Soldbuch 47ID - Mons pocket 1944

Hello fellow militaria enthousiast,

On this rainy afternoon I'll show a Soldbuch with a connection to one of the lesser known battles of WW2, the battle for the Mons pocket.
After the debacle of the Falaise pocket the German army was in full retreat towards the Fatherland; in the first days of September 1994, the German army seemed defeated, the allies were in full pursuit and local resistance groups in France and Belgium came out of the hide outs.
Against this background between September 2 and 4 the 2nd and 3th US Armoured Divisions surrounded no less then seven German Army Division (3 & 6 FJD, 18 LFD, 47, 275, 348, 712ID) in and around the Belgian city of Mons, some of these division were completely destroyed in this pocket.
Inside the pocket there was utter chaos, the Germans realizing that another disaster was developing rapidly took counter measures, Waffen SS units were halted and reversed to open the pocket again and to allow as many as possible to escape, nevertheless the 3th US Armoured Division captured 10.000 men and the 1st US Infantry Division that had the task to clean up the pocket took another 17.000 men POW, amongst the prisoners were three generals.
The Soldbuch of this thread is of one of these POW's.

Hans Droüven (°1924) joined the army in April 1943 and after his basic training he joined the second company of Reserve Grenadier Batallion 366, in February 1944 this unit was used to form the first battalion of the Grenadier Regiment 103 of the 47ID.
The 47ID was one of the divisions used to defend the Pas de Calais area, even after the allied landing in Normandy, this division was kept in Calais doing nothing until mid August when it was ordered to join the battle in Normandy.
The entire combat history can be read on this link:
http://www.axishistory.com/axis-nat...rn-france-campaign-26-august-4-september-1944
In September 1944, Hans Droüven was one of the many soldier caught in the Mons pocket, his division was completely destroyed and his CO general Wahle was taken POW by an artillery unit of the 1st US ID.
During the battle in the Mons pocket his division was split up in two separate units, he belonged to the group commanded by Oberst Baumann, this colonel would also be taken POW and was put in charge of the big POW cage in the former Belgian army barracks in Mons.
Hans Droüven became a customs officers after the war.

This is his preliminary award document for the EKII.
It is written on September 5 1944 when he was in a US POW cage and it is signed by Oberst Baumann.
Oberst Baumann was the CO of IR115 and according to the little document he took command of the 47ID after General Carl Wahle was lost.

Interesting Soldbuch. Considering what happened to his unit, this guy was a lucky fellow!

Captivating as always!

thanks

As always a pleasure...

Looks like he was issued a P-38. Can you understand the Gewehr post ? He got a bayonet too.

jack944 said:

Looks like he was issued a P-38. Can you understand the Gewehr post ? He got a bayonet too.

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The rifle entry is "Gestrichen", cancelled, he handed in his rifle and bayonet; on March 27 1944 het got another bayonet.
He has no rifle but a pistol and a MG cleaning kit, so I suppose he was a MG gunner in his company.

Yes

Peter U said:

The rifle entry is "Gestrichen", cancelled, he handed in his rifle and bayonet; on March 27 1944 het got another bayonet.
He has no rifle but a pistol and a MG cleaning kit, so I suppose he was a MG gunner in his company.

Click to expand...

I saw the kit and was thinking the same thing.

One thing I notice in Soldbücher, is that the weapons issue usually happens some months later than the Soldbuch issue itself. So what was the soldier´s weapons during the time before that ones?
Another question I have is, once the soldier joined the army, the Soldbuch was issued inmediately or only after the training time?

WaA63 said:

One thing I notice in Soldbücher, is that the weapons issue usually happens some months later than the Soldbuch issue itself. So what was the soldier´s weapons during the time before that ones?
Another question I have is, once the soldier joined the army, the Soldbuch was issued inmediately or only after the training time?

Click to expand...

- The weapons- and equipment page wasn't an original page in WH and WSS Soldbucher, it was added later, I believe in late 1940, it is numbered 8a,8b,8c & 8d
In early Soldbucher, those from 1939, you can see that this page is glued in later.
- Only personel weapons are entered, if a soldier for example uses a unit rifle, one that has more then one user it isn't entered in the Soldbuch.
Not every soldier in the German army had a personel rifle.
And in training units they often used unit rifles, so they weren't entered in the Soldbuch, that is why you often see that rifles are entered in the Soldbuch several months after they entered service.


A Soldbuch is a military pasport and it was issued normally one the first day a soldier entered service.
If he lost his Soldbuch or it was simply completely full, a new one was issued and usually marked Zweitschrift or Ersatz Ausfertigung.

Peter U said:

- The weapons- and equipment page wasn't an original page in WH and WSS Soldbucher, it was added later, I believe in late 1940, it is numbered 8a,8b,8c & 8d
In early Soldbucher, those from 1939, you can see that this page is glued in later.
- Only personel weapons are entered, if a soldier for example uses a unit rifle, one that has more then one user it isn't entered in the Soldbuch.
Not every soldier in the German army had a personel rifle.
And in training units they often used unit rifles, so they weren't entered in the Soldbuch, that is why you often see that rifles are entered in the Soldbuch several months after they entered service.


A Soldbuch is a military pasport and it was issued normally one the first day a soldier entered service.
If he lost his Soldbuch or it was simply completely full, a new one was issued and usually marked Zweitschrift or Ersatz Ausfertigung.

Click to expand...

Thank you Peter, that is excellent info!

Very interesting! My Great Uncle was a US 9th Air Force P-47 pilot who fought at Mons. In fact, his unit was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for destroying 400 plus trucks and horse-drawn transport SW of Mons on 3 September 1944.

Hello everyone,

Wonderful piece of history. In 1944, the 1./GR 103 at the south of Calais, next to the Regiment commandpost, a Regelbau 119. If manned the little strongpoints set up to defend the rear of the city, whose many appeared in 1943-44.

Regards
Excelsior