WWII German Soldbuch Obergefreiter Josef Niewiera – Stalag IIID Berlin – Festungs Grenadier Regiment 863 – 348 ID (Normandy)

Description

Wehrmacht Soldbuch 

Issued June 1940, to Josef Niewiera.

Frontline Units

Stalag IIID Berlin – (1940 – 1942) The camp was established on 14 August 1940 on the corner of Landweg and Osdorfer Straße in Berlin-Lichterfelde. The commandant and camp administration offices (Kommandantur) were later located at Belle-Alliance-Straße 106-107, in Kreuzberg. With prisoners from Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, Poland, United States, Italy and Czechoslovakia, the camp’s maximum capacity was 58,000 men. Prisoners were mostly allocated to sub-camps (Zweiglager) and work details (Arbeitskommando) in and around the city.

Grenadier (Festungs) Regiment 863 (1943 – 1944/45)

The 348th Infantry Division was created on 14 September 1942 for the OB West during World War II. The unit was formed as a ground-based division. The officer corps and the majority of the non-commissioned officers had combat experience from other theaters of war and were transferred to the division either after recovering or from a deployment at home. The troops were mostly made up of older, poorly trained soldiers. The reinforcements and supply troops were only poorly trained and reliant on fixed installations. After its formation, the division was deployed from November 1942 onwards to protect the coast in the Dieppe area and to the northeast. At the time of the Allied landings at Dieppe in August 1942, the division was still training in the hinterland and did not directly intervene in the fighting on the beachhead.

After the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, the division remained in the Dieppe area and was not transferred to Normandy until mid-August 1944. During the fighting there, the division was wiped out within a very short time and officially disbanded on September 29, 1944.

Equipment / Medals

Personal D.W Pistol , War Merit Cross with Swords – 20.4.1943

It seems he was either captured or there are no records on him or his fate.