Identifying missing soldiers, three steps forward and one step backwards

[Jean-Loup]

In this thread I will present four cases of identifications of German soldiers that I managed to solve over the past years, not based on digging, but based on working out mistakes made during the identification process by the authorities. I will present each case seperatly over several days to make the stories more readable.

As we know, there are still millions of WWII foot soldiers reported missing in action. Contrary to popular belief, it is only rarely that these missing are truely missing in the sence that their bodies were "blown to atoms". Such occurences are extremely rare even when there are direct hits by shells, plane crashs or tank cook offs.

Most of the missing Germans when it comes to Western Europe are already buried in military cemeteries, but as unknowns, because they could not be identified at the time their bodies were recovered (see the photo below). Because of the huge task of recovering so many dead after the war, some bodies remained unidentified through of various SNAFUs: a name being improperly spelled, an ID tag being overlooked during an exhumation, etc. It is such cases that I will present here.

Below, an example of SNAFU: a German exhumation report where it is stated that the wearer of that specific ID tag was still alive, and the body found with that tag must therefore not be identified. This shows the "wisdom" of the Germans using coded ID tags instead of the soldier's names!

[Jean-Loup]

Case 1, the corroded ID tag

Let us start with the first case: in 2006, I organised the exhumation of 14 German soldiers in my hometown of Villeneuve-Loubet. With the bodies we recovered 7 ID tags.

[Jean-Loup]

Case 1, the corroded ID tag

One ID tag that was quite corroded was found on what would have been the thorax of body number 6.
Number 6 was still wearing an apparently shrapnel damaged helmet, as well as a belt with no ammo pouches or baionet sheath, giving the impression he may not have been a regular infantry man.

[Jean-Loup]

Case 1, the corroded ID tag

All the ID tags that were recovered were send to the WASt in Berlin. When they sent me a letter with the identifications of the soldiers about a year later, I was very dissapointed to see that the ID tag of body number 6 had not been decoded. The inscription, 10897 1./Gren.Ers.Btl.46 did not correspond to any missing soldier. Because of this, body 6 would be reburied as an unknown, even though he had been wearing his ID tag when he was killed!

[Jean-Loup]

I was very disapointed about this, but didnt know what could be done. Then a few years later, I was making an excel file with the names and info about all "my" German soldiers from southern France. The ID tag inscriptions of these men, who were all members of the same division, were frequently redundant.
I checked my list and found that not a single soldier had an ID tag to a Gren.Ers.Btl.46, the unit of body 6's ID tag. There were many men from a Pionier Bataillon 46, and a few from a Reserve Ersatz Bataillon 461 however.
Furthermore, I noticed that all the men from the Gren.Ers.Btl.461 also had ID tags marked to the 1st Company, just like body number 6.

I realised that in all probabilty, the corroded ID tag of body number 6 had not been read properly in Berlin and that the true inscription was not Gren.Ers.Btl.46, but Gren.Ers.Btl.461.
I therefore sent a letter to Berlin asking them to please check again with 461 as the unit number.

[Jean-Loup]

Case 1, the corroded ID tag

I was very happy to hear back from Berlin a few months later that after checking again with the unit number 461, they had succesfully been able to identify body number 6 as 19 year old Josef Krzyzowski, of the 14th Panzer Jäger Company of Reserve Grenadier Regiment 239. A single number on the ID tag had almost caused Josef to remain unidentified!
The fact that he was in the Panzer Jäger Company was interesting as it confirmed our observations of him not having any standard infantry items on his belt. Presumably he had been a member of a cannon crew, several of which were known to have been killed in the fighting at Villeneuve.

I was overjoyed to know that one more of "my" soldiers had been identified. I unfortunately have not been able to contact any of Josef's relatives yet, though I have sent multiple letters to Poland, where he lived.

Josef's name can now be added to the 7 other names of soldiers who were identified following the 2006 Villeneuve exhumation.

[Steve Sherlock]

Jean-Loup,
What a wonderful thing you have done. Only someone with the perseverance, knowledge and interest as you have could have done this. I think it's safe to say that had you not done this, then Josef Krzyzowski's remains would have remained anonymous forever. Well done!! A fascinating read, as well.

Steve

[Jean-Loup]

Case two, a misspelt name?

