Field Unit Help

[Blued]

Hi guys,

I am finishing the documentation of one of my soldbuchs, but I'm puzzled at a transition point in the soldier's career. Below is an excerpt list of all the entries before and after the point when the soldier appears to be engaged in combat before being wounded and awarded the VWAS and EK2. But I can't seem to determine which field unit he was in. On Page 4, the only field units listed are Inf Rgt 553 and Ers Btl 329 (both being a part of 329th Inf Div), however I.E.B. 397 doesn't seem to be associated with IR 553 or 329 ID.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know if you need any additional info or pics.

Thanks for your help!!!

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As mentioned, here is an excerpt from all the entries I compiled:

1941-08-16 through 1941-09-03 – Leave to “Schönow bei Bernau” (near Berlin)
- Authorized 1941-08-16 with I.E.B. 397 (Pg 23)

1941-10-01 – Promoted to Obergefreiter (Pg 1)
- Authorized 1941-10-04 with 1./I.E.B. 397 (Pg 3)
o 1./I.E.B. 397 was a part of *****

1941-10-25 through 1941-11-09 – Leave to “Schönow bei Bernau” (near Berlin)
- Authorized 1941-10-23 with I.E.B. 397 (Pg 23)

1941-12-17 – Equipment issued with I.E.B. 397 (Pg 6)

1941-12-28 – Deemed “K.V.” (Pg 14)

1942-04-05 through 1942-05-15 “Res. Laz. Löwenbergi. Schl.” (Pg 12-13)
- Admitted for “Granatsplitter rechts Oberschenkel” (Grenade shrapnel to right thigh) (Pg 12-13)
- 1942-04-03 – Equipment issued at Hospital (Pg 6)
- 1942-04-20 – Awarded VWA in Schwarz in hospital (Pg 22)
- 1942-04-20 – Awarded EK2 in hospital (Pg 22)
- 1942-05-15 – Equipment issued at Hospital (Pg 6)
- 1942-05-29 through 1942-06-11 Leave to “Schönow bei Bernau” (near Berlin)
o Authorized 1942-05-27 with I.E.B. 12 (Pg 23)
• I.E.B. 12 was a part of I.R. 553
- 1942-06-15 – Equipment issued at Hospital (Pg 6)


1942-06-18 – Equipment issued with I.E.B. 39 (Pg 6)
1942-06-26 – Equipment issued with I.E.B. 39 (Pg 6)
- I.E.B. 39 was part of I.R. 553 which was a part of 329th Inf Div

[Blued]

Two more items I am trying to decipher:

1) what exactly is this unit. It appears to be "schw. Gr. E.u.A.Btl. 253", but I can't find this in Lexicon anywhere

2) Can anyone determine what the first two items are and also what "H.E.M." stands for?

Thanks again!

[Ian Jewison]

Looks like your guy was from the Berlin area hence why his initially Replacement unit was from Wehrkries III. This does not necessarily have to do with his first field unit as generally they are transferred to a unit within their Military District unless they specifically want to go to a special unit.

Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 397 was formed 27.8.1939 in Berlin-Ruhleben, Wehrkreis III. 23.6.1941 the Bataillon was transferred to Rawitsch (now Rawicz, Poland), Wehrkreis XXI.

Judging by the dates you show he could have joined the unit at Berlin-Ruhleben then transferred with them to Rawitsch, however you do not say when the Soldbuch was issued.

329 Infanterie-Division was formed from orders dated 15.12.1941 at the Troop Training Area Groß-Born (now Borne Sulinowo, Poland) from training and replacement personnel of the reserve army, convalescent etc.

Looking at he field units I would say it was the first entry fro 6/IR 553 he was serving with at the time of his wound.

Armband Uhr - Wrist watch
Pistole - Pistol
H.E.M. - Hautentgiftungsmittel - Decontamination powder

/Ian

[Ian Jewison]

I can not find a Gren.E.u.A.Btl. 253 only Infanterie-Ersatz-Regiment 253 which was renamed Grenadier-Ersatz- und Ausbildungs-Regiment 253 from September 1944.

Again if you show the full page I might have been able to identify it better.

