The binary analysis we so often use to evaluate each other doesn't conform to the nature of humanity. Are there just good, brave people, and bad, cowardly people? Can a man be both evil and courageous? If so, can we admire him? If a man is decent but craven, are we to love or despise him?
It's called being human. There is good and bad in us all. One man's good is another man's evil. When Audie Murphy was asked why he stood on the tank killing Germans with a machine gun, well aware he was risking his life or at the least life changing injury he said simply, "because they were killing my buddies". Probably the same reason the German soldiers were trying to kill him...
The Totenkopf "Skull" cuff title was the earliest model of the 3rd Division cuff titles and if you had that on your uniform even as time went on and you received newer model tunics, the early "skull" cuff title was usually retained to show that you were a member of the "old boys netwerk" in the division. A "Been there, done that" type of recognition. That would be a proper cuff title to be worn by an early (and notorious) Totenkopf member.
Kron was actually a plank holder in the 3rd SS Division and started out in command of the 4th Company Totenkopf. That’s not praise just stating that he was with the 3rd when it was created. I did not know about the cuff title and it’s significance.
@@joeybeasenburg6595 Yes. if somebody was a "newly minted" SS second Lieutenant out of a Junker school in 1944 and showed up wearing a old style "skull" cufftitle..the old timers would not like that at all, unless you might have served as an enlisted man in "Totenkopf" earlier in the war.
Do not listen to anyone saying anything negative about you or the videos you make sir. You are a gem in the youtube history/guns sence and should continue to go about your work knowing there are many people enjoying every video you make. This one in particular was very interesting, thank you for the knowledge and entertainment. Have a great day!
The HSC is one of my favorites, just something about it that really strikes my fancy. Add to that engraved, wow! Great video, thank you for the content!
Great video and great gun and ensemble. Incredibly interesting and rare to have such a complete grouping from a mid grade Waffen SS officer. Keep up the great work Tom and crew!!!
I can't remember you ever making a bad video but this was definately one of the best and most interesting.. Great stuff guys keep up the excellent work
This was great, The Irony Otto Kron was as you said at dachau concentration camp. I was in the Army, and served from 1995-98. In 2015 I headed back to Ft. Hood for a retirement party, the party was for a friend that did his 20 years in the Army. We started out in basic training and ended up stationed together, I got out, he made a career out of it. I remember going back to Ft. Hood and seeing how different it was, there was a infamous shooting there by a Major Hassan, many things had changed. It was an open post when I was stationed there, now it was a closed post, and required ID and papers to enter. I can only imagine, how strange and surreal it was for Otto to be back at dachau, and to die there, can you imagine his last thoughts??? A bizarre ending, to a bizarre story!!!
Excellent review, as always. Dont understand there are not more subscribers because any ww2 "lover" would appreciate the information presented and the time spent into research
Well presented. You worked to bring us all the history, not an easy task. History happened, let us not forget it anytime soon. Does not mean that we in any way honor these goons, but nothing wrong with pointing them out and speaking of their actions and potential articles of war. Some of the providers of "arms" in that era (Mauser, etc.) had little choice in the matter, no different than Singer Sewing Machine Co. making parts for grenades and making 1911 autos.
Not sure why anyone would beat you up for the video. All your doing is presenting historical facts. If people don’t like it, then they should just not watch and find another channel. Thanks for showing that unique gun and for another interesting history lesson.
This is an excellent example to use with students.....to us a sinner, to Germans at the time a Saint. Just as many of our winners of the CMH would be sinners to some and heroes to us.
@@rickcimino5483 I don’t know about any specific cruelties he committed, but due to his rank there certainly have been some and I would guess most germans back than would have also condemned these.. he can be a hero for his war actions and saving hundreds or thousands of german soldiers while also being a war criminal. he certainly was not a saint! so I guess the original comment is either sarcastic or meant in a hardcore nazi kind of way
This was a Great Video!!! Can’t thank you enough for bringing this to us even though it’s not something you have for sale. What a fabulous gun and grouping! Connections to his service under Theodore”papa” Eikie….this is great history!! 100%
The engraver did an outstanding job, even better than the factory engravers who did the Walther you compared it with. The stippling and the oak leaves are more detailed and pronounced. Keep in mind that the guy who did the HSC was probably not under any timeline pressure as I'm sure the the Walther engravers were.
