Third Party Press

Soldbuch - from cadet to Rgt CO

Peter U

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Staff member
It has been a long while since I posted a Soldbuch (recently I have been busy with my battle of Waterloo saber collection), anyway this is the newest addition to my collection.

Otfried Gerhardi, from officer cadet to regimental CO.
His career in a nutshell:
He joined the Wehrmacht in November 1937, a year later he became an officer cadet in the Munich “Kriegsschule”,
When Germany mobilized in August 1939 he got his officers commission and was assigned to the second battalion of Infantry Regiment 80 (34ID), when on September 1 1939 war broke out he became a platoon commander in the 7th company.
His unit was stationed on the Westwall, across from the famous Maginot line; in this period we now better known as the “phony war period”, he was WIA for the first time.
For the campaign against the Western Allies 34ID and more precise its IR80 got the task to occupy neutral Luxembourg; the duchy of Luxembourg had no army, only a police force, they wouldn’t be a problem but the Wehrmacht knew that the French would occupy Luxembourg asap when it would be invaded by the Wehrmacht, Luxembourg was important for the WH because its main armored thrust would go through the northern part of it, its flank needed protection.
Speed was important when it came to occupy Luxembourg, the WH only had hours to prevent the French from mounting a successful invasion of the relatively difficult – and easy to defend terrain, to achieve this they would use Brandenburger commandos that operated in civilian cloths, airborne operations and small units of motorized infantry, Gehardi would lead one of this motorized infantry platoons.
For his part in occupying the duchy Luxembourg and preventing French motorized units to threat the flank of the main armored thrust he was awarded both EKII & I on the same day.
The next big event was the invasion of Soviet Russia, operation Barbarossa; in the two previous campaigns Gerhardi had proven that he was an officer that did lead from the front and on June 22 1941 it was the same, he was WIA on the first day of the invasion.
After he recovered he became the “Adjudant” of the first battalion, in March 1942 he became the company commander of the first company of IR80 but only weeks after this appointment he was WIA for a third time.
He came back to his regiment in August 1942, now as the CO of 2/IR80.
Now his military career really got some momentum, he was promoted to captain and in February 1943 he became the regimental adjudant of IR253 (also part of the 34ID) and then a battalion commander, in July of 1943 he was WIA again and in October 1943, while he was with his replacement unit, he was awarded the German cross in Gold.
He returned to front line service again in June 1944, now with the staff of the 34ID, at the end of November he became the regimental CO of IR80, a position he only held for a few weeks because he was once again WIA.
He would survive the war and go in to captivity in May 1945.
 

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It’s post like this that really make me love the Soldbuch. I wish American soldiers had a similar book. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks Peter, O. Gerhardi was a survivor of Army Group Center : any detail about his third wound ?
It is funny that he bought his own pistol in 1942. I guess BWF stands for Böhmische Waffenfabrik and his pistol was a vz 27 ?
 
Good stuff Peter. I always like looking to see the weapons they were issued ;)
 
"I wish American soldiers had a similar book."

Me too.
And the Belgian - and British army too for that matter.
It is like those Germans knew that we were going to collect their stuff. ;-)
 

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