Errata Corrige and clarifications
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Pg. 2: read “I. Btl./SS-Pol.Rgt. Bozen” instead of “I. Abt./SS-Pol.Rgt. Bozen”, in the two photo captions.

Pg. 10, photo caption: read “7,5 cm” instead of “75 cm”. This photo was taken in Permani, on the road Trieste - Rijeka, north of Mattuglie (today Matulji, in Croatia); see the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Pg. 52: another denomination for the 2 Pz.Sich.Kp. which has been found in original documents is “2. Pz.Sich.Kp. Schweinfurt”. The use of different names for this unit evidently caused confusion, as the Bevollmächtiger General der deutschen Wehrmacht in Italien ordered on 23rd January 1944 that the only denomination to be used was 2. Pz.Sich.Kp. This order however does not seem to have been followed entirely.

Pg. 55, note 15: the officer fallen in November 1943 was Leutnant Ernst-Guenther Schneider; the mentioned Leutnant Dr. Theodor Schneider did not belong to the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp.

Pg. 57: the train transport of the 2. Pz.Sich.Kp. on 24th January 1944 set off from Monza.

Pg. 62: read “(excluding Rgt.Gr./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt. 1, for which precise information is lacking, and the Pol.Pz.Kp.)” instead of “(excluding Rgt.Gr./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt. 1, for which precise information is lacking)”.

Pg. 62: read "Rgt.Gr./SS-Pz.Gren.Rgt. 1" instead of "Rgt.Gr./SS-Pz.Gren.Div. 1".

Pg. 66: instead of "on 24th March a working party of the 2. Pz.Sich.Kp. ..." read "on 24th March a working party of the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp. ..."

Pg. 71: in Cividale the Pz.Kp. of the 24. Waffen-Gebirgs (Karstjäger)-Division der SS was based at the "Principe Umberto" barracks (also called barracks "Principe di Piemonte"), after the Ponte Nuovo (new bridge) on the Natisone river.

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Pg. 72: the daily report of 97. Armee-Korps zbV to the OB Südwest dated 22nd January 1945 reported: "The personnel of Pz.Abt. 212 has arrived in the area of the Befehlshaber [= OZAK] with 4 officers and 200 men."

Pg. 72: read "M 13/40" instead of "M 14/40".

Pg. 73-74: according to some reports on the Tarnova battle, mostly published on books dealing with the history of the Divisione X. MAS or its units (for instance Guido Bonvicini, Decima marinai! Decima comandante! La fanteria di marina 1943-1945, Mursia, 1998, pg. 132), the attack from Sella Dol towards Raunizza – Tarnova on the night between 19th and 20th January 1945 was supported by three German tanks of French origin; apparently their crews refused to drive forward after the road was reported to be mined. The use of French Hotchkiss tanks of the 5. (verst.) Pol. Pz.Kp. on this occasion is not confirmed by other sources; in fact these could have been the three T-34s, whose participation in the operation is confirmed by original documents.

Pg. 75: it is meant Spessa near Capriva del Friuli (Gorizia) where the command of General Kübler was located (not Spessa near Cividale).

Pg. 75: On I./SS-Pol.Rgt. Bozen, read "On 1st March 1945" instead of "On 1st May 1945".

Pg. 77: it was no Sd.Kfz 234/4 (see below the comments to Photo nr. 176).

Pg. 77 (and chart on pg. 83): it seems that the indication of the Pz.Kp. of the 24. Waffen-Gebirgs (Karstjäger)-Division der SS as a Halbe-Pz.Kp. (half tank company) was referred to 6th May 1945, not 9th April 1945 as indicated in the text. The original document is not clear; however, if the information from Colonnello's book (from which it can be conluded that the company had 13 efficient P 40 when it left Cividale on 1st May 1945; see the section New information on Panzer units) is correct, then the indication as Halbe-Pz.Kp. is only justified for the later date. By 3rd May in fact the Pz.Kp. had lost at least 4 tanks: one in Cividale and one in Godia on 1st May, 2 in Ospedaletto on 3rd May. It therefore had remained with a maximum of 9 tanks (perhaps less) by 6th May 1945.

Pg. 82: organigram of Pz.Jg.Abt. 171, 1st December 1943: the 2. Kp. also had 5 Italian medium anti-tank guns, probably truck-towed 47/32.

Pg. 83: organigram of 71. Inf.Div. and 162. (turk.) Inf.Div. on 20th December 1943, and 162. (turk.) Inf.Div. on 23rd February 1944: these reports only show the anti-tank weapons of the respective Pz.Jg.Abt.

Pg. 84: the date meant is of course “mid-December 1944”.

Pg. 85: read "Breclav" instead of "B?eclav".

Pg. 190: under "Archive sources" always read "BA-MA Freiburg" instead of "BA-MA Koblenz".

Pg. 192: the filling of the line corresponding to the Pz.Sich.Kp. 35 (or Pz.Eins.Kp. 35) has been mistakenly left out from January to March 1944, when the company was in the OZAK; from April 1944 the unit became the 3. Kp./Pz.Abt. 208. Correctly the filling should be as for the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp.

 

Photographic section:

Photo nr. 14: this photo was taken at the Sappiane train station (today Sapjane in Slovenia, on the railway line Rijeka - Pivka - Trieste) in March 1944, when the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp. was transferred from Castelnuovo d'Istria (or Castelnuovo del Carso, today Podgrad) to the Gorizia area. See also the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Photo nr. 17: the officer sitting in the car is in fact Major Ernst Philipp, commander of I. Abt./Pz.Rgt. 1 (not Christern).

