Hello,
I recently acquired this Soldbuch from a collector friend. I want to share this very interesting Stalingrad story with you all:
Karl Scheffner was born on 12.06.1922 in Homberg, Duisburg. His civil occupation was mason-assistant. During the war he still lived with his parents.
Also Scheffner was called up for military duty and his Soldbuch was opened on 06.06.1942 as part of the Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 474. After completing his basic training he was send in May 1942 to the 8./ Artillerie-Regiment 96, 44. Infanterie-Division. His 8 Kp. Was a Werfer-Kompanie. The 44. Infanterie-Division was battling as part of the 6. Armee(part of Heeresgruppe Süd) in Southern Russia. It participated in the Battle of Kharkov(Charkow) at the time Scheffner arrived at the front. After defeating the Soviet armies it went to the city with the name of Stalin: Stalingrad.
Now I can tell the whole story of the battle of Stalingrad but there are many books and interesting documentaries on youtube to find. The 44. Infanterie-Division was outside the city itself when the Soviets started Operation Uranus. With this operation they surrounded the 6. Armee at Stalingrad. The 44. Infanterie-Division was in the siege, or Kessel in German. It was west of Stalingrad, near Baburkin. In the next weeks the division was pushed back through the city itself. Thousands of the soldiers of the 44. Inf. Div. died of starvation, freezing or were killed by Soviet attacks.
Christmas 1942 became a turning point for the 6. Armee. According to veterans they lost all their hope that Christmas. When the Homefront sang their Christmas songs and only saw happiness, the men at Stalingrad suffered heavily. I want to quote a German soldier at Stalingrad about Christmas:
“The moon was bleak, everyone was depressed. We just sat there and sang a couple of Christmas songs. Many of our comrades cried when they were looking at pictures of their families.”
Another veteran about Christmas 1942 in Stalingrad:
“The Russians left us alone, there were only occasional shots on Christmas evening. I felt there stretched a bridge across the entire world. The starring night at the moon, the same moon that my family could see in Germany. Most of us knew the end was near and we wrote farewell letters, hoping to be delivered to our people. All we thought was home.”
Probably also Scheffner cried thinking of home while writing his farewell letter. Probably his prayers were heard(as it was his ticket outside the pocket) and as a Christmas gift he was wounded badly on 25.12.1942 – exactly at Christmas. He was rushed to Kriegslazarett (mot) I/591. He stayed for 5 days in this hospital and was send back then to a rückwärtiges-Lazarett – a hospital in the back (of the front). This will mean he was flown out of the pocket. The Germans still had some airfields. Airplanes landed there to bring supplies and they brought back wounded or important soldiers to Germany. One of these lucky guys was Karl Scheffner. A German veteran told how crazy things went when an aircraft landed:
“In the later stages things became completely chaotic. When an airplane was taking off, men were running after it on the runway. Trying desperately escaping from the Kessel.”
Thousands of wounded escaped Stalingrad by air, but there was no room for all of them. Thousands of wounded(and many more non-wounded soldiers) were left behind in the Kessel. A veteran recalls:
“Terrible scenes took place at the airfield. Ordinary soldiers were no longer allowed near the airplanes, but some pushed their way through. When there was no space inside they hung on to the planes till the wheels or the wings. When the airplane took off they were along but by the time the airplane reached 300 or 400 meters high, they fell because of freezing; they couldn’t hold any longer.”
Scheffner reached this gate of survival and made it into a plane. He was flown out the Kessel. He stayed till the end of the war in the Lazarett and never saw active duty again! For Stalingrad he was awarded the EKII and the Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz.
Scheffner survived the war and died on 29.11.2007 in the age of 85. I am sure Stalingrad followed him till death and he never forgot the people and things he had seen that winter of 1942-1943 at the banks of the Wolga…
I hope you all like this interesting story and thanks for looking.
Aram
I recently acquired this Soldbuch from a collector friend. I want to share this very interesting Stalingrad story with you all:
Karl Scheffner was born on 12.06.1922 in Homberg, Duisburg. His civil occupation was mason-assistant. During the war he still lived with his parents.
Also Scheffner was called up for military duty and his Soldbuch was opened on 06.06.1942 as part of the Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 474. After completing his basic training he was send in May 1942 to the 8./ Artillerie-Regiment 96, 44. Infanterie-Division. His 8 Kp. Was a Werfer-Kompanie. The 44. Infanterie-Division was battling as part of the 6. Armee(part of Heeresgruppe Süd) in Southern Russia. It participated in the Battle of Kharkov(Charkow) at the time Scheffner arrived at the front. After defeating the Soviet armies it went to the city with the name of Stalin: Stalingrad.
Now I can tell the whole story of the battle of Stalingrad but there are many books and interesting documentaries on youtube to find. The 44. Infanterie-Division was outside the city itself when the Soviets started Operation Uranus. With this operation they surrounded the 6. Armee at Stalingrad. The 44. Infanterie-Division was in the siege, or Kessel in German. It was west of Stalingrad, near Baburkin. In the next weeks the division was pushed back through the city itself. Thousands of the soldiers of the 44. Inf. Div. died of starvation, freezing or were killed by Soviet attacks.
Christmas 1942 became a turning point for the 6. Armee. According to veterans they lost all their hope that Christmas. When the Homefront sang their Christmas songs and only saw happiness, the men at Stalingrad suffered heavily. I want to quote a German soldier at Stalingrad about Christmas:
“The moon was bleak, everyone was depressed. We just sat there and sang a couple of Christmas songs. Many of our comrades cried when they were looking at pictures of their families.”
Another veteran about Christmas 1942 in Stalingrad:
“The Russians left us alone, there were only occasional shots on Christmas evening. I felt there stretched a bridge across the entire world. The starring night at the moon, the same moon that my family could see in Germany. Most of us knew the end was near and we wrote farewell letters, hoping to be delivered to our people. All we thought was home.”
Probably also Scheffner cried thinking of home while writing his farewell letter. Probably his prayers were heard(as it was his ticket outside the pocket) and as a Christmas gift he was wounded badly on 25.12.1942 – exactly at Christmas. He was rushed to Kriegslazarett (mot) I/591. He stayed for 5 days in this hospital and was send back then to a rückwärtiges-Lazarett – a hospital in the back (of the front). This will mean he was flown out of the pocket. The Germans still had some airfields. Airplanes landed there to bring supplies and they brought back wounded or important soldiers to Germany. One of these lucky guys was Karl Scheffner. A German veteran told how crazy things went when an aircraft landed:
“In the later stages things became completely chaotic. When an airplane was taking off, men were running after it on the runway. Trying desperately escaping from the Kessel.”
Thousands of wounded escaped Stalingrad by air, but there was no room for all of them. Thousands of wounded(and many more non-wounded soldiers) were left behind in the Kessel. A veteran recalls:
“Terrible scenes took place at the airfield. Ordinary soldiers were no longer allowed near the airplanes, but some pushed their way through. When there was no space inside they hung on to the planes till the wheels or the wings. When the airplane took off they were along but by the time the airplane reached 300 or 400 meters high, they fell because of freezing; they couldn’t hold any longer.”
Scheffner reached this gate of survival and made it into a plane. He was flown out the Kessel. He stayed till the end of the war in the Lazarett and never saw active duty again! For Stalingrad he was awarded the EKII and the Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz.
Scheffner survived the war and died on 29.11.2007 in the age of 85. I am sure Stalingrad followed him till death and he never forgot the people and things he had seen that winter of 1942-1943 at the banks of the Wolga…
I hope you all like this interesting story and thanks for looking.
Aram
!
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