Wicha August

In early February 2021, a German lady called me and told me that she had been trying for a long time to find her grandfather, who had gone missing during the First World War.

The only thing she knew about him was that he was born in 1879/80 (the place was unknown) and that he had been missing somewhere in Europe since 1915 (on the Western Front or the Eastern Front).

August Wicha was found in the Casualty lists from the First World War ↗️

He lived in 1914 in Klein Oldern ↗️(today Iwiny), a few kilometers south of Breslau.

He was married to Franziska Anna Krisch, born in Glausche ↗️ (Namslau district) on March 8, 1879

August and Franziska had a total of 12 children, three of whom died at birth and three in 1915.

He was a soldier from Landwehr - Infantry Regiment No. 51↗️ Missing in the Battle of Tarnawka(This is about Tarnawka Druga ↗️), A few kilometers south of Lublin, where the Germans fought together with the Austrians against the Russians, the Battle of Tarnavka against the Russians lasted from September 6th to 9th, 1914.

In 1914, those who fell in this battle were buried on the battlefield. In 1915, however, the soldiers were reinterred in a mass grave near [location missing]. Tarnawka Druga ↗️.

His grave was never found, but we now know that he rests somewhere near Tarnawka Druga in a mass grave or still in the battlefield near Tarnawka.

South of Tarnawka Druga is a cemetery:

Cmentarz Wojenny (1914 – 18r) - Google ↗️

Because he was a soldier in a Prussian army unit, unfortunately no service records exist for him: the Prussian service records were located in the archive in Potsdam, but almost all of them were burned during the Second World War.

PS: If anyone has further information about August Wicha or the Battle of Tarnawka, I would be very grateful for any relevant information.

Thank you