Knights Cross Recipients--an up-date.

Greetings all -

It is with sadness that I read of all those men who in the past had taken the time to respond by having written back to me, and most times, enclosing an autographed copy period war time photo.

And in the days, months, and years to come, the list will be growing ever longer.

I remember when I wrote to Traudl Junge. No, not an RKT winner, but, an interesting figure in Germany history of the time. At first, I received no response, then, a year later, not only did I receive a copy of an autographed photo from here, but also a copy of her book!

The sad thing for me is when I see folks who want to sell these autographed photos on ebay, other forums, shows, etc. and I just think to myself how no matter what, NO ONE can take away the fact that I TOOK THE TIME to write them and have my address on the envelope.

My wife says that if ever I sold these photographs, she would be rather upset as this is her favorite and most enjoyable portion of my collecting.

Rest in Peace Traudl.

Respectfully,

Bill

 

I totallu Concur with Bill. I have every photo, letters, christmas cards, accompanying envelopes and even scraps of paper that I ever recieved from these men as well as from my U 181 vet/friends and from the only Victoria Cross Recipient I havd had the pleasure of having a signed picture--letter and Christmas Card and booklet from.

I couldnt part with these things for anything. I also have TWO autographed copies of Tank Killers, lying in my vast piles of packed boxes as well as an autographed book written by RKT Night Fighter Ace Martin Drewes, a book given to me by the U 181 vets and was autographed by the author to me, the book is: "Shooting The War" and the autographee and Author was: Otto Giese--the second Watch Officer on U 181 under Wolfgang Luth anf Kurt Freiwald; and a book called: "The Last Knight of Flanders" written by Allen W. Brandt, which is mostly about Remy SChrijnen, Waffen SS Vet and great friend. He not only autographed the book cover, but every photo of him in the book as well as a handwritten dedication to me taking a full page in the back of the book.

Remy signed all of these for me when Susanne and I visited him in hagen in 2000. I also got a few more signed pictures from him--including a very large pic of him I think its about 10x14 in size.

To me--this stuff is priceless. I had a vet suggest that when I pass away--that all of this should be donated to a Military Museum of somekind. The person who suggested this was a ww2 US Navy Submarine Vet who saw much Combat in the Pacific. Its suggested that my Kriegsmarine stuff--should be donated to the U.S.S.Lexington Museum here in Corpus Christi.

Its something im pondering but not yet decided on.

I would never consider just any Museum--as I know that the things I donate would spend decades or be permanently in storage.

 

Carl, I am wondering how are you displaying your U 181 items ? plaques, framed or in plastic protective sleeves ? have you set one side of the apartment/house for these........ // since I cannot really dedicate any RK winners stuff because of room, I have made seperate booklets for each with bio, pics, drawings, first hand accounts, signatures on stickers etc......as for the night fighter materials from the vets they are in a large 6 inch wide black portfolio, (actually two of them). Each chap is covered by NJG 1-6 then 100 and Nachtjagdstaffel Norwegen. The other monster file book covers missions flown and general NJG histories and tons of e-mail correspondance.

~E

 

Sadly--I dont have the space to make any displays. I have all the photos in plastic sleeves in a binder. All letters are together in a seperate box, and the Officers Schiffchen is with my other caps in a box. Karl Kaisers pictures are still in a sererate envelope because I have to make some copies of some of his pics for that US Submarine Vet that im going to interview for the forums.

Otto Giese's book is still packed away somewhere in my vast amount of boxes.

Im going to have to wait until I can get a bigger place to live in before anything goes on display that cant be put on a wall.

The only thing I have on display are my 5 woodcut prints that were printed in 1870, 1870, 1870, 1871, and 1880. These are original pages from Harpers Weekly magazine/newspaper that are prints made from woodcuts- for this magazine.

My favorite woodcut is one of Friedrich Wilhelm von Pruessen in a white uniform and he is wearing only one neck order. A Similar pic of him can be fount at www.blackcrossmilitaria.com

Fav pic Nr2 shows about 12 Imperial German Officers all sitting around a table and there is one soldier to the left that seems to be making sonekind of a report to his CO and is saluting him. There are also other soldiers nearby and in the background. A Hund is also running around.

