Heer Grossdeutschland Division Soldbuch

[hucks216]

A recent acquisition for my collection, and a type that I have been after for some time, was a soldbuch to a member of the Grossdeutschland Division. I have 8 citation groups and 4 Wehrpasse to members of the division but not a single soldbuch and I didn't want one of the late war transfer types who were sent to the division from the Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine etc so it took a bit of a long wait until I was able to acquire one that suited the billing down to the ground as Wilhelm Kieswetter joined Grossdeutschland in February 1942.

Kiesswetter joined the military in 1942 at the age of 19 having been born in Buchau on 26^th September 1922. His soldbuch was opened on 3^rd February 1942 by 3(MG)Kp.Ers.Btl GD and it was with this training battalion that he underwent his basic training after which he was passed to 4./Feldersatz Btl GD before being assigned to 13./Infanterie Rgt GD 1 after Grossdeutschland had been reorganised from an Infanterie Rgt (mot.) to an Infanterie Division (mot.)

Edited July 14, 2011 by hucks216

[hucks216]

During his first spell in the front lines with GD, Kiesswetter was involved in the German summer offensive in 1942 when the newly established Infanterie Division (mot.) GD was assigned as flank protection for XXXXVIII Pz.Korps and which saw the division advance south to the Donets River and attack the area around Rasdorskaja before being taken out of the line and placed in OKH Reserve. The remainder of the year saw GD involved in the 2 major battles centered around Rzhev, the first in September-October 1942 and the second in November 1942 to January 1943 fighting against the Soviet winter offensive (Operation Mars) against Heeresgruppe Mitte and which saw the division fight in piecemeal fashion and suffer massive casualties fighting in many sectors including in the Luchessa Valley, and which saw III/Gren.Rgt GD attached to 253 ID. It was during the fighting in the Luchessa Valley that Gren.Rgt GD lost its commander with Oberst Köhler being killed in action. Despite Russian penetrations of the salient the 9 Armee was able to defeat the Russian forces but it was at great cost in fighting men, particularly Grossdeutschland which was nearly destroyed. Kiesswetter received his first injury during this ferocious fighting. Although the entry on the Lazarett page shows that he entered Res.Laz. IX Warschau on the 9^th December 1942 there is another entry that has the Feldpost Number for the ambulance unit 3./Kranken.Transport.Abt 503 dated for 1^st December. He was admitted with shrapnel injuries.

As an aside, in between these two Rzhev battles the two infantry regiments of GD underwent a change of name with GD 1 becoming Grenadier Rgt GD and GD 2 being renamed Füsilier Rgt GD and It was during this period that Kiesswetter received a promotion to Gefreiter

Edited July 15, 2011 by hucks216

[hucks216]

The injury sustained by Kiesswetter was serious enough to see him spend the first 6 months of 1943 in the Lazarett system. While spending time in 3 different lazarett’s Kiesswetter received 3 combat awards for the fighting he had been involved with in 1942, namely the EK II (backdated to 11 days after he entered the first lazarett at Warsaw), Black Wound Badge and the Infantry Assault Badge In Bronze – all three were awarded while in Res.Laz IV Karlsbad-Meierhöfen.

No doubt due to his injuries, Kiesswetter spent the remainder of 1943 in various training and replacement units of the Grossdeutschland organisation and so missed GD’s participation in the Battles Of Kharkov and Kursk and the heavy fighting around Krivoi Rog in the last months of the year.

[hucks216]

1944 started for Kiesswetter with a promotion to Unteroffizier before he was sent back to the front line, and was again assigned to III./Pz.Gren.Rgt GD sometime in February, although he went to the 12 Kompanie instead of his previous 13 Kp. At this time GD was in the area of Kirovograd in the Ukraine as a component of 8 Armee. Having defeated a Russian attempt to encircle 8 Armee in January 1944 the sector quietened down as the Russians went on the defensive which allowed GD to bring reinforcements forward and build up its numbers. It is reasonable to assume that it was during this period that Kiesswetter reached the front line again after a year’s absence. And it wasn’t long before he saw action as on the 8^th March the Russians attacked Grossdeutschland head-on with the attack directed at the boundary between Füsilier Rgt GD & Pz.Gren.Rgt GD, achieving a 5km penetration of the German frontline. Attack and counterattack followed over the next week as the division tried to buy time as it retreated into Romania. What was to follow in March and April was the well known fighting at Targul Frumos and Jassy where the GD Division dealt serious blows to the Russian attempts to advance through Romania, inflicting heavy losses on the Red Army including one audacious counterattack that broke through the Russian front and swept into the Russian assembly areas.

