
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 comparative photographs".
Pg. 47: read “Although the OZAK was a secondary war theatre” instead of “Although the OZAK was secondary war theatre”.
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. 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 had its quartier at the "Principe di Piemonte" barracks (also called "Umberto" barracks), after the Ponte Nuovo (new bridge) on the Natisone river.
Pg. 72: the daily report of 97. AK 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 it 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 organigram 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 the 6th May 1945, not the 9th April 1945 as indicated in the text. The original document is not clear; however, if the information from Colonnello (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 the 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 Sapiane in Slovenia, on the railway line Rijeka - Pivka - Trieste); see the section "Present comparative photographs". Very likely it was not taken in September 1943 but rather in march 1944, when the 3. Pz.Sich.Kp. was transferred from Castelnuovo del Carso (or Castelnuovo d'Istria, today Podgrad) to the Gorizia area.
Photo nr. 17: the officer sitting in the car is in fact Major Ernst Philipp, commander of I. Abt./Pz.Rgt. 1 (not Major Christen).
Photo nr. 24: this photo was in fact taken in Abbazia, see the section "Present comparative photographs".
Photos nr. 25-26: these photos were taken near Buccari (Bakar), see the section "Present 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 comparative photographs".
Photo nr. 41: this photo was in fact taken in Abbazia, see the section "Present comparative photographs".
Photo nr. 44: this photo was not taken in Villa del Nevoso (today Ilirska Bistrica) but in Castelnuovo del Carso (or Castelnuovo d'Istria, today Podgrad, in Slovenia, on the main road Trieste - Rijeka); see the section "Present comparative photographs".
Photo nr. 46: read “his tank” instead of “its tank”.
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 (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. 81-84: this series of photos was taken just south of the village
of Ruppa (today Rupa, in Croatia, north of Fiume near the present border with
Slovenia), at the important junction where the road from Fiume splits towards
Trieste (to the west) and towards Villa del Nevoso – Ljubljana (to the
north). See the section "Present comparative photographs".
In this area an anti-partisan operation was conducted on 26th February 1944,
which is described as follows by the daily report of the Gen.Kdo. Kübler:
“Mopping-up operation in the area of Ruppa – junction Sappiane –
junction Fiume-Lubiana, Fiume-Trieste. 7 own casualties” (wounded)
(source: NA, T 312, R 1639, Frame 1117). It seems that the reports refers to
the junction shown in the photographs, and it could be that the photos were
taken on that occasion.
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 Storia del XX secolo, nr. 3).
Photo nr. 120: this photo was in fact taken on the same spot as photo nr. 24, in Abbazia.
Photo nr. 132: new information confims that the tank belonged indeed to the Italian unit Gruppo San Giusto, as suggested in the caption. See the section "New photos" for an account of the action in which it was lost and for a present comparative picture.
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. 166: the building in the background on the left is not the Salcano
train station; it is one if 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/musei/civicimusei/henriquez/henriframe.htm
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
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 comparative photos".
![]()
