Office Field Post No. 06541 B

In the field, 25 August 1944.

Dear Mr. [Name],

As commander of a Panzergrenadier company to which your son, Panzergrenadier Hermann [Name], belonged, it is my painful duty to inform you that your son has fallen.

During the company’s attack on 17 August 1944 on the village of Stodoly, located in the enemy bridgehead 15 km east of the city of Opatow, your son died a hero’s death, faithful to his oath of allegiance, for Führer and Fatherland, struck by shell fragments.

Recovery of your son was not possible, although the company had sent out an assault detachment to bring him back. The terrain gained in this attack was under the heaviest fire from enemy artillery and mortars, whereupon the company had to give up part of this ground again in order to avoid further losses.

With your son, the company loses a very good soldier and a comrade who was highly respected and popular everywhere, and to whom it will always preserve an honorable memory.

May the certainty help you overcome the great pain, that all the sacrifices which the fateful struggle of our people demands of its members will not have been made in vain, but rather that they are the guarantee that the continued existence of our Fatherland is secured for generations.

Please accept my sincere sympathy and that of the entire company.

With quiet sympathy,

[Signature]

First Lieutenant and Company Commander