4. Inf. Ersatz Batt. Erkennungsmarke

[HPL2008]

I have heard that "Thyssen" is a well-known family in Germany. Perhaps this guy was a member of this family?

The Thyssens of Thyssenkrupp fame are well-known indeed. (See: Thyssen family - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) Whether our man was related to this family, I cannot tell, though.

[Matt L]

Affirmative Matt.

The soldier could not have been wounded on the roll of GEB216 and ended up in hospital in Poland cause... GEB216 was in Germany. Definitely he was at field unit while he was wounded and the normal administration procedure, which I mentioned in my previous post, had applied.

Brilliant Stacez- thanks for explaining all this; I figured entries for 'returns' to replacement units were just noting temporary billets- just so a man recovering or whatever had a place to go before he went back to his real unit, but didn't realize it was so formal. It's reminiscent of the seemingly excessive complexity of accounting LOL Perhaps necessary to keep track of so many millions soldiers...

I wonder if that explains why many times in personal histories one reads about men sneaking out of hospital to get back to their units at the front- if they're formally registered at a replacement unit, for example, they're truly AWOL if they leave even if they're trying to get back to the war.

[Stacez]

Brilliant Stacez- thanks for explaining all this;

No problem Matt, I'm glad I helped...

I wonder if that explains why many times in personal histories one reads about men sneaking out of hospital to get back to their units at the front- if they're formally registered at a replacement unit, for example, they're truly AWOL if they leave even if they're trying to get back to the war.

I does not explain it directly. The point is to see all possible movements that may happen to soldier after his hospital release.

Try to imagine the following situation...

Soldier "X" (together with his peers, friends from the same village, town...) was inducted and trained in replacement battalion "A" in 1st military district. Then all of them were transfered to associated field regiment "A1". They have been fighting together for couple months...

Soldier X gets finally wound and he goes to reserve hospital. The hospital notifies automatically his replacement unit "A" and he is placed on the rolls of convalescent company of its replacement unit "A".

After a convalescent leave he reports to the convalescent company of his replacement unit "A". His replacement units assignes him for short period of time to local defense battalion "B1" in 1st military district due to fact he is suitable only for limited service (BTW this battalion is affiliated with local defense replacement battalion "B"). He serves as guard for prisoners of war for few weeks until he is considered as good to go for combat duty.

Once he is fully fit he goes back to his responsible replacement unit "A" that is also responsible for other field units from 1st military district. Now, he is going to be transfered to field regiment "A2" (due to i.e. more manpower shortage) and he will not return to his first field unit "A1"...

It was quite smooth case cause everything was occuring within the units of the same military district and only one replacement unit was directly involved.
Many case were not so easy. Soldier were transferred between the units from different military districts and their replacement units were in places where they have never been or even never heard of them... So, finally after hospital release the may ended up in completely different part of of the world in comparison to the place where they were wounded.

To sum up, there was not official guarantee that after your medical treatment you will show up again in the same unit. I assume it might be a main reason of sneaking out to hospital and joining your previous field unit...

[Paul D]

No problem Matt, I'm glad I helped...


I does not explain it directly. The point is to see all possible movements that may happen to soldier after his hospital release.

Try to imagine the following situation...

Soldier "X" (together with his peers, friends from the same village, town...) was inducted and trained in replacement battalion "A" in 1st military district. Then all of them were transfered to associated field regiment "A1". They have been fighting together for couple months...

Soldier X gets finally wound and he goes to reserve hospital. The hospital notifies automatically his replacement unit "A" and he is placed on the rolls of convalescent company of its replacement unit "A".

After a convalescent leave he reports to the convalescent company of his replacement unit "A". His replacement units assignes him for short period of time to local defense battalion "B1" in 1st military district due to fact he is suitable only for limited service (BTW this battalion is affiliated with local defense replacement battalion "B"). He serves as guard for prisoners of war for few weeks until he is considered as good to go for combat duty.

Once he is fully fit he goes back to his responsible replacement unit "A" that is also responsible for other field units from 1st military district. Now, he is going to be transfered to field regiment "A2" (due to i.e. more manpower shortage) and he will not return to his first field unit "A1"...

It was quite smooth case cause everything was occuring within the units of the same military district and only one replacement unit was directly involved.
Many case were not so easy. Soldier were transferred between the units from different military districts and their replacement units were in places where they have never been or even never heard of them... So, finally after hospital release the may ended up in completely different part of of the world in comparison to the place where they were wounded.

To sum up, there was not official guarantee that after your medical treatment you will show up again in the same unit. I assume it might be a main reason of sneaking out to hospital and joining your previous field unit...

Great work Stacez !!

[Matt L]

To sum up, there was not official guarantee that after your medical treatment you will show up again in the same unit. I assume it might be a main reason of sneaking out to hospital and joining your previous field unit...

Indeed- it always struck me as kind of odd to risk punishment to get back to the front where it was really, really dangerous- but if the choice is really to face that danger with friends or with strangers, the former is surely preferrable.

Until now, I wasn't quite sure why the issue was so significant- but if a man would potentially make a number of 'short stops' after leaving hospital, and if there were thus multiple chances he'd be sent to a different unit, it's more understandable.

[ObKrieger]

I suppose a time when I would get back to the front would be if I was serving on the West front, injured, sent to a hospital in Germany, and I thought I might be going to the East front. In that case I would book it on over to France. Russia would not be the place for me.

Thanks for your input, everyone. This has been one of the most informative threads I have ever read.