Soldbuch Pz Lehr Rgt 901 - WIA in the Battle of the Bulge

Hello guys,

This week I added another Panzer Lehr Division Soldbuch to my collection.

Ernst Rinortner (°1926) from Thomasroith (Austria) was a miner just like his father;on February 2 1944 he started his military service.
After hefinished his basic training in early October ‘44 he was assigned to the 4[SUP]th[/SUP]company of Panzer Grenadier Lehr Regiment 901; in June ’44 is issued a P38 pistol, this can suggest that he was a driver or vehicle crewmember, the PanzerLehr Division was a mechanized division.
In this period the elite Panzer Lehr Division was recovering from the heavy losses it had suffered in Normandy.
In the second half of November ’44 the Panzer Lehr Division is at the front again, now they counterattack an allied offensive in the Saar region, at the end of the month they are fighting against the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] USArmored Division; in the first week of December they are pulled back from the front.
During this retreat Ernst becomes the victim of an allied air raid (wound code 31d) and is admit to a field hospital on December 6 1944, he leaves the hospital on December 17 1944, the first day of the battle of the bulge.
On the morning of January 16 ’45, the 11[SUP]th[/SUP] US Armored Division breakthrough the frontline held by the 26VGD on both sides of the Bertogne-Houffalize road they reach the tiny village of Mabompré, there they surprise what is left over from Pz Gr Lehr Rgt 901.
The fighting is fierce and the men of KG Hauser succeed in blowing up a vital bridge just in time, nevertheless the Americans cross the small brook and occupy the woods north of Mabompré that day. It is on this day that Ernst is hit by an American bullet in the right lower leg, three days later he is admitted to a field hospital with a serious bullet wound and frostbite (wound codes 31a & 33).
He will remain in hospital until the end of the war; in 1946 he is working again as a miner.

Some interesting details you can see in this Soldbuch:
- Some moronic fool felt the need to upgrade this Soldbuch to Waffen SS service, the SS Kampfgruppe Hauser citation is a postwar fake entry.
- He was issued a helmet camouflage net (Tarnnetz).
- He entered the field hospital on January 24 ’45 without his gasmask, so he apparentlylost his gasmask in the battle of the bulge.
So go looking for gasmask D714…..


Another Soldbuch from the same regiment:
http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread...v-Soldbuch-set-WIA-in-the-battle-for-Bastogne



Cheers,
Peter

Always interesting

Peter U said:

Hello guys,

This week I added another Panzer Lehr Division Soldbuch to my collection.

Ernst Rinortner (°1926) from Thomasroith (Austria) was a miner just like his father;on February 2 1944 he started his military service.
After hefinished his basic training in early October ‘44 he was assigned to the 4[SUP]th[/SUP]company of Panzer Grenadier Lehr Regiment 901; in June ’44 is issued a P38 pistol, this can suggest that he was a driver or vehicle crewmember, the PanzerLehr Division was a mechanized division.
In this period the elite Panzer Lehr Division was recovering from the heavy losses it had suffered in Normandy.
In the second half of November ’44 the Panzer Lehr Division is at the front again, now they counterattack an allied offensive in the Saar region, at the end of the month they are fighting against the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] USArmored Division; in the first week of December they are pulled back from the front.
During this retreat Ernst becomes the victim of an allied air raid (wound code 31d) and is admit to a field hospital on December 6 1944, he leaves the hospital on December 17 1944, the first day of the battle of the bulge.
On the morning of January 16 ’45, the 11[SUP]th[/SUP] US Armored Division breakthrough the frontline held by the 26VGD on both sides of the Bertogne-Houffalize road they reach the tiny village of Mabompré, there they surprise what is left over from Pz Gr Lehr Rgt 901.
The fighting is fierce and the men of KG Hauser succeed in blowing up a vital bridge just in time, nevertheless the Americans cross the small brook and occupy the woods north of Mabompré that day. It is on this day that Ernst is hit by an American bullet in the right lower leg, three days later he is admitted to a field hospital with a serious bullet wound and frostbite (wound codes 31a & 33).
He will remain in hospital until the end of the war; in 1946 he is working again as a miner.

