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LSSAH Soldbuch - WIA in the bulge

Peter U

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The Soldbuch, award documents and the story of Gottlieb Moll.
Gottlieb Moll born in 1926 in Alexandrovsk (Russia) lived with his stepfather and mother in Kiel, like all German youths he was a member of the Hitlerjugend and in March 1943 he became a "Marinehelfer", the navy's equivalent of the LW Flak-helfers.
He was assigned to a heavy flak batteries of Marine Flak Abteilung 221 based in Friedrichsort and Holtenau in his hometown Kiel.
In the spring of 1944 he was drafted in to the RAD but a couple months later he volunteered for the Waffen SS and on August 17 1944 he starts his military service with four weeks of basic training with the SS Panzer Ersatz Abteilung in the SS Panzer training facility in Sennelager.
After his basic training he is sent to I/SS Panzer Ausbildungs Regiment, he now gets the prestigious black Panzer uniform and on his uniform he wears the coastal artillery badge which he earned while serving with Marine Flak Abt 221.
Five weeks later he is serving in the training company of SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment 1 "LSSAH", this unit is being rebuild after the heavy losses of the summer of 1944.
Just before the start of the Ardennes offensive he is assigned as a messenger to the staff of SS Pz Gr Rgt 1 LSSAH, now known also as Kampfgruppe Hansen.
On the forth day of the bulge offensive, December 19 1944, when his unit is fighting in the Poteau area he is seriously hit by shrapnel in the left leg, so severe that his leg has to be amputated.
The war ends while he is in hospital; just before Christmas, December 22 1944, he is discharged and allowed to return home to his family.
 

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His dogtag.
 

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The award documents:
 

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In my collection I have another KG Hansen Soldbuch:
http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?15195-KG-Hansen
In the Soldbuch of Otto Geiger, also a member of the staff company, you can see the same control stamp and signature made on October 23 1944.
Otto Geiger also served in the "Ausbildungs" training company and him being an Uscha perhaps was the instructor of Gottlieb Moll.
 
Any history on this? It's all very complete. From his family? Any knowledge of post war?

I can't imagine being an amputee at 18.
 
Great stuff as usual Peter U:thumbsup:Your lucky being able to read these.I can't make head nor tail of the old german writing. I always wonder how life turned out for these lucky fellows that survived the war.
 
Thanks!


This set was pretty complete, it is a shoe box full of pre war and wartime documents of Gottlieb Moll, so I presume it must have come from him or his family; I got it from an online auction website.

What happened with him after the war? The only thing I know from his pow release documents is, that he goes home after he is discharged from hospital.
Most likely he just picked up his life as best as possible in post war Germany.

Young men, like Gottlieb Moll, he was 7 years old when A.Hitler and the NSDAP came to power in Germany, are victims of the Nazi's too.
His entire youth he had been exposed to Nazi propaganda: in school, in the Hitlerjugend, when he watched a movie or when he read a book, serving a 16 year old as an anti aircraft gunner, then in the RAD.
How difficult would it have been for a Waffen SS recruter to make him sign a contract?
Despite that he wore a prestigious uniform and served in an elite unit, he was as green as you could be when it came to infantry combat and although I have no clue about the exact circumstances in which he got wounded, it was perhaps no wonder that he already on his third day of action was hit.
The SSLAH had been given the task to fight its way through the Ardennes and to establish a Meuse River crossing in an absolutely ruthless fashion and this meant not only being ruthless towards the enemy but also to their own troops, it was no problem that their own losses would be extremely high just as long as the objectives were reached.
The Waffen SS had no moral problem with sacrificing their own troops and young men like Gottlieb Moll were thrown in the cauldron without pity.
 
Thanks!


This set was pretty complete, it is a shoe box full of pre war and wartime documents of Gottlieb Moll, so I presume it must have come from him or his family; I got it from an online auction website.

What happened with him after the war? The only thing I know from his pow release documents is, that he goes home after he is discharged from hospital.
Most likely he just picked up his life as best as possible in post war Germany.

Young men, like Gottlieb Moll, he was 7 years old when A.Hitler and the NSDAP came to power in Germany, are victims of the Nazi's too.
His entire youth he had been exposed to Nazi propaganda: in school, in the Hitlerjugend, when he watched a movie or when he read a book, serving a 16 year old as an anti aircraft gunner, then in the RAD.
How difficult would it have been for a Waffen SS recruter to make him sign a contract?
Despite that he wore a prestigious uniform and served in an elite unit, he was as green as you could be when it came to infantry combat and although I have no clue about the exact circumstances in which he got wounded, it was perhaps no wonder that he already on his third day of action was hit.
The SSLAH had been given the task to fight its way through the Ardennes and to establish a Meuse River crossing in an absolutely ruthless fashion and this meant not only being ruthless towards the enemy but also to their own troops, it was no problem that their own losses would be extremely high just as long as



the objectives were reached.
The Waffen SS had no moral problem with sacrificing their own troops and young men like Gottlieb Moll were thrown in the cauldron without pity.
Thanks Peter. You breath life into these documents. I always enjoy what you write.
 
You always provide a great read Peter. Excellent docs and cool that it has a connection with your other set by unit. :happy0180:
 
Great stuff as usual Peter. Can you post a scan of the page which shows the weapons he was issued? Many thanks advance ....
 
Great stuff as usual Peter. Can you post a scan of the page which shows the weapons he was issued? Many thanks advance ....

Thanks, the weapons and equipment page have no entries written on them.
The Soldbuch was left rather incomplete by the administration of his Waffen SS unit(s), for example it was only when he was in hospital that the picture was added and his Marine Artillerie Abzeichen was entered on the medals page.
 
How difficult would it have been for a Waffen SS recruter to make him sign a contract?

Very interesting story, Peter! A veteran I've talked to had the following story to relate about recruiters: ordinarily, RAD service lasted six months after leaving the HJ and before entering basic training. The only way to shorten one's RAD assignment was to sign up for the W-SS. Recruiters came regularly to RAD camps, showed films, told stories, and put tremendous pressure on these young men to sign up. In one instance, the recruiter had each one step out of formation individually to give a reason why they had not yet signed up with him. A "legitimate" excuse included having volunteered for another branch before starting at the RAD.

So not only would someone so young with a HJ background have been naturally susceptible to W-SS recruiters, but they had a couple of advantages over other branches specifically during potential soldiers' time with the RAD.
 
Thanks, the weapons and equipment page have no entries written on them.
The Soldbuch was left rather incomplete by the administration of his Waffen SS unit(s), for example it was only when he was in hospital that the picture was added and his Marine Artillerie Abzeichen was entered on the medals page.

Thank you Sir. As always a great post.
 
Some time ago I was contacted by class mate of Gottlieb Moll, they both served together as Marinehelfer in the same Marine Flak Abteilung 221 in Kiel and now I have more information about this period.
They were the first group of Marinehelfer and they were attached to MAA221 which defended Kiel, Gottlieb Moll initially served with the second battery that was based in Schilksee, later he was transferred to the forth battery in Holtenau.
A link to a website with information about the battery in which he served:
https://www.bunker-kiel.com/marine-...ung-ugruko-221-friedrichsort/2-221-schilksee/

I also attach a group picture of the Marineflakhelfer which was forwarded to me by the veteran himself, the picture was taken after Gottlieb Moll was transferred thus he is alas not in the picture, but nevertheless it gives a good impression of the teenagers that served in the German Navy.

Many thanks to EH to give me the extra information about the military career of Gottlieb Moll!
 

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In German but very interesting and worth watching for those that can understand German.


 

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