Vary interesting and tragic, I am an hand engraver and find the style interesting , I don’t see that style much anymore. Thanks for the presentation you did it respectfully.
After 1945, France occupying the Mauser factories recovered many HSc pistols and used them as auxiliary weapons during the Indochina war. Similarly, it was a regulatory weapon in the Norwegian police around 1950
I think you’re wrong on the panzer part. The knights cross citation shows a flak unit as well as the color on the shoulder tabs, which is red (flak) and not pink (panzer).
Panzer divisions had 88mm antitank guns battalion. Some of those dual role antitank guns were also self propelled in either half track or tank chassis. Maybe he was commanding officer of the antitank/anti aircraft battalion.
I didn’t realise that these particular pistols were so large? My Grandfather was bringing one back but as the Troop Ship that he was on docked in Dover Harbour (England, UK), all Troops on board were warned, that anybody caught with firearms (ex enemy) would immediately be shipped back out to Germany, for a further five year stint with the Army of Occupation! Consequently, it along with many other such weapons, got tossed into the Harbour........ Thanks for this interesting video....a window on what might have been? 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks, Tom, I learn something from every one of these. I see a Luger and it’s serial # listed on the capture papers. Have you looked into what it was and where it might be now?
Loved the history on this piece of firearms history. However, when you said Otto Kron, my brain, being a computer tech, immediately went to auto cron for a bit.
That’s major jacket. Paper show’n in this video, he was ltCol so Bar front of squares is away. So older jacket. Pink waffenfarbe panzer correct. Werner von Braun famous NASA rocket guy had these same 4 left collarpatches😉
Great video - thanks for sharing. BTW, the red on the uniform shoulder epaulette is for artillery (he was commander of the FLAK Bn) and Eicke would be pronounced 'Ike-uh' sort of how Porsche should properly be pronounced with the last vowel not being silent.
Always love the shows. However, just for accuracy, WSS Division Totenkopf was just another WSS division like Das Reich, Hohenstaufen, Frumdsberg etc. Eicke formed Das Reich. No better an no worse than any other division.
Sorry man, the tunic is bad. It's a custom job, the the bottle green collar could be special ordered, but the collar patches are questionable at best, as is the TK cuff title. The collar tabs and shoulderboards match rank, and at the time that Kron was a Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) he was commanding Flak troops, and the branch of service color is the red of Artillery, not Panzer pink...but they're correct as Flak was artillery. However, the ribbon bar shows IC 2nd class , then War Merit Cross W/swords, The 1941 Winter Campaign in the East medal and a Westwall medal. There's also a silver wound badge. Kron did not get a War Merit Service Cross nor a Westwall medal (spent all his time in the East or in Germany) and was not awarded the wound badge in silver, only in black. It's also missing the Alter Kampferer arm chevron, which would absolutely have been on any uniform he had made. It was a BIG deal to have a AK chevron to a dedicated Nazi. It's a good job, and somebody went to a lot of trouble to put it together but it's not Otto Kron's tunic. It's probably a genuine German WW2 tunic that somebody went to some expense and work to get as right as possible but with this stuff, the devil's in the details.
"RZM"..Reich's Zug Meisteri State's property division.. something like that, if memory Serves me Right. The RZM was in charge of issuing everything..like uniform..firearms..medalss..etc.items dully approved for issuance by the bureau concerned.