Some interesting details you can see in this Soldbuch:
- Some moronic fool felt the need to upgrade this Soldbuch to Waffen SS service, the SS Kampfgruppe Hauser citation is a postwar fake entry.
- He was issued a helmet camouflage net (Tarnnetz).
- He entered the field hospital on January 24 ’45 without his gasmask, so he apparentlylost his gasmask in the battle of the bulge.
So go looking for gasmask D714…..


Another Soldbuch from the same regiment:
http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread...v-Soldbuch-set-WIA-in-the-battle-for-Bastogne



Cheers,
Peter

Click to expand...

How did you determine the entry was fake ? Have you ever been able to track one of these to a living soldier ?


Great post as usual.

jack944 said:

How did you determine the entry was fake ? Have you ever been able to track one of these to a living soldier ?


Great post as usual.

Click to expand...

Hi Jack944,


Thanks for the compliment.


Why is that entry fake?
This is some information on Waffen SS Sturmbannführer Hans Hauser of the Kampfgruppe Hauser:
http://www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de/Waffen-SS/H/Hauser-Hans.htm
The KG was formed in early April '45, at that time Ernst Rinortner was still unfit to serve, he was was mentally ill, most likely suffering from shell shock.
You can see that on his leave page, he got a special leave on April 11 '45 to recuperate at home until June 4 1945.
So at the time KG Hauser is active, the hospital is still making entries in his Soldbuch.
Also the handwriting of that entry is forced, it isn't fluently written.
My estimated guess is that some fool read something about KG Hauser and its actions in Austria and just decided to sexy up this imho already interesting Soldbuch with an Waffen SS entry just to get more money for it.




No, I never did seek contact with any of the soldiers
It would be virtually impossible to do this anyway; Germany has very strick privacy laws, so finding their address would be impossible for me.
Also to be honest, if a Soldbuch finds its way to the collectors market it usually means that the soldier in question has passed away.


Cheers,
Peter

Great stuff Peter, as usual!

The clown who vandalized that soldbuch should be horse whipped.

Thanks Hambone,


This is a classic case of Soldbuch faking, #1 is adding a fake photo, #2 is adding medals and badges and #3 is adding fake unit transfers.
A horse whip would indeed be a good tool to punish the clowns who do this.


Cheers,
Peter

It really is vandalism of the worst kind Peter, historical vandalism. Someone's history is bastardized. We've seen he same thing done to helmets to make them more saleable, and firearms.

Last weekend I took a small vacation in the Ardennes forest and on one of the days I did a hike in the hills between Houffalize and Mabompré.
The hills south of Houffalize are very steep, this is an impression on how it looks there.

Fascinating as always, Peter! Thanks for sharing. In which town does that Panzer V sit?

Nevermind, found it. Houffalize.

Thanks BerlinerLuebecker,

This "Panther" indeed stands in Houffalize, there are three Panthers on display in the Ardennes today, one in Celles from the 2 Pz Div, one from the 2 SS Pz Div in Grandmenil and this one, the best preserved one of the 116 Pz Div.
Some more pictures of it, I took them in 2011.


Cheers,
Peter

Wow, complete with misguided graffiti! I saw the one in Grandmenil in 2006. It's unfortunate that they're in such sorry shape.

Hi!

At the first sorry for my bad english.
My name ist Herbert and I´m from Austria.
And now pleas read my Story.

That's crazy!
I have known Ernst Rinortner senj.
He died a few years ago, but his wife and
His children Ernst and Günter both live not far from me.
Ernst Rinortner junior found this site by chance, but does not speak English. He asked me to ask if he could buy his father's pay book. That would give him much pleasure, of course.

S/Y
Herbert

Herbert, I have sent you a PM message.


Nothing from my collection is for sale but I gladly give high resolution images without a watermark to the family.
This question has been asked before, it seems plenty of people google their name and find my threads.
Please understand that my collection is made up almost entirely out of highly personel objects, if all family members would claim their item back I wouldn't have much of a collection left over.