Original German WWII Jäger Regiment KIA Named Medal Grouping with Award Documents and Death Letter Original Items

Original Items: One-of-a-kind. Unteroffizier Martin Schulz was assigned to 10th Jäger Regiment 401. He was wounded in Action on July 26th, 1941 and awarded a black wound badge. Later on February 1st, 1942 he was awarded a Silver Grade Infantry Assault Badge (IAB). He was killed in action on September 23rd, 1942 which is described in a letter to his next of kin which is dated September 25th, 1942.

Included in this named grouping are a black wound badge with named award document dated 1941, a silver grade IAB with named document dated 1942, and the notification of death letter dated 1942. A fascinating named set of medals and documents for a German soldier killed relatively early in World War Two.

After the First World War, the Jäger units of the Imperial German Army were disbanded, but their traditions were carried by infantry regiments of the 100,000-man Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic. After the NSDAPs came to power in 1933 and the rearmament of Germany began, the new Wehrmacht revived the name Jäger for various types of units:

– In 1935, the first specialized mountain infantry units were formed; their regiments and battalions were designated Gebirgsjäger (“mountain infantry” – Gebirge is German for “mountain range”). More specialized units, such as the Hochgebirgs-Jäger-Bataillone, for use in high-Alpine conditions, were also developed. The Waffen SS raised a “Karstjäger” Division.

– When the Luftwaffe began forming parachute units in the late-1930s, the first parachute regiment was designated Fallschirm-Jäger-Regiment 1. German paratroopers became known as Fallschirmjäger (Fallschirm is German for “parachute”). At first, Fallschirmjäger was applied only to genuine airborne-qualified troops, but the term was retained for Fallschirmjäger regiments and divisions even after they began operating as regular infantry. A number of Luftwaffe Feld-Divisionen (“field divisions”), regular ground combat units raised by the Luftwaffe, also used the term Luftwaffen-Jäger-Regiment for their infantry regiments. Many of these were later taken over by the army but retained the name Jäger-Regiment.

– Two Skijäger regiments were formed in 1943 as part of Skijäger-Brigade (later a Skijäger-Division).

– Certain infantry divisions were raised as “light infantry divisions” (leichte Infanterie-Divisionen) in late 1940. They were raised to operate in rough terrain, especially in southeastern Europe. Their infantry regiments were called Jäger-Regimenter, and in 1942 the light and light infantry divisions were renamed Jäger divisions.

– The antitank units of German divisions, originally called Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilungen (“anti-tank battalions”), began in 1940 to be redesignated as Panzerjäger-Abteilungen, (literally “tank hunter battalions”). These were equipped with towed or self-propelled guns (often the ad hoc mounting of an antitank gun on a captured or obsolete tank chassis). As the war progressed, some Panzerjäger-Abteilungen were fully equipped with specialized tank destroyers, initially known as Panzerjäger (tank hunters), and later by 1943 as Jagdpanzer (“hunting tank”) with enclosed, armored casemate superstructures.

– The military police of the Wehrmacht was known as the Feldgendarmerie. In December 1943, a new force of military police, directly subordinated to the Armed Forces High Command, was formed. Its units were designated Feldjäger-Kommandos with subordinated Feldjäger battalions and regiments. These were known collectively as the Feldjägerkorps. The name was taken from the Reitendes Feldjägerkorps, a Prussian Army military police-type unit directly under the General Staff.

– Infantry equipped with the Zielgerät 1229 Vampir were called Nachtjäger (“Nacht” is German for night).