Oberst Buchert

[jcsanche]

carrer 3

[jcsanche]

Letter from July 1939. I guess his walking papers or final evaluation

[jcsanche]

Evaluation

Edited August 8, 2007 by jcsanche

[jcsanche]

E 2

[jcsanche]

E 3

[jcsanche]

E 4

[jcsanche]

E 5

[Chris Boonzaier]

Nice tunic, and great to have the accompanying research.

Can you post the pics a bit bigger?

[Chris Boonzaier]

What was the German army "dead end" rank?

The rank that officers reached after 20 years of uninspired service, the rank where mediocre careers go to die....

[jcsanche]

Can you post the pics a bit bigger?

[webr55]

Those letters are a very interesting insight into Buchert's personal circumstances. Apparently he was simply broke, and had failed to pay his rent in Mannheim, which was deemed unsuitable for the Wehrmacht commander of this town. Also, his wife was pregnant and ill and had apparently held back some letters to Buchert. In short, he was considered as having not enough leadership qualities.

[Paul R]

What was the sum of his decorations? For someone who did not do so well, he seems to have had a fair amount of medals.

[jcsanche]

Hi

Thanks for all the help. It had been like uncovering a mystery? He was lucky he was not demoted or expelled. In the military any transgression, like no paying rent is serious. It is contrary to the military officer's code of honor. In the other hand he evidently did not have ?old money?.

Thanks

Juan

[Guest Rick Research]

Ahhh, that albatross of a wife!!!!

His VERY unfavorable job evaluation of July 1939 from his divisional commander did for him. Or perhaps it was his letter to "higher up" appealing for sympathy as "one who has bled like so many others" and a husband and son with two generations of Problem Women to support, after getting nowhere with the army "social services," and complaining that the general in question had never spoken with him personally for his side of the issues. Buchert states at one point that the problem is, after all, with his wife and not with himself.

Tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad. Wroooooooooooooooooooooooooooong line to have taken.

He was MARKED.

Terrific career right up to promotion to Colonel in 1938.

Then... everything just fell apart.

IN WW1 he got EK2 7.10.14, BZ3bX 28.2.16, EK1 4.10.17, siler wound badge (no date shown). Added Hindenburg Cross X 1.2.35, WEhrmacht long service 2.10.36, Westwall Medal 1.3.40, and last award shown was a KVK2X 1.9.41.

[Paul R]

I am surprised that in 1941, that he was not simply shipped to an obscure command on the Eastern Front. I wonder if he was recalled to service at a later date. During the later part of the war, I would think that they would be using every experienced person they could find, regardless.

[Guest Rick Research]

He was recalled off and on starting the day after he retired-- the day the war started. But most of the time he seems to have been "waiting around."

"Retired" 31.8.39: career over, ruined by wife

Recalled... 1.9.39. Attached as a hanger on at his old command, Commandantur Mannheim to 25.9.39

Commandant Troop Exercise Field Hammelburg 26.9.39-22.1.40

Commandant of Kalisch 1.2.40-14.8.42 (drunken wife got him tossed out of the service again)

F?hrer Reserve 14.8.42 with note to be trained for Defense Economics Service (Wehr Wirtschafts Dienst) to 5.4./1.8.44:

acting CO of Landessch?tzen Regiment 88 (1?-- I can't read the overwritten number in the tiny copy) 24.4.44

and on F?hrer Reserve 6.4. to 1.8.44 with Heeresgruppe Mitte-- so not at home-- hanging around waiting for a post on the Eastern Front.

12.8.44 "to now" (1.12.44) Commander of Security Regiment (renamed Grenadier Regiment 1.11.) 613 in 203rd Infantry Division...

and there we lose track of him, in a unit being ground to pulp in Pomerania.

DID he survive?

WHY was the 203rd Infantry Division making some new charge (?) against him?

I should mention that on re-reading his 1939 appeal Higher Up, he mentions that his wife (married 1935) was the daughter of a former officer wiped out by the inflation of 1923, as a consequence of which he had received no dowry. He also complains, apparently with hopeless justification, that for whatever reason the Wehrmacht High Command had several times TURNED DOWN "Mother's Aid" that should have been added to his salary at the birth of their first child in 1938. The incident of the unpaid bill occurred while he was traveling on military business and his massively pregnant wife was on her own... and NOBODY helped in this one time tight spot, when his paycheck SHOULD have been deposited so she could have gotten it.

Bad Karma, dude.

[jcsanche]

Hi

he was still alive in 1945. This is the rest of his records. I guess his adjudant did not helped him much.

thanks

Juan

Edited August 10, 2007 by jcsanche

[Paul R]

I bet that he was bitter with the wehrmacht for life after going through all of this!

[Guest Rick Research]

Ah, so dumped into F?hrer Reserve again 15.11.44, sent home, and named commander of "Security Regiment Staff 91" (whatever/wherever THAT was) on 15.1.45.

We still haven't got him as actually alive at war's end, though.

[DonC]

Ah, so dumped into F?hrer Reserve again 15.11.44, sent home, and named commander of "Security Regiment Staff 91" (whatever/wherever THAT was) on 15.1.45.

We still haven't got him as actually alive at war's end, though.

Juan was nice enough to sell Oberst Buchert's tunic back to me last spring. In his file, he finally received the Spange for his 1914 EKII in February 1945. He received that and the KVKII as his only "wartime" awards. Perhaps he redeemed himself in battle to a degree with his regiment, but the trail goes cold after that - I doubt he survived the war, but I hope he did, after wht his harpy of a wife did to him.

Don