WP 44 HuD from France to Cassino (Stalingrad included?)

[mufasa]

Very nice addition!!!
Ciao Oriano

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Caprese Michelangelo, where Josef falls, is also the small town where my paternal grandmother's family comes from. It is located in the Upper Valtiberina Tuscany, in the province of Arezzo, it is the birthplace of Michelangelo Buonarroti and is inserted in a valley called "the small valley of God" for its beauty and its sweet silence.

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I quickly take up this wehrpass which is "returned home". A duplicate (also changed the dog tag) released in Baden Bei Wien on September 1943 to Jofef Perscham born in 1918. Josef was enlisted on March 22, 1942. Artillery: his first unit was the Artillerie-Ersatz-Abteilung 109 in Brünn, then in May 1942 is destined for the 44 HuD until May 1943.
Josef, saved from Stalingrad (where he remains his first Wehrpass) probably for his role as driver (there are no reported injuries), probably he remains out of Stalingrad just before the final siege. In fact, in the campaign pages his wehrpass
it is noted after the surrender of the 44 HuD in January 1943 his employment with Heeresgruppe in the winter 1942/1943.
In May 1943 he was again assigned to the reconstituted 44. Reichsgrenadier-Division Hoch und Deutschmeister , to the Artillerie Regiment 96, then in mid-December 1943 he returned to his first Artillerie-Ersatz-Abteilung 109 in Brünn where he also did a course for driving school instructor (20.3.-16.4 .1944). Finally on 23 September 1944 he returned again to the Art. reg. 95 of the 44 HuD which was located south of Sansepolcro (35 km east of Arezzo).

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………

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Josef, as we have seen, falls on 3 August in Caprese Michelangelo while his regiment was in battery on the north east side of the Alpe di Catenaia in Arezzo, under the direct fire of the English counter-battery.

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Local reports say that exactly on August 3, 1944, when the Germans saw some of their batteries hit with extreme fire, they thought this was possible only because someone directed the shot behind them with a radio. This is likely because there was a high concentration of partisans in the area (the first map). The German reaction led to the raking of thirty hostages, to lock them in a stable in Gricigliano, which were then freed unharmed thanks to the intervention of the local priest, Don Tersilio Rossi, who convinced the Germans that they were not their spies. Even some Slavs with the local Partisans, who fled during the Armistice from the prison camp near Anghiari (see photo) , in September 1943, (today more than 400 died from the prison camp, and those who fell in action or were shot with the partisans, they are in the Slovenian cemetery of Arezzo)

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and finnaly the closeup, of Josep KIA in Caprese Michelangelo !

[Luft 76]

Another nice one, for your center of interest. Love the mention of the exact place of his dead. Not always!
Always a pleasure to see actual views of the area. Congrats.

[mufasa]

Another nice one, for your center of interest. Love the mention of the exact place of his dead. Not always!
Always a pleasure to see actual views of the area. Congrats.

Thanks Luft76!
Ciao Oriano