Really nice find friend.
Really nice find friend.
Snippets taken from Case White by William Russ:
Army Group South - September 1st
The military response of the Poles on the morning of September 1st was generally weak. Only Polish border guard units, not elements of the regular army, had been encountered at this stage of the invasion. The initial artillery strikes had provoked little counter battery response from the Poles, indicating that their regular forces were not close to the border....
...By late afternoon, progress had been delayed more by terrain and demolished bridges than by enemy resistance.
...The 5th Panzer Division (VIII Corps), after struggling through the numerous enemy erected barriers, made passage to the town of Rybnik. The road ahead was still strewn with such barriers, so the 8th Panzer Brigade commander (Colonel Harde) sought a path through the forest northeast of the town as it seemed passable to motor vehicles. By evening, the division found itself approaching the town of Pszczyna and the division seemed to have bypassed most of the road obstacles.
Army Group South - September 2nd
...The XVII Army Corps had moved up both sides of the Milowka River to the area of between Skotschau and Biala. VIII Army Corps continued its breakthrough with the 5th Panzer division leading the advance and the 8th and 28th Infantry Divisions rapidly marching towards Krakow.
Thanks for digging that up and sharing it Hucks! You always know how to round out the story for us.
Unfortunately for the Germans, the closing chapters of the 5th division's history doesn't involve so much charging in glory. Based on these dates and information you provided, and on the Lexicon, the three fallen soldiers in the photo were no doubt some of the first losses for their unit, which could have been why the photo was taken.
Here are the situation maps used by the Germans during Fall Weiss. On the 2nd & 4th ones in the listings you can see 5 Pz down near the bottom of the map...
Poland 1939/Poland September 1939
man, I have come back to look at this album 3-4 times now. Some excellent early Panzer/truppe shots. Really just a wonderful album
Excellent album thanks for sharing. Good job by Bill T finding info.
Steve
A poignant Panzerman’s album. I figured I should add the casualty cards for his three comrades lost in Poland. There were three cards for Helmut Richter and two for Gerhard Koltermann. I would assume they were in a Panzer II based on the album, but the cards suggest an anti-tank gun pierced the vehicle and killed the crew.
Name: Karl Zimmermann
Date of birth: 15.10.1917
Place of birth: Chemnitz
Death/missing date: 1.9.1939
Death/missing place: Brzecze
Gefallen: Kopf
Buried in grave 10 of Ehrenfriedhof Bielitz
Name: Helmut Richter
Date of birth: 11.2.1917
Place of birth: Dittersbach
Death/missing date: 1.9.1939
Death/missing place: San Komp 2/85 Brzecze
Gefallen: artillerie brust/pak volltreffer in Panzerwagen
Buried in grave 4 of Ehrenfriedhof Bielitz
Name: Gerhard Koltermann
Date of birth: 20.8.1919
Place of birth: Groß Zochachwitz
Death/missing date: 2.9.1939
Death/missing place: Brzezce
Gefallen: durch pak volltreffer in Panzerwagen
Buried in grave 9 of Ehrenfriedhof Bielitz
Thank you for reigniting this interesting thread Witt. Sadly with the loss of the search function for the forum I simply wouldn't have seen this thread otherwise.
Similar Threads
Bookmarks