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I never heard of that.
Nothing really, he did not know him personally.
Unteroffizier, later on I think he was a Feldwebel, but I am not 100% sure.
Numerous, he did not stay with one for too long, he was in various companies throughout his service years in Europe and then Africa. Eventually he became a POW.
He was a musician with the Luftwaffe.
This means, he was attached to numerous companies and so on. At the beginning he was with the FLAK, then later on reconnaisance and infantry companies/divisions that somehow the Luftwaffe was attached to, to some extend.
What I can tell you is, he was riding a bicycle with his comrades, when one or two British soldiers stopped them on some road and decided to take them hostage. lol. So the bike was probably a Wehrmacht bike.
Sorry to not have any cooler vehicles to offer, I assume he was riding on the usual Opel Blitz, Kubelwagen and so on, all kinds of transport vehicles, SDFK and such.
Sweet, thanks for the opportunity!
When I was a kid, I built models a good bit. My first tank model was an Afrika Corps PKW II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_II
I was young, and didn't really understand the whole "war" thing, but I was enthusiastic and bought some troops and a maintenance crew to set up in a diorama with it. (Had a really nice local hobby shop that had everything!) The model was "billed" as having Afrika Corps insignia/etc, but I don't actually know if it had fought much there. (Supposedly, it's in an OOB, but confirmation would be nice. :))
I also got one of these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M7_Priest
And set it up in its own North African Campaign diorama.
Yes, i then started getting a collection of 1/32 models of various North Africa themed bits and pieces.
Questions:
1) Did your granfather have any experiences with either the FKW II (Panzer II) or seen/engaged an M7 Priest? Anything worth noting, there?
2) In an era without refrigerated air-conditioning, how in the world did armor crews cope? Was there anything unusual but worth noting about how the common soldiers coped with combat under such conditions?
3) How in the world did the Afrika Corps deal with wounded and casualties operating in such mobile conditions, sometimes seemingly far South of the Coast? I know that they had ports available, sometimes more than others, but in the regions a lot of the fighting took place, it would seem impossible to transport wounded to a friendly area or through non-hostile regions.
4) Africa is big... It's nearly impossible to fathom the distances traveled by major elements of the Afrika Corps to/from various engagements. (It's just very hard to truly conceptualize conducting mobile warfare at such a scale.) What's the farthest your grandfather may have traveled during operational movement, maybe in a week or so? (Depending on how long it took to get where they were going. :))
5) Was there anything that your grandfather was able to keep from his days of service and then through his PoW experience? (Or, was it all confiscated or did Red Cross help at all, there, with personal effects?)
although, the communist faction is literally made out of former nazis, and advances and espouses fascism. I can't remember if they lost their crown charter or not at the moment, but they're distinct from Labor. even though we were recognized and granted charter at the same time, Labor dates back thousands of years in West Angles.
I'm sure everyone there knew that.
Good questions.
Keep in mind, he was a musician with the Luftwaffe, so everything I know about Panzers and such, is based on what I read on his diaries as well as stories he told me, means some things I assume based on the way he experienced it, maybe a real tanker could tell you more about it.
1. No.
2. According to his stories and diaries, they ate a hell a lot of local foods and were mostly supplied by locals who voluntarily shared food with them. He mentioned numerous times how he bought food off of local markets. Food from actual Germany was in form of rations and provided to actual combat troops in combat, who would not be able to access local food so much.
However, I know they did hunt down camels and other animals to eat, keep in mind, they also had Nomad locals with them who knew the desert well.
3. He was in " El Alamein ", so everything he said or shared is based on his experience there. Remember ,they had no internet back then but his 10 brothers who all died in war, were in combat units across the globe in various units. So some of what I know is based on that as well.
As you know, El Alamein region is close to the sea, when they had wounded, they usually had to transport them back with combat units or used planes for local " Med Points ". It was extremely rare that soldiers were actually transported back to Germany or Italy for treatment, this was only in extreme cases, they did manage to heal people up over there in Africa as well.
My grandfather said in some extreme scenarios he heard about, they did send wounded to the British, just so they can survive, the same happened the other way around by the way.
4. I would have to lie to be honest. I don't know. He was a musician, so he was mostly in larger Luftwaffe bases or in camps, but never in an actual trench directly on the frontline. However, when he travelled this was either by " Opel Blitz " , " Camel " or some other type of KfZ.
5. He was treated very badly when he arrived in Britain, they barely gave him food. He then travelled by ship to the U.S. While he was on ship, German planes (yes, German planes) started shooting at the POW ship. When he arrived in the U.S, he said he was treaten very well, played music and was even allowed to leave the camp to earn some money working for locals or play or party around the town, to be honest, his experience in the U.S (He was a POW in Texas) almost sounded like a vacation.
He was offered to stay there and live there..but he had kids and wife back home so he went back home. Due to the war, he suffered numerous diseases that definitely shortened his life. My grandfather kept only his Luftwaffe ID book, his diaries and a few other items that disappeared later on, but they even had to scratch out the swastika off of the military ID, so you can imagine he had no chance to keep his uniform nor his pistol.
Red Cross helped to deliver letters to my great-grandmother and inform him about the death of his 10 brothers.
Personal effects, my grandfather was generally an extremely polite and cheerful person.
He did not care a lot about politics but knew when the war was coming, that it was best to sign up as a volunteer so he had a chance to choose where to go, which was as a musician, which he already worked as before the war (and after the war).
He was a person who did not throw away anything. When there was moldy bread or a rotten apple, he just cut off the mold or rotten parts and still eat it. Also, he did bring flowers to my grandmother EVERY SINGLE DAY until the day he died, its crazy if you think about it.
He said, don't even start doing that, once you have started, you can't stop anymore otherwise you are in trouble. lol.
I think being a musician somewhat saved his life and his mind from getting too scarred. The only creatures he shot at were crows in Africa, using his P38. He said they wanted to eat these birds.
Wrong thread ?
Cool!
What instrument did he play and how many were in the band?
What was the most popular, contemporary, non-military song that was requested or that he played most often? (some popular, catchy tune, of the day)
Did he, or was he allowed, to perform as a PoW?
Did he pursue music after the war?
He was not captured early. He was captured in 1944 or 1945.
He was sent to France, then Italy, then Africa.
His brothers were fighting on the eastern-front though and I do know their stories, one of which went to Siberia as a POW and walked back from there to Germany (there is even a movie about such prisoners).
Yes, I guess he was lucky and unlucky at the same time ? Generally, he survived and did not see too much shi... Problem with my grandfather is, he was a cheerful polite person, I think if he saw some nasty sh.. he would not have mentioned it, not to me, my father nor in his diaries, he just kept this stuff for himself.
But we all know he had many many many women, imagine being a Luftwaffe musician in Paris and Italy at the time and he was quite a good musician with charm.,