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"Blitzkrieg" Soldbuch: SR1

Peter U

Moderator
Staff member
It is May, I’am in Covid19 locked down at home and the weather isn’t great so I thought it to be a good idea to show something of my collection that has a very good connection with the Blitzkrieg of 1940.


When we think about the Westfeldzug, the “Blitzkrieg” campaign against France, we often think about Guderian’s famous “Panzer” thrust through the Ardennes forest area, but this is a bit of a myth.
The main focus of the German plan to defeat the Western allies certain lay with XIX Armee Korps with its three Panzer Divisions (1,2 & 10 + the Großdeutschland Regiment) commanded by General Guderian, but the actual tanks itself played just a minor role in the first phase of this rather complicated plan, speed and concealment were very important in the race towards the Meuse, they had to reach and cross the Meuse River in matter of days after the start of the offensive, secondly the French HQ had to be unaware as long as possible that the main thrust would take place in this area and to execute this first phase Guderian chose the 1 Schützen Brigade of the 1 Pz Div commanded by Gen Krüger.
Because of the terrain conditions and the narrow roads the tip of the spear, the Voraus Abteilung, would consist of: III/SR1 (the third battalion motorized infantry), K1 (the motorcycle battalion), one engineer company of Pi37, one motorcycle company of AA4, one company of the anti-tank battalion Pz Jg Abt 37, three platoons of 88’s of Schw Pz Jg Abt 8, four groups of artillery of various units and one battery of Flak 88’s for bunker destruction; you see there are no tanks in this unit, the famous manoeuvre through the Ardennes and the Meuse crossing in Sedan is basically a motorized infantry operation with a big focus on troops on motorcycles, which were ideal vehicles for the terrain and narrow winding roads.

In my collection I have a set for several years now of an officer of the staff of III/SR1 and although he was an ordnance officer, amongst his responsibilities were the maps and the unit war diary, his tasks weren’t only administrative, he was wounded in 1939 and 1940, and was awarded the EKII & I, so it is clear that he was in the thick of the fighting at least on several occasions.
Reinhard Sommerhoff, a salesman from Hamburg, entered the Germany as a volunteer in 1935, he rose through the ranks rather quickly and got his officer commission in 1938, he served with the staff of third battalion of motorized infantry regiment 69.
He took part in the invasion of Poland in September 1939, his unit was a part of the 20th Motorized Infantry Division, on September 15 1939 he was wounded on his right eye when he fought in the battle for the Brest Litowk fortress.
In October 1939 his battalion was transferred to Schützen Regiment 1 of the 1 Pz Div.
He was now in the staff of unit with the most important task of the entire German Army, he would be involved in the planning of one of the most brilliant military manoeuvres in history.
After they successfully crossed the Meuse in Sedan on May 13 1940 of course the operation isn’t completed, they have to break out of the bridgehead and race towards the channel coast to cut off the best of the allied division of their base of support; it is in this phase that he gets wounded for the second time, he is shot in the right arm in Bouvellemont on May 16 1940.
The fighting to take control of Bouvellemont was fierce, the French defended it with everything they had and it even came to night fighting and the regimental commander took control of this sector but eventually the Germans came out on top and they had managed to break out to the West, Reinhard Sommerhoff was awarded the EKI in June 1940 and also the PKA in bronze in January 1941.
In November 1940 another reorganization followed, this time his battalion became a part of the newly formed SR113, also part of the 1 Pz Div.
He participated in the invasion of Soviet Russia but when they reached the outskirts of Leningrad he became ill, stomach and bowl problems, this illness wasn’t the end of his military career but it sure was of his front line career, after spending time in various hospitals he eventually ended up in the command center for POW affairs in Wehrkreis X, that is in his home town of Hamburg.
 

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Don’t know how I missed this post, what a great Soldbuch!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This is from a Hamburg seller in 2019.
I am happy to get to know the owner.


MfG
S.W.
 

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I forgot where I bought it, besides his Soldbuch I also have his Wehrpaß, driving license and some documents.
Odd that they sold the EKM seperatly but alas I can't say that I haven't seen it before.

Thanks for posting it here!
 
I forgot where I bought it, besides his Soldbuch I also have his Wehrpaß, driving license and some documents.
Odd that they sold the EKM seperatly but alas I can't say that I haven't seen it before.

Thanks for posting it here!



You're welcome~!
Could you please show me pages 1 and 12 of Wehrpass?


MfG
S.W.
 
Normally not a problem but I don't have images of it on my harddisk but I can tell you that his EKM number isn't listed in his Wehrpaß and the units are just the same as in the Soldbuch.
I'll see what I can do one of these days.
 

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