Hello all,
I recently acquired a very interesting soldbuch from a respected member of the community here. The soldbuch belonged to a Obergefreiter Johann Eckart who served in various units ending up in the "4. (schw.)/. Gren. Btl. z.b.V 928" a bicycle unit in 1943. In December of 1944 this unit joined Otto Ernst Remer's Führer Begleit Brigade in the Battle of the Bulge. There are a couple questions I have pertaining to the unit pre/post Battle of the Bulge.
My first question being can anyone tell me where this unit was in 1943 as it was formed at the very end of 1942 and made up of three other "rifle" units. Research has suggested that it was a landschutz unit that took part in defending Hitler's Wolf's Lair on the Eastern front but I'm not completely sold on this idea just yet.
My second question being that despite this unit becoming the third battalion of panzer grenadiers in Remer's Führer Begleit Division the Soldbuch shows only the above unit crossed out in section C and "4. (schw.) Gren. Btl. 928" below it dropping the adjutant title. Yet the soldbuch itself shows signs of seeing as far as the 27th of February 1945 in the immunization records and a security stamp for the 928 in September of 1944.
Lastly this soldier was captured by Americans which leads me to believe he made it all the way to the very end of the war with Remer choosing to surrender to the Americans rather than the Soviets. Would his POW number tell me much in terms of making it to the end of the war as it's my understanding the number given is the number of POW's up to that point. His code being 31G 779613 (31 standing of capture on the western front and G for German).
Any help would be much appreciated and any speculation or opinions would be just as good. The only thing is there are no Führer Begleit Brigade stamps to indicate he was a part of the division just through independent research putting 928 with the division.
I recently acquired a very interesting soldbuch from a respected member of the community here. The soldbuch belonged to a Obergefreiter Johann Eckart who served in various units ending up in the "4. (schw.)/. Gren. Btl. z.b.V 928" a bicycle unit in 1943. In December of 1944 this unit joined Otto Ernst Remer's Führer Begleit Brigade in the Battle of the Bulge. There are a couple questions I have pertaining to the unit pre/post Battle of the Bulge.
My first question being can anyone tell me where this unit was in 1943 as it was formed at the very end of 1942 and made up of three other "rifle" units. Research has suggested that it was a landschutz unit that took part in defending Hitler's Wolf's Lair on the Eastern front but I'm not completely sold on this idea just yet.
My second question being that despite this unit becoming the third battalion of panzer grenadiers in Remer's Führer Begleit Division the Soldbuch shows only the above unit crossed out in section C and "4. (schw.) Gren. Btl. 928" below it dropping the adjutant title. Yet the soldbuch itself shows signs of seeing as far as the 27th of February 1945 in the immunization records and a security stamp for the 928 in September of 1944.
Lastly this soldier was captured by Americans which leads me to believe he made it all the way to the very end of the war with Remer choosing to surrender to the Americans rather than the Soviets. Would his POW number tell me much in terms of making it to the end of the war as it's my understanding the number given is the number of POW's up to that point. His code being 31G 779613 (31 standing of capture on the western front and G for German).
Any help would be much appreciated and any speculation or opinions would be just as good. The only thing is there are no Führer Begleit Brigade stamps to indicate he was a part of the division just through independent research putting 928 with the division.
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