WARTIME MEMORIES OF THE 1940-1946
The author describes his experiences as a soldier of the German Wehrmacht. Born in 1920, recovered as a 19 year old guy to the Reich Labor Service and deployed, including 6 years as a soldier taken prisoner at the front, he has written in the age of 81, shortly before his death, this story about HIS war. Do not expect a hero's story. You will find a story of survival. Please forgive the sometimes bumpy writing. The text was transmitted directly and provided me with some facts and data without changing the basic text. Unfortunately, there are gaps in the temporal context. It is a subjective view of his own experiences. Story takes place here in the restricted field of view. Any political opinion or ideology is not represented here. He died in February 2002. He left a wife and three children.
At the Reich Labor Service
I will never forget that day. I became 19 years old when my training as automotive technicians in Gräf & Stift completed works in Vienna. Shortly thereafter, I was briefly called up to the Reich Labor Service for the mandatory 6-month training. There I received a very strict and harsh pre-military training. In common with many young comrades from all over the former German Reich, we had at the Linz "Gugl" armed with spades and shovels to build "Führerhäuser” for senior Party members and head of the Reich Labor Service camp. Mechanical attachments were not used in the Reich Labor Service, or very little. Thus, the potency should be encouraged ... about the meaningfulness should be discussed. This was according to my record in May 1940. As part of the RAD, I also took part in a Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg. It was for me, as opponents of this regime, an extraordinary sight - the sight of 100 000 men of the RAD, which lined up and drilled with a highly polished digging before Hitler. I can not deny it, it has impressed me. They could made parades. June 1940, I was moved then as "laborers" to strengthen the West Wall to Rastatt in Breisgau. We were welcome there, cause we encouraged the infrastructure and the purchasing power of the region. In addition, there was strict discipline. I stayed in Rastatt, started up after the war with France and France was already half occupied by the armed forces already. Shortly before the end of the fighting, however, our RAD-section of a unit was assigned assault engineers to take on the advance of the Wehrmacht 1940 not attacked Maginot Line. Already at the beginning of the war the Reich Labor Service units were used for combat, later serving the Heimatflak was mandatory.
France
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line by the time of our attack had not yet surrendered. There were many more combative Frenchman entrenched in the underground defense facilities. In the following short but very tough battle in September 1940 I also saw the first casualties. It should still be many more. A memory that you will not forget. After the end of the fighting, I had the opportunity to visit with fellow bunker installations. I saw among other things, the underground, according to statements by French prisoners of war apparently 75 km long railway, the hospital facilities and the retractable turrets with heavy twin guns, machine gun bunkers and other facilities of the fortress line. Probably why the visit has enabled us to enable us to compare with the West Wall was built by the RAD. It has benefited the French, nothing.
Training at the " Hoch- und Deutschmeister"
After a brief stay in order back and relax in Rastatt I received after the end of my service in the Reich Labor Service, the position of command, I immediately Infantry Regiment 134 in association with the 44th Infantry Division, later "Hoch- und Deutschmeister" in Vienna. It was December 1940. I was able to return to Vienna. Home and family again. To understand my attitude to Hitler and his government, I need to talk about my roots. I came from a working class family from the Viennese Socialist Workers District Ottakring. My father was a resistance fighter in the February uprising 1934. I myself have smuggled at the direction of my father for the Social Defense Corps weapons in the laundry basket in the municipal buildings. The Home Guard or "Hahnenschwanzler called, then searched the apartment in our home and looking with M95-bayonets stacked up, clean clothes in the chest, after arms pierced and torn. For me there was only the socialist road and Hitler and the Nazis were not the answer for me. The official commissioning ceremony was in 10. October 1940. When Swear to the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, I ventured to make silent resistance, as I pledged allegiance to the leader was