Leutnant Ernst Kasper - A Story Of A Career Soldier

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This isn't to a member of an elite unit, or a winner of a high-end award, or of a particularly famous battle, but this is one that encompasses the story of a soldier who served his country - as can be seen, this soldier joined the Army before the Nazi's came to power - and eventually became just another statistic. Did he believe in the Nazi cause or did he commit any 'small scale' atrocities that were perpetrated every day on the Eastern Front - the burning down of villages and forcibly evacuating its inhabitants into the snowy wilderness or the shooting of a handful of prisoners - or did he try his best to follow a good moral path as best he could in a bitter world - who knows? These are the things a Wehrpass can not tell us, but it does reveal a glimpse into his life and by interweaving the actions of his units his story grows. So here is the story of Ernst Kasper...

Ernst Karl Kasper was born on the 12th October 1912 in Esserischke in East Prussia. Prior to volunteering for a life in the military Kasper worked as a farm labourer but at the age of 20 he joined the Heer, undergoing his entrance medical on the 1st October 1932 and being assigned to the 5th Kompanie of the East Prussian based Infantry Rgt 1 garrisoned in Insterburg to undergo his basic military training. He swore his oath of allegiance on 8th October 1932 (as well as swearing another oath on the 2nd August 1934, which I can only assume was a requirement of the Nazi regime.)
Kasper remained with IR 1 until this training regiment was renamed Infantry Rgt 22 with its parent formation assuming the title of the 1st Infantry Division. Infantry Rgt (Gumbinnen) 22 remained an East Prussian (Wehrkreis I) unit and was garrisoned at the barracks of that name right up to the start of WW 2.
While stationed at Gumbinnen Kasper met a local girl named Gerda and they were married on the 19th March 1939. Gerda was from the local town of Goldap, a place that was to feel the revenge of the Russians in 1944 when the Red Army captured the town in October 1944 becoming the first German town to be captured. When German soldiers mounted a local counter-offensive and recaptured the town in November 1944 they found that a number of civilians (approx 50) had been murdered by the Russians during their brief stay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK2Lj22PIXQ as well as at the nearby town of Nemmersdorf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x7t5hJeq0U&feature=related

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Kasper was a highly trained soldier and a platoon leader. One month into the war he was promoted to Feldwebel and was trained in a large number of infantry weapons ranging from the standard infantry rifle Kar 98 to the antitank rifle and 50mm Light Mortar 36. While he served with Inf Rgt 22 he was awarded the Shooting Lanyard 1936 and the Service Medal IV Class.
On the morning of 1st September 1939, 1 Infantry Division was a component of 3 Armee, Armeegruppe Nord, for the invasion of Poland. Marching out from the East Prussian town of Neidenburg the division moved into Poland with its objective being to cross the Narew & Bug rivers and approach Warsaw from the east.
By the 3rd September the Polish forces were resisting the Division's advance in a series of fortified bunkers just north of Mlawa. Overcoming resistance the division pushed on crossing the Narew near Rozan on the 5th. By the 13th September the 1st ID had reached the area to the east of Warsaw and attempted to close the 30km gap between it and Panzer Division Kempf to stop the Polish soldiers from breaking out and from the 19th to the surrender of Warsaw the division was fighting in the eastern suburb of Praga. On completion of the successful campaign in Poland the 1st Infantry Division was sent to the Lower Rhine.
According to his WP, Kasper did not see action in the 1940 Western campaign as he was assigned to Infantry Rgt 22’s Replacement & Training Battalion, although the campaign pages of the Wehrpass do list the divisions movement in that campaign. In fact the next time Ernst Kasper went into combat it would be away from the unit he had spent 8 years with. After spending time with Infantry Ersatz Btl 312, on the 29th October 1940 he was assigned to 6 Kompanie of Infantry Rgt 364 of the 161 Infantry Division, another East Prussian rooted formation.
The next action Kasper was to see was Operation Barbarossa which erupted on 22nd June 1941 and 161 ID was a component of 9 Armee of AG Mitte. Just like the 1 ID in 1939, the 161 ID pushed out from East Prussia and advanced for the first few months, marching mile after mile in the hot summer sun and participating in the actions at Bialystok in July & Smolensk in August during which Kasper was wounded on the 20th August, receiving the Wound Badge In Black and where he probably won his EK II Klasse, awarded on the 21st September 1941. Before the division reached Vyasma in October, Kasper was also to be awarded the Infantry Assault Badge in Silver on the 30th September 1941 by which time he had already left the 364 Infantry Rgt, returning to I.E.B 312 for 3 months before being assigned to 5 Kompanie of Infantry Rgt 547 of the 328 Infantry Division, another division of 9 Armee, on the 15th December 1941 so while he had missed the Russian winter & subsequent Soviet counter-offensive with 161 ID he was soon thrust into the bitter fighting with his new unit which saw action in the Rzhev region and Velikiye-Luki regions during the months ahead. On the 20th July 1942 Kasper received the last of his awards when he received the Eastern front Medal.

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While the 328 ID was sent to the west to rest & recover from the heavy fighting Infantry Rgt 547 remained behind in Russia and so it was that during fighting in the region of Vitebsk in what is now Belarus, Ernst Kasper was badly wounded on the 22nd September 1943 from which he was not to recover.
Four days later whilst in Feldlazarett (mot.) 187 near Vitebsk, Ernst Kasper died so ending a military career that had covered 11 years. The last action of his military life was to be his posthumous promotion to a commissioned rank, Leutnant, which was backdated to the 1st September 1943.

Did his wife Gerda remain in Goldap and succumb to the rape & murder of the Russians in 1944 or did she become one of the millions of refugees that headed west - only history knows now.


Sources:
Photos of Gumbinnen Kaserne courtesy of Lexikon der Wehrmacht
1939 Polish Campaign Map courtesy of Case White by William Russ.

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And finally, Kasper's Award Citations including two issues for the Infantry Assault Badge...

EK II citation signed by Generalleutnant Hermann Wilck
IAB Silver citation (1941) signed by Oberstleutnant Postel