My new Soldbuch and a lot of questions.

[Angel Farré]

I am the happy new owner of the Soldbuch to Leutnant Herbert Schmidt and I am more than happy with the transaction with my friend Lionel.

Now I have a lot of questions regarding this piece.

First I show you the main pages of it and then start with the questions and see what can we fix.

Being a second replacement is full of info regarding his past service as we can see the clerk notated all his wartime promotions since Unteroffizier till Leutnant, unfortunately some water damage happen, but not severe enough to obliterate the info.

The photo is awesome.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

The new Soldbuch was open on January 1st, 1.944 by his unit, Regiments Gruppe 260 as his division has ceded to exist on November 1.943 and its remanents were named Division Gruppe 113. Again all his promotions were detailed in the 3rd page.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

His combat units, the Regiments Gruppe 260 and later transferred to the Grenadier Regiment 320 of the 212 Infanterie Division.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

His hospital page looks pretty complete and pay attention to his staying at the hospital from January 4th 1.943 till January 24th, 1.943.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

During his service he was awarded an impressive array of decorations, with 260 he received Ek II, WBiB, IABiS, Ostmedaille, KVK II with swords, Drivers Badge in bronze, Nahkampfspange in bronze and Driver badge in Silver.

With 320 he was awarded with the WBiS, Nahkampfspange in silver and EK I.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

In the Soldbuch are notated 28 CC days and I hope two of them give us some answers to the bunch of questions later.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

With the Soldbuch comes a battle calendar and with this start my research, now I show it and in my next post I start the questions. Also comes a lot of photos, but my camera is not so good and I must wait to try with another one to show them here.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

Now the questions.

Infanterie (later Grenadier) Regiment 260 was part of Infanterie Division 113 which fought in the Eastern Front till his annihilation on Stalingrad, then reconstructed and again destroyed in November 1.943. With this info one question is if our soldier was serving inside the Kessel or was part of the soldiers returning from leave or convalescents that were hoarded in November 1.942 to join the 403 Sicherungs Division outside Stalingrad and later sent to South France to refresh and reform the 113 Infanterie Division?.

He was wounded around January 4th, 1.943 when he was admitted into Kriegslazarett 331, when and where he was wounded is not known to me, but he had a CC day awarded the same day for combat at Sslawiansk, if someone can pinpoint this place we will solve this little mystery.

After his period with 113 I.D. our brave NCO was sent to study to become an officer and later posted to the 212 Volks Grenadier Division with which he fought during the Buldge and in Trier area where he was wounded again around January 5th, 1.945, this wound put an end to his military career as he never went back to a combat unit, but to different hospitals till the end of the war.

Thanks to all and hope someone can help me to find if he survived the Kessel von Stalingrad or fought outside the city.

Cheers

Angel

[Angel Farré]

His Soldbuch with a representation of the awards he won, only missing the Drivers badges as I don't have them in my collection.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

Not the best resolution, but a couple of pictures from Schmidt, one at the front and one at the rear area.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

Two of a comrade with the CCCiS, our soldier is in one of them at the right of the picture.

Looks how the soldier with the CCCiS wears his IABiS and EK I.

Angel

[hucks216]

Apart from the two entries is there any other evidence for the award of the NKSiS & EK I?
Is there any space on page 21 where those two entries could of been entered?

[Angel Farré]

No, but this was discussed before here in the Forum and all evidence points to be wartime entries.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=896492

Angel

[hucks216]

There is no evidence in that link - it is just the previous owner saying he believes them to be ok after originally having doubts. They are dated for March 1945 so should of been entered by a hospital and every other hospital entry for March & April have an authorising stamp.
I would of expected them to of been entered on a different page where there was some spare space or for an extra sheet to be entered.
They may well be ok but I'd have doubts over them until there was proof to back them up. It is even possible that the man himself entered them after the war.

[Angel Farré]

We checked all details and, for me and the seller, are OK, odd, but ok, we discuss with other collectors and we found enough clues to admit them as wartime ones, if the man add them why he used two different pens and format? I think the clerck at the end of war used whatever space he had and make entries as close as posible to the regulations.

I am aware of the oddities in this entries, but coming from who comes and the whole story I am pretty confident with it.

Open to all ideas and opinions, I am not God so open to mistakes and errors.

Cheers

Angel