Next is case 2.
As I am involved in finding out what soldiers were killed in my part of southern France during the war, I obtained copied of the German Red Cross lists of missing that were established after the war.
As there were only a couple of divisions involved in my area, and since most of the soldiers came from Silesia, Poland (meaning their families were not in much contact with Germany after the war), these lists are typicaly very short, and as I have read over them many times, I recognise the names when I see them.
Below is what these lists look like. Note the guy on the left, Enno Strobel, who is reported MIA at Mont Scandeious, in september 1944. His case was always extra interesting to me as I know that the 517th Parachute Infantry was involved in fighing on Mount Scandeious on 11 September 1944, and there are a few very precise accounts of the ambush that occured that day.

[Jean-Loup]

One day when I was examining graves in Dagneux cemetery, where all the southern France soldiers are now buried, I noticed this grave to an Eno Strubel, who died on 12 september 1944. The fact that no date of birth nor rank is written means that when his body was recovered after the war, the Germans were given his particulars as recorded by those who buried him, but were not able to match those particulars with any known soldier.
Needless to say, when seeing Strubel's grave, I immediately made a connection with the Enno Strobel missing at the exact same time period, particularly as Enno is a rare name. After a bit of research, it turned out that Eno Strubel was one of the Germans who had been buried in the US military cemetery in Draguignan, France, at the time. Germans were normaly only buried in this cemetery, that was manned by US graves registration personnel, when they had died as POWs (usualy in the US military cemetery that was also in Draguignan).

I surmised that Enno Strobel had been captured wounded by the 517th PIR on Mount Scandeious on 11 September 1944, and that he had died of wounds the next day, september 12, the date recorded on the grave. As we know the German script in Soldbuchs can be very hard to read, and presumaly the US personnel who burried him confused the O with a U, turning a known Strobel into a non existant Strubel.

I sent these thoughts to the VDK for further investigation.

[Jean-Loup]

While waiting for a response, I was able to get in touch with Eno Strobel's brother, who thought his brother was missing.
I was very happy to hear back from Kassel and Berlin that after reading my arguments and comparing the Strubel and Strobel files, they were able to conclude that they were indeed one and the same person. The correct name would now be written on the grave, and Strobel would no longer be considered missing.
A simple O being confused with a U had caused a guy to be missing for 71 years!
Strobel's brother was rather angry at the Volksbund for this and refused to get in touch with them.

[Jean-Loup]

As I said, my opinion is that Strobel was probably captured by the 517th PIR on Mount Scandeious on 11 september 1944, and died of wounds the next day.
Interestingly, one of the Americans that participated in the very small scale clash on Mount Scandeious remembered a German being severely wounded and captured. Was this Enno Strobel? My instinct says yes, but I unfortunately have no proof. Eno's brother also doesnt have any information...
Here is the US account:

"...1 was directly behind the point, which consisted of Captain McGeever, Lieutenant Terrell, Sergeant Brogdan, and a private whom I did not know... We advanced to the top of the hill without incident. The point disappeared over the crest of the hill, and there was immediate gunfire, then silence. Everyone hit the ground. Knowing full well that someone had been hit up ahead, I got up and followed the path through the underbrush.

"I came into a clearing and upon six German soldiers who were surrounding Sergeant Brogdan. They were as startled as I was, and turned their guns on me. I did some quick gesturing, explaining that I was a medic. I was searched for weapons ...they took a pair of scissors and scalpel and I was left alone. They went back to the circle around Sergeant Brogdan.
"I went first to Captain McGeever, who was lying on his back. He was already gone. I suspect he died instantly, for he had been stripped of all personal belongings. I then went to the Private, who was on this back unconscious but breathing, and then to Lieutenant Terrell, who was conscious and in great pain. His right hip and buttock were practically blown away, with a great loss of blood. I put a large gauze pad over the wound and got a morphine ampule into his leg.
"The private started breathing very hard, and I knew I couldn't take care of both men. I made it known to the Germans (who were just leaving with Sergeant Brogdan) that I wanted to go for help. They sent a young soldier with me, why I do not know.
"As I came back over the crest of the hill, I kept shouting, 'Don't shoot, this is Terrell, , but as soon as the Jerry was spotted behind me, everybody fired. I hit the dirt. The German was hit in the abdomen. I then put a square pad on him to keep his insides from spilling out.
"Lieutenant Maciag ... then questioned me on whether we should attack or hold off. I said, 'Hell, I've got to go back over there and get two men.' They pulled back off the hill.
"I went slowly back over the hill. I knew the Germans would be waiting, but they were gone. I went first to the Private and tried to raise him up. He died in my arms. I heard a shout, look uphill, and a Jerry had a sight on me. Someone . . .I never knew who ...shot him.
"I then got Lieutenant Terrell up and half-carried and dragged him back to our lines . . ."

