Bidspirit auction | GERMAN KIA SOLDIER WOUND BADGE,

GERMAN KIA SOLDIER WOUND BADGE, PHOTOS & FELDPOST - LARGE GROUPING FROM A GERMAN SOLDIER KIA: WOUND BADGE, PHOTOS, NEGATIVES, FELDPOST, LETTERS, AND MORE... Large group of personal letters and photographs from a German soldier killed in action in 1944. The whole grouping tells us part of the story of Unteroffizier Wachtmeister Willi Hinze (1912 - 1944) and his Wife Marianne, nee Voigtlaender. The large grouping contains the soldier's black wound badge, three folders with letters from 1929 until 1942, plus nine Feldpost letters with envelopes from him and five letters to him which will be soon returned to Marianne. We can follow Willi in his letters from his first encounters with his future wife and how the war is shaping their future. Willi Hinze enlisted around 1936 with a Nachrichtentruppe, he was born in Bad Freienwalde near Berlin, and eventually, the couple will settle in Dachau near Munich. In a letter from January 1939, he mentions how he looks forward to the war ending soon. On September 1, 1939, he writes a letter to his girlfriend but does not mention the invasion of Poland, soon after he writes again that he has hopes that the war will soon end. In May 1940, they are getting married, make plans to buy a house, but his letters gradually show that there is no end in sight. He constantly sends her a new Feldpost number, he is now stationed near Holland, Northern France, mentions how his comrades are flying against England, searching for unexploded shells, air raids, how he is better off in France than in Russia, etc. Starting in August of 1944, her letters sent to his Feldpost address are being returned, five in all, all marked in red pencil 'return to sender' 'Died for Grossdeutschland', One letter from a relative confirms that her husband died and left behind a wife and child. Willi Hinze was about 32 years old when he died. Guessing by the Feldpost number 01642c he was with Artillerie-Regiment 185 4. Batt. and died in Northern France. Included in this grouping is a photograph of Hinze; his black wound badge; three folders of letters dated from 1929 to 1942; a copy of his birth certificate; approx. 50+ postcards, approx. 70+ b/w photographs of soldiers, officers, exercising and marching, and approx. 30 rolls of 120mm negatives plus many more individual b/w negatives, 14 postcards for their engagement, and a small box with dried flowers, possibly from his funeral. Letters are untranslated but should be researched further!