Reichszeugmeisterei. Starting with some notes about german writing. Reich' s is totally wrong . You can write, for example, Hermanns Pistole , but not Hermann' s Pistole, that is a wrong thing of english influence. When a mens name ends with ,s' or ,z', it was formerly common to write Hans' Pistole or Heinz' Pistole or, rarer Hansens Pistole or Heinzens Pistole, but a 's is wrong. Zeug means in this context ,stuff'. For example, Werkzeug/ working stuff/ tool, or Grünzeug/ green stuff/ slang for vegetables or salad. Zeugmeister is today no more common, but Zeugwart is still often used for the equipment keeper/ carer of sportsclubs or similar organisations. Meister in modern sense is a Champion or a person who is very good in doing something. In old sense, Meister is more difficult to explain. It is a craftsmans rank, dating back to medieval time. Today it is in traditional craftman system basicly still similar to old days. A young boy ( today of course also girls) start as Auszubildender ( for centuries Lehrling) and learns his job, teached by shopowner and older coworkers . After mostly three years, the Lehrling/ Auszubildender has a test, and becomes a ,Geselle' ( Facharbeiter in modern industry). After some years it is possible to become a Meister. But this training is expensive , and difficult both in theoretical and practical knowledge. If someone sucessfull passes his test, producing a Meisterstück/ masterpiece is necessary, he is Meister, can open bis own shop and train other young people.
@@dr.barrycraiggarneauesq. : I am not Britta herself, but her boyfriend. I have an Asperger disorder, this is perhaps the reason, for being sometimes to pedantic.
@@dr.barrycraiggarneauesq. : Wrong button touched. Mon français est aussi tres mauvais, les francaises sait tout d ' suite, que je suis allemand. For a german , in daily life i prefer my dialect , not Standard German, it is not to difficult to learn english, germanic part of english language is similar, also some parts of grammar. But it seems , that english speakers rather often have problems to learn german language, even when they are interessted in a hobby , where this could be helpfull.
It may have been presented to him after he was wounded, he may have sat in bed for quite some time, never returned to the lines and just admired it and though of his comrades that gave it to him.
He served his country in genuine combat - not many do that
The binary analysis we so often use to evaluate each other doesn't conform to the nature of humanity. Are there just good, brave people, and bad, cowardly people? Can a man be both evil and courageous? If so, can we admire him? If a man is decent but craven, are we to love or despise him?
It's called being human. There is good and bad in us all. One man's good is another man's evil.
When Audie Murphy was asked why he stood on the tank killing Germans with a machine gun, well aware he was risking his life or at the least life changing injury he said simply, "because they were killing my buddies". Probably the same reason the German soldiers were trying to kill him...
Thanks for the history lesson. The old adage "What goes around comes around" certainly applies here.
Said that right. Current events reflect that.
The Totenkopf "Skull" cuff title was the earliest model of the 3rd Division cuff titles and if you had that on your uniform even as time went on and you received newer model tunics, the early "skull" cuff title was usually retained to show that you were a member of the "old boys netwerk" in the division. A "Been there, done that" type of recognition. That would be a proper cuff title to be worn by an early (and notorious) Totenkopf member.
Kron was actually a plank holder in the 3rd SS Division and started out in command of the 4th Company Totenkopf. That’s not praise just stating that he was with the 3rd when it was created. I did not know about the cuff title and it’s significance.
@@joeybeasenburg6595 Yes. if somebody was a "newly minted" SS second Lieutenant out of a Junker school in 1944 and showed up wearing a old style "skull" cufftitle..the old timers would not like that at all, unless you might have served as an enlisted man in "Totenkopf" earlier in the war.
you are a kind man who is passionate about these things like us. dont worry about the bad comments just keep it up with lots of love from Turkey.
Thank you sir. !
You appear to me to be a good guy, doing work that you love. The only people who don't make mistakes, are people who don't do anything.
Another great history lesson. Well done. Very interesting to me.
I appreciate the history of these items and I thank the listener for supplying them.
Do not listen to anyone saying anything negative about you or the videos you make sir. You are a gem in the youtube history/guns sence and should continue to go about your work knowing there are many people enjoying every video you make. This one in particular was very interesting, thank you for the knowledge and entertainment. Have a great day!
The HSC is one of my favorites, just something about it that really strikes my fancy. Add to that engraved, wow! Great video, thank you for the content!
Great job Tom and the humor is well appreciated. Thank you for sharing this history lesson.
Greettings from Spain.Good job, your channel is a reference to all WWII collectors around the World.Thanks.
Well done! Please continue educating and reminding people of the past so history doesn't repeat lessons already learned.
Great video and great gun and ensemble. Incredibly interesting and rare to have such a complete grouping from a mid grade Waffen SS officer. Keep up the great work Tom and crew!!!
