Monthly Archives: June 2013

Missing in action – Grandfather Ludwig Preller

4 Replies
Ludwig Preller – Staff Officer Grenadier-Regiment 870
Ludwig Preller – Staff Officer Grenadier-Regiment 870. From the DRK (German Red Cross register). Note: Berlin is the place of residence in 1939

My German grandfather was reported missing in action a few weeks only before the end of the war, in Western Hungary (March 1945). Finding a relative missing in action during WWII – on any side of the conflict – is quite a challenge. All I knew from the family is that my grandmother had hoped for some time that he had survived his wounds sustained during a Soviet offensive and that he might have been taken into captivity. But a search with the German Red Cross (DRK) a few years after the war stayed fruitless. I present here some of the information obtained through the Deutsche Dienststelle/WaSt (Wehrmachts Auskunftstelle – Information service of the Wehrmacht established during the war) and the Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German war graves commission) together with some results from my own internet searches.

The DRK has him registered (follow link) as part of I. Bataillon of the 870. Grenadier Regiment, with the above photograph alongside those of other members of that batallion reported missing.

Last known photograph of Ludwig Preller. Here with family on his last permission from the front. October 1944, Hornschuh Promenade, Fürth, Bavaria.

He was last seen on a motorbike on his way to deliver a message to or from staff when he was heavily wounded. At the time he was serving in the Grenadier-Regiment 870 which belonged to the 356. Infanterie-Division. This division was positioned west of Székesfehérvár/Stuhlweißenburg, north of lake Balaton (Plattensee) in March 1945. Military action in this region in March 1945 was part of Hitler’s last ever offensive: Operation Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakening). As was typical of Hitler’s suicidal drive and his vengeance on the German people and soldiers themselves in the final weeks of the war, casualties were massive and pointless. Many didn’t awake any more from this “Spring awakening”. My grandfather was one such victim.

In the WaST report, it says there has been no declaration of death or of him missing in action. However the Volksbund has him down in the memorial book of the Budaörs cemetery west of Budapest (http://www.volksbund.de/kriegsgraeberstaette/budaoers.html) as missing in action with the following personal details:

Nachname: Preller
Vorname: Ludwig
Dienstgrad: Hauptmann
Geburtsdatum: 22.08.1916
Geburtsort: Fürth/Bayern
Todes-/Vermisstendatum: 03.1945
Todes-/Vermisstenort: Ungarn westl. von Budapest

The location of Mocsa/Mocza mentioned on the photograph from the VBL (Vermissten Bild Liste of the German Red Cross) would be of the last place he would have been seen in action – so probably about where he was wounded.

Here a couple of links to maps of locations of: Székesfehérvár (German: Stuhlweißenburg) and Mocsa.

Bohdan Bobrowski, a relative of Jan Bobrowski who was a driver in the Stab of V. FIB 999 on Lemnos in 1944 (same unit my grandfather was in), recently visited the cemetary and sent photos of some of the graves of unidentified soldiers there.

Early Life and Military trajectory

Born in 1916, my grandfather grew up as an orphan in a religious institution, with his three brothers. He finished his Abitur (Highschool) in 1937 in his home town Fuerth (Northern-Bavaria or rather Franconia, as the family would usually specificy). This is where he had met Irmgard Puff (renamed Herrmann), in 1933 or earlier and whom he later married in 1938 after his Arbeitsdienst (Hitler’s “national work service”) and her Maedelsdienst time (the young women’s equivalent). He went through military training (1938-1939) in Wünsdorf training school near Berlin, where he was integrated into the Panzer-Lehr-Regiment (an unit that had participated in the Spanish Civil War, hence he got to wear the “Spanien-Armband” on his uniform, although he himself didn’t go to Spain (as far as we know). My grandmother Irmgard joined him there in Wünsdorf (near Berlin where part of the relative on her side, the Mahir branch of her mother’s family lived) and that’s where they married a few months before their first child, my late oncle Adolf († 2022) was born. The regiment’s officer apparently held the ceremony or at least signed the marriage certificate.

Waffenschule Wünsdorf - Credit: Larrister Collection.
Waffenschule Wünsdorf – Credit: Larrister Collection. (Click on image for full view)

Below, in German, the information of his military trajectory sent to me by the Deutsche Dienststelle/WaST service in 2012:

Ludwig Preller, geboren am 22 August 1916 in Fürth, Bayern

Dienseintritt: 04.11.1937
Erkennungsmarke: -130 – 8./Panz.Lehr-Rgt.
Dienstgrad: Leutnant
Hemeitanschrift: Ehefrau Irmgard Preller, Fürth, Tannenstr. 6

Truppenteile:
04.11.1937 14. Kompanie/Infanterie-Regiment 63
lt. Meldung v. 19.09.1940 8. Lehrkompanie/ Panzer-Lehr-Regiment
lt. Meldung v. 07.06.1941 4. Kompanie/Infanterie-Regiment (motorisiert 900)
16.12.1941 Genesenden-Kompanie/Panzer-Jäger-Ersatz-Abteilung 3
15.03.1942 Restkommando II./Panzer-Lehr-Regiment
03.09.1942 1. Kompanie/Panzer Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 8
25.09.1942 Stamm-Kompanie/Panzer Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 8
Abgang: 14.11.1942 zur Verfügungs-Kompanie 233
26.11.1942 Stamm-Kompanie/Panzer Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 8
lt. Meldung v. 05.05.1943 Stab III./Afrika-Schützen-Regiment 963
27.07.1943 20. Kompanie/Festungs-Infanterie-Bataillon 999
lt. Meldung v. 02.10.1944 Stab V./ Festungs-Infanterie-Bataillon 999
20.11.1944 Stab/Feld-Ersatz-Bataillon 356
Zugang: v. Führer-Reserve-Heeresgruppe C
Abgang 11.12.1944 zum Grenadier-Regiment 870

Lazarettaufenthalte:
16.10.1941 in Malizkaja schwer verwundet;
an Haupt-Verband-Platz abgegeben,
17.10.1941 in Kriegslazarett 906 aufgenommen: Pistolenschuss-
Verletzung am linken Schulterblatt, (this field hospital was in Vitebsk, Belarus).
29.10.1941 verlegt ins Reserve-Lazarett Rastenburg,
08.11.1941 verlegt ins Reserve-Lazarett Wernigerode,
02.12.1941 dienstfähig- zur Truppe entlassen.

