It has been a while since I posted a Soldbuch thread on this forum so here we go, with a story of a sailor that ended up in the Waffen SS.
Hans Friederich Naumann (°1924), a high school student from Müllheim was drafted in to the Kriegsmarine in January 1943, after three months of basic training he joined a coastal artillery training unit for two months.
In July '43 he was for short while with a KM NCO school, but I guess he dropped out quickly.
At the end of August '43 his training is finished and he joins MAA284, a coastal artillery unit that is based in Verdon sur Mer with four 75mm canon, there task is to defend the Gascogne see entrance to Bordeaux.
His life on the French coast ends in March '44, he is transferred to the KM forces for the Northsea sector in Holland, after spending a month in a replacement depot in Groningen, he joins the 4th battery of MAA202, a coastal artillery unit based on the Atlantik Wall in Westkapelle on the Dutch island Walcheren.
His easy life on the Atlantik Wall comes to an abrupt end at the end of July 1944, the Waffen SS and the Heer have sustained such high losses that they urgently need men to fill up their ranks, one of the recruiting sources is the German Navy, their ranks are searched for those that are physically fit for frontline duty as infantry soldiers.
Hans Friederich Naumann is one of them, for him it is a case of double trouble, he isn't only taken away from a rather safe spot on the Atlantik Wall, he also is transferred to the Waffen SS and even worse he ends up in a foreign volunteer unit; most of the foreign volunteers in these units have signed contracts in which it is stipulated that they can only be engaged in combat against the Soviet Union (the war against communism), thus there is no chance that they get away from the Eastern front, even worse is that German Generals that have these foreign volunteer units at their disposal tend to place them on the worst parts of their frontline.
Hans Friederich Naumann isn't thrown in to combat immediately, he gets five months of infantry training and is also promoted to a NCO rank before he joins the third company of SS Frw Pz Gren Rgt 48 "Generaal Seyffardt"of the 23th Frw Pz Gren Div "Nederland", the unit with Waffen SS foreign volunteers from Holland.
At the end of July the "Generaal Seyffardt" Regiment gets the task to protect the retreat from the Narwa front, they complete their task but the regiment gets completely whipped out, only a small platoon escapes being captured by the Red Army.
After the debacle on the Narwa the Waffen SS leaders decide that the "Generaal Seyffardt" Regiment is to be rebuild but because their aren't enough Dutch volunteers to file up the ranks, 400 former KM soldiers are used, Hans Friederich Naumann is one of them.
The "Generaal Seyffardy" Regiment is a Dutch volunteer Regiment in name only, first they are way under strength for a regiment and the ranks are filled with German conscripts.
In January 1945 they are thrown in to combat again when the Red Army gets close to their training facility in Hammerstein (Czarne in present day) Poland; they are engaged against the Soviets as part of various Kampfgruppe in Pomerania for example in "Festung Schneidemuhl" and Flederborn, the fighting is fierce and their are a lot of casualties, the lose their CO in February 1945, at the end of March they are pushed back to Swinemünde, what is left of the unit is moved by train to the Oder front in Schwedt.
In the last part of the retreat operation Hans Friederich Naumann gets seriously wounded by shrapnel, his left arm gets amputated and he is admitted in to a hospital in Wittenberge on March 24 1945.
After the capitulation he is transferred to a hospital in Travemünde (oddly enough still in a Waffen SS hospital), finally in July 1945 he will be discharged from a hospital in Lübeck and return home.
For his service in the winter of 1945 he is awarded the ISA, VWA Silver and EKII.
Hans Friederich Naumann (°1924), a high school student from Müllheim was drafted in to the Kriegsmarine in January 1943, after three months of basic training he joined a coastal artillery training unit for two months.
In July '43 he was for short while with a KM NCO school, but I guess he dropped out quickly.
At the end of August '43 his training is finished and he joins MAA284, a coastal artillery unit that is based in Verdon sur Mer with four 75mm canon, there task is to defend the Gascogne see entrance to Bordeaux.
His life on the French coast ends in March '44, he is transferred to the KM forces for the Northsea sector in Holland, after spending a month in a replacement depot in Groningen, he joins the 4th battery of MAA202, a coastal artillery unit based on the Atlantik Wall in Westkapelle on the Dutch island Walcheren.
His easy life on the Atlantik Wall comes to an abrupt end at the end of July 1944, the Waffen SS and the Heer have sustained such high losses that they urgently need men to fill up their ranks, one of the recruiting sources is the German Navy, their ranks are searched for those that are physically fit for frontline duty as infantry soldiers.
Hans Friederich Naumann is one of them, for him it is a case of double trouble, he isn't only taken away from a rather safe spot on the Atlantik Wall, he also is transferred to the Waffen SS and even worse he ends up in a foreign volunteer unit; most of the foreign volunteers in these units have signed contracts in which it is stipulated that they can only be engaged in combat against the Soviet Union (the war against communism), thus there is no chance that they get away from the Eastern front, even worse is that German Generals that have these foreign volunteer units at their disposal tend to place them on the worst parts of their frontline.
Hans Friederich Naumann isn't thrown in to combat immediately, he gets five months of infantry training and is also promoted to a NCO rank before he joins the third company of SS Frw Pz Gren Rgt 48 "Generaal Seyffardt"of the 23th Frw Pz Gren Div "Nederland", the unit with Waffen SS foreign volunteers from Holland.
At the end of July the "Generaal Seyffardt" Regiment gets the task to protect the retreat from the Narwa front, they complete their task but the regiment gets completely whipped out, only a small platoon escapes being captured by the Red Army.
After the debacle on the Narwa the Waffen SS leaders decide that the "Generaal Seyffardt" Regiment is to be rebuild but because their aren't enough Dutch volunteers to file up the ranks, 400 former KM soldiers are used, Hans Friederich Naumann is one of them.
The "Generaal Seyffardy" Regiment is a Dutch volunteer Regiment in name only, first they are way under strength for a regiment and the ranks are filled with German conscripts.
In January 1945 they are thrown in to combat again when the Red Army gets close to their training facility in Hammerstein (Czarne in present day) Poland; they are engaged against the Soviets as part of various Kampfgruppe in Pomerania for example in "Festung Schneidemuhl" and Flederborn, the fighting is fierce and their are a lot of casualties, the lose their CO in February 1945, at the end of March they are pushed back to Swinemünde, what is left of the unit is moved by train to the Oder front in Schwedt.
In the last part of the retreat operation Hans Friederich Naumann gets seriously wounded by shrapnel, his left arm gets amputated and he is admitted in to a hospital in Wittenberge on March 24 1945.
After the capitulation he is transferred to a hospital in Travemünde (oddly enough still in a Waffen SS hospital), finally in July 1945 he will be discharged from a hospital in Lübeck and return home.
For his service in the winter of 1945 he is awarded the ISA, VWA Silver and EKII.
