Article about: That depends really Dagon, i can read the printed words on the death cards but actual handwritting can be a totally different matter, it can be quite difficult sometimes but i could try
Very interesting Battle areas around the Kuban Bridgehead and the Taman Peninsula but not a great deal od English languager literature about it !!
Very true....the only mention I could really find in my books was some basic info in "Atlas of the 2nd World War" by Harper Collins. (decent maps too) Crazy, seeing the importance and death toll to both sides, you think it would be more studied. I personally like trying to research these types of battles.....because after all, as you said....."this is where the Iron crosses grow"! lol Seriously though.
Von River, nice to see your collection. Do you research these men...... Volksbund/etc?
Hi Von River,
You can start by using the German Volksbund website. Im sure you know what it is, but they offer grave-search option, which will provide you with some basic info of where they are buried, where they died, rank, full name, etc, which sometimes is more detailed than what is on the card itself.
Site: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. | Arbeit für den Frieden
Now, with the Date and location of death that you've found......you can start your basic research. Example: "St Mer 'Eglise, June 1944".......So you would look up what exactly went on in this area/location around that specific date. Use google Maps to view the location and get an idea where it is, so you can use your own knowledge of ww2 history to add more info. Many times this will lead to a possible unit ID too, as the info you will find will mention a specific unit/s that were in the area during the time. I try to find ones with numbered shoulderboards so I can narrow down my research.
Overall, you wont get as much info as you would from documents/etc, but I just personally think its important to see these cards as people instead of just a collectible. (not saying that you do this of course) But together, we can find out when/where these men made the ultimate sacrifice and what there last days were like.
I know I'm forgetting some I use but here are Some sites to help with research of dates/locations:
Here is another useful source that describes in detail all operations on the Eastern Front, though in Russian you can use googletranslate and pick the right article, consecutively you can select the English version if applicable.
However, very often the person will die during positional fighting and the operations and actions that are traceable are not that useful so the main source of info is location and time.
LEO MEHLER - VkSBnd indicates he most likely died during the fighting on the Volga. His body was never found, but he is labeled on the rememberance wall for those who died on the Volga and Stalingrad at cemetery Rossoschka (Volgograd Oblast)
If you go a bit deeper on the first one you can find out the following:
The village where he was killed is misspelled as it should be Kovalevo (that happens very often because of the pronunciation), and it makes it very difficult to find the correction location. Moreover google maps will not find you this tiny place in Belarus and you should use the Russian search engine, however that makes it hard because of the language.
Here is the screenshot of the exact place
Now you can start to figure out what was going on there. As I know there was some determined fighting going on around Witebsk in the winter 1943/44 to pause in the spring for the start of operation Bagration.
If you review the front line in that area you can see that the village was located in a salient on the front line when the person was killed
In November the front was mostly quite as all attention of high command of both the Red Army and the Wehrmacht was focused at Kiev.
However, the time of the operation does not correspond with the time of death of the person on a death card, but by researching it we find that the village Kovolevo was already liberated before the start of the operation (front line has moved west from the lake where the village Kovalevo is located).
So the person died near Kovalevo during the local encounters with the 43 army and he was from the 6th army corps. Doing this exercise I learned more about the fighting in ares of Witebsk and about Gorodok operation that was previously unknown to me, this is why it is so interesting to collect the death cards.
However, as you can see most of the death cards are from the Eastern Front and knowledge of Russian is a prerequisite to research them properly (though googletranslate, helps a great deal). So I am more than happy to help if anybody is interested in a particular card.
You gave an wonderful explanation... six stars.
I will start dedicating more time to my death cards, and checks them properly.
And treat them with all respect they deserve.
First, a very young looking Obergrenadier Alois Loibl. I mean, just look how small that tunic is......
Alois was wounded on Dec 17, 1942 during the fighting of a bridgehead in the Voronezh area. He was brought to a field hospital at Voronezh, where he died of his wounds the following day Dec 18th. He is now buried at the Kursk memorial cemetery. I know of a few different bridgeheads over the Upper Don area, but I believe this is probably the larger one known simply as the "Voronezh Bridgehead". If anyone knows or thinks otherwise, I would appreciate any info.
Gefreiter in a Panzer Regiment, Otto Blattner died on August 18, 1942 in the swampy/muddy fighting in/around Shisdra.
Otto was most probably in the 9th Panzer Division during Operation Wirbelwind, starting a week before Otto's death. (the 4th and 11th Pz Divs were just outside of Shisdra). Operation Wirbelwind was a effort to try and pinch off the Russian salient protruding to the west between Ssuchinitschi and Juchnoff. The fighting was very very tough, with muddy/swampy terrain which resulted in slow movement and heavy losses for infantry and tanks. The terrain full of obstacles, Mines, and fortified positions, which hindered the movements both for combat and for logistical support and medical evacuations. On August 18th (the day of Ottos death), the Russians launched a counterattack in the area which rendered heavy losses, just as the previous days had been. The 9 pz Div's rifle companies were down to 10-15 men each!! Days later, the Fuhrer and Von Kluge had decided to discontinue the operation because of such heavy losses and the nearly impossible terrain. Also mentioned in the daily reports is that the 9 Pz Div was completely outnumbered. However, the continued action and attempts on this front were not over. The 9th Pz Div was then withdrawn to the area of Kirov, to fight alongside the GrossDeutschland Div.
Re: Post your death notices
by Paul E
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