from 1941 til 1945 (1944 wounded) my grandfathers Duty in the German Wehrmacht.

Hello to all.
I am glad to found this forum. I will hope you will be enlighted by the story I have to tell.
I apologize that some of my material is not translated in english. But I think you will get the picture.

This story consists of several parts


PART I:

My Grandfather lived in Würbenthal Sudetenland and was called to arms in Oktober 1941.He was ordered to go to Straßburg ( here was the bataillion newly created).
here is a short List of his duty

Okt 1941 2. Kompanie Bau Bataillon 8
26.12.1941 Standort Strassburg
27.01.1942 4. Kompanie Bau Bataillon 419
3.4.1943 4. Kompanie Bau Bataillon 419
April 1943 2. Kompanie Bau Bataillon 419
04.09.1944 2. Kompanie Bau Pionier Bataillon 419​

A Bau pionier bataillon constisted of the following:

Bau Pionier Bataillion 419 Kampfstärkenachweisung​

(KStN 2046) 01.12.1935
Company (3 companies + 1 company train/btn)
HQ (1 - 0 - 5 - 8) 1 horse, 1MC/SC, 1 bike
Company (3 plt/coy) Each Platoon (1 - 0 - 8 - 115) 1 bike
Company Train (0 - 0 - 1 - 13) 2 wagons ea with 2 horses, 2 field kitchens ea with 2 horses.

​

this is not the original Call to arms from him, its one of my other relatives:

​

It says you cannot do anything about it you have to obey the call to arms


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training in Straßburg was til May 1942 (but not later)

Bau-Bataillon 419 später Baupionier-Bataillon 419 (umbenannt am 19 Aug 43 in Baupionier-Bataillon 419)

Okt 1941 2. Kompanie Bau Bataillon (Hinweis auf Bildung der Kompanie ->Karl Karaus Werdegang)

26.12.1941 Standort Strassburg Stationierung

27.12.1941 Aufstellung, Bildung mit 4 Kompanien 1 Stab und 1 Kolonne im WK V als Bau-Bataillon 419 in Strassburg



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the transport:
In May 1942 the were transported to the eastern front by train.
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the first assignment
28.June1942
First assignment was the "FALL BAU" under the XXXXVIII. Panzer Korps.


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quick change:
already on 04.July 1942 they were transfered to the 2. Armee Group "Weichs"
Kriegsgliederung der 2.Armee: Stand 04.07.1942
45.ID,
SS-Brig.1 "Reichsführer-SS",
95.ID,
299.ID,
383.ID, 88.ID
13.07.1942 Unterstellung der Armeegruppe von Weichs, 2.Armee als Bau-Bataillon 419
30.07.1942 Unterstellung der Gruppe Blum, 2.Armee als Bau-Bataillon 419

On 30.July 1942 ordered under the Command of the Gruppe Blum 2. Armee.
-------------------------------

End of Part I



Part II will show the first encirclement and devastating defence on 01.1943 Woronesch​

 

Part II
" The battle for retreat"


The tactical Sign of a Bau Pionier Bataillon

On 01.1943 the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon was set up as rear echolon troop to build streets, bridges, defence areas, bunkers and so on at what we called it the Don-Front behind Woronesch.
The russian army broke trough the HKL (main fighting line "Hauptkampflinie") and treathened to encircle with a pincer movement the complete back area from Woronesch. Here the so called construction soldiers, were for the first time forced to fight for their lifes. Poorly trained and with no heavy Infanterie weapons, they start to defend. South of Kastornoje the Bataillon lost alot of its members ( KIA and MIA statistics testify terrible losses). Most of the Men were MIAś, no time to bury them. The whole Army retreated to the Olymp river, were at this place they were again forced to defend and hold the line. again the losses risen to a high state. Only a couple of Men survied this defence onslaught ( including my Grandfather) an retreated to the next strong Defence Line called Tim. And again here in the Defence Line they had to fight again and lost alot of their remaining Kameraden (Fellows). The Bataillon was nearly anhinilated

My Grandfather told me once the following story. He was fighting in a small town, he was hanging a MP ( possible Schmeisser) around his neck was running around a corner. there he met a surprised russian with a weapon ready to shot. As Sudetengerman he was able to speak czech so he was calling the russian soldier friendly. both of them knew they would not survive if one of them would pull the trigger. they exchanged s and shared a cigarette, smoked it toghether and both of them turned around and went off to their lines. This was the one and only strange tale my grandfather told me as I was a young boy.


