SS Sturmbrigade Langemarck Soldbuch grouping

Hello,

This Soldbuch grouping has been in my collection for a year or two now and according to me it is one of best in my collection, so I hope you all enjoy viewing this thread.

The Soldbuch belonged to René Marien, a Flemish volunteer in the 6th Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Langemarck", and this is his story:
- René Marien was born on September 23 1920, on January 3 1939 Rene marien joined the Belgian army voluntarly starting his conscript military service earlier, he joined the 10th company of the 8th Line Infanry Regiment.
During the mobilization he was promoted to corporal and when the war broke out on May 10 1940 he was with his unit the entire 18 day campagne.
On May 28 1940 he was made POW but his time as a POW was short, because he was Flemish the German army released him so that he could return home, which he did on June 15 1940.
From the summer of 1940 till the fall of 1943 I have no information on him.
In September 1943 René Marien volunteers for the Waffen SS.
On September 25 1943 he starts his basic training with the Langemarck platoon of the SS Grenadier Ersatz Battalion Ost.
After his basic training he gets a specilist training as a Flak/88mm gunner in the 2.SS Flak Ausb u erz Rgt.
After succesfully finishing training he is appointed to the 9th (heavy Flak) company of the 6th Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Langemarck"; this unit has 9 88mm Flak guns and is lead by SS Hauptsturmbannführer Dethier, Marien belongs to the 1st platoon that is lead by SS Obersturmbannführer Gustavson.
They depart to the frontline in the Ukrain on December 31 1943, here they have to defend the crossroad of Staro Konstantinow; this crossroad is on the main route along which the German retreat out of the Jampol pocket.
For a while their battery is assigned to the 2nd SS Pz Div "Das Reich"; it is from this unit he gets his EKII.
- Rene Marien is one of the few survivors of this horrific battle.
In this short time period he gets credited with not less then 15 close combat days.
During combat in February 1944 he is promoted to Oberkannonier, back in the rear he is promoted once again this time to SS Sturmmann.
In the fall of 1944 he is selected to follow an officers training course in Bad Tolz, in January 1945 he is a Waffen SS officers cadet with the rank of SS Juncker in the Junckerschule in Prage.
In April the need for soldiers is extreemly high and he is promoted to Unterscharführer and sent to of to the front, I have no idea if he reseaches the frontline somewhere in that period but I doubt very much that he rejoined his actif unit.
In any case it is sure that he survives the war and is able to come back to Belgium.
He is also able to keep his Waffen SS service secret and thus escapes prosecution, he works the rest of his live as a coalminer, in the 1960 he apllies and gets a warveteran statute!


Notice that he had a pass to travel home on September 18 1944, but I seriously doubt that he went home, his hometown was in the frontline at that time and also the fighting of the Market-Garden operation would have made his journey impossible.

The list with close combat days that was glued in his Soldbuch.

His award- and promotion documents, the one for the 1st Stufe der Nahkampfspange is a selfmade example made by the regimental secretary, which was done very often this late in the war when their was a shortage of offical awarddocuments.

His membershipcard of a Belgian warveteran association, evidence that he kept his Waffen SS service secret.
Apparently René Marien never spoke the rest of his entire live about his Waffen SS service, even his childern didn't knew about it.
When he passed away and his childern went through his belongings, they discovered a little box in which he had kept his Soldbuch, documents and medals.
This discovering the secret past of their father was a shock for them.
The son gave his fathers Waffen SS items to a collector, soon that collector sold the grouping to a militaria dealer. Before it ended up in my hands, alas his medals were sold seperately.

Thank you Peter.

Good post

These soldbuchs tell such great stories. Thanks for taking the time to post.

What a great soldbuch!

Do you know more about "Langemarck"? Here's a .22 DSM34 trainer so marked... School rifle or ss- trainer?? Thx...

Thanks for the positive comments guys!!!



Hi Bob,

I don't know if your rifle has any connection with the Waffen SS regiment "Langemarck" but I doubt it.
Langemarck or Langemark in todays spelling is a little town in Flanders/Belgium near Ypres, in WW1 it got mythical status for the Germans.
Several big battle were fought in the little towns around Langemark between 1914 and 1918, the most famous one is perhaps that of November 11 1914, on that day the German army leadership gave a press release in which they stated that some young regiments had broken through the allied frontline while they were singing the German national anthem Deutschland über alles; almost all German newspapers published this on their frontpage the next day.
Now a myth was born, the "young" regiments were interpreted as being regiments which had their ranks filled with German student that had volunteered for military service when the war broke out in August 1914.
Because of this myth the Germans named the big war cemetery in Langemark (+ 44000 graves) the Studentenfriedhof, the student cemetery.
Adolf Hitler himself was a veteran of the battle for Langemark in November 1914, the Nazi regime kept this WW1 myth alive in their propaganda, one Waffen SS regiment of the Das Reich division was named "Langemarck", later this regiment became the regiment in which most Flemish Waffen SS volunteers served.
Like I said the student battle of Langemarck in November 1914 is just a myth created by the Germans in WW1, the German army leadership just wanted a goodnews story for the press to cover up the losses of the failed offensive againt Ypres.
Only 18% of the German troops that participated in the battles in and around Langemark were actually students, the battle wasn't actually fought in Langemark but more in Poelkapelle the Germans just chose to use the name Langemarck because that village name sounded very German, the allied line wasn't broken and the German soldiers that stormed sang the national anthem while charging is just a lie.


Cheers,
Peter