SS Squad Leader Service Card

[varifleman]

I'm looking for help in interpreting this service card of my uncle Andreas Gerber who was an Ethnic German from Apatin Hungary and I think served as a Rottenfuehrer (Squad Leader) in the 18th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Regiment Horst Wessel and is listed as having gone missing on 13 September 1944 near some location I can't yet decipher. The 18th SS Division consisted primarily of Ethnic Germans from Hungary.

Attached Images

[varifleman]

After my Uncle Andrew was reported missing on 13 September 1944 he was captured by the Soviets and spent several years as a German POW working in Stalin's GULAG in a Siberian salt mine. My grandparents when they lived in New York sponsored his immigration to the USA in 1949. He spent the rest of his life working as a mason and passed on at the ripe old age of 81 in Lafayette Indiana in 2007. I met him on numerous occasions and remember when I was a student at the Army Language School in Monterey CA 1970-71 he spoke fluent Russian (I guess he learned to survive in Siberia). Here's a photo he sent to my Grandparents as a momento. On the first card I think the Nr 26357 may be the Felpostnummer (FPN) of the unit from which he went missing. 

[varifleman]

After further research it turns out that my uncle was a member of the SS Cavalry Regiment 18 of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer  which was a Waffen-SS cavalry Division during World War II. Per Wikipedia It was formed in 1942 from a cadre of the SS Cavalry Brigade which was involved in anti partisan operations behind the front line and was responsible for the extermination of tens of thousands of the civilian population. About 40% of the division were Danube Swabian from Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) and Banat (Serbia). The Training and Replacement Battalion of the 8th SS Cavalry Division was involved in suppressing the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.In March 1944, it was named after Florian Geyer (1490–1525), the Franconian nobleman who led the Black Company during the German Peasants' War, while veterans from the division formed the core of the 22nd SS Volunteer Cavalry Division Maria Theresia, following the latter's creation on 29 April 1944. The Division was destroyed during the fighting in the Siege of Budapest in early 1945. The newly created division was soon sent back to the Eastern Front and fought in the Rzhev and Orel sectors in central Russia until the spring of 1943. The division was then moved to the area around Bobruisk, on internal security and anti partisan duties until September 1943. In September the division was moved again to the Southern front and took part in the German retreat to the Dnieper river. The division was then sent to Croatia but many new recruits were Shwoveh drawn form Hungary in March 1944. In April 1944, they returned to Hungary and took part in the fighting in Transylvania after the Romanian front collapsed.^[2]The Division was trapped in the Siege of Budapest with the IX SS Mountain Corps when the Russians and Romanians surrounded the city in December 1944. The 8th SS Cavalry Division was then involved in the fierce fighting to hold the city often engaged in hand-to-hand combat and fighting house to house. The Division was destroyed in the fighting for Budapest and by the end of the siege of the 30,000 men of the SS Corps only about 800 survived to reach the German lines. 

[varifleman]

Translation of service record:
Andreas Gerber, identification tag EM-File recorded -17-1./SS-K.R. 18
Born on 19.6.20 in Apatin/Hungary
Name and address of the person to be notified: Father: Andreas Gerber Apatin - Hungary, Kossuth Lajosstr. 394
Unit: 1. SS - K.R. 18
Rank: Rottenführer* Nationality: Hungary Ethnicity: yes
pers.85: 147 Front Avenue, Brentwood N. Y. 11717 USA

17.2.48 On 13.9.44 near Sceulia missing in action
Vermißt Meldung der Truppe = Missing Report from the unit, Nr. 26357.
12.6.48 Same Report from Lt.U.V.K 16/9-Vorr.II Std. W. S 297/12
13.11.85 VI/2 VII:Dsb leung 1/1 {
6.12.85 III P4 Dgd.: Rank, TT: Inf. R. 18 Date of registration 20.10.45
Age: 19 years
6.12.85 W2 VII: Please check the missing person's report (1/1)
6.12.85 VII/4 Ke. Orders fom 17.2.48 and 16.6.48.checked and supplemented 1/1
10.12.85 VI/2 bibl. Inquiry from 29.11.85 neg(ative)
16.12.85 VI/2 III/A to co-examination (1/5)
17.Dez.1985 Ref III Kgf. A.** - No record - R.
Ga.25.2.85 VI/2 G a. Antr.v.31.10. and 1.11.85 Dzb. about. (s. V.) Kr.
Ga.8.9.86 VI/25 LVA Rheinprovinz Düsseldorf a. Antr. v.10.7.86, Az.:13 190626 G 032 -V975-. Dzb. wir vor übers. (s. V.) RK (signature)
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______

* Within the Waffen-SS, a Rottenfuhrer was equivalent to an Obergefreiter in the Wehrmacht, in other words, a Corporal.
** Kgf most likely means Kriegsgefangene = prisoners of war

[varifleman]

I just found his obituary which notes that he served in the German Cavalry. was captured in Romania, was a POW in Russia and returned to Germany after the war ended.

[hucks216]

Bit by bit the story comes together. Nice find with the obituary.