Germany – Third Reich. The Assault on Sebastopol Iron Cross 2nd Class, Retreat from Leningrad Iron Cross 1st Class and Crimea Shield Recipients Document Group to Medical-Feldwebel Willi Argus, 10th Company, III Battalion, 485th Infantry Regiment, 263rd Infantry Division, and then later HQ II Battalion, 437th Infantry/Grenadier Regiment, 132nd Infantry Division.
A very interesting and scarce bravery document group of 4 award certificates and 13 documents comprising;
Award Certificates:
1) The Black Wound Badge for a wound on 8.11.1941 awarded by Battalion HQ on 25.11.1941, as an Unteroffizier, II/437th Infantry Regiment. Signed by Kammerer as Major and Battalion Commander.
Kammerer was awarded the German Cross in Gold on 2.1.1942 as Major and Commanding Officer II/437th Infantry Regiment.
2)The Iron Cross 2nd Class, awarded by Divisional HQ on 24.5.1942 as a Medic-Unteroffizier, II/437th Infantry Regiment. Signed by von Eichstedt as Oberst and acting General Officer Commanding 132nd Infantry Division.
von Eichstedt was awarded the Knights Cross on 18.8.1942 as Oberst and Commanding Officer 436th Infantry Regiment, 132nd Infantry Division.
3)The Crimea Shield, awarded by 11th Army HQ on 16.12.1942 as a Feldwebel, HQ II/437th Grenadier Regiment. With a facsimile signature of Generalfeldmarschall von Manstein This award was approved by 11th Army HQ on 15.1.1943 –as noted on the reverse of the certificate
4)The Iron Cross 1st Class, awarded by Divisional HQ on 22.4.1944 as a Medic-Feldwebel, HQ/437th Grenadier Regiment. Signed by Boeckh-Behrens as Generalleutnant and General Officer Commanding 32nd Infantry Division.
Boeckh-Behrens was award the Knights Cross on 9.12.1944 as Generalleutnant and General Officer Commanding 32nd Infantry Division and the German Cross in Gold on 30.1.1943 as Oberst 16th Army
Documents:
1)Billets 1941. A solemn affirmation, signed by Willi Argus, stating that he was of German or related blood and that his grandparents (father’s and mother’s side) did not belong to the Jewish Religion
2)Billets, 17.2.1942 – A handwritten assessment of Medic-Unteroffizier Willi Argus’s suitability for promotion to Medic-Feldwebel signed by Dr Muller as Battalion Doctor. Sadly, much of the text is too difficult to decipher but there are one or two interesting entries: Command ability: very good Previous military employment: stretcher bearer with a Rifle Company, medical rank in a Machine-gun Company and finally a medical rank in a headquarters. Specialist training: Chemist training in the Medical School Munich: 21.11 – 10.12.1940, and a trained driver Class I and III For which employment recommended: employment as a medical rank with Headquarters This assessment was counter-signed by the Hauptmann and Battalion Commander who was in agreement with the assessment.
3)Billets, 17.2.1942. An assessment of Medic-Unteroffizier Willi Argus’s suitability for promotion to Medic-Feldwebel by another Battalion Doctor. This appears to be a draft version which was probably used as a basis for the assessment by Dr Muller. There is no Battalion Commander’s counter-signature.
4)Billets, 20.2.1942. A recommendation by II/437th Infantry Regiment for the promotion of Unteroffizier Argus to Medic-Feldwebel with the effect from 1.2.1942. Some interesting details have been entered in this document about Argus as follows: Born on 16.3.1913, career: Chemist, Single. Served in the Army from 3.9.1938 to 3.12.1938 – discharged and mobilised on 28.8.1939. Promotions: 1.7.1940 – Gefreiter 9.12.1940 – Medic-Gefreiter 1.1.1941 – Medic-Unteroffizier Medical Grade Examination – 9.12.1940
5)RHQ, 12.3.1942. A short letter from the Regimental Medical Officer (RMO) to Divisional HQ Section IVb concerning the recommendation for the promotion of Unteroffizier of the Reserve Willi Argus to Medic-Feldwebel
6)Divisional HQ, 26.3.1942. A short typed note on the reverse dated 21.3.1942 by the Divisional Doctor in reply to the RMO’s letter stating that the recommendation has been delayed few months so that Argus will have served at least 1 ½ years in the medical services.
7)Billets, 6.5.1942. A Military Medical Certificate about the Suitability for Marriage concerning Unteroffizier Willi Argus, born on 16.3.1913 in Ludwigshafen/Rhein. It is signed by Dr Muller as Unit Doctor of 12 104A (HQ II/437th Infantry Regiment) and counter-signed by a Medic-Unteroffizier
8)A wartime personnel roster for Unteroffizier of the Reserve Willi Argus as from 7.2.1941. Some interesting entries are as follows: His unit at the time was 8 (MG) Company, 437th Infantry Regiment His ID Number: 10/I.R.485 No.22 (this would indicate that he was originally in this unit (10 Company, III Battalion, 485th Infantry Regiment), which was used to help form 437th Infantry Regiment Personal Details: born on 16.3.1913 in Ludwigshafen/Rhein Next of Kin: Katherina Argus (mother) Training: Armed Forces Driving License for Class I and III – August 1940 Campaign: Entries for the Balkans Campaign 1941; a pencil entry for the Russian Campaign indicating details not yet available Wounding: 8.11.1941 – Shrapnel wound to the lower left side of the chest.
