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Jagdpanzer IV/L48 Officer Soldbuch

Peter U

Moderator
Staff member
Today I want to show one of the latest additions to my collection, a Soldbuch that came with two big binders full of wartime documents such as maps, weapons training instructions, letters, marching orders,...etc, this of course makes it easy to tell his story.

Hans Fedder (°1923) a high school student from Hamburg/Valksdorf joined the army in May 1941, he was trained as an anti tank gunner with Pz Jäg Ers Abt 20 in Hamburg.
After his training he joined the first company of Pz Jg Abt 110 (110ID) on the Eastern front, in December 1941 he was promoted to Oberschütze and became a reserve officer candidate, a year later he was commissioned to Lieutenant.
He stayed with his unit on the Rshew front till September 1943 when he was WIA by shrapnel, after his hospital discharge he was awarded the wounded badge in black, EKII and Sturmabzeichen and transferred to his replacement unit: Pz Jg Ers Abt 20, where he will be trained on tracked anti tank guns such as a Sturmgeschutz, a Jagdpanzer or a Marder.
In June 1944, when he is fully recovered he doesn't return to his old combat unit but is assigned to the first company of Pz Jg Abt 50 of the 9 Pz Div.
- This is information which isn't available in his Soldbuch, for some reason the 9 Pz Div doesn't make any entries in his Soldbuch.
The 9 Pz Div stays in reserve in Southern France during June and July '44, in August 1944 they are ordered North toward the Normandy front that is about to collaps, for the tank destroyer unit it becomes a debacle pretty soon, their AFV's became victims of the allied air superiority.
Because they lost their fighting capacity, Lt Hans Fedder and some of his men, which are trained specialists are ordered back to Germany to build new tracked anti tank units.
He stays lone step in front of the rapid allied advance through Northern France and Belgium and makes it back to his replacement unit Pz Jg Ers Abt 20 in Hamburg.
On September 16 1944 he is training new AFV anti tank gunner crews in Putlos, a day later the allied airborne invasion in Holland starts.
The next day his unit is mobilized and assigned to the newly created 190 Division which is sent to the Groesbeek heights area to counter attack the allied troops.
Hans Fedder is the CO of the divisions Jagdpanzer platoon which is equipped with Jagdpanzer IV L48, for his efforts in the battle for the Groesbeek heights he is awarded the EKI.
On October 30 1944 he is wounded again and after his recovery he is transferred once again, this time to the third company of Pz Jg Abt 69, part of the Third Cavalry Division.
His unit is equipped with Sturmgeschutz III's and operates in Hungary and Austria until the end of the war.
He gets taken POW by the US Army and is released from the POW camp in October 1947.
 

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some more images.
 

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Great story again Peter! Thank you for continuing to post these. I hadn't realized just how low silhouetted the IV was.
 
Great stuff Peter. What's really incredible is that he is a 21 year old decorated combat veteran, officer, and CO of a Jadgpanzer unit! His picture shows an old man in a young man's body.
 
My German is not very good and I have a hard time reading handwriting sometimes, but does it show what small arms he was issued? I assume in an armored vehicle and as an officer he had a pistol. Was it likely a personal purchase if not listed?

Thanks for sharing, these are fun to read.

Tom

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
I can’t read German. But I’m guessing the pow bit isn’t in there. How’d you find that out? Any idea what happened to the guy after the war? I’d be tempted to try and find his family, show it to them. Of coarse I have no idea if they have more shameful association with war than we do. Or if it would just be “look at how young grandpa was”
 
I can’t read German. But I’m guessing the pow bit isn’t in there. How’d you find that out? Any idea what happened to the guy after the war? I’d be tempted to try and find his family, show it to them. Of coarse I have no idea if they have more shameful association with war than we do. Or if it would just be “look at how young grandpa was”

Hello Clickjack,

In this huge document grouping I have his POW release document, that is why I know those details.
I don't show everything in these Soldbuch threads, I limit myself to the highlights and the weapons page for the members here :happy0180: it is a question of not overloading these threads with details.

Personally I never seek contact with the families from which I have items in my collection; there is a reason why I have it in my possession and that usually is because either their wasn't a family to take care of it or more then often they weren't interested in it.
There is very little reward in researching for family members or post war careers, I can't invest my time in those things.
Those that are interested in their family member and google them, will find my threads. This has happened before but the intrest they have is usually very general, along the line of: wow! grandpa served in the war. WW2 was that the one with Adolf or was that the first? Can I have his stuff back I'll refund the shipping,....etc, like I say usually very little reward or extra information in it.


Cheers,
Peter
 
Hello Clickjack,

In this huge document grouping I have his POW release document, that is why I know those details.
I don't show everything in these Soldbuch threads, I limit myself to the highlights and the weapons page for the members here :happy0180: it is a question of not overloading these threads with details.

Personally I never seek contact with the families from which I have items in my collection; there is a reason why I have it in my possession and that usually is because either their wasn't a family to take care of it or more then often they weren't interested in it.
There is very little reward in researching for family members or post war careers, I can't invest my time in those things.
Those that are interested in their family member and google them, will find my threads. This has happened before but the intrest they have is usually very general, along the line of: wow! grandpa served in the war. WW2 was that the one with Adolf or was that the first? Can I have his stuff back I'll refund the shipping,....etc, like I say usually very little reward or extra information in it.


Cheers,
Peter

What do you do when they ask for his stuff back?
 
Weapons

In December 1942 he bought a 7.65 mm Sauer & Sohn from the Army. Page 8c

Yes..it looks like he was issued some other weapons also ?

Super read as usual. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 

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