Description
Heer Soldbuch to Wachtmeister Salge
Werner Salge was born in Wittenberg, Germany in 1908.
He enlisted in the Wehrmacht early in the war, loosing his first issue Soldbuch.
His Second Issue was opened on the 24th of July 1941, by then he already made it to Wachtmeister!
Fighting with various units:
Artillerie-Regiment 194 (94 Inf Div) then later with Artillerie-Regiment 209 (209 Inf Div), then with Front Stalag 137, and Dulag 137 in Ukraine.
The last series of unit was the guarding and processing of Prisoners of War.
Interestingly, his next unit was:
1st Turkestan Legion / Turkestan Battalion
The Turkestan Legion was the name for the military units composed of the Turkic peoples who fought in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Most of these troops were Red Army POWs who formed a common cause with the Germans (cf. Turkic, Caucasian, Cossack, and Crimean collaborationism with the Axis powers). Its establishment was spearheaded by Nuri Killigil, a Turkish theorist of Pan-Turkism, which sought to separate territories inhabited by Turkic peoples from their countries and eventually unite them under Turkish rule.
Although Turkic peoples had been perceived initially as “racially inferior” by the Nazis, this attitude officially already changed in autumn 1941, when, in view of the difficulties faced in their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis attempted to harness the nationalist sentiment of Turkic peoples in the Soviet Union for political gain.
The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942, originally consisting of only one battalion but expanded to 16 battalions and 16,000 soldiers by 1943. Under the Wehrmacht’s command, these units were deployed exclusively on the Western Front in France and Italy, isolating them from the Red Army.
The battalions of the Turkestan Legion formed part of the 162nd Infantry Division and saw much action in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia (especially modern-day Croatia) and Italy.
Much of the Turkestan Legion was ultimately imprisoned by British forces and repatriated into the Soviet Union after the war’s end, where they would face execution or incarceration by the Soviet government for having collaborated with the Nazis. Notable members of the legion include Baymirza Hayit, a Turkologist who after the war settled in West Germany and became an advocate for Pan-Turkist political causes.
Infanterie Regiment 303
Reorganized on June 1, 1943 in the General Government from the 2nd Turkestan Legion and the Turk. Field battalions I./44 and I./384. The regiment was deployed in Slovenia at the end of 1943 and then in northern Italy to fight partisans near Spezia and Val di Taro. In March 1944 he was transferred to Liguria. On June 9, 1944, the regiment was assigned to the XIV Panzer Corps, which was under pressure in central Italy. The III. Battalion was disbanded on June 14, 1944. Between August and November 1944, the regiment was part of the 10th Army’s coastal security section in the Rimini area and was transferred back to Liguria in December 1944.
Grenadier Ersatz und Ausbildungs Batl 179
It seems some time in 1945 he was sent to the above unit
Awards:
War Merit Cross with Swords
Eastern Front Medal
Ostvölker 2nd Class – (20.4.1944)
Rumanian Medal for the fight again Communism
Wounds Badge in Black
War Merit Cross with Swords 1st Class
Summary
Super rare unit, I have not seen one to this unit before. The awarding of the Ostvölker Medal is also a nice entry, there are many stamps from the Turkestan Unit also, could be worthy of further research!
