Please, short German to English translation needed-19th IR

[Stephanie625]

Would any fluent German speaker translate this for me? All my translating services are doing weird indecipherable word for word translation, which is preventing my further study of this Regiment's movements.

Am 2. August 1941 wurde der Osster-Fluß erreicht. Das Regiment stieß bis zum 3. August bis Janowskaja und Nesnanj vor. Hier traf das Regiment ab dem 4. August 1941 russische Gegenangriffe. Bis zum 13. August 1941 gelang es dem Regiment im Verbund mit der 7. Infanterie-Division, den angreifenden Feind einzukesseln und zu vernichten. Weiter stieß das Regiment auf Roslawl vor und erreichte Ende August die Gegend um Cholm und griff hier in die Kämpfe im Jelnja-Bogen ein. Das Regiment wurde bei Kukujewa, Stragina und Ssolowenjka Leonowa eingesetzt, bis am 5. September 1941 der Jelnja-Bogen geräumt wurde.

Thank you!
Stephanie

[Jeff Leach]

My German ins't all that great but the text is fairly easy to read. My bet is that the dates are confusing the translators. Just translate sentence by sentence, removing the date when nesessary.

Am 2. August 1941 wurde der Osster-Fluß erreicht. Das Regiment stieß bis zum 3. August bis Janowskaja und Nesnanj vor. Hier traf das Regiment ab dem 4. August 1941 russische Gegenangriffe. Bis zum 13. August 1941 gelang es dem Regiment im Verbund mit der 7. Infanterie-Division, den angreifenden Feind einzukesseln und zu vernichten. Weiter stieß das Regiment auf Roslawl vor und erreichte Ende August die Gegend um Cholm und griff hier in die Kämpfe im Jelnja-Bogen ein. Das Regiment wurde bei Kukujewa, Stragina und Ssolowenjka Leonowa eingesetzt, bis am 5. September 1941 der Jelnja-Bogen geräumt wurde.

"The regiment reached Osster-Fluß on the 2nd August 1941 and was in combat before Janowskaja and Nesnanj on the 3rd. There the regiment was struck by a Russian counter-attack on the 4th. The regiment in cooperation with the 7th Infantry Division, closed in and had destroyed the attacking enemy by the 14th August. It was also in combat near Roslawl and by the end of August had reached Cholm and took part in the Battle of Jelnja-River bend. The regiment was depolyed at Kukujewa, Stragina and Ssolowenjka Leonowa and by 5th September had cleared the Jelnja-River bend."

That is a rough translation (hopefully fairly correct). If it was an important translation, I was use a dictionary more and refer to a map.

I would welcome others translations because they are great learning aids.

[Stephanie625]

Thanks, and I do hope for a little more help. As far as referring to a map, I am at a loss, for the spellings of these place-names are not facilitating any internet search. I understand that the 19th Infantry Regiment was with the VIIth Army Group on the Desna front, beyond that, nothing. If you or anyone could provide a little clarity here, it would be great.

[Jeff Leach]

Start with Lage Ost 1941 and if you need more detail try the 1954 US Army Topographical of Eastern Europe or these Polish Maps. The Lage Ost Maps will give you the general position of the unit in question (if you know its parent division). If you need more detail use one of the other maps. Note that the German, Polish, English and Russian name of a town might all be different. The US Army Maps, which I have looked at a few in detail, contain many errors. There are quite a large number of wartime German maps in the NARA records and if you know the date and general area maybe someone can post a relavent one.

Personally I use the US Army Maps as a standard. They are most readly available.

[history1]

Not an native English speaker so excuse the use of wrong tenses or errors.

" On August 2nd 1941 the river Osster has been reached. The regiment pushed forward to Janowskaja and Nesnanj by 3rd August. Here the regiment got charged from August 4th 1941 by russian counter attacks. Until August 13th 1941 the regiment was able, in accompany of the 7th Infantry Division, to close in and to destroy the attacking enemy. The regiment advanced to Roslawl reached end August the area of Cholm where it was involved in the battles at the Jelnja - river arch. The regiment has been engaged in Kukujewa, Stragina and Ssolowenjka Leonowa until on september 5th the Jelnja - river arch has been vacated."


Roslawl = Roslavl'
Kukujewa = Kukuyevo
Stragina = Strigino
Ssolowenjka Leonowa = Solovenka (Soloven'ki)
Jelnja = Yelnya

Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/qem72ba


Maybe also of interest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelnya_Offensive

[GregSingh]

That passage comes from book 'Chronik der 7.Infanterie-Division München'.
According to included map, regiments were never near Cholm in Novgorod Oblast. That would be HG Nord, not Mitte?
Cholm in question is quite possible a small village near major rail line halfway between Smolensk and Roslavl.

River is called Oster, Nesnanj is misspelled Nesnan and Janowskaja near Nesnan does not seem to be on any map I've seen.

[Stephanie625]

Greg, I'm looking here: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gli ... IR19-R.htm
It is almost impossible for me to read that map accurately, no matter how much I zoom, the writing just becomes more blurry. But one can just make out the major towns, if not the notes of dates, etc beside. I'm going to take a look at the 7ID again and compare the Regiment map vs the Divisional map as best as I can.

History1... the name translations were especially helpful, thanks.

Jeff... Is there a different way to access those German maps? Since they place the troops, that's what I need, but not only did one take a very long time to download, I was unable to change the size to something I could read.

[Jeff Leach]

Make a new post and post it in the Heer or Eastern Front section - you are looking for informaton about the 7.Inf.Div. (7th Infantry Division) or Inf.Rgt.19 / 7.Inf.Div. (19th Infantry Regiment) during Barbarossa. If you are new to this kind of research be sure to say so. Let's see what is posted and I'll help some more if needed.

[history1]

I agree with the Cholm question by Greg. As the units reached first Roslavl' and after that Cholm with the battles places mentioned it doesn´t make really sense to believe that this Cholm is correct. It must be somewhere in the Smolensk Oblast.

On the other hand I was finaly able to locate the river with so many different names.
Source: Osster
Germ. Wikipedia: Ostjor
Russ. Wikipedia: Остёр/Ocmep
Engl. Wikipedia: Oster

It seems additionaly that there are two different wiki-entries for that river which aren´t connected:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostjor
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oster_%28Desna%29

Greg, where´s that Nesnan? Couldn´t get any results whatever language I use for the search.

[GregSingh]

Those pesky names...

Nesnan is a German spelling. In English it will be Neznan. In Russian - Незнань (Климовичский район, Могилевская область). Just south of Oster river, 20km east of Kritschew (Kryčaŭ, Krychaw or Krichev).

W54 Mogilew 1943 German Map

[GregSingh]

I just had another look at German 1943 map X55 Dorogobush and there are two villages called Cholm near Yelnya.
One as I already mentioned, near rail line Smolensk-Roslavl. The other near rail line Smolensk-Yelnya. Also there are at least two villages called Cholmy in the same area.

So it's hard to tell which one is the correct one as all of them seem to be on 7.ID route...

[history1]

Thanks Greg, hence it´s Neznan’ in the Mahilyowskaya Voblasts' in Belarus it´s logical that I didn´t find it searching in Russia and Ukraine.