Thank you Jason. Stay well !!
great video . love your sense of humor
I can't remember you ever making a bad video but this was definately one of the best and most interesting.. Great stuff guys keep up the excellent work
Thanks for the encouragement
I really enjoy your insightful and detailed descriptions on your channel. I always learn something new...great job!
What an fantastic piece of history!!
Nice job this time! Not boring like many. Nice tunic. The history of the man was nice. Did well today
That tunic looks correct. Early Waffen-SS officers would most definitely wear a tunic with those early period Totenkopf cuff titles.
This was great, The Irony Otto Kron was as you said at dachau concentration camp. I was in the Army, and served from 1995-98. In 2015 I headed back to Ft. Hood for a retirement party, the party was for a friend that did his 20 years in the Army. We started out in basic training and ended up stationed together, I got out, he made a career out of it. I remember going back to Ft. Hood and seeing how different it was, there was a infamous shooting there by a Major Hassan, many things had changed. It was an open post when I was stationed there, now it was a closed post, and required ID and papers to enter. I can only imagine, how strange and surreal it was for Otto to be back at dachau, and to die there, can you imagine his last thoughts??? A bizarre ending, to a bizarre story!!!
Excellent review, as always. Dont understand there are not more subscribers because any ww2 "lover" would appreciate the information presented and the time spent into research
The uniform is the best part.
Thank you for the cool pictures and stories
Splendid guns, and well explained. Thank you.
Outstanding research on the bloke
Thank you Tom!!!
Great video, great content! Love the vet bring backs, & the provenance! History major here...so keep digging up the good stuff!
Ironic that Kron and his comrades were fighting the same Russian bear now considered World Public Enemy #1 in Ukraine.
This means they were right
Soviet Union and Modern Russia aren't exactly the same thing....Soviet Union included Ukraine.
Ironic that u try to talk right a mass murderer
Not ironic at all. Nazi Germany attacked Soviet Russia in WW2. In Ukraine 2022 Russia attacked Ukraine.
@@dusjon In WW2 all sides indulged in Mass Murder.
another great story. beautiful gun.
Well presented. You worked to bring us all the history, not an easy task. History happened, let us not forget it anytime soon.
Does not mean that we in any way honor these goons, but nothing wrong with pointing them out and speaking of their actions and potential articles of war. Some of the providers of "arms" in that era (Mauser, etc.) had little choice in the matter, no different than Singer Sewing Machine Co. making parts for grenades and making 1911 autos.
Nice!!! I learn so much watching this channel. Please let's not let history repeat itself.
Wonderful Story Tom.
That was both interesting and well presented. Thanks.
Jacket looks correct to me (traded this stuff since the ‘60’s)
Fantastic video. Thank you for adding the history!
Not sure why anyone would beat you up for the video. All your doing is presenting historical facts. If people don’t like it, then they should just not watch and find another channel. Thanks for showing that unique gun and for another interesting history lesson.
"Nice" , Awesome Piece . !
Beautiful engraved HSC Mauser pistol and SS tunic
I recently came upon a 1942 HSC Police issue. Fabulous pistol.
Otto Kron was a saint! How dare you!
I guess most Germans would disagree, not sure however if you‘ve been sarcastic or not
This is an excellent example to use with students.....to us a sinner, to Germans at the time a Saint. Just as many of our winners of the CMH would be sinners to some and heroes to us.
@@rickcimino5483 I don’t know about any specific cruelties he committed, but due to his rank there certainly have been some and I would guess most germans back than would have also condemned these.. he can be a hero for his war actions and saving hundreds or thousands of german soldiers while also being a war criminal. he certainly was not a saint! so I guess the original comment is either sarcastic or meant in a hardcore nazi kind of way
@@rickcimino5483 Exactly. Hero or criminal is all perspective. Both are true.
Read the culture of critique
Another great job, I always enjoy your videos. Thank you for all your hard work.
Great video, beautiful piece of German engineering.
This and the Luger are the two most elegant pistols in the world.
Great ending to Otto's story!
This was a Great Video!!! Can’t thank you enough for bringing this to us even though it’s not something you have for sale. What a fabulous gun and grouping! Connections to his service under Theodore”papa” Eikie….this is great history!! 100%
Agh don’t listen to the armchair detective your videos are always interesting to us wwwii history lovers thanks again
Thank you for the history.