The Situation of Woronesch



End of Part II


Part III will be the devastating encirclement at Witebsk / Borrisow / Vilnus or Wilna 1944 with bombardements, against gutless partisans, tank defence ​

 

Part III
"struggling to survive"


This is the second imminent encirclement, the 419. had to deal with. in Summer 1944 the russia Army broke trough the defence line at Mogiljow. The 419. was behind the lines when the struggle begun. The roads were crammed with Wehrmachtvehicles, so they had to flee alongside of the streets. The russians send armored spearheads after them and with strafing Planes they attacked the fleeing units, so they were forced away from the streets into the marshes. In all this chaos they were trapped in the marshes and had to fight and kill the partisans, which tried to bring confusion and tried to butcher the fleeing german soldiers. how many they killed on both sides, I have no clue, but I know from my father after the war the male family members talked and discussed this topic several times. my Dad heard a figure, the killing was "countless" with no mercy on both sides. The remaining 419. members eventually left the marshes and fled to a riverbank. There it came to the last stand, they had to give up their vehicles due to no fuel left and destroyed them self, dugged in and awaited the russian tanks. On the riverbank they defended and repelled the tank attack with heavy losses. Remember this was not a fighting unit ! All in all they lost again during this fights most of their members like the statistic shows.
After the tank attack, the remaing 419. ferried across the river and entered the defence line at Wlina. There after some short rest break, they were put together into a combat unit to defend the main defence line, where again several of the 419. members died.

My Grandfather was lucky to survive. My Father and I, we never discovered what he actually really had experienced during this terrible fights. He never told us, what he had seen, what he had to do to defend his life, how to kill , what he was feeling, his fear. But he really suffered after the war, he always was believing someone followed him trying to kill him. My father believes this must be the result of the 1944 Days from the marshes against the unlawfully acting partisans. From what my father heard during these discussions in my family, he must have killed allot of the enemy. kill to survive was the one and only rule this days.






End of Part III


Part IV will be the divided into two sections.

Part IV section I
The "Lucky Day" the severe injury for Karl Karaus my Grandfather, he was among of his fellows one of the few who survived the War.

Part IV section II
The doom, the total annihilation of the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon 1945




​

 

i dont think your grandfather was on his own recalling all the horror and suffering that went on in his time at the front, a lots of guys just shut the memories out of their minds? nightmares etc.

 

Part IV section I

The "Lucky Day" the severe injury for Karl Karaus my Grandfather, he was among of his fellows one of the few who survived the War.

After the retreat to the defence Line at Wilna the remaining 419. was put in August 1944 into what we call a "firebrigade unit" thrown into the baltic area. it was called the
4. Sperrkampfgruppe ( what a high level name for a lousy troop ! )



among other scattered units this was the following order:

"everybody who can build bridges can shoot !"

This was the order of the Battlegroup

4. Sperrkampgruppe August 1944 im Baltischen Loch
Der 4. Armee unmittelbar unterstellt:
- Pi.-Rgts.-Stab 673 (Reste Pi 40),
Pi.-Btl. Mot.- Reste 751 (Teil mot.)
- Pi.-Btl. (bespannt) 654 (Heeresgruppenreserve)
- Brückenkommando Staffelstäbe 932
- Brückenkommando B (mot.) 660,664
- Brückenkommando B (Ger.-Einh. mit Begleitkommando) 27
- schwere Panzer-Brücken- Kolonne 848
- höherer Pionier-Führer Reste Pi 10
- Bau-Pi.-Btl. Reste 419, 320