not repeated and crossed his fingers. Wehrmacht Oath 1934: "I swear by God this sacred oath that I am the leader of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces to provide unconditional obedience, and to be ready as a brave soldier, always my life for this oath to use. " This I could, because we have been sworn in as the entire department. I was sworn in during my entire time as a soldier, never on the leader. The shipments were made basically in this time with the railroad. In Strebersdorf, part of the 21 District of Vienna Floridsdorf, I received between October and early February 1940 my infantry training for the soldiers of the German Wehrmacht. My dog tag is imprinted with 3rd Company / Rifle Ersatz.Regiment 3 / 134. This dog tag still in my keeping. The Barras was definitively me. Fightings drill and practice on the former flood plain of the Danube, no longer exists, since there is now the Danube Island, was on the agenda. The training was in these early years of the war very hard and efficiently. My technical training was of no interest in training. On the agenda was, inter alia, a training ground troops to Allentsteig in Lower Austria, about 100 km from Vienna. The marching orders "UP, UP, MARCH MARCH", "TANK ATTACK", "AIR RAID" or with a gas mask with full luggage belonged to the daily bread. A torture were the daily visits and locker inspections by the spear of the company. He tested the service with the blade bayonet, whether or dust, let alone had dirt on the soles. If yes, punishment exercises. I had a dress uniform with epaulettes, "131". We called it contemptuously "Sarasanijacke" because we were like circus directors in order. Also the "marbles" was popular - he put a marble on the tightly pulled bedspread. If marble easily, everything was in order, if not, they had lost and additional service beckoned as a reward. I got a perfect and "Prussian" education. Even if this was a tough time and I cursed them, the training has certainly saved me later life many times.
Panzer Regiment 3
After my training, I was "boy," servant of a lieutenant. My work was, among other things, for the wife of the officer and go shopping for her hand. This understandable for me - for every man - nice time ended with my transfer to the tank regiment 3.The regiment was on 15 May 1935 under the codename Cavalry Regiment (motorized) 12 in Dresden, situated in the Military District IV. The regimental headquarters and the Department I have been stationed in Dresden. The II formed of several regiments of cavalry division was in contrast Kamenz also Defense District IV stationed. The regiment was the 1st Chariot-brigade of the motor Cavalry Corps assumed. On 15 October 1935 was renamed the Regiment Panzer Regiment 3rd The regiment was now the 2nd Armored Division assumed. As a preliminary location of the entire regiment was now Kamenz. The regiment also contributed at the same time establishing duties of Panzer Regiment 4th In the fall of 1937, the regiment did duty for the establishment of the First Division of Panzer Regiment 25 on the Grafenwöhr, Military District XIII. With the invasion of Austria was the regiment to Vienna-Mödling, transferred to the Military District XVII. When the war began, the regiment consisted of two sections with a total of 62 Panzer I, 78 Panzer II, 3 Panzer III, IV, 8 armored tanks and 9 command vehicles. After the Polish campaign, the regiment moved to the western frontier. On 10 May 1940, it consisted of 22 Panzer I, 55 Panzer II, 29 Panzer III, 16 Panzer IV and 8 armored command vehicle. After the French campaign, the regiment took part in the Balkan campaign in Greece. On 5 April 1941 the regiment were on this 45 tanks II, 51 Panzer III Panzer IV and 20 are available. In the early summer of 1941, the two columns of the regiment to the division supply officer 82 was released and formed the 13th and 14 large motor column. In May 1941, the ships in which the tanks should be moved from the Balkans to the Russian border have been lowered, so that the regiment had to be equipped from scratch. After the attack on the Soviet Union, the regiment was involved in the attack on Moscow. At the start of the summer offensive of 1942, the regiment consisted of 22 Panzer II, 33 Panzer 38t, 20 Panzer III, IV, 5 tanks and 2 armored command vehicle. The regiment fought at Rzhev and Orel. On 10 May 1942 had the First Division and III. Section is in the tank regiment of 33 submitted. The regiment was then only from the second division. On 1 February 1943 made the increase of the Second Division to four companies. As of 25 March 1943 was established the First Division at the military Sennelager from parts of the field-Tank Regiment and the replacement Division 4 