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Captured SA flag attributed to 635th Tank Destroyer Battalion


17thairborne
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17thairborne

Here's my purchase from the SoS. A captured SA flag with 15 soldiers names and home towns along with two Austrian women's names and "Lembach Austria 6 May 45" A search of the town and date led me to the 71st ID who liberated Lembach on 5 May, but I found no matches in the roster.

 

A perusal of the 71st ID unit history showed the 635Th TD attached to the unit. After much research I,was,able to,match 7 of the names to,the 635th reunion booklet from 1987.

 

Here's the flag and some of the names.

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I love captured flags as well, a TD one especially is so neat (biased because of my love for TD via my gramps)! Awesome find!

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17thairborne

Here is one of the names from the reunion roster. This is of Sgt. Cunningham who will figure later in the research.

 

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Cunningham.

 

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Here is an excerpt from the TD Bn After Action Report outlining the action that led Sgt Cunningham and the recon Unit to Schloss where an SA Fuhrerschule (leadership school ) Wurthing was headquartered. That was on 4 May. I suspect this is where the SA flag with Cunningham's name came from.

 

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Hey 17thairborne. I commend you on your thorough research and connecting the names to the 635th TD. Thanks for sharing.

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17thairborne

The castle is several centuries old. In it's history it belonged to the Von Trapp family yes, of "The Sound of Music" fame. Here are some pics of it and a link to the history of the castle.

 

 

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_W%C3%BCrting

 

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From what I can determine the color of the SA tab on the flag is "rosarodt" and is from Gau Ostmark. The 13/84 Is the Sturm and Brigade. The 84th was a Jaeger Brigade base in Rosenheim Bavaria just 60 miles away. I am assuming the 13th Company was the Brigade's Leadership,School based at Schloss Wurtheim.

 

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The German site I linked above mentions that the castle was levied by the Nazi's in 1939 and later transferred over to the control of the leadership school.

 

Thanks for all the comments. This is the only thing I collect now. I always look for one only at the Show of Shows.

 

B)

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Awesome flag, but we believe this is SA Group Donau, Standarte (not Brigade) 84 from Baden near Vienna.

Gruppe Donau was Gruppe Ostmark (Austria) so it would have nothing to do with Brigade 84 from Rosenheim in Bavaria. If it were a Jaeger unit, the numerals would be done in green thread. I am also unsure to any connection of the school with a standarte. But very nice and not often seen vet signed type of flag!

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17thairborne

Awesome flag, but we believe this is SA Group Donau, Standarte (not Brigade) 84 from Baden near Vienna.

Gruppe Donau was Gruppe Ostmark (Austria) so it would have nothing to do with Brigade 84 from Rosenheim in Bavaria. If it were a Jaeger unit, the numerals would be done in green thread. I am also unsure to any connection of the school with a standarte. But very nice and not often seen vet signed type of flag!

Thqnks much for clarifying that. I've had this question posted for days on the axis forum with zero response.

 

I read again the Austrian post about the castle and it was let from the Gau Oberdonau to,SA Gruppe Alpenland who instituted the fuererschule in the castle. I'll have to find out what rhe 84 denotes.

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17thairborne

I agree. There is a lot of history to uncover in these. I wish I could find out a bit more about the 13/84. I've only found two obituaries from names on the flag. One mentions Army service in wwii and the other mentions the 635th.

 

Thanks for looking

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  • 4 years later...
Seaborstrand

17thairborne,

You and I are both looking for more information on some of these men, and we might be able to help each other a bit. I see one name, "Carlson" on Salmon St. in Oregon. I assume that is Raymond Carlson at 4047 SE Salmon St., Portland, Oregon, in which case that would be a relative of mine who was in the 635th. One thing I don't know about his service is if he was in A, B, or C company of the battalion. Do you happen to know which company these soldiers were in? Do you have any questions for me about him?

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Kurt Barickman

So rare to see any other capture GI flag with names other than a standard party flag and SA items in my experience are not common bring back war souvenirs for GIs so even better.

 

Kurt

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17thairborne
On 3/23/2023 at 11:42 AM, Seaborstrand said:

17thairborne,

You and I are both looking for more information on some of these men, and we might be able to help each other a bit. I see one name, "Carlson" on Salmon St. in Oregon. I assume that is Raymond Carlson at 4047 SE Salmon St., Portland, Oregon, in which case that would be a relative of mine who was in the 635th. One thing I don't know about his service is if he was in A, B, or C company of the battalion. Do you happen to know which company these soldiers were in? Do you have any questions for me about him?

You are correct it is him as you have stated. WIll send a pm with more info.

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17thairborne
On 3/23/2023 at 5:14 PM, Kurt Barickman said:

So rare to see any other capture GI flag with names other than a standard party flag and SA items in my experience are not common bring back war souvenirs for GIs so even better.

 

Kurt

Kurt, Thanks for posting. For sure, the SA flags especially with the history that this one has are not easily found. Glad to have been able to learn more about it through research.

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