Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a fantastic genuine WWII German Soldbuch, issued to Erich Schultze, originally listed as a Gefreiter, but eventually being promoted to Leutnant der Reserve, a Junior officer rank. There is a stamped photograph of Schultze on the inner front cover, which is retained by the correct staples with stamps over two corners, as is correct. The book shows heavy wear and use, with damage to the photograph as well as partially and completely missing pages. This however looks to be all original PERIOD wear, as new pages were grafted in to replace those too damaged to read. Really a fantastic salty service used book for a soldier that saw long service during the war!

The book indicates on page 2 that he was issued the soldbuch on 10. Februar 1942, and he was initially part of 3.| Inf. Ers. Btl. 473, or 3rd Company, 473rd Infantry Replacement Battalion. Page 3 then gives additional information about his further assignments, which show he was assigned in November 1942 to Infantry Regiment 581, part of the Heer 306th Infantry division. At the time this was part of Army Group South, which provided relief at the Battle of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front. This eventually resulted in a Soviet victory in early February 1943.

Schultze was not captured by Soviet forces, and he is next listed in March 1944 as being assigned to Grenadier Regiment 1051, which was part of the Heer 84th Infantry division. He was listed again in July 1944 as part of the same unit, which saw action at both Normandy and during the response to Operation Market Garden. This means that Schultze saw action at legendary battles on BOTH fronts of the European Theater of WWII! He looks to later have been assigned to some training units towards the end of the war.

Following this are pages giving further information on Schultze's service, injuries, and so forth. Page 22 would normally give a listing of the awards that Schultze received, however it was partly torn away at some point. However a second page, labeled Page 22a was glued in, and there is more information there regarding decorations he received. We can see that he received the Iron Cross 2nd Class 1939, the Infantry Assault Badge in Silver,  and the Close Combat Clasp 1st Grade in Bronze for 15 days in combat. There may be additional awards that were listed on the portion of page 22 that is missing.

Overall condition is rough but all pages are intact and many pages have handwriting or ink stamps, meaning this has some excellent further research potential. These are exceptionally rare and difficult to find with this much information, especially for a soldier that saw service on BOTH fronts in Europe!

Of note: the persons filling out the book and the service record wrote using 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.