Wehrpaß to a 27 Panzer Division soldier

[Patrick Dempsey]

Hello Angel,
here's a quick scan of an entry in a Wehrpass that i am working on at the moment.
The man in question served in 4 Panzer Divisions, the 2nd,22nd,27th and 11th during his service life.
A life which took in 6 calender years,the Polish,Belgian,French (and then travel to both Bulgaria and Romania),Greek and Soviet campaigns and final surrender to the Americans in the Bohemian forest in 1945.
His award tally is also impressive, but the award you are after i have attached here( interestingly above it and -crossed out- is a Bulgarian award.The "Soldiers cross for bravery in war" 3rd class..from when allies became enemies).
At the time of the award he was serving in the 27th Panzer division.
If you would like more service/award scans just let me know.

All the best,
Patrick.

[Angel Farré]

It will be nice to see other pages from this Wehrpass. Till today I have seen only Italian medals written off in Soldbuch and Wehrpass, now also Bulgarian ones.

Thanks

Angel

[Ian Jewison]

Gents,
I have created a new thread as it does not follow the snipers thread....

Rgds., Ian

[Patrick Dempsey]

More scans part one.

Hello again Angel,
as requested here are futher scans from the Wehrpass.....

We start off with a record of the units that our man Fritz Pfeiffer served with.
Starting with the Vienna stationed 2nd Panzer division, and finishing in 1945 with the 11th panzer division.
Interesting entry for the heavy weapons training unit too (10.11.44 to 13.11.44).

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part two.

And onto the next...

Entries for the invasion of Poland.

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part 3.

The Belgian, French, and Balkan campaigns.
Sorry i had to keep the file size large due to the smaller text on this one.

It's worth noting that 2nd Panzer was involved in the battles for Dunkirk and as such was also involved in the attack on Wormhoudt (section 2A), the place where the "Totenkopf" division sullied it's name for the first time.
On the opposite page, we have entries for deployment and movement through Rumania and Bulgaria, and then the invasion of Greece.

In section III we have entries of interest:
1. Breakthrough battles through the "Metaxas line".
2. Battle for Mount Olympus, and the taking of Larissa.

After the fall of Greece he was rotated back to Germany to prepare for the invasion of the Soviet union.

Fritz is then assigned to the 22nd panzer division which was in the process of forming and training in France ( the hand written section 25.9.1941).

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part4.

Here we have the first engagements in the Crimea.
A series of defensive, breakthrough, cauldron and pursuit battles in the Krim peninsula
(also at the bottom of the page you will see the final location of Fritz -the "Bohmerwald"- at the wars end).

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part 5.

More of the Soviet campaign.
Now Fritz is serving with the 27th Panzer (his previous division the 22nd Panzer was disbanded due to losses both human and mechanical). This division seems not to have been deployed as a whole, Fritz along with other elements seem to have fought a series of defensive actions in support of the Italian 8th army.

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part 6.

Rank and awards.
Fritz finished the war as an Oberfeldwebel, and on the facing page page his first batch of awards included:
Austrian "Anschluss" medal.
The annexation of Czechoslovakia medal.
Iron cross first class.
Iron cross second class.
Motor vehicle drivers badge.
Wound badge.

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part 7.

Details of various wounds and illness.
Actually some help would not go amiss here..something has happened to his foot...but what?

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part 8.

At the bottom of this page it looks as if Fritz was awarded the War merit cross second class with swords, and the first class without..

[Patrick Dempsey]

Part 9.

Last one (stop cheering at the back )

Interesting entry here at the top of the page.
I think it mentions that Fritz has signed up for a ten year service span(?)
And at the bottom we have the final notification of his surrender to the Americans..look at the date.

well i hope you enjoyed the scans, as you can see there is a lot of information to research and digest in here, and it will keep me occupied for some time yet.
Now if you will excuse me, i'm off for a cup of tea after all this frantic scanning and posting!

All the best,
Patrick.

[Ian Jewison]

Patrick,
Are the entries for the EK I & II and the KVK I in the same hand writing? Also is it ink or ballpoint pen?

/Ian

[Patrick Dempsey]

Hello Ian,
in the book the writing is in ink, and the style matches the entry on page 22 for the promotion to Feldwebel (same timeframe too 1942 for the KVK entry at least, not sure it's the same hand for the EK though..)

Patrick.

[Gary T]

Ian,

I was just going to ask exactly the same thing....can you show us a close up of the EK entries and the Feldwebel promotion?

Cheers,
Gary.