What do you make of this?

[R MICHAEL]

Hello I am hoping this will answer my ID question. I recently purchased a grouping that appears to have belonged to a artillery unit that took part in the southern Stalingrad battles. Any way this is an enhanced scan of a sign that two soldiers are holding. Anyone have any thoughts at all? Thanks in advance. Mike

[Tim Miller]

Mike,

The guys are sending a Christmas greeting. "Frohe Weihnacht" would be pretty close to a "Merry Christmas". Looks to be a star (Star of Bethlehem?) in front of the "Frohe". While the fellow pulling the sled doesn't look like he has Santa's beard..... (perhaps he is an elf or Santa's helper) he has a pack on with what could be toys coming out of the top and is smoking a pipe - something seen with the old time (Non-PC) Santas. The bag on the sled seems to have some numbers... perhaps a units mail/post number. Santa/helper bringing some well appreciated mail to the troops? Maybe a not so subtle way of suggesting to family members that they would like some mail. Take care.

Tim

[R MICHAEL]

Ahhhh, I see. Yes that does make sense now. I was wondering why there was a Russian peasant pulling a sleigh...
I will see if I can refine the possible FP number. Thanks! Tim... Mike

Mike,

The guys are sending a Christmas greeting. "Frohe Weihnacht" would be pretty close to a "Merry Christmas". Looks to be a star (Star of Bethlehem?) in front of the "Frohe". While the fellow pulling the sled doesn't look like he has Santa's beard..... (perhaps he is an elf or Santa's helper) he has a pack on with what could be toys coming out of the top and is smoking a pipe - something seen with the old time (Non-PC) Santas. The bag on the sled seems to have some numbers... perhaps a units mail/post number. Santa/helper bringing some well appreciated mail to the troops? Maybe a not so subtle way of suggesting to family members that they would like some mail. Take care.

Tim

[Tim Miller]

Ahhhh, I see. Yes that does make sense now. I was wondering why there was a Russian peasant pulling a sleigh...
I will see if I can refine the possible FP number. Thanks! Tim... Mike

No problem. Looks like it may be at least 16031 from here - I'm not sure how the whole FP number system worked or how many more didgets there may be.

[R MICHAEL]

Looks like the possible FP number is 160314... any thoughts from the FP experts?

[Simon O.]

Looks like the possible FP number is 160314... any thoughts from the FP experts?

You said artillery unit in southern Russia right?

Well, 16031 belonged to the III abteilung of Artillerie Regiment 9, part of the 9 Infanterie Division. The '4' isn't a number but a letter, could be A,B, C, D or E, that would tell us exactly which battery your guy was with.

AR 9 is the only artillery unit in Russia with an fp number begining with 1603 around christmas 1942.

The 9 Inf Div. was with the V armeekorps under the 17 Armee in the Kaukasus at the time.

[R MICHAEL]

Thanks Simon for the information. You have to be right on the the FP because this threads http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=141004 focus is from the same grouping. So it is a good chance that the fallen was a kameraden. So I think it is safe to say that my fellows unit was the AR 9 kompanie A. The funny thing is this grouping came with at leat 4 photos of the childrens fountian, possibly Stalingrad and a further photo of a particular T-34 that is a 99% match to a documented photo taken during the initial drive into Southern Stalingrad.

From what I have read units were at times transferred temporarily from one Amry Corp to another. So just curious if this unit may have been involved at least in the initail drive into Stalingrad.

Thanks again Simon.

[Simon O.]

The A refers to the Stab and stabs batterie, of which the nachrichten zug (signals platoon) was a part.

[R MICHAEL]

Once again Simon thank you for enlightening me.

Here is a nice photo of my fellow showing the signals blitz.