WW2 German Soldbuch – Pz.Nach.Reg ‘Brandenburg’ – Radio Operator – ‘Battle of Bautzen’

Regiment Brandenberg Radio Operator Soldbuch.

This complete Soldbuch issued with photo is in good & clean condition and belonged to a Radio operator within the elite Brandenberg division.

Gunther Becker was a young 17-year-old Berliner when he entered service into the military in April 1944 as can be seen from his photo upon opening the Soldbuch. From his Soldbuch entries, we can see that he entered military training with the Großdeutschland division.

After completing training within the Großdeutschland division he distinguished himself as a competent communications technician, then served within the Großdeutschland division as a radio and communications operator before being posted to Cottbus with the Panzer-Nachrichten-Ersatz-und-Ausbildungs-Abteilung Großdeutschland.

Gunther stayed with the Großdeutschland division until the end of December 1944 when he then joined the newly formed Brandenburg division which was part of the Panzerkorps Großdeutschland.

Gunther was issued a K98 rifle & joined the 1st Kompanie of Panzer Nachrichten-Abteilung Brandenburg,  a communications unit that was operating in East Prussia in the area of the Masurian Lakes.

The division was in need of fresh manpower after taking heavy losses in November 1944 after heavy battles in Serbia and Croatia.

The Russian advance across Poland smashed the German defences in most sectors, one such was south of the city of Litzmanstadt ( now the Polish city of Lodz ) in early January of 1945 the Brandenberg division were sent by train to defend positions on the outskirts of Lodz along with elements from the Herman Goering division. Here they held their ground but after taking heavy losses they had to perform fighting withdrawals towards the Elbe – Elster where the division once again tried to stop the Soviet advance.  Due to how late in the war it was and how chaotic it was Gunther had not many entries in his Soldbuch when it seems he should have.

Gunther was involved in the Battle of Bautzen at the end of April 1945 when the Brandenburg division along with the 1. Fallschirm-Panzer-Division-HG where they achieved a small victory as they smashed and took out over half of the Polish 2nd Army's armored cars. 

The division had been defending the eastern bank of the Oder river against superior Russian enemy forces until May 1945 when they tried to flee to American lines to surrender, some were taken by the US but most were taken by  Soviet forces. The members of the division not able to reach American lines fell into Soviet captivity in the Czech city of Brod.

We can clearly see from Page 1 within the Soldbuch that Gunther was taken prisoner by the Soviets since his name has been written in Russian on the page also. 

Brandenburgers Divisional Sign (Below)