troop reassignment question

[Gray]

Did it ever happen that a German soldier would find himself reassigned to another unit? For instance, Let's say I was in the infantry on the Russian Front could the powers that be decide to reorganize and place me in a different unit somewhere else? Or let's say I was on the Russian front got injured sent home to Holland to recuperate, when I healed might I find myself reassigned to Normandy to fight the British and the Americans or would I get sent back to the Russian front?

Thanks in advance for any clarity in the matter.

[Simon O.]

The answer to all the above is yes. The way the system worked was that greater Germany was divided up into military districts, here's a short explanation of them
http://www.dasheer.org.uk/wehrkreis_system.htm

During the course of the Third Reich's 12 years the army went through many changes, expantion, reorganisations and of course units being smashed and rebuilt. What that means is that during a soldier's career you will often see in his Wehrpass and Soldbuch what appears to look like a lot of transfers but what are really just changes in name and functions of the same unit.

For the enlisted man, he generally stayed with the same unit but it's not unusual to see men transferred. As you say, you could be transferred whilst you were back with your depot unit. A good example would be those men that survived Stalingrad or the defeat in Africa. Their units no longer existed so they were sent to other or newly raised units. Another reason for transfer was volunteering or 'comb outs' from units in quieter areas. In Norway for example a soldier on occupation duty could volunteer for frontline duty. As the war progressed there were also constant levies imposed on formations to help build new units, for example a division could be asked to provide 100 men of which x amount were to be drivers and x amount machinegunners to help form a new division.

Officers and enlisted men with particular specialist trades were different and more likely to be sent where needed.

[Gray]

Thanks, Simon

That helps clarify things for me.