Germany – Third Reich: An Excellent Stalingrad Casualty’s Minsk Iron Cross 2nd Class and Moscow Counterattack 1st Class Document group to Erich Thomas, 1st Battery, 29th Artillery Regiment (motorised), 29th Infantry Division (motorised), who would have seen service during the occupation of Czechoslovakia during 1938, and then in Poland, France and on the Eastern Front from 1941 until January 1943 when he was declared missing during the destruction of the German Sixth Army in the Stalingrad Pocket.
An interesting and scarce document group of 6 award certificates and 3 document which belonged to a former Artillery officer in the German Army who was missing in action after the capitulation of the German 6th Army in the Stalingrad Pocket in January 1943.
Award Certificates: T
he Commemorative Medal for 1st October 1938 with Prague Castle Bar awarded on 19th July 1940 in Annay as a Leutnant of the Reserve, 1/29th Artillery Regiment. Signed for correctness by a Hauptmann and Battalion Commander.
The Iron Cross 2nd Class awarded by Divisional HQ on 8th July 1941 as a Leutnant, HQ I/29th Artillery Regiment (motorised). Signed by von Boltenstern as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 29th Infantry Division (motorised).
von Boltenstern was awarded the Knights Cross on 8.7.1941 as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 29th Infantry Division (motorised). Died in Russian Captivity on 19.1.1952.
The Black Wound Badge awarded in Vienna on 12th September 1941 for a wound received on 29th August 1941 as a Leutnant, 3/29th Artillery Regiment (motorised). Signed by Brauch as Stabsarzt and Chief Doctor of the Reserve Hospital VI Vienna.
The Black Wound Badge awarded on 12th October 1941 for a wound received on 29th August 1941 as a Leutnant 1/29th Artillery Regiment (motorised). Signed by Wulff as Major and Battalion Commander.
The General Assault Badge awarded by Divisional HQ on 20th October 1941 as a Leutnant, 1/29th Artillery Regiment. Signed by Fremerey as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 29th Infantry Division (motorised).
Fremerey was awarded the Knights Cross on 28.7.1942 as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 29th Infantry Division (motorised) and the German Cross in Gold on 19.12.1941 as Generalmajor and General Officer Commanding 29th Infantry Division (motorised).
The Iron Cross 1st Class awarded in Kassel on 1st August 1943 as an Oberleutnant, 29th Artillery Regiment (motorised). Signed by Schellert as General of the Infantry as the Deputy General Officer Commanding IX Army Corps and the Commander-in-Chief of Wehrkreis IX.
Comment: This is a rare variant of the certificate for the award of the Iron Cross 1st Class. It was issued as result of Erich Thomas being missing in action in the Stalingrad Pocket, it states: ‘Oberleutnant Erich Thomas has been awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class in March 1942 with 29th Artillery Regiment (motorised). This certificate is issued in connection with this.
Documents: Kassel, 11th May 1943. An A5 size formal typed letter from the Military Area HQ Kassel I to Erich Thomas’s father. Herr Paul Thomas of Kassel-Ihringhausen enclosing 3 copies of the official transfer of his son to active list of officers as well as a confirmation of the orders and decorations to his son.
Kassel, 11th May 1943. An A5 size typed official notification issued by the Military Area HQ Kassel I of a copy of Erich Thomas’s official transfer from being an Oberleutnant of the Reserve to an Oberleutnant of the Regular Army with effect from 1st December 1942. This is in accordance with a notification from the Army High Command dated 28th February 1943 – see para 1 above. Erich Thomas’s date of birth is given as 27th January 1918.
Kassel, 6th August 1943. An A5 size formal typed letter sent by the Arbeitsstab Stalingrad/Tunis attached to the Deputy Commander – IX Army Corps (Military Area HQ IX) to Erich Thomas’s father, Herr Paul Thomas of Kassel-Ihringhausen enclosing the certificate for the award of the Iron Cross 1st Class to his son, Oberstleutnant Erich Thomas. See above for a description of the award certificate.
Comment: The Arbeitsstab Stalingrad/Tunis was a combined staff in Berlin which was set up to handle all matters regarding those Missing in Action from both areas of combat. Each Division that lost men in these battles sent an officer and a few men to the Arbeitsstab to attend to affairs relating to their Division. Also each Wehrkreis had its Arbeitsstab – it was through these local staffs that families sought information about members of their families lost in Stalingrad/Tunisia.
Erich Thomas was born on 27th January 1918, had had already taken part in the Occupation of Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia in 1938 as a Reserve Officer, and would have likely been demobilised before being recalled for active service at the outbreak of the war. In the Polish Campaign of September 1939 the Division advanced through Silesia before advancing to the Warsaw area by the time of the Polish surrender. At this time the Division then moved west to prepare for the invasion of the low countries the following year. Starting the campaign advancing through Luxembourg, the Division was involved in the battles at Dunkirk that saw the well-known evacuation of the British troops surrounded there. The Division continued in France advancing to the south during the second part of that campaign as part of Guderian’s force. After the successful conclusion of the battles in France, the Division undertook occupation duties in the east of the country up until at least March 1941 when it was moved east in preparation for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
29th Infantry Division (motorised) played a prominent role in Operation Barbarossa advancing via Minsk where it is likely that Thomas performed the act of gallantry that resulted in the award of the Iron Cross 2nd Class on 8th July 1941. The Division continued to advance rapidly eastwards during the next two months while involved in finishing off Soviet pockets of resistance. By late August the Division was fighting in the Smolensk area, which was also the scene of several Soviet counter-attacks at the time, it was most likely during these that Thomas was wounded on 29th August 1941 and thus became eligible for the award of the Black Wound Badge, for which he was to receive two certificates, the first on 12th September 1941 while recuperating in Vienna, the second on 12th October 1941 when he appears to have returned to his unit.
The 29th Infantry Division was to take part in Operation Typhoon in October, advancing eastwards via the Bryansk area, where it was involved in another mass encirclement and capture of Red Army troops, before moving east to Tula. On 20th October 1941 Thomas was to receive the General Assault Badge.
By early December the Division had reached it’s furthest point east near the city of Tula, a major arms manufacturing city to the south of Moscow and a focal point of Red Army resistance, the city was never captured, and although partially encircled for a period in late November and early December 1941, the Red Army’s counterattack which began in early December, pushed the Germans back, albeit at the cost of enormous casualties.
2nd Panzer Army was hit repeatedly by heavy counter attacks during the ensuing winter, and was pushed back a considerable distance from the Moscow area, before the winter thaw set in, causing a cessation of the Red Army attacks. It was late in the winter in March 1942 that Thomas performed an act of gallantry in the area of Mzensk to the north-east of Orel which led to the posthumous award of his Iron Cross 1st Class in August 1943,
After the cessation of the winter fighting, the Division was transferred to the south where it saw fighting in the Kharkov area, before being involved in the Red Army’s summer offensive of 1942. Advancing across the Don as part of 4th Panzer Army in July, the Division ended up in combat just the south of the city of Stalingrad, where it remained engaged for the remainder of the year.
Encircled during the Russian counterattack that encircled the German Sixth Army and parts of 4th Panzer Army in late November 1942, the Division fought on the southern flank of the pocket for the duration of the encirclement before eventually being destroyed in late January. Thomas was noted as missing with his unit at the end of the battle, and it is unknown whether he ever returned to his home town of Kassel after the war.
