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Soldbuch 1 Pz Div

Peter U

Moderator
Staff member
Hello,


Because today it is May 10 it perhaps is appropriate to show at typical “May 1940 –Westfeldzug” Soldbuch.

KurtSchmalz (°1916) was an engineer from Landau Pfalz, when the war broke out he is called up to serve in the army, he was assigned to the first company of Pz Abwehr Ersatz Abteilung 7, an antitank gunner’s trainings unit.
After his basic training he was transferred to the first company of Pz Abw Abt 27, the antitank gun unit of the 27th Infantry Division; on March 15 1940this company is used to form the third company of Panzer Jäger Abteilung 37,the antitank gun unit of the 1st Panzer Division.
Two weeks after his transfer to an elite Panzer division he is promoted to Gefreiter.
On May 101940 the 1st Pz Div one of the armored divisions that under von Kleist & Guderian will drive through the Ardennes forest, cross the Meuse river in Sedan and perform the famous “Sichelschnitt” maneuver towards the coast.
After the Blitzkrieg of 1940 he is promoted to Unteroffizier, in July ’40 he gets the EKII; but he is also transferred to 81st Werkstatt kompanie, this is a truck repair unit of the 1st Pz Div, he has a high level of technical education, so no doubt that is the reason for his transfer.
By the spring of ’41 he has risen through the ranks, he now is a “Feldwebel-Kriegsingenieur”,a technical specialist NCO.
He participates in the invasion of Russia and the wintercampaign of ‘41/’42, in August ’42 he will get the “Ostmedaille”for this.
While he is with the repair shop unit he gets awarded with KvK II & I.
After a short transfer to the Kraftfarher Park in Marburg, the army truck depot in Marburg, he is transferred back to his combat unit, the staff and “U” company(?) of Pz Jg Abt 37; now this unit is equipped with all kinds of tracked antitank guns such as: Marders, Stug III’s, Nashorns,….etc).
In April ’44he follows a short officers trainings course and on October 1 1944 he is promoted to Oberleutenant (the rank of Leutenant is apparently skipped).
There are no more citations in his Soldbuch after the end of ’44 but I presume that he survived the war; 1st Pz Div capitulated in May 1945 in Austria in the American sector.



Cheers,
Peter
 

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His dogtag, vacation pages and some details of his clothing pages, notice that besides some tropical clothing he also got swimming trunks.
 

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