Wedding photo of veteran fighter of 6th Panzer

[Witt]

Hello all,

Here is the most recent photo I have received and I wanted to share its great history that is deserved of a post. This came from a great seller that I usually deal with from Berlin. Last week I had pretty much accepted that it had been lost in the postal system as it had not arrived, but it finally arrived after seven weeks of transit. I have been collecting photos from Panzer-Regiment 11 but they have been difficult to find. I had to buy this when I saw it was from a member of the regiment. There was a very nice surprise attached with the photo that I was completely unaware of that really elevated this above just knowing the regiment. I’ll explain below so stick around and enjoy.


Here is the photo of a young man from the 11th Panzer Regiment on his wedding day.




That is all the information I had was a picture and a unit while I waited to add this to my other photos from the regiment. You could imagine my face when I was going to scan the photo and noticed two sticky notes attached to the back of the sleeve holding the photo. He had written down information from the veteran which opened up a whole other part to this story.

The first note provides the coveted name to the face and reads as follows:
Herbert von Hofe
Born June 1917 in Lüdenscheid
Died 2009 in Lüdenscheid
Stabsgefreiter in Pz. Rgt. 11, 6. Pz. Div.
Schwerer Panzerspähwagen Driver
Obergefreiter Hinkel [?]
Photo recorded 1942
Brother-in-law of Wolfgang Müller


The second note talks of a family member and is also quite fascinating. It reads:
Günther von Hofe
(Cousin of Herbert v. Hofe)
Born 04 M. 1916 in Lüdenscheid
Stabsgefrieter
Wohnh. [?] Kölner Str. 42 [address?]
Missing since the course of Wilhelm Gustloff 1945 [MV Wilhelm Gustloff]
31.12.45 declared dead


So to continue the story of Herbert von Hofe, Pz. Rgt. 11, and this photo follows. This would have been taken in the spring of 1942 while the unit was being rebuilt after the heavy fighting that decimated them on the Eastern Front. Him and rest of those that made it back to France for the rebuild had become seasoned fighters from fighting in the east. Assuming he was in the regiment from the start, they fought in the Invasion of Poland. The next year they rolled through France not stopping at Paris but continuing on to the coast where they trapped the British at Dunkirk. Then they were transported east for Operation Barbarossa, with Army Group North they fought into the gates of Leningrad. Upon reaching Leningrad, they were shifted to Army Group South to advance on Moscow. The fighting for them became very fierce before the city causing them to fall back for the Russian counter offensive. The last of the regiments tanks were destroyed during the defense so the survivors were forced into the infantry role fighting on foot along the highway and the Moscow-Brest rail line. Those that still survived after this were taken through the rear for the refreshment in France when Herbert was able to be married. By the end of the summer they were sent back in the direction of Stalingrad. The fighting him and the rest of the panzermen saw from late 1942 to the surrender in 1945 was very similar in ferocity to what the old dogs had seen in 1941 and the first half of 1942.


Very excited to be able to add this to my other photos from Pz. Rgt. 11. Very grateful to have received this extra bit of its history to preserve and share. Thank you for reading to this point.
Thanks, Ben