As you can see only rear echolon troops. This poor soldiers hat to defend the baltic hole. this was a gap between two armygroups.
​

In September the 419. was ordered into the "Ostpreussenstellung", a fortified line with fortresses bunker systems and so on. This was for a short time a calm and resting position as alarming unit.
On 04.09.1944 the war was over for Karl Karaus. An artillerie shell or handgranade hit the ground and he was severe wounded. Very strange was the fact, that he suffered not only from an artillerie shell damage, he had a bullet trough shot in his leg as well.
I have two different Injury dates. 04.09.1944 WAST // 15.09.1944 Krankentagebuchlager
Here is the List of his injury:

Artillerie Shell Shrapnel in the left eye (later he used a glass eye, what a ironical fact he was a glas blower worker)
Amputation of the first and second toe from the right foot
broken bone of the lower leg trough a bullet trough shot.

Today looks to me this sounds like a close combat melee with handgranades and small arms fire. We never discovered what happened so we can only guess. But in my opinion we are very close to the facts what happened on 04.09.1944. Defence or raiding patrol.

His injury saved him his life. For him the war was over. He was transferred to Lazarett Celle. On 15.12.1944 he was transferred home to Lazarett Würbenthal. And again, this is strange, because no one of our Family knew he was from 15.12.1944 in his hometown in Würbenthal in the lazarett!
He did not inform or let inform his family about his wereabouts !! When the russian Kavallerie invaded Würbenthal in Sudetenland with death to all soldiers and SS / NSDAP and raping all women, before the arrival, the german Lazarett kicked all wounded soldiers who were able to walk out to prevent them for being killed by the russians. My Grandfather walked home on crutches and was hidden by my family for a very short time. Than he was walking with rifle to the americans but they sent him back home again. there the russians arrested him and he was POW til 1955 in the UDSSR.


This was the Place he was wounded.


My Grandfather as Soldier in 1941 in Straßburg


He and his Kameraden Oktober 1941 Straßburg, the one and only picture from the war which was saved. All other material from him was thrown away from his daughter after he died in January 1991. Sad to me.
I can remember, he showed me two things when I was a young boy:
His wounded Badge and his sleeve band ( Ärmelband) for fighting in an encirclement.

Today I am proud of my Grandfather ! He was a German Soldier who was not intended to do fighting but was forced to and survived !


​

End of Part IV section I​

next and finish will be :
Part IV section II
The doom, the total annihilation of the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon 1945 ​

 

That is an impressive story of your grandfather's war; I think I'll need to try and dig up the stories of my Heer and Waffen-SS relatives now.

 

Thanks Spitfire_XIV ! It´s quite alot to read, I know.

The final chapter is still missing. I will post it here to complete the story of the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon

greetings Martin

 

Part IV section II
The doom, the total annihilation of the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon 1945

The last stand


From September 1944 on the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon was assigned to serveral Units.

28.08.1944,06.09.1944 and 06.10.1944 under the XLI Panzer Korps​

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03.11.1944 and 06.11.1944 Kav Korps
​

assigned to the 4. Armee but enlisted with the Kav. Korps der 2.Armee on the north flank towards the Narew river

07.12.1944 VI AK 4.Armee​

​

01.1945 assigned to the 50. ID of the 4.Armee south of Goldap.




22.January 1945, at this date ( My birthday is as well 22.january ! ) the fleeing and remaining parts of the 419. were divided into several groups.


one group remained in the fortress of königsberg and defended the city till april 1945 when at this cruelsome times the soldiers of the 419. were annihilated.


The main group of the 419. was trapped in the "Heiligenbeiler Kessel" and most of the Soldiers inside this trap were killed. At 25.03.1945 some soldiers were able to flee to Rosenberg, Deutsch Bahnau and last they arrived Pillau. . They tried to flee with small vessels, fleets towards to the "HAFF DER FRISCHEN HOFFNUNG" to get to Pillau. In Pillau there was the last stand of the remaining forces of the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon. In Pillau they put up a last defence and were defeated.

