Description
Soldbuch to Gefreiter Erich Lenauer
He was born in Munich in 1923 into a Catholic family, and worked as a tailor in his civilian life.
Lenauer was enlisted in May 1942, with a mountain troop replacement unit.
After a period of training in various GJ (Mountain troop) units he was sent in early 1943 to his frontline unit:
Gebirgsjäger Regiment 99 (1 Gebirgsjäger Division)
According to his Soldbuch he was with this unit from around August 1942 till mid 1943.
The Don was crossed on August 5, 1942, and between August 12 and 21, 1942, the high passes of the Caucasus between the Elbrus, Maruch, Bgala and Adsapsch passes were taken. Then the regiment marched over the Matruckkojpass, the Klochorpaß (August 17, 1942) and the Elbrus towards Ssuchum. But on the Elbrus the advance came to a standstill. By September 1942, the Russian pressure on the German positions increased more and more. After the other parts of the 1st Mountain Division had been withdrawn to attack Tuapse, the regiment remained as the only part of the 1st Mountain Division on this section of the front. Due to the threatening overall situation, the withdrawal began for this regiment in December 1942.
On January 27, 1943, the regiment reunited with the division. The regiment withdrew into the looming Kuban bridgehead. In January the Kuban was crossed at Usti-Labinskaya. On January 31, 1943, the Goths position was taken. Subsequently, the Hubertus position was taken up to February 5, 1943 and the Poseidon position from February 22, 1943. On March 22, 1943, the regiment was withdrawn from the front and transferred to the Crimea. From here we went to the Balkans by train. From Bulgaria the regiment moved to the black mountains of Montenegro, where it arrived in April 1943. In the Balkans there was heavy and fierce fighting with Tito partisans during “Operation Schwarz” in May 1943. On June 16, 1943 the regiment was then transferred to Greece.
After a period with various illnesses and time in healing and with a replacement unit he was sent to his next frontline unit:
Hoch Gebirgsjäger Battalion 201 (1 Gebirgsjäger Division)
After having been hastily trained and equipped in Garmisch, Mittenwald and Sonthofen, the Heerestruppe battalion was transfered to the West and was put under direct command of AOK 19.
The command was given to Major Franz Seebacher, an Austrian from Graz. This former officer of the 4. Gebirgs-Division had very much combat experience. In one of his prior posts he served as the commanding officer of the III./Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 91 from August 1943 – May 1944 on the Eastern Front (awarded with the German Cross in Gold).
Soon after arriving on the spot still in October 1944 the unit was thrown into combat. The battlefield situation and tactical circumstances on the German side towards the end of October can be characterised with confusion and desperate attempts of taking defensive measures to stop the Americans. Trying to hold the positions in the Vosges mountains and to avoid the advance of the US forces towards Colmar and Strassbourg and to finally reach the Reich’s border through the Alsatian Plain, the fightings of the much under-strength forces of 19. Armee were fierce. 16. Volksgrenadier-Division (Gen. Haeckel) had virtually ceased to exist as an infantry unit, whereas Panzer-Brigade 106 “Feldherrnhalle” on his right had failed to stop the US 3rd Division. Also General Egdar Feuchtinger’s 21. Panzer-Division was preparing to pull back from Baccarat. With a twenty-mile gap in the german main defense line, the only card left to play was that of Geb.Jg.Btl. 201.To complicate the situation, the sister unit of the btl. – Heeres-Gebirgsjäger-Bataillon 202 – had been cut off behind the frontline in the Foret Domaniale de Champ eastward from Belmont [greater Saint-Dié region] and the Army and Korps headquarters were near to count it as lost. So, Geb.Jg.Btl. 201, what had arrived only a few days earlier, started a desperate rescue mission around 26 October 1944. That ended successfully, although the own and the casualties of the sister unit were very high.
The memory and the description about these days by the battalions Adjutant Vitus Kolbinger :
”It was a senseless fight. In the days to follow [= after 26 October], our battalion was left completely in the dark about ist hopeless situation, and resupply was almost nonexistent, while the enemy bombarded us ceaselessly with artillery, mortars, tanks, and aircraft.”
During the next weeks the 19. Armee was pushed backed towards the Alsatian Plain and with the Upper Rhine in the back the struggle for Geb.Jg.Btl. 201 went on. One of the hardest fightings took place in the Kientzheim / Sigolsheim area in mid December 1944.
As part of the german counter-attack to re-occupy the last Vosges mountain positions in front of the Plain, the battalion as part of 19. Armee was involved in Unternehmen “Habicht”, which was ordered mainly on initiative by Himmler. This was meant to be a diversion in the Upper Alsace, a few days prior to the last German main strike, the “Ardennenoffensive”. Operation “Habicht” did bring a series of the most violent and desperate fightings in autumn/winter 1944 at this theatre of war. After the US 36th Division had attacked Riquewihr on 12 December, the counter-attack was started to stop and throw out the US troops from the area KAYSERBERG – KIENTZHEIM – SIGOLSHEIM. Le Mont de Sigolsheim [Sigolsheimer Berg] changed hands numerous times and was called “Blutberg” – Bloody Hill, by the participants. The term of the Alsacian inhabitants for the hill was “Blutbuckel”. Directly nearby, at Kientzheim, the Führer of the 2./201, Leutnant Krebs, was KIA on 14 December.
According to Lenauers Soldbuch, we can see he was issued a Rifle just before the outbreak of the battle as well as various items of combat gear, and he was for sure at the final battles in December as he was still with his unit in January of 1945, as part of the Stab. He was issued a Red Cross ID in January 1945 by the very adjutant who admitted it was a hopeless fight Oberleutnant Kolbinger.
For more information on his unit during the last battles in 1945 including then and now photos see here:
https://standwheretheyfought.jimdofree.com/alsace-2011-the-battle-of-riquewihr-and-operation-habicht-dec-12-dec-14-1944-then-and-now/
Interestingly his capture papers/discharge were tucked in the back of his Soldbuch and a note in the back of the Red Cross ID shows he was employed by US forces in Rosenheim in a Military hospital before he was discharged. Lastly, in the Soldbuch was a small slip of paper from his wife in connection with his pension in July 2001.
A nice grouping from an odd and obscure GJ unit who was plunged into combat with the US Army.