Eine Vermissten- bzw. Gefangenen- oder Todesmeldung liegt nicht vor.

Some links relating to locations in the above Laufbahn (trajectory):

About the Infanterie-Regiment (mot) 900: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Infanterieregimenter/IR900-R.htm

and about the battle of Wjasma (which is probably where Malizkaja lies, the place where Ludwig Preller was wounded): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelschlacht_bei_Wjasma_und_Brjansk

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelschlacht_bei_Wjasma_und_Brjansk

About the “Spring Awakening” offensive in the Ballaton area:

http://diepresse.com/home/zeitgeschichte/4680171/Fruhlingserwachen-1945_Hitlers-letzte-Offensive

Other related websites/links to find those killed or missing in action from Germany:

The missing persons photograph list of the German Red Cross (Vermissten Bildliste): https://www.drk-suchdienst.de/de/angebote/zweiter-weltkrieg/vermisstenbildlisten-%E2%80%93-online

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5395024

The German war graves commission’s search for missing soldiers link: https://www.volksbund.de/graebersuche.html

Map of the German invasion of USSR: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Invasion1941.jpg (Credit: The Department of History, United States Military Academy)

Related articles

A Battle of the Bulge memorabilia: Recent German History in one bayonet!

2 Replies

Bayonet and scabbardDPP_0016

Fred Tolles or “Uncle Fred”, who was drafted in the US army early 1942 following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, brought this German bayonet back from his campaign in the Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes). This last German attack on the Western front (December 1944) was Hitler’s final offensive attempt of the war, aimed at throwing back the Western allies and re-taking the port of Antwerp and thus cut their vital supply lines. The idea was to win time to introduce and use the new “Wunderwaffen” (“miracle weapons”) on a massive scale, that is not only the V1 and V2 bomb-drones and missiles but also the recently introduced Me262, the first ever operational fighter-jet as well as further technological developments (like the rocket-propelled Me163 aircraft also operational by the end of the war). Luckily, the Ardennes offensive was eventually halted (after heavy losses on both sides) and all this new German war technology was too little, too late, for Germany to turn the tide of the war.

Fred Tolles, was a truck driver in the army and would probably have been bringing up troops and supplies or moving some of the heavy howitzers to stop the German advance from breaking out of the Ardennes.

Fred Tolles at training barracks in USA, early 1942

Fred Tolles at training barracks in USA, early 1942

Back to the bayonet.
Fred’s nephew, Claude Long, very kindly gave it to me. Not much more is known about uncle Fred’s time on the European front, and less even about exactly where and in which circumstances he picked up this war trophy.
However, objects can speak for themselves, to a certain extent, and tell us a further story.
The markings on it tell us that it is a 1941 bayonet for the standard K98 Mauser rifle. In particular the “41 fnj” printed on the blade and on the scabbard indicate that is was made in 1941 by the Alex Copel factory in Solingen, a German town still known today for its good knives!
Now the tragic and dark irony of recent German history is that the Copel family owning the “Alex Coppel, Stahlware u. Waffenfabrik GmbH” which grew out of a family business founded in 1821 and produced many bayonets during both world wars, was Jewish!
In 1936 the firm was “arianised” – its legitimate owners expropriated although the factory’s name was apparently upheld! – and in 1942 Alex Copel and other family members were deported to Theresienstadt where he died within three weeks. That’s the Nazis gratitude for helping in Germany’s war effort!

Detailed description of the bayonet and its markings (click on images for close view):

This early war bayonet is of the the higher quality fabrication. Late war bayonets were made more crudely and are known as ‘Ersatz’-bayonets. Like others this early model reveals a fascinating multiplication of stamps/markings associated to the quality controls both from the maker and from the Waffenamt, the local military procurement agency.

Year decimals and maker's mark on blade ricasso

Year decimals and maker’s mark on blade ricasso

Scabbard's frog stud with '611 a' mark on scabbard

Scabbard’s frog stud with ‘611 a’ mark on scabbard

'WaA833' stamp on the pommel identifies the Waffenamt 833 (German weapons agency) located in Solingen.

‘WaA883’ stamp on the pommel identifies the Waffenamt 883 (German weapons agency) located in Solingen.

Dismantling the handle reveals more information, like the fabrication number '2025' and...

Dismantling the handle reveals more information, like the fabrication number ‘2025’ and…

Inner side of bakelite handle plate reveals more markings

Inner side of bakelite handle plate reveals more markings

... reveals a different version with full German-NS eagle with Swastika rather than just the stylised lines above the 'WaA883' code!

… including a different version of the Waffenamt stamp with full German-NS eagle with Swastika rather than just the stylised lines above the ‘WaA883’ code! (click on image for close-up)

Some links:
http://worldbayonets.com/Bayonet_Identification_Guide/Germany__Post_WW_I_/Germany_1933_1945.html#TopPage
http://www.quanonline.com/military/military_reference/german/blades/army/k98.php
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Coppel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffenamt_codes

Related webpages or articles