An interesting unit! Max Haussler, born in Ulm in 1889. He served in the First World War.  He was enlisted into the German Army in January of 1941.  He spent some time in Trier on duty, interestingly the role of these units can be seen below: During the Polish campaign, the Wehrmacht had already shown a lack of discipline on an unexpected scale. The reason for this was certainly that the army, including the officer corps, had grown too quickly and still lacked internal strength. As early as October 1939, Brauchitsch (commander of the army) reprimanded the deficiencies in the officer corps that had arisen during the short war against Poland in a decree: “illegal collections, including theft, embezzlement of looted goods, mistreatment of subordinates while completely drunk, disobedience, rape”. He spoke of “lansquenet manners that cannot be condemned harshly enough”. (<>Decree of the Ob.d.H. of 25.10.1939, printed in: Messerschmitt, M./Gersdorff, U.v. (ed.): Officers in images of documents from 3 centuries. (= Contributions to military and war history, 6), Stuttgart 1964. p. 277). In addition, the Wehrmacht was forced to call 1.2 million combatants of the First World War back to the flag during mobilization in 1939. These family fathers, well over 40 years old, showed little enthusiasm for war. Many of these soldiers were deployed in state rifle units in the rear of the front or in the divisions of the 3rd wave on the Upper Rhine front, and during the phase of the “seat war” up to spring 1940 there were repeated contacts with the French on the opposite side. In the area of the HGr. C, the first cases of soldiers carrying their rifles with the muzzle pointing downwards became known at the end of October 1939. When front-line troops were transferred from the east to the west after the Polish campaign, transport wagons were decorated with slogans that fatally equated party divisions with the staging of the World War. For example, they said: “The front-line pig is here, where is the SS, where is the SA?” Such incidents, which were harmless in themselves, immediately triggered memories of revolting troops in November 1918 and caused considerable unrest among the political leadership of the regime, but also among the army leadership. Brauchitsch and Halder both compared the internal state of large parts of the army in autumn 1939 with signs of decay towards the end of the First World War. For example, the Chief of the Army General Staff noted in his diary at the beginning of November 1939: “Pictures like 17-18 are emerging.” <>(Halder, Franz: War Diary. Daily notes of the Chief of the Army General Staff 1939 – 1942. Vol. 1, Stuttgart 1962, p. 116.) The field gendarmerie, which was primarily intended to monitor military order and discipline, was only able to monitor soldiers to a limited extent due to its ties to large units and commands. Large areas of the German sphere of influence were also not covered by local commands (home war zone, parts of the occupied territories under civil administration), so that there was initially hardly any control here. In November 1939, these phenomena gave rise to the establishment of the army, air force and naval patrol services, which were combined on February 1, 1941 under the leadership of the OKW to form the “Wehrmacht patrol service”. The patrol units set up in 1940 as individual patrols or patrol companies of the respective command authorities were combined from 1941 onwards into army patrol groups (later Wehrmacht patrol groups) and train guard departments. The task of monitoring the behavior of individual soldiers in public was later replaced by the requirement to look after soldiers by setting up food stations, warming rooms, overnight accommodation, washrooms, etc. at rail junctions at home and in occupied territories, as well as at other locations where large concentrations of soldiers traveling alone suddenly appeared. To this end, the patrol services were then linked to the Wehrmacht travel agencies (transport offices, front control centers) and the mobile or stationary care facilities. The unit he was posted with also was:  Bahnhofs-Wach- u. Streifen-Abt. 108 Spent the winter of 1944/1945 in Bad Ems, their main task was the checking of Soldiers Soldbücher for holiday overstays etc. Entries in the Soldbuch:  Nice entries for, M43 Field Cap, Riders Boots, Peaked Visor Cap, and a Belgian Herstal Pistol in 7.65mm.  Entry on page 14, on the 16.4.1945 he was demobilised although this did not work when the allies got hold of him and he was arrested the same day!  Awarded the War Merit Cross with Swords in September of 1943. 

