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07-17-2023 01:53 AM
# ADS
Circuit advertisement
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No trace of him on the Volksbund or via a casualty card. A casualty card would be very helpful in this instance. Especially for his unit since I cannot find anything about a Panzergrenadier Bataillon 430. Not sure if that is even realistic for it to be structured any other way than a Panzergrenadier Regiment.
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Hi Witt. I tried infantrie and even Grenadier battalion/regiment 430. I wonder if there is any possibility that it could be battalion A30? I’ve noticed this guy’s handwriting is unique to say the least compared to other German documents i have in my collection.
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There were pz gren btl units:
Panzergrenadier-Bataillone - Lexikon der Wehrmacht
But I also can’t find anything to the mentioned unit.
Anon
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Hi there.
I had a feeling the 'A' was related to the Afrika korps and while searching along those lines I found the sales description for this very Soldbuch -
Well-stamped 'ersatz-soldbuch' ('replacement soldbuch') taken as a trophy from K.I.A. Obergefreiter Hermann Thedens, an Wehrmacht sniper. The document was issued to him on February 19, 1943 by the Infantry Replacement Battalion 333, and some time before this, he had fought with Grenadier-Regiment 251. Four days before the sSoldbuch was issued to him, Thedens received a medical examination and he was deemed fit for tropical duty. On March 18, 1943, he was issued equipment, including a K-98 Mauser rifle with a breach cover and received various immunizations during the same month. Thedens was then assigned to Marsch-Bataillon Afrika 50 (March Battalion Afrika 50). On page 19, one sees that Thedens set foot on African soil on April 7, 1943. Sometime in early 1943, Thedens was assigned to the 2. Kompanie (2nd Company) of Panzer-Grenadier-Bataillon A30 (Armored Infantry Battalion A30), which was part of Division Manteuffel. Thedens seemingly was evacuated from North Africa and later killed in action on or about June 12, 1944. On the front cover, the American soldier that killed him adds the black ink inscription: 'Soldier's paybook taken from Sniper who got Sgt. Peterson. I got him. June 12, 1944'. Clearly used, else in very good condition.
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
To be honest, I do not see anything noted in the Soldbuch that points to him being a sniper.
Kind regards,
Will.
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Will,
Thank you for posting this, this soldbuch suddenly got a lot more interesting!
I imagine that to most soldiers, a “sniper” would just be someone whos a good shot and good at hiding. I’m sure it would have been mentioned in his equipment issue if he had been issued a scope to go with his rifle.
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No worries.
I totally agree there.
It is a really interesting Soldbuch and definitely needs more research, thank you for posting it.
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I’m glad to have it.
I bought it from Collectors Guild for considerably less than that other auction site states. I’ll bet that if CG knew the details, it would have been more.
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I'm sorry but from what I see I would say that the writing on the front has been added post-war in order to up the interest and therefore the asking price of it - in what decade I have no idea but certainly not the 1940's.
There isn't a single entry in the Soldbuch - from all the pages shown both here and on the auction site - that is dated later than April 1943. Security checks tended to be done every 6 months from 1943 so I would expect to see more entries on page 15 and the last time he was issued a rifle was in March 1943 (unless pages 8b-d show otherwise). Add that he is not listed as being killed in the Volksbund - only 2 Hermann's with that date of birth are - and that leads me to the conclusion that not only was he not a sniper but that this soldier was taken PoW in Tunisia in April/May 1943 so was already out of the picture long before Normandy 1944.
Never believe the seller's description. Look at every page you can, asking for more if you have to, and make your judgement from what you can see rather than being told.
A pity about the writing on the front cover but a Tunisian PoW is still a decent item, just not the same value as a supposed KIA sniper in Normandy.
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by
Eagle mtn
Hello everyone!
I bought this one recently and wanted to show off a little. It seems like the guy who brought home claimed that the owner was a “sniper” who got his sergeant before he got the sniper. The hand writing on the cover seems period, but I’m far from a handwriting expert.
I am curious if anybody has heard of panzer grenadier battalion 430? I know there’s a panzer grenadier REGIMENT 430, but it seems like they fought exclusively on the eastern from (unlikely to have been picked up by an english speaker).
Also, can anybody read what is written next to his rifle issue entry? I have been unable to translate it
Next to his rifle entry it reads 'm Hülle', so 'with cover', probably means with a rifle cover or bag.
The Soldbuch also is a replacement for the original that was lost which explains that there are not so many entries in it and he starts with rank of Obergefreiter and no promotions.
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