Gunther Halm (1 Viewer)

[wayne556517]

Seeing as he has a anniversary set named after him i thought i would put a piece up about him.


PERSONALIA

Name: Halm, Günter
Date of birth: August 27th, 1922 (Elze/Province of Hanover, Germany)
Nationality: German

EISERNES KREUZ 2. KLASSE
Rank: Grenadier (Soldier)
Unit: Richtschütze Pakzug Stabskompanie Panzergrenadier-Regiment 104 / Deutsches Afrika-Korps

Awarded on: July 15th, 1942


EISERNES KREUZ 1. KLASSE
Rank: Grenadier (Soldier)
Unit: Richtschütze Pakzug Stabskompanie Panzergrenadier-Regiment 104 / Deutsches Afrika-Korps

Awarded on: July 29th, 1942


RITTERKREUZ DES EISERNEN KREUZES
Rank: Grenadier (Soldier)
Unit: Richtschütze Pakzug Stabskompanie Panzergrenadier-Regiment 104 / Deutsches Afrika-Korps

Awarded on: July 29th, 1942

Still alive in 2011.

 

[Guy]

Some more info about Gunther Halm
The morning of the 22nd of July 1942 the British 23rd Armoured Brigade attacked the German lines( Operation Splendour). Halm spotted the Valentine tanks belonging to the 40th Royal Tank Rgeiment when they were only 100m away. Halm and his crew knocked out 9 enemy tanks and disabled a further 6 in just a few minutes. Several 2-prd shells struck their gun position damaging the shield and wounding the crew ( the loader was badly hit) One shell passed right between Halm's legs without touching him. In the end the Valentines were forced to withdraw. ( the 23rd Armoured Brigade lost 93 of their 104 tanks)
I attach a few pictures of Gunther Halm, one where he receives the Ritterkreuz out of the hand of Rommel and also a drawing on which the anniversary set is based
guy:smile2:

 

[Guy]

according to my sources Wayne , Halm was a"Gefreiter"= soldier 1st class !
guy^&confuse

 

[Guy]

to conclude the Gunther Halm story:
After his heroic action he was promoted to corporal. He was evacuated from Africa after he contracted an illness.On his recovery he was posted to the 104th Inf Div. Commissioned as a Leutenant he joined the 21st Panzer Div and saw some fierce fighting in Normandy. He was captued by the US troops in the Falaise pocket on the 24th Aug 1944
guy

 

[graycap]

Interestingly the art work from the Osprey book shows Halm manning a captured Soviet 76mm rather than a PAK.

 

[graycap]

Perhaps TG might consider a future set featuring a 6pdr from the "Snipe" action at El Alamein when a couple of Vcs were won.

 

[Mitch]

I dislike Osprey hugely. They make so many errors I am amazed they make any money. I would not believe them with the start and end dates of the war. Whats more strange is that anyone actually believes anything they write. I was at a friends and he had the Battles of WWII books and, I was rifling through the Libya 1940 book and, if anyone has it, Page 61 (if memory serves) shows a picture of a ship on fire and, the caption states a blazing wreck of the San Giorgio after being bombed by the RAF. The picture is actually was the wreck of the Graff Spee at Montivedeo after being scuttled!!!

I looked through a few more and there were hundreds of similar errors in this range of books.Whats more interesting was contacting them to highlight this and, their response. I was told by one of their marketing personel that they were not bothered as the readers would be pleased they had a wreck in the photo rather than not at all!!

Mind boggling to say the least.
Mitch


QUOTE=graycap;522230]Interestingly the art work from the Osprey book shows Halm manning a captured Soviet 76mm rather than a PAK.[/QUOTE]