This was the small harbor Pillau, one of the last open harbors for civilians and soldiers...





have a look at this map it shows the struggle of the 419 it's way to total destruction.



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this is the red cross Letter about the MIA Soldiers from the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon
​

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And with this last document I close the subject. It took me more than 5 years to discover all the facts I found so far, but there are still alot of unsolved riddles about the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon. I am still looking for the UNIT SIGN or the names and ranks of the fallen Soldiers. I am still looking for a draft card from a member of the 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon ( we call it WEHRPASS)

It was a complete unimportant, bland and forgotten unit. The quest for informations was therefore quit wearisome and took along time to find the first clues.
On my website, (like similar projects) I therefore honor and remember these men.


​

Martin

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Wow, great work Martin! I´m searching since 3 years after my Grandpa´s history and i found only a third of all that i would need to have. And it is getting harder and harder.

 

wonderful tribute Martin. may I ask where you obtained the maps especially the last one of Pillau ? Of course I know this from two brothers/friends in the 1st Infantrie Division the other in a KM Marine-Artilliere/Flak unit, the first one escaped the second did not until later along the Dänziger Bucht - Hela.

 

Thank you for the Salutes to all. I Appreciate your praising

@gebirgsjäger:
this is the result of scanning the internet on a permanent daily basis. Searching in other forums, in Google books and so on. sometimes it took month to gather a single information. THE german red cross is very friendly and extremly helpful in your search !

@Erich:
The map it's called "MESSTISCHBLATT" from 1942- 1945. I collected some links in my own model railway forum.
Here is the collection of links. The polnish have taken over the Wehrmachtsmaps and archives and most of them are now online, lucky for us to search our old maps !!!......

for my relief I post the thread here. Its in plain german but when you follow the thread you will find the links to the different map websites. good luck with your search. The thread was intended to do some basic research for the rail road sections in Prussia, Sudetia, Silesia, Austria and so on.....
my model railway forum Era II
http://www.epoche2-forum.de/?Forum


the direct link to the thread:
Militärisches Kartenmaterial Halb Europa ehemals Österreich-Ungarn

 

Fantastiche Martin !

have found some very nice maps of Ost Preußia in larger form, just what I was looking for.

many thanks

 

that was very interesting martin
great work there

 

Thanks to all who took time to read this story and for your Salute. In the last days some strange developement arised. A Son of a KIA Member of the Unit from my Grandfather contacted me, sent me some Pictures where his father and my Grandfather were stationend 1942 for a short time period in Poland, and even odd, he discovered his father on the group member picture shown above which he discovered on my internet website Karaus aus dem Sudetenland Wrbenthal - Startseite

He could me give some more detailed insight in the PART II Fight at Woronesch 01.1943 the great retreat. First impressive information, the Unit Leader, in the rank of a "Hauptmann", was after the first cross medal and therefore volunteered for all "special" Tasks for his unit. We call it "Himmelfahrtskommando" or in your terms, suicide mission. The 2. Regiment 419. Bau Pionier Bataillon therefore on its way to the hastly new setup frontline at TIM, secured the retreatment of the rear echolon troops on the flanks against the russians, which where rushing by to encircle the whole army. This fact explains the sad truth, that the 2. / 419. Bau Pio lost most of it's Crewmembers on such suicide missions. The kamerad of my Grandfahter died in an artillery assault during the night, the regiment had to flee out of the trench, when the artillery barrage was over they returned to the trench. There his friend was found death, killed by an artillery shrapnel. On his chest there were those 2 mentioned fotos ( the one from above and the one his son sent me). he was found by another Crewmember, which sent the fotos and a letter to his wife.

Greetings Martin

 

That is some great information you have provided, in the United States we don't see the view and the life of the enemy. Great information again.