Soldbuch Grenadier Lehr Brigade POW in ITALY

[Daniele C]

Here s a nice soldbuch of Gottlieb Horrer(?) that after spending the first few years of the war in various Verpflegungsamt he was assigned first briefly with Jnfanterie Lehr Regiment then fought with Grenadier Regiment 72 of 46.Infanterie Division in southern Russia in 1943 and was wounded there receiving EK2 and Wound badge in black.

He then joined again the Jnfanterie Lehr Regiment where he will fight in the Anzio/Nettuno Landing in Italy under command of the 3.Panzergrenadier Division and he will earn the EK1 there.

He and the Lehr Regiment will then be reorganised into the Grenadier Lehr Brigade where he will fight attached to the 26.Panzer Division first in August then 65.Infanterie Division , 42.Jaeger Division,362.Infanterie Division, 4.FJ Division in September as a "Fire Brigade" in the ARNO Line in Tuscany.

In October the Gren.Lehr Brigade is moved to the 10.Armee south of Bologna attached to the 4.FJ Division and 362.Infanterie Division again used as a fire brigade unit.

Sometime in October/November He is taken POW by the US troops south of Bologna (SEE MAP ATTACHED) ....

There s a lot more i would have loved to write as I just found the Grenadier Lehr Brigade War Diary about those months in Italy explaining where exactly thy fought but i dont have time at the moment

The soldbuch goes well with my Infanterie Lehr Regiment M36 jacket

[Daniele C]

1

[Admiraal]

Nice Soldbuch and uniform Dani
You are lucky that the war-diary to this unit is available.

[matthias_AC]

Nice salty Soldbuch and interesting background. I have to admit I didn't know Grenadier Lehr Brigade existed, thanks for educating me!

[mufasa]

Very nice Soldbuch Daniele....

[Ironcrown]

Nice Soldbuch!
The Grenadier Lehr Brigade was considered an élite unit, but it was such only on paper, at least initially. It was composed by highly selected personnel that had, on the other hand, a very limited combat experience. The unit had the baptism of fire in Italy at Anzio, when Hitler selected it personally to be used as the spearhead of a counterattack. The attack was launched, and the Lehr suffered terrible losses by the allied artillery fire.
However, I think that with the long time spent at the front, the men who survived acquired experience. On the Gothic line the Lehr suffered very big losses as well, even before coming to the first line it was hit by the artillery and suffered big losses (I don't see this mentioned on the war diary, but I found it on other sources).

The Lehr Brigade war diary, as well as the war diaries of many other units, is also available online now, here:
https://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/de/nodes/1-fond-500

Unfortunately I didn't find the way to download the diaries in one file, only online reading seems available at the moment or the download as pdf of each page (a long process if you want to have the entire document in your archive!)