Wehrpas Heer-KM

[humble collector]

Here's an interesting Wehrpas belonging to a WW1 vet who is serving on a construction battalion. I picked it up locally, and some of it has been translated. I would appreciate anymore info if possible 😊

[humble collector]

Rest of the book

[humble collector]

Service record in WW1

[humble collector]

This is what I have so far for transition of his Wehrpas

[Rakkasan187]

On page 35 under the awards and decorations it appears that he was awarded the kriegsverdienstkreuz 2. klasse mit schwertern (War Merit Cross 2nd Class with swords) on September 28, 1940

Very nice documents and will be interesting to see this translated

Smitty

[humble collector]

On page 35 under the awards and decorations it appears that he was awarded the kriegsverdienstkreuz 2. klasse mit schwertern (War Merit Cross 2nd Class with swords) on September 28, 1940

Very nice documents and will be interesting to see this translated

Smitty

Thanks Smitty 😊 It also appears he received the War Merit Medal to boot

[HPL2008]

Here's what the two documents tell us:

Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Baade was born on 23 September 1900 in Reddelich in the Rostock district in Mecklenburg. His parents were the farmer Heinrich Baade and his wife Ida (née Penzin). Heinrich had passed away in 1924, Ida was still alive at the time the Wehrpaß was issued.

A natural born German citizen, Friedrich was a married man and - like the majority of North Germans - of Protestant faith. He had a basic Volksschule education and, like his father before him, was a farmer. Cars were still a luxury for most of the working-class population, but he held a Class I drivers' license (for motorcycles). His blood group was A.

On 21 June 1918, he was called up for military service in the last year of the Great War. Although his service was brief, Friedrich served with several units, the last of which was the 1st Company of Jäger-Bataillon 9 [Light Infantry Battalion No. 9]. He was discharged on 12 December 1918 with the rank of Jäger, i.e. a basic-level private. His conduct was recorded as "very good", with no sentencings to judicial or non-judicial punishments.

With obligatory military service re-introduced in 1937, Friedrich was once again subject to conscription and underwent his draft board examination at the Wehrmeldeamt [Draft Board] at Rostock on 5 March 1937. Friedrich was found to be physically fit for military service, assigned to the second-line reserves and taken into the Landwehr I (trained reserves made up of men of 35 to 45 years of age). He was assigned Wehrnummer [personal identification number] Rostock 00/2335/1 and had his Wehrpaß issued.

During the build-up to WW2 and just a few days before the actual outbreak of war, Richard was once again called up for active military service. On 26 August 1939, he reported for duty with the I. Motororisierte Bau-Kolonne [I. Motorized Construction Column] of Marine-Bau-Bataillon 321 [Navy Construction Battalion 321]. Three days later, on 29 August 1939, he was sworn in and given the standard lecture on secrecy, security, counter-espionage etc.

His subsequent units were:

• 15 July 1941 - 31 March 1942 - Marine-Bau-Bataillon 321 [Navy Construction Battalion 321]
• 1 April 1942 - 31 August 1942 - Marine-Bau-Bataillon 311 [Navy Construction Battalion 311]
• 1 Sept. 1942 - 6 December 1942 - Marine-Festungs-Pionier-Bataillon 311 [Navy Fortress Engineer Battalion 311]*
• 7 December 1942 - 26 January 1943 - Marine-Festungs-Pionier-Ersatz-Bataillon [Navy Fortress Engineer Replacement Battalion]
• from 27 January 1943 on - Marine-Festungs-Pionier-Bataillon 323 [Navy Fortress Engineer Battalion 311]

*)This was the same unit as before; it was merely re-designated in 1942.


He took part in the following operations:

• 26 August 1939 - 21 May 1940 - Homeland service in Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein
• 22 May 1940 - 27 Dec. 1940 - Securing the Dutch coast
• 28 Dec. 1940 - 1 April 1941 - Securing the Danish coast
• from 2 April 1941 on - Securing the fortress area in Gotenhafen [Gdynia]

On 20 April 1940, Richard was promoted to the rank of Gefreiter and on 1 July 1941 to the JNCO rank of Unteroffizier [Corporal]. On 28 September 1940, he was awarded the Kriegsverdienstkreuz 2. Klasse mit Schwertern [War Merit Class 2nd Class with Swords] in the name of the Commanding General in France. This would remain his sole decoration in WW2.

[humble collector]

Thank you very much Andreas !

Much more thoroughly put together than the information I had translated.