Late-war EK2 Volksgrenadiers, Western Front

[matthias_AC]

With the help of a good collector friend I managed to add these two nice EK2 documents to my collection lately...

1) EK2 Grenadier-Regiment 352, 246. Volksgrenadier-Division. Dated late February 1945 when the Division was in defensive positions near Ormont and Stadtkyll in the Eifel, not far from the Belgian border. Signed "mit der Führung beauftragt" by Generalmajor Kühn. Nice "Ardennes postlude" EK2, in my opinion.

2) EK2 Artillerie-Regiment 363, 363. Volksgrenadier-Division. Dated early march when the Division was fighting west of the city of Cologne (probably near Bergheim/Horrem). I´ve checked my sources on that Division, by that time the Artillerie units had run almost out of ammo and the majority of Artillerie soldiers were used as infantrymen, so I could imagine Gärtner was awarded the EK2 for infantry action. Signed by Generalmajor Weber.


Best!


Matthias

[Gorg]

Nice ones!

Greg.

[Archi]

Hello Matthias !

Very nice Docs !
Congrats and thanks for sharing .

Below is a map that shows the positions of 363. VGD in that timeframe.
(from the divisional history, but shown in Scherer, Verzweifelte Abwehr).

Best regards,

Archi

[matthias_AC]

Hello Matthias !

Very nice Docs !
Congrats and thanks for sharing .

Below is a map that shows the positions of 363. VGD in that timeframe.
(from the divisional history, but shown in Scherer, Verzweifelte Abwehr).

Best regards,

Archi

Thanks for the map! That actually matches the information I got from my sources (especially "Volksgrenadier-Divisionen" by K. Pröhuber).

According to Pröhuber 363. VGD got mauled really badly in the Rhineland. On March 23rd 1945, about 2 weeks after the Division had crossed the Rhine and fought east of Cologne, 500 men were left, but only a small percentage were veteran soldiers; the vast majority were Volkssturm and Hitlerjugend which had been assigned to the Division in Cologne; they were lacking helmets, belts and a significant number of them "fought" in civil shoes.

What a madness and waste of (young) lifes, thats all I can say...


Best,


Matthias

[Brian R]

Great documents, Matthias. I especially like the 363. VGD example and one can only imagine what went on for it to be issued!! Desperate fighting indeed.

[Yubari]

I always keep respet to 1945 issued EK2 documents. They already knew they lost but kept fighting.

[H.W Plainview]

I always keep respet to 1945 issued EK2 documents. They already knew they lost but kept fighting.

exactly, very nice documents matthias_AC.

[matthias_AC]

I always keep respet to 1945 issued EK2 documents. They already knew they lost but kept fighting.

Those who earned their EK2 or EK1 (or actually any combat awards) were fighters, yes, whether they believed in their victory or not... but there were also numerous soldiers who surrendered as soon as they could. I am reading a very good book on the battle of Aachen at the moment, it's just incredible how many men were taken POW throughout the battle. Sometimes entire platoons surrendered even before they had fired a shot. But to be honest, that was probably the best decision they could have made... the war was lost, and at that stage it was pretty obvious.