Citations Fallschirmschutzen Abz. – Wounded Badge Italy 1943

2 citations to Fallschirmjager Klaus Schröder.

Citatation for the Fallschirmschutzen Abzeichen dated 5 August 1942 with a stamped signature of  a General der Flieger.

Citation for the Wounded badge in Black for a first wounding on 29 December 1943 while serving with II Battalion Fallschirmjager Regiment 1.
At that time the Regiment was fighting in the area of Ortona, Italy against the first Canadian Army.

History

Fighting continued through Christmas. But for the Canadian troops in Ortona there was a break in the action as Seaforth Highlander companies were rotated back to enjoy a Christmas dinner served in the captured Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli. Many soldiers in the Loyal Edmontons were not as fortunate, although attempts were made to get the roast pork dinner up to them.

German paratroopers surrounded the 48th Highlanders and hammered the Canadians with mortar and artillery fire. The RCR was ordered to abandon its original plan of cutting the highway and instead establish a corridor to the 48th Highlanders. Sixty men of the Saskatoon Light Infantry started out at dusk. They made contact with the beleaguered Highlanders, giving them much needed supplies and extracting their wounded.

It was none too soon as at 10 AM on December 26, the German paratroopers launched a major counterattack. The surrounded Canadians fought desperately, throwing back a total of three German assaults. Three Sherman tanks eventually broke through and came to their aid. The 48th Highlanders were not long in striking back at the paratroopers. Their attack forced the Germans to withdraw to San Nicola and San Tommaso.

Fighting continued in Ortona with the paratroopers’ control of the town dwindling to a small section of the old quarter in front of the castle. The elite paratroopers fought fiercely using flamethrowers, machine guns, mortars, and antitank guns. On December 27, an officer in the Loyal Edmontons and 23 men were in a two-story building distributing ammo when preset explosives left behind by the Germans blew it up. Only three men survived. The Canadians quickly retaliated when their engineers set explosives under a building held by the Germans and detonated the charges, killing about 50 Germans in the blast.

Believing that one more hard push would clear the town, Hoffmeister ordered the PPCLI into the fight. Patrols sent out the morning of December 28 found that the German paratroopers were gone. They had been ordered to withdraw the night before. Ortona was in Canadian hands.

Fighting still raged northwest of Ortona where the 48th Highlanders captured San Nicola and San Tommaso on December 29.
On this day Obergefreiter Klaus Schröder got wounded.

Two battalions of the 3rd Infantry Brigade were then inserted back into the fight with orders to push the paratroopers across the Riccio by early January.

info and map taken from: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/the-battle-of-ortona-italys-stalingrad/

code: B24233