Pioneer Battalion 325

[DocumentsGuy]

I have recently acquired a Freie Stadt Danzig Reisepass (Free City of Danzig Passport) for Fr******228;ulein Dora Buddel. Tucked inside was a piece of notepaper with the typewritten statement:

Pi-Batl. 325 Oksb******246;l, den 13.9.45

Fr******228;ulein Dora Buddel ist bei der 4. Kompanie Batl. 325 als B******252;rogehilfe besch******228;ftigt.

It bears the original signature of the Oblt u.Komp.-Chef

I read German and understand what is says. Does anyone have any order-of-battle information about Pioneer-Battalion 325? I've discovered that the town of Oksb******246;l is in Denmark.

[DocumentsGuy]

I now have reason to believe that this unit was part of the immediate post-war Minenkommando D******228;nemark

[Waffenreich]

Bruce,

Prior to Sep '45, Pionier Btl 325 was part of the 325th Infantry Division. This unit was organized under the Military Governer of France in May '43 to occupy Paris and control all Army local defense troops and security forces in the French capital. Hitler ordered the unit to destroy Paris, but as everyone knows, the city's commandant General Von Cholitz and the Divisional Commander deliberately refused to execute the order (by tactfully delaying its dissemination to the troops). Most of the Division escaped from Paris before it fell and the troops were distributed among units that suffered heavy losses in the Normandy fighting. It was disbanded in Aug '44. I'll see what Tessins says about it when I get the set next week.

Hope this helps in the meantime.

Bob Ruzzier

[DocumentsGuy]

Thanks for the info. I look forward to hearing what you find in Tessins.

[Simon O.]

The division in Paris was the 325 Sicherungs Division.
A 325 Infanterie Division was raised in Denmark in March of '45 which will be the one you're after. The next question is, where did the troops for the Pionier batallion come from? I'd guess from troops already stationed in Denmark on occupation duties, i'll see what i can find.

[DocumentsGuy]

Thanks Simon,
I look forward to seeing what you can come up with. This looks like it might be something quite interesting.

[Simon O.]

Well, this is a good example of where works like Tessin's aren't so good. The division was apparently still forming as the war ended, Tessin mentions it being raised with a pionier kompanie and units of that size are not included.

But what you have shows a battalion, so what's going on? In this case i think i can draw parallels with a similar division in Norway which was forming as the war ended and which i've done a fair bit of research around.
Tessin often doesn't record units or changes in units which occured in the last weeks of the war, that's because of the lack of records. This 325 division was being raised from personnel and units already stationed in Denmark, which units i don't know, perhaps a specialist in the wehrmacht in Denmark might have more complete information.
For the pionier batallion i think there are two possibilities as to what happened. Either it had grown from company to battalion shortly before the end or it was expanded AFTER the end of the war.
The note mentions the 4 kompanie, that is one oversized infantry division pionier battalion and definitely not what you'd expect from a last ditch formation. After the end of the war a top priority was mine clearing, this dangerous often fatal work was carried out by pionier units. A lot of manpower was needed for the work and these units, controlled and administered by the Germans themselves under allied supervision expanded. That's what we're seeing here i believe.
There's another interesting angle to this, what of Fräulein Buddel? clearly a civillian, why was she in Denmark and not being repatriated home to Danzig? As we know Danzig was by then under soviet control and had been given to Poland. Not an attractive place for a German woman to return to. There was a huge problem after the end of the war with displaced people. Not just POWs and slave workers but also stateless people whose homelands had been swallowed up in the various changes in borders. For Germans this included Memel, Danzig, East Prussia, the sudetenland, Alsace, parts of Eastern Germany and others. What to do with them?

[DocumentsGuy]

Simon,
You are a wealth of information and I thank you for sharing it.
I too believe the 325th Pionier Bn was probably formed as you suggested (post war) and was part of the German mineclearing operation in Denmark. We can only speculate as to why Ms. Buddel stayed in Denmark but the reason is, again, probably as you suggested.