Here we have a very interesting Soldbuch for the Battle of Berlin 1945 collector.  Fredrich Keppler was born in 1927, in Steinheim an der Murr. His civilian job was a Car Mechanic. Enlisted in the German Army in November of 1944, Keppler was trained on the 5cm Anti Tank Gun. In March of 1945, he was assigned to 3 / schwere Heeres Panzerjäger-Abteilung 682 (mot). Interestingly the Third Battery, was called into action later that month: “On 31.03.1945 an order is issued for the tactical subordination of the remaining elements of schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 682 (mot.) They are to be shipped from Bergen training ground. This Abteilung consists of the Stab, the Stabskompanie and 2. and 3.(Panzerjäger)Kompanie (1.Kompanie was already with the division as Panzerjäger-Kompanie “Müncheberg”) Both Panzerjägerkompanien were equipped with twelve 88mm schw.PaK43 (mot.)“ On 07.April 1945 schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 682 (mot.) is officially tactically subordinated to Panzer-Division “Müncheberg”. Battle of Berlin he division was pushed back into Berlin itself by the advancing Soviet forces. The remnants of the Müncheberg were positioned in the north-eastern sector of Berlin, north of the River Spree. By this stage, the division retained roughly a dozen tanks and about thirty halftracks. On 25 April, General Helmuth Weidling, the recently appointed commander of the defence of Berlin, ordered Mummert to take command of the LVI Panzer Corps, command of the Müncheberg being handed over to Colonel Hans-Oscar Wöhlermann, the artillery commander (ArKo) for the city. On 26 April Müncheberg, along with Nordland, was ordered to attack towards Tempelhof Airport and Neukolln. With its last ten panzers, the Müncheberg initially made progress, but several local Soviet counter-attacks soon halted the advance. Around noon on 26 April Wöhlermann was released from command and Mummert was reinstated as commander of the division. The following is from the diary of an officer with the Müncheberg Division and describes the evening of 26 April. Scarlet night. Heavy artillery fire. Uncanny silence. We get shot at from many houses. Foreign workers, no doubt. From the Air Ministry comes news that General Erich Bärenfänger has been relieved of his post of commander of the Berlin garrison. One hour later we hear that General Weidling is our new commander. General Mummert takes charge of the Tank Corps… On 27 April, very early in the morning, Hitler ordered the flooding of the Berlin underground to slow the advancing Red Army. Hitler’s order resulted in the drowning of many German soldiers and civilians who had taken refuge in the tunnels. The diary of the officer with the Müncheberg Division went on to describe the flooding. New command post: Anhalter subway station. Platforms and control rooms look like an armed camp. Women and children huddle in niches and corners. Others sit about in deck chairs. They all listen for the sounds of battle… Suddenly water starts to pour into the station. Screams, sobs, curses. People fighting around the ladders that run through the air shafts up to the streets. Masses of gurgling water rush over the stairs. Children and wounded are abandoned and trampled to death. The water rises three feet or more and then slowly goes down. The panic lasts for hours. Many are drowned. Reason: On somebody’s orders, engineers have blasted the locks of the canal between Schoeneburg and Mockern Bridges to flood the tunnels against the advancing Russians. Meanwhile heavy fighting has been going on above ground level. Change of position to Potsdamer Platz subway station in the late afternoon. Command post on the first floor, as tunnels still under water. Direct hits on the roof. Heavy losses among wounded and civilians. Smoke pours in through the shell holes. Outside, stacks of Panzerfausts go up in the air. Another direct hit, one flight below street level. A horrible sight: Men, soldiers, women, and children are literally glued to the wall. As the division fought in Wilmersdorf, the encirclement of Berlin was completed and the remnants of the Müncheberg were trapped. The diary of the officer with the Müncheberg Division also described the “flying courts-martial” prevalent at this time: Flying courts-martial unusually prominent today. Most of them very young SS officers. Hardly a decoration among them. Blind and fanatical. The hope of relief and the fear of these courts bring men back to the fighting. General Mummert refuses to allow any further courts-martial in the sector under his command… He is determined to shoot down personally any courts-martial that appears… We cannot hold the Potsdamer Platz and move through the subway tunnel to Nollendorferplatz. In the tunnel next to ours, the Russians are advancing in the opposite direction. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide. The Müncheberg, 18th Panzergrenadier Division along with a few Tiger IIs from SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 103 were engaged in heavy fighting near the Westkreuz and Halensee train stations and on the Kurfurstendamm. By 1 May the division had been pushed back to the Tiergarten and was fighting to defend the Zoo Flak Tower, the shelter of thousands of civilians. The Müncheberg’s last operating panzer, a Tiger 1, was abandoned on the Unter den Linden straße a hundred metres from the Brandenburg Gate. The division, together with the remnants of 18th Panzergrenadier, attempted to escape Berlin to the west, to surrender to the Americans. On 3 May the divisions had reached a crossing over the Havel River in Spandau, under fire by the Red Army. Those who made it across the bridge found that they were surrounded by the Soviet forces; on the same day, the division ceased to exist. Equipment : Issued with a P.38 Pistol and 16 Rounds. Iron rations. Extras: RAD Paperwork, Wehrmacht Drivers Licence, Delivery Notes with Orders for the 3rd and 1st Company. Although with the Grouping is the Letter returning the Soldbuch to father of Keppler from Berlin Dahlem. Stating clearly that they have no further information on the fate of their son. Further research shows that Keppler has not been recorded for and is likely still missing/no records on him sadly. This unique…