Germany - Third Reich: An Attack on the Stalin Line Iron Cross 2nd Class and Black Wound Badge, and Kharkov Iron Cross 1st Class Document Group to Feldwebel Paul Stellwagen, 1stCompany, 226thInfantry Regiment, 79thInfantry Division; later 3rdCompany, Infantry Regiment A (Sturt), 182ndReserve Division; and finally 3rdCompany, 848thGrenadier Regiment, 282ndInfantry Division, who saw service in the Campaign in France before seeing service as part of Army Group South on the Eastern Front up until at least June 1943.
A scarce bravery document group consisting of 5 award certificates, a handwritten field post letter, a fascinating Regimental Commander’s combat report for the period 14thJuly to 12thAugust 1941 and a Russian bullet which had been removed from Paul Stellwagen’s body after he was wounded on 25thJuly 1941.
Award Certificates:
Documents:
The Bullet:
Paul Stellwagen was wounded on 25thJuly 1941 during the very heavy combat which took place as the Regiment was involved in the penetration of the Stalin Line in the Bonderovka area. He was issued with two Black Wound Badge Certificates – one by his Battalion on 30thSeptember 1941 and the second by the Reserve Hospital III Wurzburg on 7thOctober 1941. The latter certificate would suggest that the wounding was sufficiently serious for him to be returned to Germany to recover. At some time he was obviously operated on and he was given the Russian bullet which had wounded him as a memento of that wounding. This bullet came with this document group.
Paul Stellwagen was born on 26thJuly 1914, it is most likely that he had done his Armed Forces Reserve Service prior to WW2 when he was mobilised. He would have seen service in the west during the winter of 1939-40 resulting in the award of his West Wall Decoration, after this unit fought in the Lorraine and in the Vosges Mountains during the French Campaign of 1940, it remained in the Longres area in north-eastern France on occupation duty during the winter of 1939-40.
In early 1941 the unit was moved to Klagenfurt, Austria where it prepared for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Serving as part of Army Group South, 79thInfantry Division of which his Regiment was part, took part in the advance towards Kiev. It was for fighting to the west of Kiev in the attempts to penetrate the Stalin Line that Stellwagen was firstly awarded the Iron Cross 2ndClass by Divisional Headquarters on 20thJuly 1941 and then on 25thJuly subsequently wounded. Part of the combat report included with this group covers the fighting on 25thJuly and translates as follows:
‘The Division had to form a bridgehead near Bonderovka. The Regiments 208 and 212 had already pushed through the bunker line in front of Bonderovka. The Regiment had to expand the bridgehead to the north-east and seek contact to the neighbouring Division on the left. The Bonderovka – Honderovka – Huta Road was reached in violent bunker combat. Sometimes up to the hips in the marshes, our brave men stormed against the bunkers, against the fortified field positions and against the cunning enemy in impenetrable woodland. The almost merciless daily thundery showers hammered down on us in the evening.’
It is probably that his wound led to Stellwagen was pulled out of the fighting for his recovery and then placed with the German Replacement Army before being posted to Grenadier Regiment A (Sturt) in France which was used to form 848 Grenadier Regiment which in turn was sent to the Eastern Front (South Russia / Ukraine). It was whilst fighting with this Regiment in the area around Kharkov prior to the battle of Kursk that on 13thJune 1943 Stellwagen was awarded the Iron Cross 1stClass. It is not known if he survived the war.