SOLDBUCH – GRENADIER REGIMENT 289 – 98 INFANTERIE DIVISION – NAHKAMPFSPANGE – KUBAN, ITALY

HEER SOLDBUCH – GRENADIER REGIMENT 289 – 98 INFANTERIE DIVISION – NAHKAMPFSPANGE – KUBAN, ITALY

Heer Soldbuch issued to Stabsgefreiter Rudolf BRIX. He served in Gren. Rgt 298 of the 98 Inf. Division. The division was destroyed at SEVASTAPOL in. May 1944 and reformed in AGRAM and reentered service in ITALY. He was awarded the Infantry Assault Badge in Silver EK2 Black Wound Badge. Also contains a list of his close combat engagements for qualification for the Nahkampfspange. He has 16 listed which would qualify him for the Close Combat Clasp in Bronze but it does not appear to have been entered. The list of days 1-11 are missing so perhaps it was entered on that page. There is a blurry entry in red that may also be the Nahkampfspange entry.

In the summer of 1943, the 289th Grenadier Regiment was disbanded and formed the 98th Divisional Battalion. In June, the division moved by rail to Feodosia in the Crimea and from there advanced on the Kuban bridgehead. This was followed by costly defensive fighting near Krymskaya until the Kuban bridgehead was finally evacuated in October 1943. From November 1943 to April 1944, the division was involved in heavy defensive fighting on the Kerch Peninsula. On March 1, 1944, the 615th Grenadier (Field Training) Regiment was assigned to the division as its new third regiment. It was later given the number 289. From April to May 1944, it withdrew to Sevastopol. Here the division was destroyed by May 10, 1944.

The division was reorganized on June 5, 1944, near Zagreb, Croatia, from the remnants of the 98th Infantry Division and the staff of the 387th Infantry Division. In July 1944, this newly formed division relocated to Italy and assumed coastal defense near Ravenna. In Italy, the Grenadier Training Brigade was to be incorporated into the division as Grenadier Training Regiment 290 on September 19, 1944. However, it was then transferred to the Reichsgrenadier Division “Hoch- und Deutschmeister” (High and German Master). Finally, on October 28, 1944, it was subordinated to the 98th Infantry Division, but now as Grenadier Training Regiment 117, while Grenadier Regiment 117 was disbanded. In August and September 1944, the division saw action in the fighting around Rimini. It then withdrew, fighting, through the Apennines to the Senio. From January to April, heavy trench warfare took place on the Senio River near Lugo. In April, the division withdrew across the Po River, Istrana, Coruda, and Belluno to the foothills of the Alps, where it surrendered near Pieve di Cadore at the end of the war.