The engraver did an outstanding job, even better than the factory engravers who did the Walther you compared it with. The stippling and the oak leaves are more detailed and pronounced. Keep in mind that the guy who did the HSC was probably not under any timeline pressure as I'm sure the the Walther engravers were.
Incredible gun & history. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for your service!
Another outstanding video! Thanks Fellas
What a find man
The Oak Leaves were usually awarded along with the Knights Cross so it's no surprise to see these guns engraved with them! 👍
Always look forward to your vids! This one was particularly interesting
Keep going! I love the job you do!!
Vary interesting and tragic, I am an hand engraver and find the style interesting , I don’t see that style much anymore. Thanks for the presentation you did it respectfully.
Interesting video, thank you for sharing this video. Great history lesson as well.
God bless 🙏
Great job, as always!
After 1945, France occupying the Mauser factories recovered many HSc pistols and used them as auxiliary weapons during the Indochina war. Similarly, it was a regulatory weapon in the Norwegian police around 1950
I think you’re wrong on the panzer part. The knights cross citation shows a flak unit as well as the color on the shoulder tabs, which is red (flak) and not pink (panzer).
And the correct pronunciation of Eicke is “Ik-a”.
@@markstouse7612 More like "Eye-kuh"
Panzer divisions had 88mm antitank guns battalion. Some of those dual role antitank guns were also self propelled in either half track or tank chassis. Maybe he was commanding officer of the antitank/anti aircraft battalion.
You best Legacy Merci
Very interesting history.
Well done!
I didn’t realise that these particular pistols were so large? My Grandfather was bringing one back but as the Troop Ship that he was on docked in Dover Harbour (England, UK), all Troops on board were warned, that anybody caught with firearms (ex enemy) would immediately be shipped back out to Germany, for a further five year stint with the Army of Occupation! Consequently, it along with many other such weapons, got tossed into the Harbour........
Thanks for this interesting video....a window on what might have been? 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks, Tom, I learn something from every one of these. I see a Luger and it’s serial # listed on the capture papers. Have you looked into what it was and where it might be now?
Death by larinix could also be laryngeal cancer. It takes a long time to grow but in the end its quick.
Loved the history on this piece of firearms history. However, when you said Otto Kron, my brain, being a computer tech, immediately went to auto cron for a bit.
28. June 1942 awarded the Knight's Cross
Great video, i believe the tunic is real
That’s major jacket. Paper show’n in this video, he was ltCol so Bar front of squares is away. So older jacket. Pink waffenfarbe panzer correct.
Werner von Braun famous NASA rocket guy had these same 4 left collarpatches😉
wut
Great stuff, great video !
Thanks for the video
Solid Proof of all claims Required.
even the Soviet pilot of the Second World War, Pokryshkin, had a captured Mauser pistol, which is still kept in the museum
Good stuff !
Great video, I know your a gun guy, but would like to have seen more of the uniform,
No need to beat up on Dennis Murphy! 😂
Great video great information
Great video - thanks for sharing. BTW, the red on the uniform shoulder epaulette is for artillery (he was commander of the FLAK Bn) and Eicke would be pronounced 'Ike-uh' sort of how Porsche should properly be pronounced with the last vowel not being silent.
Nice collection 👌
ive got a copy of that ss book
Would love to know how the gun and uniform piece were captured. Were they captured together or seperate? either way cool stuff
Very nice video thank you very much never mind all the haters
wow, i would like to have that...
I have not seen such an SS officer's buckle, not even a belt marked in this way. Are you sure it's original?
Nope. Not sure. But someone else chimed in and said it was a correct EARLY SS buckle.
nice gun
Preserving history is never controversial. Altering or denying history always is.
Awesome pistol!!
History is written by the victors..the man was fighting for the German people. I'd shake his hand if I could
Debt paid in full as the post war French would say.
Cred ca au fost detinute de familie
Wonderful
Did he just say Louie Ville?
Always love the shows.