/Ian

[Admiraal]

I cannot find an Ersatz Btl. 253 either.
But due to the fact that they added "Schw" before it (that means Schwere (Heavy)), they could mean one of the 2 bataillons of Gren.E.u.A.Regiment 253.
Unfortunately i cannot find the gliederung of this Regiment to verify that.

[Ian Jewison]

Unfortunately i cannot find the gliederung of this Regiment to verify that.

Gliederung:

1939 IEB 453 (Rheine), 464 (Soest), 473 (Arnsberg)
1940 IEB 453, 464, 473 (sämtlich in Graudenz)
1940 IEB 453 (Aachen), 464 (Eschweiler), 473 (Aachen)
1942 GEuAB 328 (Aachen), 453 (Aachen), 464 (Eschweiler), 473 (Aachen)
1945 GEuAB 77, 453, 454 (sämtlich Werdohl)

[Admiraal]

Gliederung:

1939 IEB 453 (Rheine), 464 (Soest), 473 (Arnsberg)
1940 IEB 453, 464, 473 (sämtlich in Graudenz)
1940 IEB 453 (Aachen), 464 (Eschweiler), 473 (Aachen)
1942 GEuAB 328 (Aachen), 453 (Aachen), 464 (Eschweiler), 473 (Aachen)
1945 GEuAB 77, 453, 454 (sämtlich Werdohl)

Great!
Do you also know the Stamm units attached to this Regiment?
Such an Ersatz Regiment did not only consist of those Ersatz Bataillons.
They had more units (like an Infanterie-Pionier-Ersatz-Kompanie).

[Ian Jewison]

Found it:

The Regiment and its Battalions (328, 453, 454, 473) received Feldpost numbers as Reserve-Grenadier-Regiment and repsective Battalions, they were incorporated into front divisions in October.
Reformed in Bonn; March 1945 in Attendorn (476th Infantry Division, Westgotenbewegung), as well as a heavy Grenadier Battalion 253 from the Regiment units.

/Ian

[Blued]

Thanks Ian and Rick.

Ian, you're spot on. The Soldbuch was issued to a soldier born in Berlin and was issued on 7 May 1940. What's interesting is that he was promoted several times from Schutzen before even being in the field; so I'm guessing he just earned these promotions based on training. The formation of 329 ID makes perfect alignment with his "K.V." in mid-Decemeber. Mystery solved!

Thanks for the 3 translations.

Very interesting on Gren E.u.A.Btl 253 and your find lines up perfectly with the entry for Bonn. This soldier was captured by the American forces which makes sense here. So this Btl was part of Gren Rgt 253? The reason he finally switched out of IR 553 was due to a severe shrapnel wound received in July 44 that had him in the hospital until Feb 45. Which source did you use for post #8 Ian?

For completeness, here is the full Page 17.

Thanks again for all your help!!!!!!!!!!

[Ian Jewison]

I used Tessin but I have just checked Lexikon and that has the info also:

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/...rsRgt253-R.htm

/Ian

[Blued]

You know, I was on that page as I finished for the evening and maybe it was my tired eyes that did not see it at the bottom of the page.

[Archi]

Hi all !

According to the Gliederung of EuA.-Rgt 253 :
I'll attach a Gliederung of this EuA-Regiment dated August 1944. In Jan./Feb. 1945,
some reorganization took place among the replacement units of WK VI. As result, I think the
former "Infanterie-Pz.Jg.-", Gr.Werfer- und Inf.Gesch.-EuA companies were all united into
one schweres Btl. for each of the EuARgts 211, 253, 536 and 416 (but possibly not for 426).
(whether the s.MG (heavy MG) companies were also incorporated, I am unsure.)

If anybody has anymore infos on any of those schwere EuA-Btl.s, I would be very happy for a short note !
It would also be very interesting to know, where this soldier was captured (or by which unit) !

Cheers,

Archi

[Blued]

I'll have to check his capture papers when I get home to see who the U.S. unit was that processed him.

Any idea what equipment would designate a Gren. Btl. as heavy?

[Archi]

Hi blued and all !

If you could find the time to dig out the POW data, that would be great !

To the other questions :
In late March 1945, Aktion Leuthen was called up (with the idea of using
the training compartments (Ausbildungs-Kp.) of the EuA units to form some
rearward lines of security some 20 - 30 km behind the frontline).

