P
Peter U
Guest
Hi,
This is the newest addition in my ID booklet collection, more then 15 years I have been looking for a Soldbuch from a division that fought in Northern Belgium/Flanders in May 1940, with not much succes, and now I have found two in one month of the same division.
It is the Soldbuch of Kurt Bergert (12/1/1905) from Pockau near Lengefeld (Saxsony), he was issued this Soldbuch on September 1 1939 from the 9th company of Infanry Regiment 171 (56th Infantry Division).
At that time he was already a Gefreiter (corporal) which indicates that he had done previous military service before the big mobilization.
After some rearguard action in the Polish campagne the regiments of the 56ID were put in to action on May 10 1940, then the 56ID was one of the leading divisions in the invasion of the Low Countries.
His service in the Westfeldzug is exemplary and he gets a fieldpromotion to NCO rank and in July 1940 an EKII; one of the 1958 EKII's that were awarded to members of the 56ID.
Then follows the invasion of Russia, during the heavy fighting in August '41 on the Usza river near Korosten in Ukraine, he gets a shrapnel wound to the headfrom a granate. He is not the only casualty in his unit, the 56ID loses 4 officers and 116 men on that day (August 25).
The wound is rather serious and keeps him away from frontline service for almost three years.
Almost exactly three years later he is wounded again, this time by a bullet, fighting in the trenches near the Memel river in Lithouania.
He recovers from this wound in a fieldhospital in Posen; when the Red Army surrounds Posen he is assigned to a local defence unit for unfit soldiers: Landesschutzen Ersatz und Ausbildungs Battalion 21.
It is in Festung Posen that he at the end of February 1945 gets hit by a piece of shrapnel for the second time, once again in the head; Kurt Bergert now decorated with a wounded badge in gold will survive the war.
Enjoy watching the images,
Peter
This is the newest addition in my ID booklet collection, more then 15 years I have been looking for a Soldbuch from a division that fought in Northern Belgium/Flanders in May 1940, with not much succes, and now I have found two in one month of the same division.
It is the Soldbuch of Kurt Bergert (12/1/1905) from Pockau near Lengefeld (Saxsony), he was issued this Soldbuch on September 1 1939 from the 9th company of Infanry Regiment 171 (56th Infantry Division).
At that time he was already a Gefreiter (corporal) which indicates that he had done previous military service before the big mobilization.
After some rearguard action in the Polish campagne the regiments of the 56ID were put in to action on May 10 1940, then the 56ID was one of the leading divisions in the invasion of the Low Countries.
His service in the Westfeldzug is exemplary and he gets a fieldpromotion to NCO rank and in July 1940 an EKII; one of the 1958 EKII's that were awarded to members of the 56ID.
Then follows the invasion of Russia, during the heavy fighting in August '41 on the Usza river near Korosten in Ukraine, he gets a shrapnel wound to the headfrom a granate. He is not the only casualty in his unit, the 56ID loses 4 officers and 116 men on that day (August 25).
The wound is rather serious and keeps him away from frontline service for almost three years.
Almost exactly three years later he is wounded again, this time by a bullet, fighting in the trenches near the Memel river in Lithouania.
He recovers from this wound in a fieldhospital in Posen; when the Red Army surrounds Posen he is assigned to a local defence unit for unfit soldiers: Landesschutzen Ersatz und Ausbildungs Battalion 21.
It is in Festung Posen that he at the end of February 1945 gets hit by a piece of shrapnel for the second time, once again in the head; Kurt Bergert now decorated with a wounded badge in gold will survive the war.
Enjoy watching the images,
Peter
