, and when Moebius fails in a rescue attempt, an embittered Prank serves out his sentence and then goes abroad.

After 1933, a wave of National Socialism flows in Germany with the National-Socialist regime attracting the discontented former officers of Jagdgeschwader 1, all holders of the coveted Pour le Mérite award. They have continued to keep in touch and developed a strong camaraderie. At one point, the men take to the streets to fight agains communists, and are arrested.

In 1935, National-Socialist Germany restores a new Luftwaffe and invites former officers to come back. Fabian, Gerdes (Herbert A.E. Böhme) and Moebius, convince Prank to come back to Germany, where the latter gets appointed as the commanding officer of a new fighter squadron.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, a former commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, visits the squadron as it equips with the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft.

Production

Pour le Mérite was produced and distributed by the UFA. The German premiere took place on 22 December 1938. The film was identified as „state political and artistic particularly valuable“ as well as of „youth value“.