Description
Physical description
Single-breasted four-pocket Service Dress jacket of field grey fabric, having a bottle-green stand & fall collar and deep turn-back cuffs. Prussian double-litzen collar patches with yellow waffenfarbe are fitted, and the epaulettes are of flat Russia braid, having gilt Arabic numbers '17' applied and single gilt rank stars, and mounted on yellow fabric backings. The front of the jacket is closed by five field-grey painted stipple pattern metal buttons and all pockets are pleated. To the right upper breast is sewn a hand-embroidered eagle & swastika hoheitszeichen, and to the upper left breast is pinned a ribbon bar, the ribbons indicating the award of the following decorations:
Unidentified; Army Long Service Award (12 years); Army Long Service Award (4 years); Commemorative Medal 1st October 1938 Sudetenland; West Wall Medal.
Attached to the second buttonhole down to the front of the jacket are the ribbons of the Winter War in the East Medal and the War Service Cross, II Class.
To the left breast is pinned the General Assault Badge, and the War Wound Badge (Black).
The jacket is complete with detachable starched white kragenbinde collar liner.
Label
Nachtrichten Abteilung 17 (signals detachment 17) was a component of the 17th Infantry Division, being formed in Nürnberg on 15 October 1935. Participating in the annexation of Austria in March 1938, it was fully mobilized in September 1939 as part of the 'first wave' and heavily involved in the invasion of Poland. It was in that theatre that soldiers of the division were to gain a reputation for war crimes, one notable and early act of terror being 3rd-4th September when 200 civilians were brutally murdered, and this was followed by several other smaller incidents before the campaign was concluded. Re-assigned to Germany they took part in the war against France and in the summer trained for the aborted invasion of England. During Operation Barbarossa the division fought in Army Group Center, and following heavy losses during the Battle of Moscow was posted to France for refitting. Deployed to Russia in April 1943, it fought several actions, principally around the River Mius, Nikopol, Uman, Chişinău and Iaşi, before withdrawing to Poland in August 1944. Striving to contain Soviet bridgeheads o the Vistula and by Warka and Radom, it took heavy losses during the Red Army's Vistula-Oder Offensive in January 1945. Reformed again in March, it fought in April and May around Görlitz before surrendering to the Soviets in the Riesengebirge.
The division was composed of the following in 1939:
Infanterie-Regiment 21
Infanterie-Regiment 55
Infanterie-Regiment 95
Aufklärungs-Abteilung 17
Artillerie-Regiment 17
Beobachtungs-Abteilung 17
Pionier-Bataillon 17
Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 17
Nachrichten-Abteilung 17
Feldersatz-Bataillon 17
Versorgungseinheiten 17
Inscription
KILIAN & ROCHOW
vormals M. Kissinger
NÜRNBERG A.
Herr Leutnant Burkhel
No. 33057 den Mai 41
Inscription
Kilian &
Rochow
VORMALS M. KISSINGER
NÜRNBERG