Original Item: One-of-a-kind. This is a fantastic genuine well-used WWII German Soldbuch, issued to Pionier der Reserve and later Gefreiter Artur Weber, a soldier in the Pioneer Corps who would see action in Unternehmen Nordwind (Operation Northwind). This was the last major German offensive of the war, meant to support the stalled Ardennes Offensive campaign Operation Watch on the Rhine, aka the "Battle of the Bulge". These failed to achieve their objectives, and Germany would be on the defensive for the rest of the war.

Weber was born 26. 1. 07, and the book indicates he was issued the soldbuch 26. August 1939 . His picture is on the inner cover, secured with staples on all four corners 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:

Artur Weber, born in 1907, joined the 627th Engineer Battalion at the end of August 1939, just as the battalion changed from a training to field unit. The 627th, with Weber, took part in the Polish campaign in 1939 as well as the French campaign in 1940. Apparently discharged from the Wehrmach soon afterward, he was awarded the War Service Cross II Class in August 1940.

Four years later, Weber was called to active service again as the Allies approached the borders of German from east and west. He became a member of the 3rd Engineer Replacement Battalion, located in Brandenburg, part of the 463rd Division 463. By early December, he transferred to a combat unit, Pionier Battalion 257 of the 257th Division, when he was issued a rifle on December 12.

The 257th, formed in October 1944 in Wandern, moved to the Western Front in at the time Weber joined them. Entering combat in the vicinity of Bitche, seeing heavy fighting near Zweibrucken. After a short rest, the 257th took part in Operation Nordwind in January, in which it took heavy casualties. In early February, the division moved to the Oberhoffen area. After a counterattack there failed, it remained in this area until Allied pressure forced the remnants of the 25th to retreat across the Rhine near Karlsrhue at the end of March. During April, the advance of the French First Army led it to retreat south into the Black Forest. At the end of April, the few members left from 257th were surrounded near Munderkingen. Weber became of prisoner of war of the French sometime in April and was moved to the French PoW camp at Pont D'Ain, near Lyon, where he remained for three years, until released in 1948.

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, though the cover itself has had the swas under the eagle "sanitized". There is also an insert page that has had the glue fail, so it can fall out.

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.