Armin Bauer

I saw a picture from Armin Bauer for sale on ebay, in the auction the seller stated that he also had other
stuff from this soldier for sale. So i contacted the seller and was able to buy the photo from ebay with
the wehrpass and some other extra´s.

Armin Bauer was born 13-10-1919 in Neundorf.
In 1937, when he was around 18 years old his mother died.
He was in the Hitler Jugend where he got the HJ Ehrenzeichen.

He got drafted into the army at 20 July 1939, at district Dresden III.
The picture used in his Wehrpass was made in his hometown near Dresden,
Radebeul. A spare one with the makers stamp on the back got put into the
Wehrpass´s cover.

Armin´s religion was written down as Gottglaubig, you don´t see that often.
I quote from Der erste zug: "Gottglaubig was the term Nazis used for people
who believed in God but rejected the regular organized churches. It was the
"politically correct" religion, especially if one had aspirations".

Ofcourse he already had some papers from his civilian life and those were noted into the Wehrpass,
including the civilian Führerschein (drivers licence) classes I, II and III and his education.
He also got his HJ Ehrenzeichen and the Reichssportabzeichen im bronze noted into his Wehrpass.
That is a Hitlerjugend honor badge and a Bronze (government/empire) sports medal.
As job he was an Autoschlosser, which simply means car mechanic.

He was assigned to 2th (schwere geschutz) kompanie of Artillerie-Ersatz-Abteilung 256.
That trainings unit was based in the Artillerie-Kaserne of the city Meißen.
That city is 25 km northwest from Dresden and about 15 km from his hometown Radebeul.

He begun his training on 12 Januari 1940, why so late is not known to me, might be due to space
shortage. On 12 February 1940 he transferred to Armee-kraftfahrpark 527, where he probally continued
his training. He was trained on the standart issue k98k rifle, the (schwere) 10cm cannon 18 (motorised)
and the LMG 34. LMG stands for "Leichte Machinegewehr", basically its just the MG34 without the tripod
(but with the bipod ofcourse), with tripod it becams a SMG, and SMG stands for "Schwere Machinegewehr".

He also got his military driver licence for all three classes he already had in his civilian life, but also for
Halbketten (halftrack) vehicles in general, the RSO (Raupenschleper OST) and the Maultier (halftrack).

He stayed with that unit untill 1 March 1940 when he got transferred to Kraftwagen Werkstatt zug 315.
This unit was part of the 72. Infanterie-Division.
Later on in 1940 the unit got renamed to Kraftwagen Werkstatt (zug) kompanie 172.
With this unit he started the battle for europe, trough Luxemburg, Belgium and North-France.

After these battles, on 1 July 1940, he was promoted to Gefreiter.
On 28 September 1940 he was awarded the Verdienstkreuz second klass with swords.
The Division stayed as security unit in France and at the (French) coast untill 18 Januari 1941.

On 19 Januari 1941 he started training Romanian troops for about 2 months.
After that they marched trough Bulgaria and fought in the Balkan battles all the way into Greece.
In Greece they stayed for about 3 weeks to secure it.
After that they marched back trough Bulgaria and into Romania.
In Romania they trained the Romanian troops for one week, that is till 21 June 1941.

On 22 June 1941 they started their campaign in the Soviet Union.
First the division secured oilfields and weeks later they broke trough the Stalin-linie.
After that they continued to the Dnjepr river. On 31 Augustus 1941 they went over the Dnjepr river
and continued in the direction of the Krim area.

On 13 September 1941 they started the battle for the Krim peninsula.
On 16 November all of the Krim was in German hands except for the Sevastopol fortress.
The division secured the coast and made ready for the attack on Sevastopol, which couldn´t start
right away due to supply difficulties.
On 17 December the attack on the fortress city Sevastopol began, but failed and was stoped
around 31 December. Around the same time the Soviets launched a counter attack, which had to be dealt
with first. On 1 Mai 1942 Armin Bauer got promoted to Obergefreiter.
A new attack on Sevastopol began on 7 June 1942 and on the 13th German units penetraded the Soviet
outer-ring defences. On 4 July 1942 the last Soviet soldiers surrendered, after that the Division stayed
to secure the Krim till 20 Augustus 1942.
Armin Bauer got his eastfront medal on 23 July 1942.

On 21 Augustus 1942 they conducted defensive battles near Rshew.
And on 23 Augustus 1942 Armin got his Krim armshield awarded.
After that the battle updates in the Wehrpass stop, ofcourse Armin saw more action but the Wehrpass
just wasn´t updated. The last update is handwritten and was done after his death, it says he was
fighting with the 72. Division untill his death.

On 6 Februari 1943 Armin was awarded the Romanian medal: "Kreuzzug gegen den Kommunismus".
On 15 Mai 1943 he got the Kraftfahr abzeichen in Bronze.
And on 26 June 1943 he got the Kraftfahr abzeichen in Silver.

On 17 July 1943 Armin got transferred to the 1st Kompanie of
Panzerjäger abteilung 72 of the same Division. At that time the Division fought defensive battles near Dessna and after those
the battle for Brjansk was fought.
Then the Division fought near the Dnjepr river at Kiew and after
that the Division moved to the Tscherkassy area.

Early 1944 the Division got surrounded in the Korsum pocket
(Tscherkassy pocket), with other German units (2 korpsen total).
At this time the Division had 0 tanks, 33 artillerie pieces and
14 anti-tank pieces.

After the surrounding, defensive battles started to hold the pocket.
The Division had a relative quiet part on the front at this time but
the Soviets tried to split the pocket right between them and the
neightbouring Infanterie Division, which almost succeeded.

In middle Februari the outbreak began, the Division bore the brunt of
the attack, as it was in the lead and in the middle.
The outbreak was a succes, but at the loss of most heavy equipment.
The Division got out of the pocket with 91 officers, 3524 men and
200 Hiwi´s.

After the outbreak the Division re-grouped near Hrubieszow and from April on they fought in the area of
Kowel-Lemberg, near Horochow and Sokal. After that the Division did a fighting retreat towards Baranow.
While this fighting happend Armin got transferred on 13 Mai 1944 to the 2th kompanie of his unit.
In that Kompanie he was promoted to Unteroffizier on 1 Augustus 1944.
That is one day before his death on 2 Augustus 1944. Unteroffizier Armin Bauer was 23 years old.
Around that time the Soviets had a bridgehead at Baranów Sandomierski (Lvov-Sandomierz offensive),
and the Division tried to remove this bridgehead which failed, suffering many casualties.

On 16 Oktober 1944 his dad, Erich Bauer, received the following letter with this Wehrpass.
It was send from the Wehrmeldeamt Dreseden III, where Armin was enlisted in 1939.

Below you can see the complete grouping, it actually also included a ribbon-bar,
but that was from another soldier. The group (excl. the ribbon-bar) consists of the following:

* The Wehrpass.
* Extra civilian photo as used in the Wehrpass.
* Photo showing Armin in STUG wrap with some medals.
* His silver Kraftfahr abzeichen.
* His eastfront medal ribbon.
* The letter to his dad from Wehrmeldeamt Dreseden III.
* A document about his family and the family weapon (seal).