[Jean-Loup]

Case 3, the overlooked ID tag

Case 3 is the one I posted recently in this thread: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=914746

In short, 11 German soldiers had been killed at the liberation of the village of La Roquette, in southern France. All of them had been buried in an improvised mass grave near the town, that was excavated after the war, enabling the identification of 7 of the 11 bodies.
Below is la Roquette and the list of identified soldiers.

[Jean-Loup]

Case 3, the overlooked ID tag

When I searched the area of the former grave in the 2000s, I was very surprised to find an ID tag, with numbers that did not correspond to any of the 7 identified men. I therefore concluded the ID tag belonged to one of the 4 unidentified, and sent the information to Berlin.

[Jean-Loup]

Case 3, the overlooked ID tag

After nearly 10 years of waiting, I finaly heard back from the WASt that the soldier had been officialy identified. He was 18 year old Alois Gallus, from Silesia, Poland. I was able to contact his relatives, including some of his siblings. They later published anrticle in their local paper, a google translation of which I post here:

For years the family of Alois Gallus did not know how and where he died as a young soldier. After the war, they had only received a written notification from his lieutenant and company commander indicating that he had been killed in the south of France, in the region of Nice, but without any information about the exact location of burial. If not for the passion and commitment of a man who wanted to discover the secret of those events, the story would still be unexplained.<O</O
Alois Gallus was born on June 3, 1926, in Koselwitz - now called Kozłowice. He was the second son of Peter and Anna Gallus. He came from a large family - he had eight siblings. At the age of eighteen, he was drafted into Reserve Grenadier Bataillon 164 of the German Army. In 1944, he fought in France in the region of Nice.<O</O
“We knew practically nothing of the fate of our ancestor, until we received a telephone notification from the Municipal Office in Gorzow Slaski” says Adam Gallus, a member of the family.<O</O
The only information they had about him was a letter he wrote to his mother 30 June 1944.<O</O
“He told to her about the war and about how it was there” says Adam Gallus. “He said that the time of anxiety should end soon, and that he was homesick and could not wait to return to the family. Unfortunately, he never came back. And if not for the mysterious messages, we may never have learned about what happened to him...”<O</O
On 15 January 2016 Gallus received the first e-mail from Jean-Loup G. - a French physician and passionate historian of the Second World War.<O</O
“He wrote that he was able to identify Alois’ body and that he was looking for surviving members of his family” says Adam Gallus.<O</O
The Gallus family exchanged several messages with the Frenchman, who finally dispelled all ambiguity regarding Alois Gallus.<O</O
<O</O
The young and the brave<O</O
The reserve battalion was a group of soldiers composed mainly of young men of different nationalities. Most that fought in it were Silesians, but there were also Czechs and Germans from the areas belonging to Germany today.<O</O
It was stationed in the south of France in the vicinity of Nice, where the American parachute division First Airborne Task Force was dropped on 15 August 1944, with the mission of liberating the area of Nice and to advance towards Italy.<O</O
At that time, the German troops were not strong enough to stop the Allied advance, so their main task was to delay the march of Americans and provide additional time for their officers to prepare a better defense line further back.<O</O
On August 28, 1944, in la Roquette-sur-Var, eleven soldiers were killed while others taken prisoner. Because of this, the German army did not know who had survived and who had died.<O</O
Witnesses that day said they saw the Poles in German uniforms giving up. Jean-Loup G. learned that one Pole with a white flag running towards the side of the Allies was shot by the Germans. Many wanted to lay down their arms, but the officers of the Wehrmacht used all means to prevent them from doing so.<O</O
<O</O
Determined Frenchman<O</O
Eleven bodies of German soldiers initially lay on the ground without burial, but it was very hot and they began to decompose. The local people decided to bury the corpses in a field near la Roquette without any identification.<O</O
In 1958, employees of the Volksbund (German War Graves Commission) came to la Roquette and exhumed the eleven bodies. Because they were all buried in one grave, they were not able to determine which bones belonged to which soldier. They discovered several rings and seven identification tags, that were used to identify seven of the soldiers, but four remained unidentified. All the bones were transported for re-burial at the German military cemetery in Dagneux, near Lyon.<O</O
