Max Schönherr

Max Schönherr was born 4 Januari 1913 in Mittweida, which is
in the middle of (the triangle) Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz.
He was married to Charlotte John and lived together with her in
his birthtown Mittweida.

He got drafted into the army at Dobeln because the recruitment
office there was closer to him then in Dresden or Leipzig.
He arrived at his trainings unit, Machinegewehr Ersatz Kompanie
7 on 1 September 1939, where he got his Soldbuch issued.

He got his Wehrmacht-führerschein issued on 25 April 1940,
so he must have stayed with this unit for at least till then.
The Führerschein is for class 3, that is for cars and small trucks.
On the photo of the führerschein you can see that Max wears an
early uniform, the M36 model with ´38 pattern generic collar tabs.
He has pre-war model shoulderboards with embroid "M" and 7,
which stands for Machinegewehr unit 7 (in this case bataillon).

Since he allready had the M-7 shoulderboards in his training unit,
he must have been close to being transferred to MG Bataillon 7.

It must have been around late April or begin May that Max transferred to MG Bataillon 7.
Unfortunately i don´t know a precise date. Max moved later on to the 5th Kompanie in the
Bataillon, which was the Krad-MG Kompanie (Motorcycle MG Companie).
With this Bataillon Max fought in the French campaign.

On 16 August 1940, the Bataillon got re-named to Kradschützen-Bataillon 64 and was placed
under the 14. Panzer-Division, Max was transferred to the 4th (Krad-MG) Kompanie of that unit.
The 14. Panzer-Division was being newly build in Königsbrück, Germany, at the time.
On 24 August 1940 Max was on leave to his hometown Mittweide till 9 September 1940.
Max got promoted to Gefreiter on 31 Oktober 1940.

Somewhere between Oktober 1940 and March 1941 Max got transferred to Nachschub Kompanie 4.
Which was the supply unit for the 14. Panzer-Division.
Because on 8 March 1941 Max got on leave to his hometown Mittweide till 23 March 1941.
On June 1941 Operation Barbarossa started, which was the invasion of the Soviet Union.
On 26 December Max was promoted to Obergefreiter while he was in kleine-kraftwagen-kolonne 4.
Which is also part of the 14. Panzer-Division, but from which time on he was in it is not known to me.

Sometime in early 1942 he had training in the Staff and 2. Kompanie of Kraftfahr-Ersatz-Abteilung 24.
After that, also in 1942 but before June, Max was send to Sanitäts-Ersatz-Abteilung 4 for training.
Max must praise himself very lucky for this, since the 14. Panzer-Division got destroyed in Stalingrad.
On 22 June 1942 Max had probably completed his medical training since he was promoted Sanitäter-
Obergefreiter. And 4 days later, on the 26th he was send on leave till 13 July, again to his hometown.

Don´t know when, but Max got transferred to Armee-Feldlazarett (mot) 614, a motorized field hospital.
On 9 March 1943 Max and his Soldbuch got a security check and on 25 June 1943 he was allowed to go
on leave from 1 July 1943 till 22 July 1943, to his hometown Mittweida.
On 1 Augustus he handed over all his not needed (combat) equipment, but can´t make out what he kept.
On 1 December he got another security check and on 21 April 1944 he went on leave to Mittweida again, till 17 May 1944. And on 1 September 1944 he had another security check.

Somewhere in 1944, Max had a photo of him added to the Soldbuch, as per 1944 regulations.
Its interesting to see the difference between the early photo in his Wehrmacht-führerschein and the
late war photo in his Soldbuch, you can see how Max changed due to the war.

Some time after that he was send back to Germany, to the Marsch Kompanie of Sanitäts-Ersatz- und
Ausbildungs-Abteilung 4 located in Eilenburg. After this he went to Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 53.
I don´t know what he did, but he got fresh (combat) equipment issued in this training unit.
After this he was send to the combat unit Grenadier-Regiment 335 which was part of 205. Infanterie-
Division, located in the Kurland pocket. Max was probably a kompanie sanitäter in the Regiment.

Max got wounded in both upper arms due to Artillery schrapnel in the Kurland pocket.
He arrived at Reservelazarett Quedlinburg on 7 Februari 1945, at least with his gasmask.
On 27 Februari the Reservelazarett did an equipment check and removed any remaining equipment.

Max was never officially checked out from the Reservelazarett. Which either meant he died in the
Reservelazarett or he was in it untill the end of the war, and no one bothered to check him out.
So if Max survived the war is unknown to me, but he probably did since this Soldbuch was carried by him.

With this Soldbuch and Wehrmacht-führerschein grouping was also a ripped-out page of a Wehrpass.
But this page with combat entries does not match up with Max, so it must have been from a relative.