Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a fantastic genuine well-used WWII German Soldbuch, issued to Schütze and later Gefreiter Herbert Völker, an Infantry Soldier who took part in the Invasion of the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa. They would see service, but be injured several times, looking to have sustained "Shell Shock" for a time, but later made it back to front line service before the end of the war.

Völker was born strong 11. 3. 22. (11 March 1922), and the book indicates he was issued the soldbuch 21. Dez 1940 . His picture is on the inner cover, secured with staples on the upper right and lower left corner, and bearing the correct ink stamps over two corners. We can see that he is wearing the standard enlisted shoulder straps, and his rank would have been indicated by sleeve insignia. As is standard, Page 1 gives his rank progression, page 2 has personal information, and page 3 indicates the units he was stationed in. The handwriting in the book, like many we see, is written in period script, which is unfortunately very hard to decipher. However, this book came with two copies of a translated summary of his service! They both have the same text, but are in different sizes / formats, and read as follows:

Herbert Völker, entered German Army in August 1940 with Infantry Ersatz Bataillon 167, in Herford, Wehrkreis VI. Finishing training, he became a member of Infantry Regiment 424, 126th Division in time for the invasion of Russia. The 424th operated separately from the Division in the vicinity of Novgorod when Volker was with them. He was wounded in late July 1941, and initially treated at Kriegslazarett 1/608 in Dunaburg. He was soon transferred to hospitals in Lemgo until released to Replacement Battalion 167, located in the Lemgo area at the time, in November 1941.

By January 1942, he was back in hospital, this time for nerves or combat fatigue, at the neurological department of a hospital in Tapiau, east of Königsberg East Prussia. After a week, he was put on a hospital train, destined for a hospital in Holzminden for his broken leg due to the bullet wound. He remained in this hospital until March, when he was transferred to a Reserve Hospital in Göttingen. Although there is no admittance date for this hospital, he was listed as being treated for a shrapnel wound in June 1942. This may well refer to his original wound, but in any event, he remained under treatment until February 1943, when he was released first to Landesschutzen Ersatz Bataillon 6, Lüdenscheid, in March 1943, then Landesschutzen Bataillon 2/487 by the end of the month.

In February 1944 he transferred back to 167 again for a few days, before being transferred to Recklinghauen with Landesschutzen Bataillon D. By January 1945, he was with Kraftfahr Ersatz und Ausbildungs Bataillon 6 until he became a driver for the ZEL power plant in Cologne Niehl. His last assignment was with the garrison of Wermelskirchen, about fifteen miles northeast of Cologne. The city was captured by American forces on April 14, 1945, when Volker became an American PoW.

He was awarded the Black Wound Badge and received credit for two assaults in July 1941 toward award of an Infantry Assault Badge, July 14 at Khichino and July 18 at Tiskumova, in the vicinity of Novorzhev, southwest of Lake Ilmen.

Overall condition is very good and many pages have handwriting or ink stamps, meaning this has some excellent further research potential. The book shows wear and staining, however the pages are still attached to the cover, and unlike many we see, none of the Reichsadlers have been sanitized.

These are exceptionally rare and difficult to find with this much information!

Of note: some of the writing in this book is in Kurrentschrift, an older form of Germanic script writing, which is why the all the "u" letters are written as "ŭ". In this script the lowercase "n" and "u" are identical, so the latter gets the arc shaped mark over it. This is not indicative of an umlaut or other diacritical marking.

More on the German Soldbuch:
The Soldbuch served the soldier as a personal identification document in wartime and as an authorization to receive pay from his own or outside pay-stations. In addition, it was identification for rail travel, detached service, leave, and for receiving mail. The Soldbuch was always carried by the soldier on his person in a tunic pocket. Leaving the book in one's baggage or in one's quarters was not permitted. The careful preservation of the book was in the best interest of the owner. The Soldbuch had to be kept in an orderly fashion. The owner must see to it, that all changes in pay due to transfer or promotion are immediately entered by his responsible duty station. The Soldbuch was an official document. Entries were only to be made by a Wehrmacht duty station. Making unauthorized changes is punishable as falsification of official documents. The loss of a Soldbuch was to be reported as soon the loss is discovered to the holders unit or duty station, and the issue of a new Soldbuch will be requested.