9)An original discharge certificate dated 2nd April 1949 – His discharge was processed by the French Authorities as a result of having been released from Russian captivity in the rank of an Oberfeldwebel almost 4 years after the end of the war! His personal details indicate that he was now a married man but with no children.
10)A photocopy of the original Discharge Certificate dated 2nd April 1949. The only addition to this copy are the following handwritten words ‘Letzte UDSSR Moskau Lager Nummer 7144/21.’
11)A handwritten Unit History dated 5.10.1956. This is a very interesting three page summary account written by Willi Argus concerning the story of the 437th from the moment this Regiment was formed in September 1940 until the end of the war. He begins with a short written account of the campaign in the Balkans 1941 and the Eastern Front 1941-45 followed by a month/year/location listing of where the Regiment saw combat on the Eastern Front from June 1941 to May 1945. He states that the 437th was disbanded in October 1944 and his II Battalion was used to form II/436th in the same Division. He was taken prisoner by the Russians in May 145 in the Wirkos area near Preekuln in Kurland.
12)Munich, 23.11.1959. A letter to Willi Argus in Ludwigshafen from the German Red Cross Missing Persons Tracing Service concerning a ‘Homecoming Questionnaire with missing persons list of pictures’. The organisation is still trying to verify the whereabouts of missing persons from the Eastern Front and asks Willi Argus to fill in a questionnaire which he appears to have done by returning it on 6.12.1959
13)Willi Argus has written a list of dates and locations on the reverse of the Red Cross letter. He gives place names of hospitals and camps where he spent his time as a Russian Prisoner of War. He states his captivity started on 5.5.1945 and ended on 2.4.1949.
Willi Argus was born on 16th March 1913 in Ludwigshafen/Rhein. He was a Catholic, a trained Chemist and was worried during the war – probably sometime in 1942. There is a document which indicates that he was single in February 1941 and his next of kin was his mother who lived in Ludwigshafen. His first unit III Battalion, 485th Infantry regiment was used in October 1940 to help form the 437th with which he served for the rest of the war.
He saw active service in the West 1939 and during the France Campaign of 1940 before joining the 437th Infantry Regiment, 132nd Infantry Division, prior to the invasion of Yugoslavia, Argus would have seen action in that brief campaign.
After fighting in Yugoslavia, 132nd Infantry Division went on to fight in Southern Russia from July 1941 onwards, seeing action around Kiev in August and September before the capture of that city. Moving on to Nikolayev and Krivoi Rog, the division then moved on to fight on the Perekop Isthmus, (the entry to the Crimean Peninsula), during which he was wounded, receiving the Black Wound Badge for a wound received on the 8th November. Fighting on the Crimean Peninsular throughout the winter of 1941-42 including on the Kerch Peninsular, Argus was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class in May 1942, most likely for his part in the assault of the fortress at Sebastopol which began on 8th May.
After the capture of Sebastopol, 11th Army of which 132nd Infantry Division was a part, moved to the north in September where it served In the Leningrad area, fighting there throughout 1943.
In early 1944 Leningrad was relieved, and the bulk of Army Group North was involved in a fighting withdrawal through the Baltic states. Argus would have won his Iron Cross 1st Class in the fighting around Ostrov in March or April 1944, being awarded the medal on 22nd April 1944 whilst attached to 32nd Infantry Division.
132nd Infantry Division subsequently withdrew into Latvia and was eventually cut-off in the Kurland Pocket in the autumn of 1944. His award of the Iron Cross 1st Class for bravery in front of the enemy by another Divisional Commander other than his own indicates that for whatever reason his unit had been detached for a time from the 132nd Infantry Division to the 32nd Infantry Division. These Divisions were both in Army Group North but under command of different Armies and Army Corps at the time. The 132nd under 16th Army/Reserve whilst the 32nd was under 18th Army / XXVIII.
Willi Argus’s handwritten record clearly shows that the 437th was in combat at the time of the award on 22.4.1944 in the area of influence of the 32nd (Ostrow) and not the 132nd (Opochka).
The Division eventually surrendered on the Kurland Peninsular in May 1945, Medic Feldwebel Argus then becoming a Prisoner of War of the Soviet Union until April 1949 when he was released. He has written an accurate record of where the 437th saw action in the Balkans and on the Eastern Front. The remnants of the 437th were incorporated into the 436th in the same Division when the 437th was disbanded in December 1944
