Soldbuch to Oberwachtmeister Heinz Dames. First issue from September 1939. The Berlin resident spent the entire first half of the war with Reserve-Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 129 in Darmstadt. In 1943, he moved to Flakscheinwerfer-Abteilung 160 on the Italian front. It served under the 3. Flak-Brigade and was for quite some time stationed in Verona. September 1943, Dames contracted malaria and entered the Luftwaffen-Lazarett in Istonio, now called Vasto on the Adriatic coast southeast of Pescara. After a month he was found fit to rejoin his unit fighting until September 1944, when he left the Italian front through a hospitalisation in Fallschirm-Feldlazarett 4.  

January 1945, Dames was assigned to an interesting HQ unit in his home city Berlin: the Befehlsempfängerdienst R.L.M. of the Wachbataillon der Luftwaffe. He must have worked in the highly secured Reichsluftfahrtministerium (R.L.M.) in the Wilhelmstrasse under command of Albert Speer. For the last weeks of the war, Dames moved to the front again with another high profile unit: the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division "Hermann Göring", where he would serve in the 9. Batterie of the divisional HG Flak-Regiment. In April 1945, the HG Division was pushed back from Silesia to Saxony, surrendering to the Russians. The release entry made on the day of the armistice on page 15, correctly stamped by IV./Flak.Rgt.HG, suggest he did make it to the Western Allies, and was detained in a POW camp in Göggenhofen near Munich. For his long service in the Luftwaffe, Dames was awarded the Tätigkeitsabzeichen der Flakartillerie, the Czech annexation medal and the KVKII.  

The Soldbuch is in a very good and 100% complete condition. It is packed with interesting entries, also including Zugführer training on the 200 cm Flakscheinwerfer, tropical equipment, the Führergeschenk, a "Sportarmbanduhr" watch entered on the awards page, two Luger P.08 pistols, two rarely seen instructions on the severe consequences of forging marching papers, and much more. It comes with an extra portrait photo of Dames; both portraits show him wearing the shoulder boards of Flak.Ers.Abt.12 in Berlin-Lankewitz.