However, just for accuracy, WSS Division Totenkopf was just another WSS division like Das Reich, Hohenstaufen, Frumdsberg etc. Eicke formed Das Reich. No better an no worse than any other division.
he dit not done put it?
Interesting, he has the same last name as me. I'm of German descent but I didn't know I was from the SS.
All Good
Sorry man, the tunic is bad. It's a custom job, the the bottle green collar could be special ordered, but the collar patches are questionable at best, as is the TK cuff title. The collar tabs and shoulderboards match rank, and at the time that Kron was a Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) he was commanding Flak troops, and the branch of service color is the red of Artillery, not Panzer pink...but they're correct as Flak was artillery. However, the ribbon bar shows IC 2nd class , then War Merit Cross W/swords, The 1941 Winter Campaign in the East medal and a Westwall medal. There's also a silver wound badge. Kron did not get a War Merit Service Cross nor a Westwall medal (spent all his time in the East or in Germany) and was not awarded the wound badge in silver, only in black. It's also missing the Alter Kampferer arm chevron, which would absolutely have been on any uniform he had made. It was a BIG deal to have a AK chevron to a dedicated Nazi. It's a good job, and somebody went to a lot of trouble to put it together but it's not Otto Kron's tunic. It's probably a genuine German WW2 tunic that somebody went to some expense and work to get as right as possible but with this stuff, the devil's in the details.
"RZM"..Reich's Zug Meisteri
State's property division.. something like that, if memory
Serves me Right.
The RZM was in charge of issuing everything..like uniform..firearms..medalss..etc.items dully approved for issuance by the bureau concerned.
Reichszeugmeisterei
Reichszeugmeisterei. Starting with some notes about german writing. Reich' s is totally wrong . You can write, for example, Hermanns Pistole , but not Hermann' s Pistole, that is a wrong thing of english influence. When a mens name ends with ,s' or ,z', it was formerly common to write Hans' Pistole or Heinz' Pistole or, rarer Hansens Pistole or Heinzens Pistole, but a 's is wrong.
Zeug means in this context ,stuff'. For example, Werkzeug/ working stuff/ tool, or Grünzeug/ green stuff/ slang for vegetables or salad.
Zeugmeister is today no more common, but Zeugwart is still often used for the equipment keeper/ carer of sportsclubs or similar organisations.
Meister in modern sense is a Champion or a person who is very good in doing something. In old sense, Meister is more difficult to explain. It is a craftsmans rank, dating back to medieval time. Today it is in traditional craftman system basicly still similar to old days. A young boy ( today of course also girls) start as Auszubildender ( for centuries Lehrling) and learns his job, teached by shopowner and older coworkers . After mostly three years, the Lehrling/ Auszubildender has a test, and becomes a ,Geselle' ( Facharbeiter in modern industry). After some years it is possible to become a Meister. But this training is expensive , and difficult both in theoretical and practical knowledge. If someone sucessfull passes his test, producing a Meisterstück/ masterpiece is necessary, he is Meister, can open bis own shop and train other young people.
@@brittakriep2938 Know I know why cousin Bill Stayed in Holland,. My German is rusty and my French is worse.
@@dr.barrycraiggarneauesq. : I am not Britta herself, but her boyfriend. I have an Asperger disorder, this is perhaps the reason, for being sometimes to pedantic.
@@dr.barrycraiggarneauesq. : Wrong button touched. Mon français est aussi tres mauvais, les francaises sait tout d ' suite, que je suis allemand. For a german , in daily life i prefer my dialect , not Standard German, it is not to difficult to learn english, germanic part of english language is similar, also some parts of grammar. But it seems , that english speakers rather often have problems to learn german language, even when they are interessted in a hobby , where this could be helpfull.
That gun has absolutely taken lives. I can't imagine the price if sold.
Most probably not. Probably spent time in a drawer in his house or office
It may have been presented to him after he was wounded, he may have sat in bed for quite some time, never returned to the lines and just admired it and though of his comrades that gave it to him.
Would you kill rats with a pistol like that ?
Someone once tried to tell me the SS used their daggers on concentration camp inmates - I tried to explain that this was not the case at all
@@davidfrankenfurter5800 I wouldn't use any of the German daggers to cut bailing twine. They're so fragile.