Original WWII German Kriegsmarine/Wehrmacht Soldbuch – Karl Lauerer – Grenadier Regiment 404 – 246 VGD – MP44 – Battle of Aachen

Description

Karl Lauerer was enlisted in the summer of 1944, and sent to a Marine replacement unit.

Issued – MP44 in September 1944, Helmet and Fat Dish

He was sent to Grenadier Regiment 404 (246 Volksgrenadier Division) 

They took part in the Battle of Aachen.

The 246th Volksgrenadier Division was a German Army infantry division formed on 15 September 1944 from the partially formed 565th Volksgrenadier Division during the final stages of World War II, primarily tasked with bolstering defenses along the Siegfried Line as part of the Wehrmacht’s desperate efforts to halt the Allied advance into Germany. Composed of a heterogeneous mix of undertrained personnel—including reclassified sailors, Luftwaffe ground crew, older reservists, and remnants from other shattered units—the division numbered approximately 4,600 to 6,000 troops at its activation, equipped with limited heavy weapons such as a handful of Mark IV tanks, 105 mm howitzers, and anti-tank guns. Under the command of Colonel Gerhard Wilck from October 12, 1944, it was rapidly deployed to the Aachen sector as part of LXXXI Corps, relieving the battle-worn 116th Panzer Division just weeks before the U.S. First Army’s assault.
The division’s most notable engagement was the Battle of Aachen from October 2 to 21, 1944, where it formed the core of the garrison defending the city’s urban core and surrounding fortifications against encirclement by elements of the U.S. 1st, 30th, and 26th Infantry Divisions.  Employing improvised tactics such as basement-to-basement tunneling, sniper fire from cellars and bunkers, and sporadic counterattacks with assault guns, the understrength unit inflicted significant casualties on the attackers while holding key strongpoints like the Hotel Quellenhof and Lousberg Heights.

Despite relief attempts by adjacent formations such as the 3rd Panzergrenadier and 116th Panzer Divisions, supply lines were severed by October 16, leaving the garrison isolated with dwindling ammunition, food, and medical supplies.[2] Wilck, under direct orders from Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt to fight to the last man, surrendered the remaining 1,100 defenders on October 21 after 11 days of intense house-to-house combat, marking the first capture of a major German city by Allied forces and resulting in approximately 2,500 German killed or wounded and 3,473 captured from the division.

Following Aachen, the division’s remnants—reduced to battalion strength after heavy losses in the Hürtgen Forest fighting—were refitted and redeployed to the Ardennes sector for the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, where it supported the German offensive but suffered further attrition against U.S. defenses at Elsenborn Ridge. By early 1945, the shattered formation was absorbed into other units or disbanded amid the collapsing Western Front, exemplifying the Wehrmacht’s reliance on hastily raised Volksgrenadier divisions to counter overwhelming Allied superiority in manpower and firepower.

Since there is not many entries after the Battle of Aachen, he was not listed as KIA/MIA but it is safe to assume he was taken POW.