Heer Soldbuch – Uffz Kaping – Panzer Regiment 201 (Paris) & Panzer Regiment 2 – KIA in 1945 – Sad Story (on Hold)

Soldbuch to Horst Kaping, 

He raised the ranks from Schütze up to Unteroffizier.

The Soldbuch was issued in October 1940. 

Frontline Units:

Panzer Regiment 201 

 

On November 19, 1940, the Army High Command, Chief HRüst and BdE, ordered the establishment of Panzer Regiment 201 to take over the French tank stocks captured in the western campaign and make them ready for use in the field by the Wehrmacht. On December 1, 1940, the line-up begins under the responsibility of Military District Command V, Stuttgart. After investigations by the new regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Conze, the installation site was determined to be the Caserne Mortier in Paris, Porte des Lilas. Lieutenant Colonel Conze will soon leave due to illness, his successor will be Colonel Werner-Ehrenfeucht. The commanders of the two departments are Major von Heydebreck and Captain Wolff. In December, the personnel units from several tank regiments and replacement units of the military districts IV, V, VI, VII and XIII arrive to form the regimental staff and two tank divisions of three combat companies each. On December 11th, the regimental headquarters company and one headquarters company for each of the departments are set up. They are recruited from military districts V and XIII. On December 13th, the first type 35 Somua 38 Hotchkiss tanks were taken over. Wheeled vehicles are allocated from French, Belgian and British booty stocks, hand weapons from French booty stocks. In terms of supplies, the regiment is placed under the 16th Motorized Infantry Division at the turn of the year. At this time, the Wehrmacht High Command was preparing the operation against Gibraltar. 

In a very short time, the department with equipment from the 201 Panzer Regiment, housed in the barracks of the French Air Force Ministry in Paris, Place Balard, was made ready for use. The Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, inspected the tank department on February 11, 1941 and expressed his special appreciation for the work carried out. For political reasons, the Gibraltar operation was not possible.

 

On April 25, 1941, she was placed under the AOK Norway and left Paris by rail. At the beginning of the Eastern campaign it was the only German tank division to be deployed in Finland and successfully fought near Salla, where it played a major role in the capture of the city 3rd Company equipped with the heavy French 32-ton tank B 2 (Renault) and separated from the regimental unit. On June 4, 1941, it was combined with a similarly equipped company from Panzer Regiment 202 in Panzer Division (F) 102 and was deployed in the storming of Przemysl at the end of June 1941. During May, engineer platoons and light columns are set up in the departments. The workshop trains that have been created in the meantime are combined to form a tank workshop company. Regardless of the unrest caused by the setups and adjustments, Panzer Regiment 201 fulfilled its mission. The French tanks are converted and rebuilt after extensive attempts to drive, fire and shoot, they receive radio equipment and are adjusted to the tactical German requirements. The regiment companies carry out training on the Vincennes training area at the gates of Paris, as well as target practice up to the plateau on the Mer du Sable site. In a stay of several weeks at the large military training area Mailly le Camp near Chalons as well as in Suippes, cooperation in the division, regiment and brigade association is practiced during the summer months. Together with the air force, artillery and infantry, exercises of combined weapons are carried out, at the same time the cadres of the regiments 203 and 204 to be set up – the former later as army troops, then with a division each in the tank regiment “Greater Germany” and in the tank regiment 1 used, the latter later with the 22nd Panzer Division – as well as Romanian tank officers trained. Generalfeldmarsmall von Witzleben and Colonel General von Blaskowitz visit the regiment. The latter in particular promotes training in the association very significantly. Hardly having returned to Paris, the regiment had to be deployed as a result of the increased activity of the resistance movements. Regimental headquarters and 1st division are temporarily relocated to Belgium in the Mons – Charleroi area, the II. Division to Brittany – Carhaix area [east of Brest) – in order to carry out security tasks and combat partisans there. Meanwhile, on August 1, 1941, the 7th Company was re-established as a Panzerjäger (Sfl.) Company in Paris. Panzer Regiment 201 provides 50 percent of the staff, the rest comes from tank destroyer units of AOK 1. In Paris, the long-awaited conversion of the regiment to German equipment begins in October as an advance notice of later frontline deployment in the east. On December 12, 1941 Major General von Boineburg-Lengsfeld admitted Panzer Regiment 201 to the 23rd Panzer Division as part of a parade on the polygon on Avenue Viktor. On December 23, 1941, the regiment was rearmed for German Panzer 2, Panzer 3 and Panzer 4. At the same time, the 7th (PzJäg) Kp. reclassified into a light tank company. The sister company of Panzer Regiment 202, which was also reclassified, was taken over as 3rd Company in Panzer Regiment 201. The light columns of both departments move to the Panzer Divisions Supply Leader 128 to form Kw columns. The workshop company receives a 3rd platoon. On February 2, 1942, the OKH ordered the formation of the III. Department under Major Illig. For this purpose, the 1st Division hand over the 3rd Company, and the 2nd Division the 7th Company. Headquarters company and 12th company are formed from Panzer-Ersatz -teilung 100, Schwetzingen, and charges from Wehrkreiskommando IX, Kassel. The department moves into the Dupleix barracks in Paris. At the same time, the other parts of the regiment received winter and shooting training with the new device at the Le Valdahon training area in the French Jura. 

