Robert Jauch (1913–2000) fought as an officer, almost as an artillery observer (), ultimately as first lieutenant and officer commanding (OC) of an artillery battery of the Panzer-Artillerieregiment 16, part of the 16. Panzer-Division, in a number of major battles, including the Battle of France, the Battle of Kiev (1941), the First Battle of Kharkov and the Battle of Kalach. In 1942–1943 he took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. Of about 400,000 German casualties during the battle about 150,000 fell in the "Cauldron" of Stalingrad itself. The surviving nearly 110,000 Germans of which 2,500 were officers were captured in Stalingrad. Among those was Robert Jauch, who surrendered on his thirtieth birthday, the 2 February 1943. Out of the 110,000 survivors only about 5,000 ever returned from Russia. Robert Jauch became a member of the League of German Officers () (BDO), an anti-Nazi organization. He came back to Germany after seven years as a prisoner of war in Yelabuga, Kuibishev and Simferopol as one of the ″late homecomers″ () in 1950.