Heer Soldbuch, of interest...

[Ralph A]

What makes this soldbuch so interesting?

[Ralph A]

You'd think with all those wounds, he'd have an EK1.

Why might he have been overlooked? Three points for the correct answer.

[Simon Orchard]

Think he's been a bad boy. Still a sch?tze, you'd expect him to be an obergefreiter after the time and action he's seen.

So what unit was he in when he earned his awards?

[Simon Orchard]

Think i've got it. He's been convicted of something and sent to a punishment unit, Bew?hrungstruppe 500. There he's managed to survive although wounded several times and earned his rehabilitation back into a regular unit. Although perhaps due to his wounds he was only fit for duty in a Landessch?tzen btl.

[PKeating]

He was certainly a Bew?hrungs-Schutze. Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 500 was formed in Fulda in October 1941 from Infanterie-Ersatz-Btl 500 and was subordinate to Division 159. Hainrich Stadibauer won the IC2, IAB and Silver Wound Badge at the same time, having received the Black Wound Badge in 1942. The soldbuch entry gives the award date for the Gold badge as 2.5.1944 and all the entries are by the same Landessch?tzen-Bataillon 501 officer, Stadibauer's company commander. However, the soldbuch is not a duplicate so this shows that while Stadibauer was awarded these decorations, he did not actually receive them and would not have been entitled to wear them until after his 'rehabilitation'. The Gold WB document was issued at Skierniewieze, which was where the HQ of Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 500 was located during its time in Poland in 1943 and 1944. Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 500 had been transferred in December 1943 to the Generalgouvernement (Poland), forming the nucleus of a training battalion with five companies. In 1944, the unit was enlarged to regimental size and moved to B?hmen-M?hren (Czechoslovakia). The Gold WB document was presumably filled out by the CO of Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 500 before Stadibauer was posted off to Landessch?tzen-Bataillon 501 as a rehabilitated soldier and citizen.

PK

Edited September 4, 2005 by PKeating

[dond]

Its nice to see that a guy could dig his way out of a hole so to speak.

Don

[PKeating]

Or into a hole, Don! Bew?hrungs-Soldaten - disciplinary probationers - were often men convicted of relatively minor offences and assigned to hard labour or dangerous occupations like mine clearance as non-citizens, deprived of their military and civil status. They would take the chance, when offered, to volunteer for combat duties with what they called Himmelsfahrt units, the soldiers' slang for Bew?hrungs-Bataillonen. This term translates as "Heavenbound unit", meaning suicide unit. As you can imagine, the casualty rate was quite high in such units. The carrot offered to these "lost souls" was rehabilitation through redemption of their lost honour on the field of battle. Many realised, doubtless as they lay coughing up their lifesblood in those final seconds before darkness claimed them, that it was simply exchanging a slow death in, say, the quarries of Mauthausen for a quicker death in battle. But death rehabilitated them so the family received any benefits going...and a nice letter from the CO with the dearly departed's medals and documents. In some cases, they were rehabilitated before they were killed, like Heinrich Stadlbauer here. Mind you, one can only guess at the state he was in as a Gold Wound Badge holder! Light duties only, I expect.

Half the initial intake of SS-Fallschirmj?ger-Btl 500 in November and December 1943 consisted of Bew?hrungs-Schutzen from various Waffen-SS punishment camps and labour battalions. They were deprived of the right to wear the sigrunen, to hold any rank above the lowest recruit level grade and to wear their decorations. They underwent jump training and were awarded, on paper, their jump badges. The unit was effectively wiped out twice during its year of existence, from October 1943 to October 1944, when the ninety survivors, plus men under training with the Field Training & Replacement Company, were posted to the newly forming SS-Fallschirmj?ger-Btl 600. There is a poignant little reference in the Signals Platoon war diary - an unofficial diary kept by a signaller who is still alive - to the last of the B-Schutzen removing their blank righthand collar patches and replacing them with the runic patches as they are transferred to the new unit. Only a handful of them, perhaps thirty of the survivors, were left out of between five and six hundred volunteers a year before. As a footnote of relevance to collectors of photography, one of the reasons for the rarity of photos of SS paratroopers wearing jump badges is that more than half the volunteers for SS-FJ-Btl 500 were not allowed to wear any badges until they were rehabilitated. The men you see wearing badges are always seen with runic collar patches and are often NCOs.

A Heinrich Stadlbauer shows up in the German war graves records so it looks as if he didn't survive WW2.

Nachname: Stadlbauer?

Vorname: Heinrich?

Dienstgrad: Gefreiter?

Geburtsdatum: 09.01.1921?

Geburtsort: Aum?hl?

Todes-/Vermisstendatum: 28.01.1944?

Todesort: Bei Kolesnicki,ostw.Rowno?

Heinrich?Stadlbauer wurde noch nicht auf einen vom Volksbund errichteten Soldatenfriedhof ?berf?hrt oder konnte im Rahmen unserer Umbettungsarbeiten nicht geborgen werden. Nach den uns vorliegenden Informationen befindet sich sein Grab derzeit noch an folgendem Ort:

?

Kolesniki / Rowno - Ukraine

Is this the Heinrich Stadlbauer whose documents you have? Is it the same DoB?

PK

Edited September 5, 2005 by PKeating

[joe campbell]

PK-

absolutely fascinating.

you lend a perspective that brings

this information alive.

his family would have received some benefit/

survivor support, correct?

joe

[dond]

Thanks for the info Proper. You've always had a way with words. Rembrant couldn't have painted a better picture.

Don

[Gary T]

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.

Edited September 13, 2005 by Gary T

[PKeating]

Points conceded.

PK