Knowing that some bodies were still unknown did not give peace to the French enthusiast, so in 2000 he decided to go to la Roquette and on his own he carried out an investigation into the German soldiers.<O</O
He began by talking with residents, who initially received him reluctantly. Patience paid off. Eventually, he found out about the place where the soldiers had been exhumed less than 40 years earlier.<O</O
<O</O
The French doctor watched and studied the ground, and then together with his friends, decided to once again excavate the area. And then they made a breakthrough, because when they dug in the grave, they found helmets, bullets, clothes and an identification tag.<O</O
During the previous exhumation in 1958 the specialists did not have metal detectors, which limited the accuracy of their work.<O</O
The French doctor sent the information about the recovered identification tag to the Office of affairs of informing the next of kin of the fallen members of the German Wehrmacht in Berlin. It took several years before he received a response, that indicated to whom the identification tag had belonged. As it turned out it was the missing a tag of one of the eleven soldiers killed in la Roquette on 28 August 1944 - and precisely that of Alois Gallus.<O</O
<O</O
“The identification tag belonging to Alois Gallus is made of zinc and remained in good condition. It is characterized by the markings Battalion 164, blood group B, and the identification number is still readable” writes Jean-Loup G. in his book Autopsy of Battle.<O</O
<O</O
“The office in Berlin decided to consider our uncle as officially identified and confirmed that he is one of the eleven buried in Dagneux” says Adam Gallus. “The news abut Alois only came to light in 2015.”<O</O
<O</O
Officially, the young soldier from Kozłowice is now buried in grave 453-454 in block 33 of Dagneux Cemetery in France. His name has been inscribed onto the monument.<O</O
<O</O
Letters that changed everything<O</O
“This message shocked us, it’s a strange feeling to learn about the fate of an ancestor after more than sixty years” says Adam Gallus. “We thought it was impossible, because after the war his siblings tried to get more information about his death.”<O</O
The sisters of the missing soldier living in Germany in the 80s went to Nice to try to find information about him.<O</O
“They came back with nothing” says Adam Gallus. “Alois’ siblings and parents were never able to come to terms with the fact that so little information about the circumstances of his death were known. They lamented that they could not give him a funeral, and that it was not possible to light a candle at his grave.<O</O
When Gallus got in touch with the Frenchman, two sisters and one of Alois’ brothers were still alive.<O</O
“I remember when I gave them the message, everyone was speechless” says Adam Gallus. “Tears rolled down their cheeks. The siblings said that worse than death uncertainty, which lasted more than sixty years. Mr. Jean sent us some pictures of the place where Alois was buried and of the surrounding area, where he died. I have to admit that the views are beautiful, because it’s the middle of the Côte d’Azur.”<O</O
The family has plans to visit the burial place of the fallen ancestor.<O</O
“I want to go to France, to light a candle and pray over the grave of my uncle” says Adam Gallus. “One of his close relatives should at last visit him. Then his parent’s dream will be fulfilled, they wanted to see where their son was killed at least once in their lives. They didnt get that chance, but we might be able to realize their dream.”<O</O
Adam Gallus has corresponded with the French doctor for more than a year. Thanks to him, the mysterious death of an ancestor was clarified.<O</O
“Although Mr Jean already my family all the information about our uncle's death some time ago, he continues to maintain contact” says Adam Gallus. “We are full of admiration for this man, because fulfilling professionally, he also realizes his passions. This is evidenced by all the materials that he sent, that was prepared meticulously. Most importantly, despite numerous trips associated with his explorations, he finds time to share his findings with others, regardless of the language barrier” as it did in our case.<O</O
The Gallus family wants to meet with their new French friend.<O</O
“Mr. G. is a very interesting person and I wish everyone to get to know a man who presents such an attitude” says Adam Gallus. “He mentioned that if we come to France to he will meet with us and show us the place of exhumation and take us to the cemetery. I know that he has already met the families whose ancestors he found. Sometimes I wonder where do these people have in the world today ...”