Barbarossa Guitar

[doomtown]

Hi all, I bought this guitar recently, and I wondered if there was a way to figure out what unit he was with by where he was in 1941? I also received information from the family(his name, birthday, etc) so I looked him up on the Volksbund website but there was no info on his unit, etc.
Thanks for looking,
Eddie
P.S. Any suggestions on which part of the forum would appreciate soldier's folk art like this?

The places are listed in order as:
Warchau_______________Tschernikow
Therespol______________Juchnow
Brest-Litowsk___________Medyn
Slonim_________________Gloy
Baranowitschi___________Kaluga
Minsk__________________Sawot
Alexandria



Orscha________________Malojarosslawez
Smolensk
Roslawl
Gomel

[doomtown]

some better shots, close up
Thanks for looking!

[münster]

What I like about it is that it is a Tango, which is a 7 string Russian guitar. That kind of gives it cred for me. Also the artwork does appear old. I would date that guitar pre war.

[doomtown]

Thank you münster, it's certainly old, and the front has been lacquered(?) over to preserve carvings. I noticed that about the guitar as well, the cool thing is that it was modified for 6 strings, the soldier added another "nut" so he could play with 6 strings. He certainly favored the first three frets, haha. Here are some more photos.

[HAF]

super nice,lol

[Archi]

Hi doomtown !

Really nice piece of artwork !

As there are no dates given, one can only assume that the names are listed in the general order they are reached,
top left to bottom, then top right to bottom.

I tried to have a look at those battle locations and noticed that the 17. Inf.Div. has many of those places in common.
(Among them : Warschau, crossing border north of Brest-Litowsk then Slonim, Baranowitschi, S of Minsk, Gomel, Tschernigow.
Redeployed SE Kirow, advance to W of Kaluga. In Nov. short rest and refit (where ?), then in Dec. 41 /Jan. 42 defensive actions
at Malojaroslawez and Medyn.
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/...nen/17ID-R.htm

However, no match for Orscha and Smolensk. But perhaps it is a help for further research. Many of the places
should in general fit also for other units of XIII. AK. (perhaps also XII. AK.).

Another idea would be a supply unit of one of those corps or the respective Armee.

Perhaps a little help for further research. Good Luck !

Cheers,

Archi

[doomtown]

Hi Archi! Thanks for the reply! According to the family our guitar player was named Werner Folz and he was from Saarland, I should have included that, sorry. Could he have been a part of IR17 if he was from Saarland? I feel like that's sort of far from Nürnberg. Here's what I found on him through the volksbund: http://www.volksbund.de/index.php?id...4405d72883fbe2

[muzrub]

One word--- Awesome!

[Archi]

Hi doomtown !

I think his WK does not help too much, as there were was always the possibilty that some soldiers
ended up in an unit not from their "home WK".

If you want to try to search further, I would concentrate on units which were
a) near Kaluga (their were not too many units at that area and only for a short while)
b) check whether any of those had been at Gomel/Tschernigow before.

That could rule many units out.

On the other hand, your man could alway have been in a Heerestruppe unit, which rarely show up on any "Lage" maps.
Then it will be even more difficult to find the unit ...

Hope it helps a bit,

Cheers,

Archi

[Alan Smith]

How did the guitar end up here in the U.S.? Did the soldier's family emmigrate to the U.S. post-war?

[CWP]

That's a great item, thanks for showing it. Unfortunately I don't think it would be possible to say with certainty which unit he was with by the list of names, he could have been in multiple units.

[doomtown]

Hey, thanks Archi/Chris, I guess it's always hard to pin these things down with any certainty unfortunately, but I appreciate the tips!

Thanks Muz!

Alan, I bought the guitar from the family in Germany and they were very helpful in finding the relative that it had belonged to, apparently it was found in an attic.

[Historyisme]

Hey Mate, it's patrick from WRF.

I remember seeing this on ebay I think. I thought it was a very interesting item. I was half tempted to bid on it myself.

Good luck on the research, if only this could talk. Can you play it/is it playable?

[Paul E]

Very interesting item , he could have been in one of the units of XXXXVII. Armeekorps who fought through most of the areas mentioned,

regards

Paul

[lordpage]

WOW, very nice & very interesting.Well worn fretboard. I would love to try it as a 7 string. Do you play?

Jon