Fav pic Nr3 Shows a Prussian unit charging a Frainch position during the Franco-Prussian War.

Pic Nr4 shows a Kaiser wearing his picklehaub and some neck orders.

Pic Nr5 shows a Kaiser on horseback and takes up two full pages, but I only have half of it showing for now.

 

bud you need a small two bedroom apartment with full 3 car garage turned into militaria/research room with track lighting and....... think you need to get the U 181 goodies together and mounted or something for a wall hanging. that would be very Kühl in your modest living room eh ?
have you seperated your RK pics into different branches of service or all lumped together ?

~E

 

Modest barely describes my tiny crib My so-called "Dining room" along both lengts of wall are still unpacked boxes--due to lack of room.

My "Living room/bedroom/den," is just barely big enough to fit my bed/TV/VCR?DVD players stacked. Plus two boxes of VHS and one box of DVD movies.

My two prized rifles are stored in the open because there simply is no room to put them elsewhere (which I hate to no end) Sometime soon though--i will probably get a gun cabinet--so at least the rifles will not get dusty.

Soon though--when I can finally get through each box, im going to try to sell off that stuff--which will open up space along about 3 feet of one part of one wall.

Next I have to find a space for my Raleigh 10 Speed.

 

*BUMP*

 

I think that Martin Kuhne has either passed away or is ill as I recieved a letter and an unsigned photo from Irmgrad Kuhne last week, it read,

Sehr geehrter Herr Carpenter,

Auf Ihre Anfrage v. 20.April an meinen mann Martin Kuhne muss ich leider antworten, dass mein mann vor 3 monaten verstorben ist. Ich kann Ihnen Ihre Fragen nicht beantworten. Ein Bild ohne Unter-schrift fuge ich bei.

Please could someone translate it for me, as my German is very bad.

Regards
Phil

 

Phil i have just put it through a translator for you this is what it read:

Dear Mr. Carpenter, On your request v. 20-April on mean man Martin Kuhne must I unfortunately answer that my man deceased 3 months ago ago. I cannot answer your questions to you. A picture without signature joint I.

Here is the web address for the translator. its not brilliant but i think it tell you what you wanted to know.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

 

Phil,

That is basically what the letter says that unfortunately and very sadly Martin Kuhne "verstorben ist " and Frau Kuhne is unable to answer any of your questions.

Have you written to Fallschirmjager Ferdinand Foltin ? If you haven't he has been ill for some time but is now in better health and is replying to letters again,but not in great detail,just a photo,

Paul

 

I have to remember to start writing these guys again. I haven't had available funding since I wrote to Otto Kumm before Christmas.

 

Carl, you have to write to these guys while you can !!

I know what you are like for your militaria but that will still be there after they have gone and you have put in so much hard work getting addresses in the first place.This applies to anyone who wants to contact Vets of whatever nationality.

Lecture over mate,

Paul

 

agreed paul I've got to get on the band wagon when I return from a business trip...uk ! next week and get on it with letters

~E

 

Thanks mates---I will try to have at least 4 out next week.. Paul--quite correct--its difficult for me not to buy Mil but--i've been lax in my writing responsibilities.

I do want to write Ferdinand Foltin, and the Grossdeutschland RKTs.

After that--I wanna write to the remaining Gebirgsjager RKTs.

Paul--a favour from you sir--Can you please let me know which Gebirgsjager RKTs are still with us? I haven't written to any of them yet. Now that i'm getting more and more into Gebirgsjager stuff--I need a few RKT pics.

[ 02. July 2003, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]

 

Ross => Thanks for translating the letter for me, and giving me the link, it will help me loads as I have quite a lot of RKT letters I need to translate. Also how's your uni cource going? did you do well in your exams?

Paul => No I haven't wrote to Ferdinand Foltin yet, please could you email me his address, it would be great.

Carl => I must agree with Paul, you really should write these guy's as militaria will be around for ever, I actually started to sell a few things in order to write these guy's, as their's letters and personalised photo's are a lot more meaningful and interesting to me then an IAB. Also you could write to about 15-20 RKT's for the price of an IAB.

