I am aksing this question because of my grandfather, who was captured by the Russians on this date. He initially was in the "Wachbattaillon" in Vienna (which as far as I know was never deployed to the front), but was transferred after about one year to the eastern front, where he allegedly was a sniper. I don't have any more info unfortunatly, apart from an foto from his first unit. (I'm not sure if am allowed to post that...) My grandfather mentions this date a few times in letters sent from captivity and in his c.v., so I am pretty sure the date is accurate. Apart from that I haven't got anything. He never really talked about this time to anyone and didn't leave any fotos or other documents. Unfortunatly I have not been successfull in finding any information via google and other forums. No site mentions any big defeats or ocurrences at or around this date on the eastern front. I have asked for papers from the WASt, but have not heard from them yet.
So guess this splits up in a few questions:
I really hope somebody knows more than I am capable of finding and that I didn't overlook some obvious sites or clues. Thank you very much for your help.
Bonus Question: Does anyone have more detailed info about the Wachbataillon in Vienna? (apart from the first few pages of Google...)
edit: Two letters from Captivity: removed because oft rules
Can you give any details about your grandfather deployment? do you know in what unit he served in front? Even a division or an army group would be useful. Or maybe you can tell a location? Even approximate? Having that I could check some Russian sources about Red Army units your grandfather was deployed against.
In general there is many possibilities: Lyuban and Rzhev offensives were underway, number of Germans were locked in Demyansk and Kholm, there was fighting in Crimea too... It was a big war and grandfathers capture may not be related with some major event, so unless you can find some place-name or unit number or something in whose letters, its pretty much shooting in the dark.
P.S. Do you have envelopes of the whose letters? Are there any Russian markings? It also could give some information.
When (day, month, year) and where was he born? I found a few people with that name in the German archive database, using their search for individuals, which might help to give you some more information.
Hi there!
A couple of things:
Please remove the link to the letters or I'll have to remove the question entirely. Our rules do not allow for direct questions on Grandpa's service record during WWII because of privacy concerns. As is stated in this META Thread:
Certain questions can lead to privacy concerns, and with this in mind, there are specific inquiries that we prohibit where, in our estimation, possible privacy concerns override the historical value of the question.
This includes sharing the name of your grandfather for purposes of identification.
We do have a guide on Military Records and Identification but seeing as how you already contacted WASt there might not be much new stuff in there.
As for finding information on units, please also try Georg Tessin: Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, which should list deployments.
Thank you!