Photo nr. 24: this photo was in fact taken in Abbazia, see the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Photos nr. 25-26: these photos were taken near Buccari (Bakar, in Croatia), see the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Photo nr. 40: this photo was taken in the Topolza village (today Topolc, in Slovenia), north west of Ilirska Bistrica, on the main road towards Pivka; see the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Photo nr. 41: this photo was in fact taken in Abbazia, see the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Photo nr. 44: this photo was not taken in Villa del Nevoso (today Ilirska Bistrica) but in Castelnuovo d'Istria (or Castelnuovo del Carso, today Podgrad, in Slovenia, on the main road Trieste - Rijeka); see the section Present-day comparative photographs.

Photo nr. 46: the man in the photograph is not Oberleutnant Bohn. Also, read “his tank” instead of “its tank”.

Photo nr. 48: the officer on the left is Leutnant Meyer.

Photo nr. 49: the officer in the middle is Leutnant Ernst-Guenther Schneider, also belonging to the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp.

Photo nr. 55: this is the railway version of the AB 41 armoured car, called AB 41 Ferroviaria; it is recognisable as such from the sand container behind the rear fender (sand was used to improve the braking), the support of the light projector on the turret side, and the cable used to hold the rubber tyres onto the hull side when the railway wheels were used.

Photo nr. 74: read “north of Ribnica” instead of “north or Ribnica”.

Photo nr. 77: the officer of the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp. being buried was Leutnant Ernst-Guenther Schneider, fallen on 28th November 1943 near Osilnica (near Cabar).

Photo nr. 81-84: this series of photos was taken just south of the village of Ruppa (today Rupa, in Croatia, north of Rijeka, near the present border with Slovenia), at the important junction where the road from Rijeka splits towards Trieste (to the west) and towards Ljubljana (to the north). See the section Present-day comparative photographs.
The armoured truck had registration plate nr. WH 1611366; it did not belong to the I. Btl./SS-Pol.Rgt. “Bozen” but rather to the Panzer-Einsatz-Kompanie 35, see the document New information to the Pz.Abt. 208 book.

Photo nr. 95: according to new information, the two officers did not belong to the Gruppo "San Giusto".

Photo nr. 100: a photo, probably taken at the same time as photo nr. 100, shows a Bersagliere soldier from the "Mussolini" Btl. on board of the Semovente L 40 da 47/32; this seems to indicate that the self-propelled gun was indeed used by this battallion (photo published in the magazine "Storia del XX secolo", nr. 3).

Photo nr. 114: the armoured truck belonged to the Italian unit Gruppo "San Giusto"; it was lost in a partisan ambush on 31st May 1944. For an account of the episode and for additional pictures see the book "Il Gruppo corazzato San Giusto".

Photo nr. 120: this photo was in fact taken on the same spot as photo nr. 24, in Abbazia.

Photo nr. 132: the tank belonged indeed to the Italian unit Gruppo "San Giusto", as suggested in the caption. It was lost in a partisan ambush on 31st May 1944. For an account of the episode and for additional pictures see the book "Il Gruppo corazzato San Giusto".

Photo nr. 138 – 139: these photos were taken in Gorizia, where the 5. (verst.) Pol.Pz.Kp. was located.

Photo nr. 131: the name painted on the AB 41 seems to be “Balilla” (the name used for kids in the Fascist youth movement).

Photo nr. 141: it seems that this photo was actually taken in Poland; probably the BA-64 armoured car was not taken by the company to the OZAK region.

Photo nr. 166: the building in the background on the left is not the Salcano train station; it is one of the buildings of the Gorizia Montesanto station (today Nova Gorica station, in Slovenia).

Photo nr. 176 (with reference in the text on page 77): the vehicle partially visible in the background of this photograph, tentatively identified in the caption as an Sd.Kfz. 234/4 armoured car, after a more careful examination turns out to be something completely different. The wheels in the foreground belong to the rear carriage of a tank carrier (Tiefladeanhänger) 22-23 t. Sonderanhänger 116 (Sd.Anh. 116); clearly recognisable are the wheel disks, the curved fender and the tool box, closed with a lock, above the fender. The 7,5 cm Pak 40 seems to belong to a Marder III Ausf. H parked behind the carrier, but in this case the identification is less certain.
An example of both these vehicles was (and, at least for the Marder III, still is) part of the Diego De Henriquez collection, for many years located in Trebiciano (near Trieste) and now in Trieste. Could it be that it was these same two vehicles?
During the following days the T-34 on this picture was used by the Yugoslav forces in Trieste, see the section New photos.
On the De Henriquez collection see:
http://www.retecivica.trieste.it/triestecultura/new/musei/museo_henriquez/default.asp

Photos 177-178: these two photos were not taken in Opicina in May 1945: rather, they show a vehicle belonging to the column destroyed in a partisan ambush to an Italian-German convoy that took place on the road between Comeno and Rifembergo (today Komen and Branik, in Slovenia, north of Trieste) on 2nd February 1944, when two German police officers and 20 policemen, and 38 Italians belonging to the Milizia were killed. As a retaliation to this action the villages of Rifembergo, Comeno and a few smaller ones were destroyed by the Germans on 15th and 16th February, and their inhabitants were deported to Germany. For a precise identification of the place see the section Present-day comparative photos.

Photo nr. 179: this photo was actually taken in Trieste near the university, on the road leading to Opicina; the T-34 was destroyed by partisans with a Panzerfaust on 30th April 1945; see also the section Present-day comparative photos.