Description
Soldbuch to Frederich Eberlein
He was born in 1900 into a Protestant family, and was a teacher in his civilian life and was married.
His Soldbuch was issued in July 1944 with a driving unit.
Frontline units:
Heeres Flakartillerie Brigade 505
His last unit in 1945 was:
1 Armee Korps z.b.v Kraftfahr Ersatz A.A 13 (Division Number 413)
The division moved into a defensive section on both sides of Aschaffenburg and secured the Main Line here. However, the division was completely unsuitable for defense, so that on March 26th, American units were able to cross the Main via a railway bridge south of Schweinsheim that had not been blown up and form a bridgehead. Division No. 413 was unable to remove this, which is why the 36th Volksgrenadier Division was brought in for support. Division No. 413 then took over the defense of the Hanau – Aschaffenburg – Miltenberg section with all the troops in it for defense. It turned out, however, that there were no troops at all in the Hanau – Aschaffenburg area. The division then withdrew to the east in the Coburg area. Here the division received the order to advance from the Coburg area via the Schleussingen-Römhild line in the direction of Meiningen into the flank of the advanced Allied units in order to cut off supplies. However, the division’s attacks did not penetrate. By April 10, 1945, the division’s battle front had already been split into small groups by the advance of several armored spearheads. These stood individually, without connection to the division, in a defensive battle against strong Allied forces that advanced eastwards via the Schleussingen – Hildburghausen – Rodach line. At noon that day, the combat group of the division headquarters was pushed back by a tank attack on the eastern edge of the Callenberg Forest. Towards evening the combat group had to retreat to Coburg. Of the units subordinate to the division, generally only the command staffs with insignificant troops remained after the fighting for Coburg. The division formed three combat groups from this, but they were only able to block the routes of retreat against weak enemy forces in order to slow the enemy advance. The combat groups went over the line Sonnenberg – Steinach – Neuhaus – Lichte – Graefenthal through the Thuringian Forest and from there to the east behind the Saale near Saaldorf and north of Hof to Posseck. There were no battles, but the combat groups were repeatedly attacked by enemy armoured reconnaissance troops and then had to evade quickly. At Posseck, the staff collected scattered people and the remains of various associations and branches of service. In addition, the division was assigned an assault gun platoon, which made effective anti-tank defense possible for the first time. It was also possible to delay the opponent’s action against Bad Elster for three days through the stubborn defense of Gottmarsgrün and Rosbach. On April 19, the front could be extended to the north via Bergen, thus establishing a connection with its northern neighbour, the 347th Infantry Division. In the meantime Bad Elster had been declared a hospital town. Accordingly, the enemy pressure shifted to Bergen-Arnsgrün. After heavy artillery fire with simultaneous tank attack, the height of Bergen was lost. On April 22, 1945, the defensive front was withdrawn from the Freiberg – Arnsgrün – Bärenloh line to the Marieney – Leubetha – Jugelsburg line, leaving battle outposts in place, and extended southwards via Raunergrund to the Bad Brambach – Fleissen road. From April 22, 1945, enemy activity in the newly occupied position subsided. Only gradually did the enemy pressure increase to such an extent that the battle outposts had to be withdrawn from the HKL. On April 28, 1945, the division was subordinated to the Schmidt Police Regiment in the Muldenberg – Schöneck area. On May 4th, the enemy attack began on the division’s HKL, which had been breached in several places after a short time. At 16.15 the enemy penetrated Klingenthal and attacked the heights of Aschberg – Obersachsenberg – Grünberg – Neudorf. By 5 p.m. the enemy armored forces were in possession of these high positions. The middle of the division withdrew to the woodland east of these heights. During the night the remainder of the division returned to the Sauersack – Frühbuss line. In this line, the division went into captivity on May 8, 1945.
He was issued rifles and pistols as late as April 1945!
He was captured and sent to a POW camp in France, (PG 363281). A nice Drivers licence with photo, he was allowed to drive interestingly motors vehicles that were operated by generators!
