Lets see your Panzer crew member Soldbuchs

[90th Light]

Sadly the New Zealanders did not leave his dog tag with the body,

Chris

[mufasa]

Originally Posted by 90th Light

Sadly the New Zealanders did not leave his dog tag with the body,

Chris

great group! you know when and where he fell?

[Panzer Rob]

Chris-

Thanks for contributing to the thread Looks to be a very nice Soldbuch... would it be possible for you to please post scans of pages 2/3, 4, 15, 17 and any awards listed?

Do you have any detailed info on the battle in which he was killed? If so, please do share it with us.

Best,
Rob

[Angel Farré]

A Panther commander group here.

Angel

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...=1#post5386558

[Panzer Rob]

Thanks for your latest contribution, Angel.

If anyone else has any AFV crew IDs they would like to share please feel free to post them here

Rob

[Panzer Rob]

I thought I'd bring this thread back up by adding a few AFV crew IDs from my collection...

First up is a Soldbuch to a career Panzerjäger NCO by the name of Anton Schmitt who served as a Panzerjäger I crewmember with Panzerjäger-Abt.643 during the invasion of France in 1940 for which he was awarded the Panzer Assault Badge in silver and Iron Cross 2nd Class. In 1944/1945 he served as a crew member (and quite possibly commander) of a Marder III in Armee-Panzerjäger-Abt.744. You can read more about this Soldbuch here.

LOVE the large portrait photo of Schmitt showing his PAB in silver in wear on his field gray wrap

[Panzer Rob]

Here's another Soldbuch which is actually part of a large grouping to a decorated Sturmartillerie NCO by the name of Hermann Wehner, a StuG.III crewmember who, while serving in Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 280, was wounded in action on 19.September 1944 during the Battle of Arnhem. The grouping consists of Wehner’s original issue Soldbuch, his Erkennungsmarke, several of his award documents, photographs and other paperwork. He was awarded the black wound badge, EKII, GAB, EKI and silver wound badge and for anyone interested, here is the link to the thread which showcases more of the grouping along with all of the research I have performed on it to date.

Just like the Schmitt Soldbuch, Wehner's also features a large, beautiful, razor sharp portrait photo showing him wearing a field gray wrap with his EKII ribbon, GAB and black wound badge in wear

Rob

[Rick Admiraal]

I wanted to share this uncommon soldbuch with the Panzer fans here, i think it fits this thread (if not, tell me and i´ll ask it to be moved).
This soldbuch isn´t from a panzer crew member on the inside, but actualy from a special "crew" member on top of the vehicle! (only for Sturmgeschütz and Jagdpanzers).

First some background information.
On the 10th of oktober 1944 an order came out to create special Grenadier-Begleit units to ride on and attack with Sturmgeschütz and Jagdpanzers.
They were extra eyes, ears and protection for these panzers.
The official order:

"Der Generalinspekteur der Panzertruppen: Aufstellung von Grenadier-
Begleitzügen für Sturmgeschütz- und Jagdpanzer-Einheiten: 10.10.1944"

After allot of searching i actualy found that specific order.
This order tells in detail what this unit should be made of, and its job.
Its about 12 pages long, but to make a long story short, it tells to following:

* Each Stug/JagdPz gets 5 soldiers on top.
* These soldiers are to receive special training.
* These soldier are: 1 leader, 3 soldiers and 1 pionier.
* The soldiers used are to be the best fighters (Einzelkämpfer) from the Division.
* These soldier are to be equipped with Stg.44´s.

It also says that after training it should be noted in the personal papers of the soldier that they can only be used as begleit grenadier for the panzers.
(See the top-right corner of page 4 of my soldbuch).

First some screenshots of the official order:

[Rick Admiraal]

2 more screenshots:

[Rick Admiraal]

And now about the actual Soldbuch.
I havn´t fully researched it yet, but i think this soldier also fought with stug´s in Sturm-Bataillon 18 before he became an official begleit-grenadier.
Ever wondered why you see those Grenadiers on top of Stug´s late in the war and who they are? well this is one of those guys.

This guy was a trained Pionier. He had a special job on top of the stug (described in the official order).

Photo´s:

[Rick Admiraal]

2 more photo´s:

[Rick Admiraal]

Here an "example" picture.
Found it via Google.

[hucks216]

That is an interesting item Rick and not until I read your posts about it did I realise that I also have a SB to such a soldier, formerly in Pi.Btl 181 before being assigned to a StuG-Begleit-Zug in Pz.Jäg.Abt 181. The SB doesn't have a photo in it so I will just show the relevant entries/paperwork that show his assignment to the unit...

[Rick Admiraal]

Nice to see another one!
Does it also have the text "Nur für Gren. Begl. zug zu verwenden" somewhere written?

[hucks216]

Originally Posted by Rick Admiraal

Nice to see another one!
Does it also have the text "Nur für Gren. Begl. zug zu verwenden" somewhere written?

To be honest I have no idea! I bought this one a while back as it was pretty cheap - certainly wasn't for the Begleit-Zug link as wasn't aware of that until 5 minutes ago - so has sat in one of my folders ever since. Will have to dig it out again tomorrow and have a look. Also just noticed that the leave pass is signed by Wolfgang Ziemer - DKiG 9th October 1944.