From data on this call-up there exists some information on the composition
of two of the 4 schwere Gren.EuA-Btls in WK VI :
s. Grenadier-Ausbildungs-Btl. 416 :
strength : 15 Offz./1187 Uffz. and Enl.Men,
weapons : 817 rifles, 6 Pist., 1 Sturmgewehr, 17 s.M.G., 2 m.GrW., 505 Pz.faust

s. Grenadier-Ausbildungs-Btl. 211 :
strength : 11 Offz./546 Uffz. and Enl.Men,
weapons : 420 rifles, 23 Pist., 144 Pz.faust, 15 Pz.Schreck

s. Grenadier-Ausbildungs-Btl. 253 + 536 :
strength : 550 (total strength, doc reads : geschätzt = estimated)
weapons : no info

It is hard to say how representative these numbers are (and how complete), as there was
a general lack of weapons and equipment for all the replacement units.
For the total(!) of ~20 battalions activated for Aktion Leuthen in WK VI, I counted :
5 m. Gr.Werfer, not a single Infanterie-Geschütz and 3 (4,7cm) Pak.
Most of the battalions had either 1 or 0 Sturmgewehre !
(It would be interesting to see, what a Schwere EuA-Gren.Btl. would be equipped with "at full strength" ).

So, in my oppinion, the idea of the schwere Grenadier-EuA-Btl. was to combine the training
for the heavy weapons of an Inf.Rgt. into one unit, which would usually be :
Granatwerfer, Inf.Geschütz, Pak (and maybe also heavy MG).
But there was a general shortage for all of these !

---------------
According to other points mentioned in this interesting thread :
The training of Inf.Pioniere (Rick Admiraal mentioned those) in WK VI in late 1944 was done by
Inf.Pi.EuA Kp. 211 in Westenhoven (Köln) and Inf.Pi.EuA Kp. 69 in Minden.
Therefore there are no Pi. units in the Gliederung of EuA Rgt. 253.

----------------
According to a question raised in the beginning :
Why is there no clear connection between the replacement unit Ers.Btl. 397 and Inf.Rgt 553 ?

This is due to the fact that Inf.Div. 329 was formed by a Walküre call up.
To form the 4 Inf.Divs. 328 - 331, each Wehrkreis had to supply at least one Btl. or Rgt.
We had discussed a similar topic here :
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...9&postcount=16

So, the three regiments of ID 329, formed in December 1941, were :
551 (by WK VI, 3 btls.) assigned replacement btl. : 184 (Herford) (WK VI)
552 (by WK X, 2 btls. ) assigned replacement btls. : 489 + 469 (WK X), later WK VI unit
553 (by WK XI, 2 btls.) assigned replacement btls. : 191, 487 (I. Btl.); 12 [Halberstadt] (for II. Btl.) all WK XI
From the 25.3.42 onward, replacements for this rgt. came from Ers.Btl. 39 (WK VI unit).

So the general picture is : The stronger Wehrkreise (like WK VI) could contribute more personnel
to the Walküre call up itself and would take over responsibilities for supplying replacements.
The weaker (less dense populated) Wehrkreise could only form weaker regiments (2 btls. only)
and sometimes for this even needed the help from other Wehrkreise (here : WK III).

I hope that explains some of the at first glance "weird" changes in the replacement units of this soldier.

Cheers,

Archi

[Blued]

Excellent points Archi and thanks for the additional research.

His POW process card is dated "26. Mar 45" but doesn't say really where or by who specifically processed him. Just "US Army, PWIB" and "France" with a code: "PWE-CC15"

The only other paper I have is his discharge paper which is in '46, so it won't help us any.

*************************

Here are his last entries:

1944-07-09 through 1945-02-16 admitted to various hospitals (Pg 12-13)
- 1944-09-01 – Security check (Pg 15)
- Admitted for “31b” (Shrapnel) (Pg 12-13)
- Released as “kv.” with “Gren. Ers. Btl. 365” (Pg 13) ------ Last portion of hospital entry shown below in attachment

1945-02-17 through 1945-02-28 – Leave
- Authorized 1945-02-15 with hospital (Pg 24)

Last entry date unknown – Unit “schw. Gr. E.u.a.Btl 253” (Pg 17)