This is my latest list of RKT's I need to write to, all of which I am about 95% sure are still replying.

Hans-Ekkehard Bob
Engelbert Bockhoff
Gunter Braake
Friedrich-Wilhelm Buschenhausen
Friedrich E.M. Carl
Gunther Carsten
Heinz Cramer
Oskar-Hubert Dennhardt
Albert Dubicki
Dr. Alfred Durrwanger
Werner Ebeling
Helmut Eberspacher
Hermann Eggers
Otto Engel
Otto Gemunden
Karl-Gunther Von Hase
Eberhard Heder
Gerhard Hein
Hans-Joachim Jabs
Johannes Koll
Eduard Lindinger
Claus Von Lucke
Dr. Hans Mehrle
Ludwig Meister
Joachim Menzel
Heinrich Meyering
August Friedrich Michaels
Josef-Georg Mulzer
Wilhelm Noller
Jurgen Oesten
Ernst Orzegowski
Artur Pipan
Michael Possinger
Dr. Wolf Recktenwald
Anton Ritter
Konrad Rittmeyer
Siegfried Rothke
Heinz Rothardt
Friedrich Rumpelhardt
Kurt Schonfeld
Ferdinand Schroder
Karl Schunck
Gunter Sempert
Dr. Hubert Spadiut
Hans Spielmann
Wilhelm Von Starck
Konrad Steidl
Eberhard Stephan
Werner Streck
Heinrich Sudel
Heinrich Trettner
Helmut Vogtle
Wilhelm Walther
Helmut Wandmaker
Franz Weber
Dipl (Ing) Walter Zurmohle

I am also waiting for replies from 33 RKT's I wrote to on 1st May, 4th June, and 20th June.

I have really got into writing to these brave men, a lot of whom are very friendly and accomodating to my letters, Martin Drewes, Herbert Schneider, Herbert Wittmann, Gerhard Krems, Albrecht Wusterhagen and Prof. Dr Bodo Spranz to name a few, a couple of whome have even returned the money I sent, others have sent me 2, 3 and even 9 signed photo's in one go.

Just read over this thread and you will see how quickly the wartime generation are disapearing

I will stop going on with myself now

Regards
Phil

 

Amen to that Phil--thanks for this update.

 

Yes!!! Carl, you need to write these men before it is too late. I provided you with a copy of the OdR a few years ago and you have helped many more with that information. You need to take advantage of it before these men pass into history.

After reading these recent postings, I have decided to finally mail 22 letters to u-boat personnel that have been sitting on my desk since March! We have already lost 4 notable u-boat vets so far this year.....How many more RKTs will depart before this year ends?...Sad to think about......

 

Carl,

No problem i will contact you with a list of the Gebirgsjager ,

Phil,

Will mail you in the next few days with addresses,from your list i will check my archive but i think they are all still on the go,but i know that Otto Gemunden is very ill and unable to reply and that Gunther Carsten doesn't reply to letters anymore,

Paul

 

Thank you Ivan--I OWE you tons and--i'm finally getting to where I can make up some of it to you. Everythings ready to go but--i'm neding to make a few extra copies of some of the U 181 pics before I seal the envelope. Oh and your Coast Artillery Badge will be seperate--none of the P.Os I went to had any padded envelopes--figures too--especially when I needed to buy some. Wal-mart was out too anyway--the badge will go by small white box.

I have to also thank you, Paul, Erich, Stevin, and some others--for finally getting me off my backside and get more letters sent. I'm going to get the ones out for the GD RKTs on Tuesday, and will be doing Gebirgsjagers next.

Yeah--these are going much more quicker than I/we can hope. And I do feel the loss in the Uboat RKTs--I had been in touch with Rolf Thomsen more than any of the others except for Hans-Gunther Lange. BTW--is hans still with us? Last letter i got from him--his wife had helped him write it and he said he was going blind.

Thank you as well Paul--you have been such a big help for me and one of these days--as with ivan--I will finally have my debts paid and hope that there will be something I can give back to you guys.

 

Carl,

Have sent you the Gebirgsjagers,

Phil forgot to mention Gunter Sempert apparently does not reply to letters,although i haven't tried him myself.

Paul