[hucks216]

In Kiesswetter’s soldbuch is a slip showing the days he was awarded Close Combat Days and it was during the next phase that he was awarded 5 days, a good indication of how tough the fighting was. At the end of May 1944 the Russians had shifted their forces from the Targul Frumos area to an area north of Jassy looking for a weak point to attack. Pz.Gren.Div GD was ordered to an assembly area in the vicinity of Podul Iloaie and Letcani from where they attacked northward on 2^nd June to sieze high ground and a series of key ridges that dominated the Prut Valley. Though they suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Russian forces who could call on air support the men of GD reached their initial objectives, and the attack continued through the 5^th June with GD seizing more key terrain. With the Russian counterattacks ceasing on the 7^th June GD consolidated their positions and by the middle of June had handed over the hard won terrain to the Romanians so the division could move south behind the Romanian forces into counter attack positions.

[hucks216]

On the 24^th July 1944 GD was detached from 8 Armee and moved north to East Prussia where they went on the offensive into Lithuania and Latvia. But the Russian advance continued and GD found itself in defensive battles once again, this time attempting to stop the Russians breaking through to the Baltic coast. However on October 5^th 1944 the Russian 1^st Baltic Front launched an offensive against the German 3 Pz.Armee and within a few days the front had collapsed and the Russian forces were positioned to the north and south of Memel trapping a number of forces within the Memel Bridgehead. One of these forces was Grossdeutschland and it was during the defensive fighting in the bridgehead that Kiesswetter won the EK I on the 9^th October followed by his 6^th (and final) Close Combat Day at Klauspussen with him also receiving another wound that day, a splinter in his hand, but this time he remained with the men in the front line. As the German forces still held the port they were able to evacuate some forces and near the end of November GD were evacuated by boat to Königsberg where they moved to positions to rest and refit between Rastenburg and Sensburg.

[hucks216]

In November 1944 it was decided to establish a Panzerkorps Grossdeutschland and to assist with this formation GD surrendered both III Battalions from the Pz.Grenadier & Füsilier Regiments to the new formation as it was established between December 1944 and January 1945. Both III Btl's were used to form Panzerkorps Füsilier Regiment Grossdeutschland with III/Pz.Gren.Rgt GD becoming the I Btl and Kiesswetter being assigned to the 5 (Gr.Wf.) Kp.

However when the Russians continued to thrust into East Prussia in early 1945 the only division sized unit able to be sent against them was GD and so it set off once more and even though it had recently been detached to form Pz.Kps.Füs.Rgt GD, the old III./Pz.Gren.Rgt GD went with it. However nothing could stop the Russian advances and GD were forced to withdraw time and again until they were in an area to the southwest of Königsberg. Advancing through the recently established Russian lines surrounding the city a slender corridor was established into the city but it was during the heavy and desperate fighting in early February that Kiesswetter’s war was to finally end when he received further shrapnel injuries on the 5^th February 1945 and despite reaching Feldlazarett(m) 25 he died at 1310.

Edited July 14, 2011 by hucks216

[hucks216]

Wilhelm Kiesswetter's entry on the Volksbund database...

[Gordon Williamson]

Very nice Soldbuch to a member of an elite unit, and a great piece of research that just shows how these things can be made to come alive with a bit of effort.

[Brian R]

Bringing this back up - very good research and a great write-up!!

[Chris Boonzaier]

Indeed... Great research!

IMHO one of those moments that shows that Militaria in the hands of collectors is often better off than in the hands of the family who dont appretiate it!

[Paul R]

Very nicely done. This is one case where a man's military career is brought to life with a document and a little historical research.