Soldbuch Normandy KIA Story..1

[Luftm40]

That is a great item! IMO the dark stains on the back of the book are blood. I am currently researching a group of US posthumous medals that have a connection to the events noted here. SSG John Alonzo served as a Platoon Sergeant in Company M, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. He was a long serving NCO who had been decorated with the Silver Star for his actions w/ the 9th ID in N Africa. Specifically, the famous Battle of El Guetar. Alonzo was KIA on 17 June 1944, and it is quite likely he died in a skirmish w/ the 77th ID. The engraved Purple Heart is the medal sent home to his family. The Silver Star and second Purple Heart are those awarded to him in N Africa.

[merdock]

Hi,
Daniele C what a wonderful piece of research i too have a Normandy Kia book but i know very little.

[dennisb]

Dennis, maybe you can't see from the scans posted by Daniele, but I can assure you that the Soldbuch displays quiet a bit of wear; the cover is wrinkled, worn and definitely stained with blood. The Soldbuch sat with Christmann in the pouring rain for about 3 days, and you can see where the water not only caused many of the hand written entries throughout the book to bleed out onto facing pages, but the water also led to much of the blood soaking into the cover, and along the edges of the pages, too. The wear around the bullet hole - from the front cover, through the pages and through the rear cover - is unquestionably very, very old.

I've taken some pictures both in direct sunlight and in low-level light to illustrate this.

The Soldbuch is very worn (see the wear and blood staining on the fabric spine material) and I'd hardly use the words "clean" and "in good condition" to describe it!

See for yourself.....

Rob

Rob,


This gives a whole different look on the Soldbuch!
That hole is definitely of "the" bullet.

Very sad but interesting Soldbuch!!
Thanks for bringing up this thread again.

[Panzer Rob]

That is a great item! IMO the dark stains on the back of the book are blood. I am currently researching a group of US posthumous medals that have a connection to the events noted here. SSG John Alonzo served as a Platoon Sergeant in Company M, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. He was a long serving NCO who had been decorated with the Silver Star for his actions w/ the 9th ID in N Africa. Specifically, the famous Battle of El Guetar. Alonzo was KIA on 17 June 1944, and it is quite likely he died in a skirmish w/ the 77th ID. The engraved Purple Heart is the medal sent home to his family. The Silver Star and second Purple Heart are those awarded to him in N Africa.

Spectacular 9.I.D. grouping, Andy! Sorry, but I did not see your post until now. And yes, it is quite possible he was KIA fighting against the 77.Infanterie-Division. Have you made any further developments with your research? If so, please post it here...

There is no doubt that the stains on the book are in fact blood, and the bullet hole was certainly one of the bullets fired by the Ohio 9.I.D. veteran which took the life of Gefreiter Christmann on 20.June, 1944 - 66 years ago today.

Here's the Soldbuch on display with a few of my other 1944 Invasion of Normandy combatant/casualty IDs.

Rob

[erichcraciun]

So if you are looking for any possible relatives, why wouldn't you take the name, birthdate and birthplace then write to teh local Einwohnermeldeamt? They normally will tell you the names and address of any remaining family members. Please excuse me if this was previously mentioned in the past threads.

Erich

[Panzer Rob]

So if you are looking for any possible relatives, why wouldn't you take the name, birthdate and birthplace then write to teh local Einwohnermeldeamt? They normally will tell you the names and address of any remaining family members. Please excuse me if this was previously mentioned in the past threads.

Erich

Good suggestion, Erich.


Rob