Stalingrad Shield??

[Willmore]

[Willmore]

Sorry about the images, first time posting here and from my good lady's iPad....

[MAP]

I have the wehrpass that belonged to Johann bretzendofer.

He stated out with 1./San.Ers.Abt.7 (Muchen) 4.10.40 and was killed in action with 6./Gren.Rgt.673 of 376 Inf.Div 22.11.43.

He served with various SAN units and interestingly he was with schlächterei-kompanie.376 8.3.41-20.9.42.

The Stalingrad entry is 17.8.42-18.11.42 Angriffsschlacht Auf Stalingrad.

Hope this is of some interest.

Regards.

P.s this is my first post.

Welcome Willmore. What are the odds of that!

Anyway, thanks for posting. Bill T hasn't posted on this forum for almost 2 years now. Hopefully he see's this and responds but please don't be disappointed if he does not.

Regards,

M

[BlackCat1982]

Interesting WP. Had always thought the Stalingrad Schild was a fantasy, so again there are more questions than answers.

[HPL2008]

Interesting WP. Had always thought the Stalingrad Schild was a fantasy, so again there are more questions than answers.

Not really.

The Stalingrad shield was a projected award and there was even a contest for design proposals from the troops.

However, after the 6th Army's capitulation, the whole project was cancelled. The Stalingrad shield was never instituted, manufactured or awarded.
All such shields offered today are post-war fakes, some of which are based on one of the known submitted design proposals, while others feature the "Stalingrad Cross" worn as a shoulder board device by the 44th Infantry Division.

Its being mentioned on the death card can only be a mistake made by the soldier's next-of-kin.

[Willmore]

Hello everyone,

After I posted that I had Johann bretzendorfers wehrpass, I was contacted and offered the death card (which I bought from a very, very nice chap!) so I thought I would post a photo of them together.

Thanks for your interest guys!

[Neil Hever]

Here is the most common example of the reproduction/fantasy shield I was able to find on the web. NH

[Willmore]

Thanks NH, yeah I have no doubt that the Stalingrad shield is fake for sure! I do think the death card entry to Johann was a mistake by the family or printer to maybe ease the pain. E.g. He was a hero and achieved this?.... There are no awards listed in the wehrpass but he should have been entitled the the Ost medal, which is on the death card but not in the wehrpass. I'm not sure, and welcome and ideas or thoughts!

Thanks guys.

[hucks216]

You will need to show page 12 of the Wehrpass to see if he was entitled to the Ostmedaille. He isn't wearing the Ostmedaille ribbon in the photo on the death card and it would depend on what unit he was serving with for the qualifying period. 376.Infanterie-Division wasn't formed until March/April 1942 so it would depend on what unit he was serving with prior to this.

[Danmark]

"Oh Mr Hilter, you wouldn't have had much fun in Stalingrad"......

"Nein, not much fun in Stalingrad!!!"....