Leutnant W. Kranich

[StuGIII]

Hi,

I recently acquired the photo of Leutnant Werner Kranich. I learned his name and a few other things from the great members of this board. He was born in Dresden on April 6, 1918 and was killed in action 1 kilometer west of Kulusia on June 17, 1944. Can someone tell me his unit?

Regards,
John

[Brendan Hunt]

Do you have any other photographs or related information/docs on him? In my case members of the forum were able to decipher the unit of a soldier I was researching by some text typed onto the back of a photograph. It was "Zur Erinnerung an den Einmarsch am 5. August 1940 in Karlsbad". From there members were able to figure out that the 46. Infanterie-Division was stationed in Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia at that time.

[Larry deZeng]

Hi,
I recently acquired the photo of Leutnant Werner Kranich. I learned his name and a few other things from the great members of this board. He was born in Dresden on April 6, 1918 and was killed in action 1 kilometer west of Kulusia on June 17, 1944. Can someone tell me his unit?
Regards,
John

First off, from another thread on Kranich we determined that Kulusia/Croatia cannot be found.

Below is the Iststärke for Luftwaffenkommando Südost in June 1944, which included all of the former Yugoslavia and today's Bulgaria, Albania and Greece:

Fliegerpersonal: 18,000
Flakpersonal: 21,300
Ln.-Truppen: 16,500
Ldssch.Truppen: 2,800
Sanitätspers.: 1,000
Behelfspersonal: 10,000
Total: 69,600

So Kranich was not necessarily a flier, much less a fighter pilot. He might have belonged to the Flak branch, or the Luftnachrichtentruppen (signals), Landesschützen (airfield guards), medical, etc.

I checked my notes for 17 June 1944 and found no mention of any Luftwaffe aircraft being shot down over Croatia on that date. Most of the activity concerned Allied fighter-bombers over Dalmatia and Allied fighter patrols over Albania and Central Croatia. The OBSO (Oberbefehlshaber Südost) daily report states that the Luftwaffe flew both routine reconnaissance and armed reconnaissance sorties over Croatia on 17 June, but there is no mention of any losses. It looks like Kranich was a ground casualty, perhaps killed in a vehicle accident or something.

--Larry