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Soldbuch combo 9 Pz Div

Peter U

Moderator
Staff member
Finding Soldbucher from men that served in the same company is pretty rare, if you come across them, they tend to come from an archive source but that isn't the case for these two.
Both Alois Puhm and Ferdinand Edlinger lived in Vienna and both served the entire war from 1939 till 1945 with Sanitäts Kompanie 2/60, the medic support company of the 9 Panzer Division and both were well decorated for their service with this division.
I'll start with the Soldbuch and story of Alois Puhm.

Alois Puhm (°1910) was a mechanic from Vienna, in August 1939 he is issued this Soldbuch.
In this period his unit belongs to the 4th Light Division, a unit that is created from former Austrian army units.
Their are no flower war medals entered in his Soldbuch, thus we can presume he entered in to the army somewhere after the Sudeten crisis.
The 4th Light Division is one of the armoured units that invades Poland in September 1939.
He distinguishes himself in combat and is awarded the EKII in November 1939.
In January 1940 his unit is upgrade to a Panzer Division, the 9 Pz Div, they will not participate in May 1940 with the main Panzer thrust in the Ardennes but instead invade Holland, after the fall of Holland they join the other Panzer Divisions in Northern France.
In the battle for France in June 1940 he is involved in an accident, his left knee gets injured and he also suffers from a ruptured ear drum.
In April 1941 they are in the Balkans and in June 1941 in Russia and the Ukraine.
In April 1944 the 9 Pz Div is taken away from the eastern front and gets deployed in the West until they capitulate in April 1945 on the Elbe.
In his six years of service he will only be promoted to the rank of Stabsgefreiter.


Ferdinand Edlinger (°1913) follows the same path as Alois Puhm, from his Soldbuch we know that he served at least a while with the divisional ambulance unit.
On September 1 1942 he is awarded a KvKII, a medal that you can expect for someone that works in a support role in a Panzer Division.
It is remarkable that in his six years of service he only spends two weeks in hospital, with malaria, and is for all the other time present with his field unit.
In April 1943 he is promoted to NCO rank and by the end of the war he is a Feldwebel.
In January 1945 he is awarded the KvKI, a pretty high medal to be awarded to someone of NCO rank in a medic unit, he must have really done an excellent job in his ambulance unit.
 
The Soldbuch of Alois Puhm.
 

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And the one of Ferdinand Edlinger.
 

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Yes, thanks for sharing again. I appreciate the time you take to post these and provide all the details.
 
As always, fascinating stuff, you have such a talent for telling the story...

Thanks for taking the time to post these fascinating looks into the lives of these men.....
 

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