Please help me find a German Soldier.

This is a serious longshot. But my grandfather recently passed away and he fought in the war. He left me a German Gasmask with the name Franz Michelbach on it and the word Baupioner. I just would like to find out if this was a fallen soldier or if he could potentially still be alive. Im young and im just trying to find some facts about this man and what he did for his country. Thank you, Josh Moore

 

Hi Josh.

Welcome to the WW2Fs! First off, I can't help you with the name, but I can tell you that the word "baupioner" refers to a construction field engineer (think of building fortifications, storage buildings, etc near the front). "bau" means "construction", "pionier" means "field engineer". A list of "baupionier" battalions can be found here: Bau-Pionier-Bataillone - Lexikon der Wehrmacht. Plug that link into a translator (Google Translate works well).

Hope this helps.

 

My grandpa was in the navy. I know he fought in Normandy but thats really all of the information we have. We knew he was one of the guys that swam down and diffused the mines. I'm going to try and find out what ship and division he was in. Thanks alot guys!

 

If he saw combat, it sounds like he was in a Naval Combat Demolition Unit (NCDU). Check here for more information: Underwater Demolition Team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Here are a few names that showed up with a Google search that may be of some help: Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944 - Google Books. A listing of which units were at each of the beaches can be found here: SpecWarNet - NCDU Naval Combat Demolitions Units

 

Hi joshmoore,

after an research i can tell you that Franz Michelbach, born 01.09.1907, was KIA at the 06.06.1944 in France and has found his last rest at Orglandes Block6 Grave Nr.93.

Here is the link to the German Kriegsgraeberfuersorge where i found him.

Grbersuche | Suchanfrage | Ergebnis | Detailinformation

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you so much for this guys! This is a whole buch of help.