Angress, Werner T. (33043440)

Werner T. Angress
Personal details
Birth name	Tom
Born	1920 Berlin son of Henry
Died	2010
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Awards	Purple Heart
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	33043440
Rank	Colonel
Rank at Ritchie	Sergeant
Camp Ritchie	Class 11 (25 August – 23 October 1943)
Section	5A
Enlisted	Richmond, Virginia
Team	IPW 45

On film Werner T. Angress appears in The Ritchie Boys (Christian Bauer, 2004).

Awards and honors

Purple Heart

Teammates

Team — IPW 45

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Werner T. Angress (1920–2010) was a Ritchie Boy (born Tom; from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 11 and served with IPW Team 45.

Biography

RB Angress parachuted into France on D-Day with the 82nd Airborne Division (where over 50% of his Parachute Regiment was wounded), was captured and served as a prisoner of war, parachuted into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and helped liberate Camp Wobbelin, a sub-camp of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp.

In Ritchie Boy Werner Angress' book, he describes the most important class he took at Camp Ritchie - The German Order of Battle.

One interesting anecdote he mentions is the involvement by Reichswehr General Gerd von Rundstedt in enforcing an emergency measure in 1932 following the Coup of Prussia. On 16 December 1944, he unit moved to the Ardennes. On the top of my list, however, is a new book to be released on May 5, Invisible Ink, by Ritchie Boy Guy Stern, probably the best known Ritchie Boy because of his being featured in Bruce Henderson's book, Sons and Soldiers, and his feature role in the 2004 documentary, The Ritchie Boys.

He wrote mainly to Curt Bondy in Richmond. Coincidentally, just this week we learned that another Ritchie Boy, Joseph Haas, was involved in the interrogation of Wehrmacht Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt! "The officer who introduced us to this extensive subject matter was Captain Cohn....We had to know who the commanders of the various German divisions were, which regiments belonged to which divisions....

Not only the Wehrmacht but also the Waffen SS....In this course, my head was stuffed with dates, names, military formations, rank insignia, and so on." Members of Ritchie Boy Werner Angress' IPW team included RB's Fred Guttman, Siggi Koesterich, Leo Brodsky, and Ernest Greenwald.

Research notes

• Gross Breeson
• Ritchie Boy
• 508th PIR BS
• Historian, SUNY Professor
• Author, "Between Fear and Hope"
• Portrait and summary from Notable Ritchie Boys slides ( )

Gallery

• 
  Cover of Witness to the Storm by Werner T. Angress
• 
• 

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	90
Nara ASN	33043440
Nara Name	ANGRESS WERNER T
Nara State	33
Nara County	133
Nara POE	3386
Nara DOE	70541
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Grade Code	8
Nara Branch Alpha	BI
Nara Branch Code	0
Branch	Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Nara Term or Enlistment	0
Term of enlistment	Unknown
Defer. Date	0
Nara Source	0
Nara Nativity	N1
Nara Year of Birth	20
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	4
Nara Civilian Occupation	316
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	65
Nara Weight (lbs)	126
Class_ASN	33043440
Class_Name	ANGRESS, Werner T.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• Born 27 June 1920 in Berlin son of Henry and Henny Angress (Jewish).
• 25 August 1943 — Entered Class 11.
• 23 October 1943 — Graduated Class 11 (German Document Examiner).
• 15 December 1943 — Promoted to S/Sgt.
• 27 June 1944 — Liberated by US 9th Infantry Division. Rejoined the 508th PIR.
• 28 June 1944 — Started to interrogate POWs while with 1st Battalion, 508th PIR.
• 9 September 1944 — Assigned to IPW Team 40 (thru 13 December 1944).
• 11 November 1944 — Moved to Camp Sissones (nr Reims).
• 11 December 1944 — Promoted to T/Sgt per Special Order F-88.
• 13 December 1944 — Assigned to IPW Team 47 from IPW Team 40.
• 13 December 1944.
• 16 December 1944 — Unit moved to the Ardennes.
• March 1945 — IPW Team 47 assigned to 82nd Airborne (1st Army).
• Assigned to IPW Team 45 attached to 82nd Airborne Division consisting of.
• Awards: Purple Heart; Bronze Star; Combat Infantryman Badge.
• Division).

Sources

• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-02-09 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2021-05-22 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2021-06-29 (3 posts)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Werner T. Angress for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Angress, Werner T. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: WERNER T. ANGRESS (2021).doc)