Paratrooper Badge Award Doc & Truppenausweis – Hauptmann Walter Burckhardt – FJR 1 – Kampfgruppe Burckhardt – North Africa

The centerpiece is an original Verleihungsurkunde für das Fallschirmschützenabzeichen, awarding the Fallschirmschützenabzeichen to Hauptmann Walter Burckhardt, dated Berlin, 25 July 1940 and issued by the Reichsminister der Luftfahrt und Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe / Chef des Luftwaffenpersonalamts.

The grouping is accompanied by original personnel documentation concerning Burckhardt, including a Gruppenausweis, portrait photograph and additional wartime/postwar biographical material.

The documents provide an unusually detailed record of Burckhardt’s career, including his service in the Spanish Civil War, 1937–1938, subsequent Luftwaffe service and his Fallschirmjäger career.

Burckhardt later commanded II./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1 and subsequently the Fallschirmjäger-Lehr-Bataillon, which formed the basis of Kampfgruppe Burckhardt. The unit served in North Africa in 1942, where Burckhardt was captured in November 1942.

Hauptmann Walter Burckhardt, born 19 February 1908 in Strasbourg/Alsace.

• On 31 July 1940, Burckhardt was appointed commander of II./Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1. He had already been promoted to Major on 1 January 1942.
• He subsequently commanded the Fallschirmjäger-Lehr-Bataillon, which was formed in August 1941 under his command. The battalion was specifically established to study and develop lessons from the Crete operation and improve airborne tactics and equipment.
• His formation was deployed to North Africa in early 1942. Sources describe the Fallschirmjäger-Lehr-Bataillon/Kampfgruppe Burckhardt operating there alongside the Afrika-Korps.
• Burckhardt’s formation subsequently returned to Africa with the Fallschirmjäger forces. He was eventually captured by British forces on 5 November 1942 near Fuka, west of El Alamein. The Axis History Forum discussion cites Neitzel, Stimpel, Carell and Wyndham for this episode.
• There is also an actual contemporary photograph of Major Walter Burckhardt as a British prisoner of war at Alexandria in November 1942, together with General von Thoma. Getty’s archival description specifically identifies him as a senior officer of Fallschirmjäger-Kampfgruppe Burckhardt.
• Awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold

An exceptionally interesting and well-documented Fallschirmjäger officer grouping, combining an original early-war Fallschirmschützen award document with extensive personal documentation of a named and identifiable officer.