Description
Very hard to find such a good Normandy related Soldbuch to this division, which came into action right on D-Day!
Listing took from original sale is very well done and I have added to it below:
Soldbuch to Unteroffizier Franz Münz. First issue from April 1940. Münz was trained as a Heeresflak soldier and then served with the 1. Kompanie of Fla-Bataillon 59, which fought with the 29.ID in the Western campaign. He took a bullet in his left lung in France during the Summer of 1940. His hospitals include Bourges and Orléans, and he was released from hospital in January 1941. The wound might have been considered an accident first, but January 1943, Münz was treated for this same wound again and he finally received a Verwundetenabzeichen. After a long time with reserve units and Landesschützen-Bataillon 604 in Frankfurt am Main, Münz returned to the front with Fla-Bataillon (mot.) 607, and then the 3. (Fla) Kompanie of Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 in 1944. His Kompanie was armed with 2 cm Flak guns, but other weaponry of the Pz.Jg.Abt.243 included fourteen Marder 38 and ten StuG III.
With the 243.ID, Münz experienced D-Day on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy and very soon began fighting against the Allied paratroopers near Saint-Mère-Église alongside the 91. Luftlande division. The divisional commander was already killed on D-Day +1. After less than two weeks of intense fighting, the 243.ID was pushed back by the 9th US ID and the 82nd Aiborne and cut off from the main German force, retreating to Cherbourg and destroyed there by the end of June. On 27th of June, Münz earned the Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen for the fighting in Normandy. He then avoided capture or worse and was among the smaller parts of the division who escaped from the Cotentin encirclement through the south. He fought with the remains of the 243.ID combined with the 77.ID at Saint-Lô, and received a promotion to Unteroffizier on 1st of August and also the EKII on the same date for his actions in Normandy.
Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 (Pz.Jg.Abt.243) : Kdr : Oberleutnant Franz Fallnich
HQ/Gefechtsstand : La Commanderie Stab – La Commanderie (6 kilometers east of Les Pieux) (13 May)
The Panzerjäger Abteilung had 14 Marder 38 and 10 StuG III.7 They had been sent to the division in March 1944.8 Also the battalion had a company with twelve 2 cm Flak guns.9 One of these was on tracked chassis, while two were motorized.
Panzerjäger-Abteilung 243 : (Oberleutnant Franz Fallnich – CP: La Commanderie)
1. Kp (CP: Aux-Petits)
2. Kp (CP: Le-Pont-aux-Moines)
243. Infanterie-Division formed as a Bodenständige-Division in 1941. (Strength on 1st May 1944 11,529 + at least 442 HiWis)
Commanded by Generalleutnant Heinz Hellmich, on 1st May 1944 the Division’s strength was listed as 11,529 + at least 442 HiWis. Their heavy equipment, such as artillery pieces and anti-tank guns, tended to be obsolete models or captured Czech, French, and Russian weapons of varied effectiveness. Despite all the disadvantages listed, however, the Division had one thing on their side: many of the officers and non-commissioned officers were battle-hardened veterans from the Eastern Front, and their leadership would later prove worthy of the task set out before them. The division was formed in July 1943 in Döllersheim, Germany, and sent to Normandy in the autumn. Originally it was a static division, but it had been gradually upgrading its mobility and in May 1944 it had comparatively good mobility for a German infantry division in the west.
By 23 July however, the division had only four depleted infantry battalions, eight heavy AT guns, three StuG and nine artillery batteries left was rated to have “Kampfwert V” which was the lowest assignable. It was decided 10 August that the 243. Division should be rebuilt using the 182. Reserve Division, but this was never carried out and the division was disbanded 12 September.
Lucky Man
As the 243.ID was officially dissolved, Münz joined his last Heeresflak unit, the Fla-Kompanie of Kampfgruppe 2/XIII that same autumn. This unit was also nicknamed “Kampfgruppe Gneisenau” and fought in northeast France, until it was absorbed by the newly erected 16. Volksgrenadier-Division in the Vosges mountains. Münz was wounded again on 5th of February 1945; these were critical days for the 16.VGD as they were nearly surrounded in the Vosges just west of Colmar, but they managed to escape east and cross the Rhine at Neuenburg. Münz was evacuated to hospital in Tirol and would not see action again; he was sent home on 1st of May and might have even avoided capture at the end of the war.
The Soldbuch is in a very used (with loose pages) but still complete condition, including the portrait photo and an extra front cover. It really shows the wear of five years in his pocket, and is packed with entries, also including P.38 pistols, Czech rifles and a Tarnnetz in the equipment section. Münz received a total of four awards, also including a Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen in 1941: all were related to the Western Front.
More links:
https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/battle-of-normandy/forces/germany/243-infanterie-division
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=678
