Wehrmacht medical officers in Ingolstadt, Apr 1945

[Grittis]

My father was a B-24 navigator who was shot down over Saarbruecken in May, 1944 and spent time in Stalag Luft III, Stalag XIIID and was moving further south to Moosberg in Apr, 1945 when he escaped from the march. His evasion was cut short by a German soldier south of the Danube. He was transported to the Reserve Lazarett #1 in nearby Ingolstadt where his shattered femur was repaired using a revolutionary technique, intermedulary longbone nailing, pioneered by Dr. Gerhard Kuenscher. The technique was new, controversial, and required specialized surgical equipment and a talented doctor/team. Dr. Kuenscher was in Finland at the time and the few military doctors who could perform the procedure were indeed a small cadre. My father wrote about his hospital experience in Apr, '45 but did not have the names of the attending Colonel and Captain who performed the procedure. At the end of Apr the US Army captured Ingolstadt (and the doctors) and dad was back under US military control. The US doctors were surprised and said that the repair was far better than what they could offer.
I desire to identify the Stabsarzt Oberst and Kapitan who conducted the revolutionary procedure on my father. They were captured by US forces on ~28 Apr 1945 in Ingolstadt. I assume they were considered high value captives but I can find no records in the US. I cannot access German records in Freiberg due to covid shutdowns and the fact that I am not a 'valid' researcher. However, they have responded in an encouraging manner to my proposed request.
Can the forum help?

[Dave Danner]

As I understand it, Reservelazarett Ingolstadt was under Sanitätsabteilung 27 (Augsburg). There were two Oberstärzte (colonel-equivalent) in the April 1945 medical officer seniority list with San.Abt. 27 as their Truppenteil:

Kaiser, Dr. Albert, *1892
Heßler, Dr. Alexander, *1898

Maybe one of these was the senior doctor. Unfortunately, I don't have any further information.

[Grittis]

Thank you for this information. This is more than I have been able to dig up with many contacts. I have been introduced to the online archives at Freiburg: invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/login.xhtml with some basic instructions, but my lack of German fluency has me in a sackgasse quickly. Can you explain a bit more about your text? Is Freiburg the correct archives to query about Reserve lazarett#1 in Ingolstadt? I seem to be aware of another military hospital in the city. Is Sanitätsabteilung 27 (Augsburg) the medical district for Ingolstadt? Do they have their own archive? What is Truppenteil? Many resources exist in Ingolstadt which have pleaded ignorance to all things related to the NSDAP years. With 2 Oberstärzte on the payroll, does that say anything about the size of the staff? Does the list have numerous doctors of Hauptmann equivalent, Stabsarzt rank? May I contact you directly?

[Dave Danner]

That's pretty much the limit of my knowledge. I just Googled to find that the Res.Laz. was under the control of that Sanitätsabteilung and then check a copy of the rank list which I have. My copy does not go down as far as the younger Stabsärzte, as I am primarily a WW1 researcher.

Ingolstadt is the home of the Bavarian Army Museum and archives, so they are correct that their records are not of the Third Reich era. Freiburg is the correct archive location for Wehrmacht files.

[Rossano]

Hello
I have Kaiser as Korps-Arzt probably until 1945
As to Heßler I have no further assignments after 1943
Rgds.

[Grittis]

Rossano
Thanks for that extra bit of info. Does Korps-Arzt indicate a unit commander? Would that be at the hospital level?
Does this or Dave's info tie these Drs. to the Ingolstadt lazarett or just somewhere in the San.Abt. 27 unit. I see that a number of cities are in that unit.

[Rossano]

All units had their own Dr. (regiments, divisions, corps, armies) and he was Dr. of a corps (colonel level)
I believe that the towns for those 2 doctors mentioned by Dave for 1945 are simply their towns of origin for their mil. service in 1939 (Friedenstruppenteil). I have no idea which drs. were in those towns in 1945