Description:

A fine printed document, 1p. folio on vellum, "Fuhrerhauptquartier" [Berlin], November 23, 1941, an award certificate for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross presented to Luftwaffe "Oberleutnant" Horst Beeger. The document bears the printed signature of Adolf Hitler at the conclusion, and most interestingly, Beeger's name has been obliterated and replaced with that of Alex Pate, the U.S. Army captain who captured the certificate during the late-war occupation of Germany. An 8" x 10" b/w/ photo portrait of Pate is included with the lot, as are thirteen rolls of medium format and 35mm film taken by Pate while in occupied Germany, which include views of him seated at the desk of an NSDAP official. Beeger's name remains legible under blacklight, and the document could likely be restored. Shows a rippled surface overall, typical of vellum, else very good. HORST BEEGER (1913-1998) served as an artilleryman in the Wehrmacht until 1936, when he transferred to the Luftwaffe and trained as a bomber pilot, first flying the Heinkel He 111 with Lehrgeschwader "Griefswald", later designated LG 1. Converting to the Junkers Ju 88, he took part in attacks against Norway before being appointed to lead 3. Staffel, in which capacity he attacked English cities and shipping during the Battle of Britain. Following this, he flew numerous missions in the Balkans and, on one occasion, crash-landed in Greece, where his crew was forced to move through enemy territory to rejoin German lines. He also demonstrated his skills against enemy naval forces off Crete and Malta, with his Staffel sinking 17 enemy merchant ships. In 1942 he took command of a training squadron in France, and later joined the staff of the "Inspekteur der Kampfflieger" ("Inspector of Bombers"). In the fall of 1944, he joined the staff of Kampfgeschwader 53, which was engaged in air launching V-1 flying bombs from their He 111's against targets in England. He finished the war on the staff of the special operations squadron Kampfgeschwader 200.

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November 19, 2019 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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