This Feldpost cover and its surviving three-page letter were sent from Augsburg on 30th December 1940, the letter itself having been written the previous day, 29th December 1940. The writer appears to be Winfried Grabherr, serving as a Funker (radio/signals operator) with the 2. (Funk-Ersatz-) Kompanie of Nachrichten-Ersatz-Abteilung 27, a Wehrmacht signals replacement unit formed at Augsburg in July 1940. The letter was addressed to Johann Grabherr, Schulleiter i.R., Hörbranz near Bregenz. Johann Grabherr can be independently identified as a Hörbranz teacher and former school director who had served with the Bregenz Standschützen during the First World War; a Hörbranz historical account records that by 1935 he was already described as Schulleiter i.R., precisely matching the designation on this cover. The letter opens “Lieber Papa u. Mamma!” (“Dear Papa and Mama!”), providing strong evidence that Johann Grabherr was the writer's father.

The contents give an unusually personal account of Grabherr's military training at Augsburg. He writes that the course was becoming stricter from day to day and remarks that radio signalling (Funken) required considerable mental effort, while infantry training was already in full swing. He describes instruction by a young Gefreiter, being made to run his first punishment lap around the Exerzierplatz for a minor mistake, and undergoing a series of vaccinations. These details correspond closely with the sender's service in the radio replacement company of Nachrichten-Ersatz-Abteilung 27. The letter also provides glimpses of everyday wartime life: Grabherr mentions the cold, a fellow Kamerad confined to bed following vaccination, a shoe purchase voucher, parcels from home, and monotonous meals dominated by potatoes, specifically asking his family to send him apples. Before leaving home he had apparently also been involved in local municipal matters, referring to a Gratifikation from the Gemeinde, thanking the Bürgermeister, and recalling an occasion when he collected brushwood with Arbeitsmaiden. Taken together, the cover and letter provide a particularly good contemporary record of the training, family connections and everyday experiences of a young Wehrmacht signals trainee at Augsburg in the winter of 1940. Ref: 30.12.1940 - 37/2