Seen below – Panzer Regiment 201 in Paris! 

 

 

It would seem he served very shortly with Panzer Aüfklarungs Abteilung 7, before being posted in early 1943 with:

Panzer Regiment 2 

It is clear that Horst was not in a supply unit and actually in one of the Panzer Companies, (member of 4th Company). 

For the last days of his life a report was written on the movements and actions of the 1st Abteilung, of Panzer Regiment 2.

When the regiment found itself in the Vistula bridgehead south of Kielce after the hard and changeable summer fighting at the end of August 1944, there was not much left of an operational tank regiment. Only a few Panzer V and a few Panzer IV are still operational. The months up to January 1945 are marked by hard training and preparation work for the expected major Russian attack. The units are initially housed in self-made forest bunkers and later, when winter sets in, in primitive Polish peasant huts. According to orders, the tanks must be half buried in so-called pit positions. Fir roofs are built so that the aviators cannot see them and the batteries are brought from the tanks to the accommodations to protect against the cold. The men, NCOs and officers march once a week, armed with entrenchments, near the front to help build positions (corps entrenchment day!). The numerous simulation games and target practice are a welcome change in the monotonous service life. On reconnaissance trips, the company commanders and platoon leaders get to know the surrounding area and the future operational areas. In larger exercises in the division association in the area of ​​Morowica and in the 19th Panzer Division, all troops prepare in every possible way for the coming mission. Since the division is to be used as an army reserve (1st Panzer Army) behind the infantry units lying in the front, the responsible authorities in the division, the corps and the army consider it absolutely essential that the division’s staging rooms, and such, are in question yes, with these accommodations, so that the division can really be deployed operationally in the event of a Russian attack. The staging rooms must therefore be at least 50 km behind the front, if possible behind the Nida section. Unfortunately, the headquarters refuses to accept these justified proposals, which also apply in the same way to the neighboring armored divisions. So the regiment remains 12 kilometers behind the front! These facts must be mentioned as they are necessary to understand the catastrophic development in the Vistula bridgehead. On December 24, 1944, the regiment celebrated the last Christmas of World War II in its bunkers and communal houses in and around Komorki. There had been enough time to prepare for this festival, and so everyone, apart from the parcels from home, found a rich table of gifts with food, drink and tobacco. When it comes to New Year’s Eve, there is deep snow, but the Russian still does not attack, and new attack dates are announced. After a big night shooting on New Year’s Eve, the year 1945 is welcomed in the old soldier style in the most atmospheric and outwardly carefree setting. On January 10, 1945, very specific news came from which it emerged that between January 12 and 15, 1945, the start of the Russian winter offensive was to be expected.

For more information on the regiment including pictures: https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Panzerregimenter/PR2-R.htm

 

Items Issued:

Winter Clothes

Mixed Iron portion 

Awards:

KVK 2 with Swords

Summary

In the rear of the Soldbuch was a post card to Horsts father, Heinrich stating that he had lost his wife and two children on a bombing raid on Kassel. The raid on Kassel was on the 22.October 1943 and killed around 10,000 people of the city and displaced over 100,000 people. Interestingly, Horst was allowed to go home for a few days because of the loss of the home and family. The sadness, would not end for the Kaping family, as Horst was killed in action also in Poland in January 1945. The father lost three children and his wife and his home in Kassel.