again. It should be on 7 May 1943 to the heavy tank battalion 507 are reclassified, but was fitted on June 30, 1943 back to the First Department of the regiment and with panthers. At the beginning of Operation Citadel, the regiment consisted of the II Division II with 12 tanks, 8 armored short KwK III, 12 Panzer III with a long KwK and 20 Panzer III with 7.5-inch KwK. This purpose, a Panzer IV short, 59 Panzer IV long and 6 armored command vehicles. After the regiment was moved 1944 to France and fought in Normandy and Falaise, it had been destroyed there. After the reorganization in November 1944, the regiment fought in the Battle of the Bulge. At the beginning of the regiment consisted of two sections with 24 assault guns, 28 Panzer IV, 64 Panzer V Panther, 3 Flakpanzer 38, 4 Flakpanzer "whirlwind" and 4 Flakpanzer 4 with 3.7-inch guns. After the Ardennes offensive, the regiment was fighting in the Saar-Palatinate and Franconia. For replacements of the regiment, the tank replacement Division 4 was responsible. Source: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Panzerregimenter/PR3.htm. I already arrived on February 3, 1941 in the workshops of the company Armor Regiment 3 in Brunn am Gebirge near Vienna. There, I should get special armor skills, took the now regardless of my technical basics as an auto technician. I got the final touch in the training of tank crew.
Education
The maneuver teaching I received in Mödling near Vienna in March 1941 by our comrades on the so-called "blood meadow" in Hinterbrühl. Training priorities have included the co-ordination of the hands and feet when driving a tank. In the former tanks, each with a left and right levers, the driver was directed. The chain speed was reduced speeds on the respective page or so and the tank turned and slowed down or even accelerated. Controlling a vehicle at that time required a lot of chain force. The feet served, inter alia, the rotational speed of the tower. The later Panzer VI "Tiger" had already been a steering wheel instead of the steering arm in a semicircular shape. He let himself be driven like a car. In Hinterbrühl tanks under fire exit was practiced. The equipment of the Demonstration Company consisted primarily of armored tanks II and III, for short) but also from the high quality and very modern for its time Panzer IV with the 7.5 inch gun motor vehicles (which butts gun trained. Especially the low loader to transport the doppelgelenkten Tiger and parts were hard to drive. There were two drivers, had the countersteer to get the curve. At the same time I was also more in the company shops in Brunn am Gebirge, according to the translation of the Southern Railway train today - 2001 - is there a camp of a road construction company, focusing on training in the repair of engines, or tank treads, and other technical issues.
In the Balkans
March 1941 started the Balkan campaign. In the organization of the 2nd Panzer Division, the regiment was given my marching orders. We should be in the attack on Yugoslavia and to participate later in Greece. The unit was by rail through Hungary and Romania, former allies of the German Empire, brought to Bulgaria on the Black Sea. The military action in Yugoslavia was quickly stopped and went to Greece. On 8 April 1941 exceeded our unit, the border with Greece. I could not drive up to this point bike but when I asked one of the commanding officers, if I may work as a dispatch rider, I took a further ado, the advance conquered, English BSA motorcycle for a few laps to learning through the terrain . I received the same day the order to stand as a dispatch rider in my company to provide the armored regiment. My automotive technician training had helped me the first time. As a vehicle of this "organized" BSA motorcycle. A pleasant side effect was that I did not have much to go on foot musste. It for me was no significant fighting in Yugoslavia. It went into it at full speed along the coast to Greece. In the course of this military action was to me a Kodak camera in his hands, which I possess today. We marched over the past Thermopylae and on Mount Olympus, the seat of the ancient Greek gods. In Larissa was at that time, it was the 7th May 1941, JU 52 and many thousands of German paratroopers stationed. But no one knew why. They were the paratroopers who were to jump off a week later in Crete. Many have fallen there.
Metaxalinie
The heaviest fighting, which I as part of this campaign, at the 10th May 1941 witnessed was the capture of the Metaxa Line, a fortified line comparable to the Maginot Line, which was bitterly defended by the Greeks. This plant took after we had been with the tanks, heavy artillery support, an Austrian mountain troops with heavy losses.