Description
Soldbuch issued in March 1943, to Grenadier Kurt Schneider from Siegland, Germany. He was born in November of 1912. He was not married and had a civilian job before he was called up.
After a period training he was deployed into:
Arriving in Russia in late 1943, with Ausbildungs Batl 453.
He was wounded with them in March of 1944, after that he was sent in June to a replacement unit and made his way back to the front sometime in later 1944 with:
Grenadier Regiment 894 ( 265 Infanterie Division) & Grenadier Regiment 165 (36th Volks Grenadier Division) – This time Schneider would fight in the Westfront exclusively.
Wounded again in January of 1945 with a bullet wound, 31a in the Soldbuch. He was moved to another hospital in April of 1945 as the front drew closer and likely made it through the war.
By the end of November the division had lost 50% of its personnel in the fighting in Lorraine. On December 5, the so-called “Forbach position” was occupied. Although completely exhausted, the division received the order on December 25, 1944 to move from the Saarbrücken area to positions in the St. Ingbert – Blieskastel area east of the Saar in order to break through the Maginot Line from there in a southerly direction. It was thus part of an attack in the lower Vosges to relieve the deadlocked Ardennes offensive in the north. The attack began on December 31, 1944 at 11 p.m. The division was unable to reach its attack objectives in the following days. As early as January 3, 1945, the attack was ordered to cease and the division went over to defense in the old main. In the weeks that followed, things remained relatively quiet at the main front line. The division was replaced, so that on February 3, 1945 it had a fighting strength of 3,165 men again.
Interestingly the battles of Grenadier Regiment 165 are documented in the book:
In Pursuit of Hitler
Battles Through the Nazi Heartland March to May 1945
By Andrew Rawson · 2008
See the screenshot for detailed information from the US 45th Infantry Division.
Comments:
Interestingly, the NCO of the same Regiment and the first batl is for sale online, – Unteroffizier Hans Greiter (26.08.1920 † 01.10.2002) earned the Ritterkreuz on January 13, 1945 as Unteroffizier und Meldestaffelführer of the I. Bataillon/ Grenadier-Regiment 165 of the 36. Volksgrenadier-Division-
Operation Nordwind
