Gary T

The second photo (black and white one) posted by Doug isn't a panthersturm...it's a Panhter that has been dug into a cobbled street.

Thanks Rick, I really don't have any concerns about originallity, just whether or not the awards that came with the doccument could actually part of a group. With the doccument was a German Gross in Gold, a 25 Bronze Panzer Badge, silver would badge, and Russian Campaign award. Unfortunately, no other doccuments.

It does appear that the D.R. is not for doctor, and the Russian front medal would make sense. So far so good. I guess the real question now is whether or not he qualified for the bronze panzer badge. Your assistance is greatly apperciated.

Larry,

He would have definitely qualified for the Panzer Assault in Bronze if he was a FOO. With regards the 25 numbered badges I have seen a few (5-6) WPs over the years to various combat units of 23. Panzerdivision. Nearly all these are very late war awards - Detlev had one to a member of Pz Regt 23 this week. This leads me to beleive this divisionawarded quite a few as amtter of course in the final weeks of the war - in comparison I've only seen a few to other panzer divisions...and no 'multiples' like 23. Panzerdivision.

A couple of points:

From the few scans here the soldbuch IS almost certainly a duplicate book. The awards were almost certainly made at the time and dates entered but whether he was allowed to wear them is a different question. I have a few WPs to 500 series infantry units and the awards are entered as they were earnt.

The Heinrich Stadlbauer on the Volksbund site is definitely not the owner of this soldbuch. He died in January 1944...this soldbuch was issued in August 1944. Additionally the soldbuch owner's Wehrnummer gives the year 1909 as his date of birth.