Heeres Soldbuch 

Opened in August 1943 in Altenburg 

Gefreiter Herbert Schneider 

Frontline units:

Heeres Festungs Artillerie Abt 1050 (17th Armee) (Versetzt 10.1944) 

From the end of July 1944, the newly established 17th Army was then deployed in Galicia between San and Wisloka. From the beginning of October 1944 to mid-January 1945, the army was used for trench warfare on the Wisloka between the Vistula and the Carpathians

Heeres Artillerie Brigade 777 (March 1945) 

Armed with 17cm Artillery, pictured below. His unit was amalgamated into Heeres Artillerie Brigade 732 , (9 Armee) 

The Red Army crossed Germany’s border on January 12, 1945, and forced the 9th Army to retreat all along the front until it was deployed westward to the river Oder. Three of the 9th Army’s formations were tasked with defending the Seelow Heights, which was the last defensible region before Berlin. To the north was the CI Army Corps, in the centre General Helmuth Weidling’s LVI Panzer Corps, and to south of the Heights was the XI SS Panzer Corps. In addition south of Frankfurt (which was defended by the Frankfurt Garrison) was the V SS Mountain Corps. In total the 9th Army was reduced to 100,000 men and 800 tanks and assault guns against which the Soviets had over 1,000,000 men and 10,000 tanks and assault guns.

The Battle of the Seelow Heights started on 16 April 1945 when Marshal Georgy Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front attacked across the Oder. The 9th Army held the line for about 3 days. After heavy fighting Weidling’s LVI Panzer Corps was driven back towards Berlin. Most of the CI Army Corps divisions, now north of the salient created by the 1st Belorussian Front were reassigned along with LVI Panzer Corps to Army Detachment Steiner which was tasked with counter-attacking and pinching off the salient in an unrealistic plan conceived by Hitler. In the end Weidling’s corps was driven back into Berlin and he was promoted to commander of the Berlin Defensive Area, reporting directly to Hitler. Theodor Busse and the rest of the 9th Army were driven into a pocket in the Spree Forest south of the Seelow Heights and west of Frankfurt an der Oder.

From inside the pocket west of Frankfurt Busse attempted a breakout to the west to join up with the 12th Army. The breakout, known as the Battle of Halbe, resulted in the destruction of the Ninth Army as a coherent force. Troops that were not captured or killed by the Soviets crossed the Elbe at Tangermünde and surrendered to the US Army.

A great documentary about the Last Army… 

Items Issued: 

28.7.1944 – Iron Rations 

K98 Rifle and Bayonet

In summary: It seems Schneider was in March still with his unit, he is not listed as KIA or MIA. But he was with the 9th Army during its final end, what happened to Schnieder we will never know for sure. 

 

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…

Soldbuch to Marine Artillerie Obergefreiter Otto Runge Runge was born into a protestant family in 1924, in the area of Köslin. His Soldbuch was issued in August 1942 by: Marine-Artillerie-Ersatz-Ausbildungs-Kompanie Haarlem (Holland)  After a while in training and various other duties Runge was sent to a new unit. Marine-Artillerie-Abteilung 203 Considered to be the most important battery on the South of the Scheldt. Marineküstenbatterien are usually large strongpoints and this one was no exception.  A German map of March 1944 shows the exact location of the strongpoint, as well as the presence of minefields. Actually, the strongpoint was only protected by a small minefield to its left and by a Grossminenfeld behind it, 113 Virginie. Despite the importance of the strongpoint, the exact function of some of the smaller remaining bunkers is still unclear. As often, we extend an invitation for comments and corrections. The MKB Cadzand also played an important role during the liberation fighting in West-Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the autumn of 1944. More information on this is available on this page. This battery was undoubtedly the most important one within the Festung Schelde-Süd, considering its modern guns and excellent fire-direction equipment. The attentive reader may have noted the presence of an M195 bunker above, was aw a bunker with an open emplacement on top. Indeed, one of the guns was able to fire 360° as a result of this. Seeing the importance of this construction of another open emplacement was started in mid-September and completed on 1 October. With the Kriegsmarine wanting to keep 2 guns trained on the Schelde estuary, the other 2 were mainly used against the Canadians at the Leopold canal. On 27 October the battery had the doubtful honour of being the only one not yet captured by the Canadians. Interestingly, on this day Runge was awarded an Iron Cross Second Class Also on this day, the two guns still inside the bunkers were destroyed by the Germans. With the benefit of hindsight, this may have been too early, especially since the battery only surrendered on 2 November. The FuMO 214 Würzburg Riese (Seetakt) radar was the subject of quite a saga, perfectly illustrating the chaos in those days. On 6 September the Admiral Niederlanden was informed that the radar had been blown up the day before on the orders of Korvettenkapitän Immo Hopman because important parts were missing. On enquiry the admiral learnt that the device had not been blown up, but had been prepared for destruction. The operators of the radars, however, had been ordered to withdraw by the 41. Funkmesskompanie and had taken essential parts with them. The Seekommandant Süd-Holland threatened to have the radar blown up in the parts were not returned. In the absence of such a return the radar was eventually blown up on 13 October, with the approval of the Admiral Niederlanden. When Cadzand-Dorp was liberated by the Canadians on 28 October 1944, the commander of the 64 Infanteriedivision, general Eberding wanted to evacuate the battery. It took some persuasion by the commander of the MAA 203, Korvettenkapitän Ernst Schleeweis to convince Eberding that the battery could be defended well against attacking infantry. On 30 October the battery was attacked for the first time by Canadian infantry. As expected, the battery resisted well, using the 2 15cm guns in the open to good effect. In the following Allied artillery response 4 Flak guns were destroyed. On 31 October the Canadians attacked again. In the process of this attack the Canadians were able to enter the battery from 2 sides, only to be repulsed and pushed back by german counterattacks, supported by the naval batteries Zoutelande and Dishoek on Walcheren. By evening many Germans were wounded. Those still unhurt were exhausted, most weapons were out of order and ammunition was extremely low. Not surprisingly the decision was taken to surrender at the next attack. On 1 November, however, the Canadians did not attack the battery. Making use of the lull in the fighting the Germans requested the Canadians to take over 20 heavily-wounded soldiers for treatment in hospital, which the Canadians refused. In a further attempt to have their wounded comrades evacuated the Germans requested the Seekomandant to send assault boats to extract the wounded, but this was deemed impossible by the latter. Just past noon on 2 November, the MKB Cadzand surrendered. Another source for info: https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/history/battlehonours/northwesteurope/breskenspocket.htm   Notes: Finding a Soldbuch related to this battle is quite hard, a really sought after area in our collecting circles. A nice entry confirms Runge fighting against the Canadian Forces at the Scheldt on the 27th of October 1944, the day his unit did not surrender and was the only one still active in the area.   A movie made recently about this battle: