Does Wehrkreis= Regiment?

[Chris B.]

Is it possible to figure out a soldier's Regiment if all you know about him is where he lived at the time he joined the army in 1939: Wehrkreis VI Dortmund, and a couple of the Campaigns he participated in : Crimean Campaign and second battle of Narva in 1944. Thanks to anyone who may be able to help. Cheers, Chris B.

[Guest Rick Research]

I would say not, unless he miraculously managed to stay in a single unit throughout the entire war that 5 years later was in those places. Funneled fro a training unit into a replacement unit, or wounded and returned to another unit, or home on leave at the time of the Stalingrad catastrophe etc... could have been in any number of units.

How do you know what campaigns he was in, but NOT his unit?

Wehrkreis VI raised these army divisions:

1st Light

6th Infantry

8th Panzer

16 Inf

16 PzGren

16 Panzer

25 Panzer

26 Inf

39 Inf

47 Inf

64 Inf

69 Inf

84 Inf

86 Inf

95 Inf

106 Inf

116 Panzer

126 Inf

176 Inf

196 Inf

199 Inf

211 Inf

227 Inf

253 Inf

254 Inf

264 Inf

306 Inf

326 Inf

329 Inf

361 Inf

371 Inf

385 Inf

386 Inf

393 Inf

569 Inf

716 Inf

[Chris B.]

Hi Rick, thanks again for the fast reply. Wow, that's a lot of Divisions! The soldier in question was my dad's older brother. He never made it home at war's end so all I have is a couple of old family photos. He has a Krim shield and an Ost medal ribbon bar on his uniform and he had written he was at the Narva bridgehead on the back of another photo. Sorry I can't post picts, no scanner, no camera. Best Regards, Chris B.

Edited March 26, 2006 by Chris B.

[David Gregory]

Chris,

Do you have any family still in the Dortmund area or have you tried searching for any records here?

Regards from Dortmund,

David

[Chris B.]

Chris,

Do you have any family still in the Dortmund area or have you tried searching for any records here?

Regards from Dortmund,

David

[Chris B.]

Hi David. I still have some cousins in Dortmund, and an old aunt or two. I seem to be the only one remotely interested in this stuff though, and from what I heard, any paperwork that might have survived was disposed of or lost when my grandmother's estate was dealt with after she passed away a number of years ago. I've been reluctant to try the WAsT, I feel like I'm prying, like the past should stay buried or something, you know.. Still, every now and then I get curious. Cheers, Chris B.

[Laurence Strong]

Hi David. I still have some cousins in Dortmund, and an old aunt or two. I seem to be the only one remotely interested in this stuff though, and from what I heard, any paperwork that might have survived was disposed of or lost when my grandmother's estate was dealt with after she passed away a number of years ago. I've been reluctant to try the WAsT, I feel like I'm prying, like the past should stay buried or something, you know.. Still, every now and then I get curious. Cheers, Chris B.

It's the only family you will ever have, how can you be prying, when it invovles your blood?

[Simon Orchard]

That's exactly why the wast is there!

[joe campbell]

i couldn't agree with simon and laurence more!

this is where you came from, at least in part, and

this is NOT prying.

i'd love to see what you find. go for it!

joe

[stephen]

Hi,

Just in relation to the previous points whilst I whole heartedly agree with Laurence, Simon and Joe. I do take your point Chris, this is and can be a sensitive issue for surviving relatives. My wife's Grandfather, alluded to in other threads in this forum, was posted missing in Krivoy Rog. His son (my father in law) and daughter hold documentation but are very reluctant to discuss this or indeed question the received family wisdom on the question of either his service or death. Whilst I know certain things other elements of the family story such as regiment etc are inconsistent with the available external sources. We all know that this does not necessarily make the family's information wrong but access to the official documentation would obviously help to clarify things.

The issue of his loss sixty odd years on is still a raw one for the family and, for me it would be insensitive to dive in, just to sate my own curiosity.

[Chris B.]

You all make excellent points. I sometimes think the war and its aftermath have made neurotics out of all of us germans even those of us born after 1945. It's like the war has defined us, made us who we are, individually and collectively. People like my parents, who were there, just want to forget, and people like me who live with the aftermath, have this nagging, almost morbid curiosity to find out more. Understandably, those who were there more often than not don't want to talk about it. Whether its the last big air raid on Dortmund in April 1945, living on 900 kilocalories a day in the winter of 1945/46. watching the soldiers die like flies in the Rhine camps, or talking about the stories told by surviving refugees from the East, not to mention the Final Solution, it just doesn't make for nice fireside chats or warm after dinner conversation.

So that leaves books and the Net and these virtual communities of individuals who share an interest in various aspects of those days. I'm actually quite grateful for sites like this one. Thanks for your input. Cheers, Chris B.

Edited March 30, 2006 by Chris B.