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Germany (1918)
Source:
Sepp-Dieter Würzinger (Son) / Bad Homburg
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Josef Würzinger was born on April 4, 1918 in the Bavarian village of Altenufer. He grew up in his parents' house with his brother, who was seven years younger than him. He attended elementary school for eight years and then became an chimney sweep. During his apprenticeship he volunteered for the Navy and was accepted after a strict entrance exam. Immediately after completing his apprenticeship in 1937 he was drafted into basic training. However, his mother was very displeased with his decision to join the Navy. With a heavy heart she let her son go. After basic training Josef Würzinger served for a long time on the battleship Schleswig-Holstein.
During his time in the Navy, he earned the Reich Sports Badge and the Marksman's Cord, was trained as a gunner in the heavy anti-aircraft artillery and was eventually given a petty officer course. Towards the end of 1940/beginning of 1941, Josef Würzinger was promoted to petty officer and assigned to the battleship Bismarck. The family still tells that he served as an artillery gunner in the Caesar Turret.
While he was on a test run in the Baltic Sea with the Bismarck, he met and fell in love with Ingeborg Kraut, who was five years younger than him, on a shore leave in Danzig. She came from Danzig and was doing an apprenticeship in a shoe shop at the time. On April 12, 1941, a week after his twenty-third birthday, the two were married in the Danzig St. Elisabeth Church by a Protestant military chaplain. A short time later, the newlyweds had to say goodbye to each other again for an indefinite period of time, because Josef Würzinger set sail on the Bismarck for a combat mission. A few days later, the twenty-three-year-old was killed when the Bismarck sank, leaving his wife a widow after only 45 days of marriage. The following year, Ingeborg Würzinger gave birth to a son by her fallen husband; it is doubtful whether he ever knew about his wife's pregnancy.
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