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Calling WWII history buffs

Last week I met a guy to sell some coins. We got talking about collecting stuff and he brought out some old letters from WWII-era Germany he had gotten at some fleamarkets. He doesn't know any German, so he asked me to take a look. However, they were written in the old German script, which they stopped teaching in schools there about 50 yrs. ago. So he scanned it for me and I sent it to 60 yr. old friend in Germany. She couldn't make it out either, since it had been so long since she had read that kind of script. So she showed it to an elderly lady in her church who had no problem with it and then started telling her all about the war. I don't have time to translate it now, but will do so later today.

Basically it's from a soldier, Gerhardt, to his fiancee. Gerhardt has just arrived in northeast Prussia near Koenigsberg, which is a Russian outpost today called Kalliningrad. Judging from the date, November 1942, I don't see how things could have ended well for this young man. The fall of Stalingrad was three mos. away and, if I had to guess, he was on his way there or toward Minsk. Someone help me out here. Was Stalingrad surrounded by November 1942 or had the Russians not yet crossed over from the east side of the Volga? What was going on northwest of there in those days? I sure wish I had some subsequent letters from this guy, but odds are pretty high he didn't live very long afterwards.

Translation coming later today. Have to go to a meeting.






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Old 01-11-2011, 05:45 AM
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I'd have to look it up, but I think Paulus's army was surrounded by late November.
After that, it was air-freight for a couple of months.

Thanks for the post
Les
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Old 01-11-2011, 05:53 AM
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Wow, very interesting. I enjoy reading that sort of thing. Reading about the experiences of someone who was there through their eyes and in their words.
Old 01-11-2011, 05:56 AM
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paulus was SCREWED from the git go because of ill trained conscripts(romanian/slavs) stationed north of him. they didnt give damn,didnt want to be there,didnt have enough ammo/food/winter clothes etc. and when the russkies initially attacked, they slammed thru them(north of paulus) like poo thru a goose and headed west and then south to finally encircle them.


the ENTIRE problemo was dolphy-poo overextended his supply lines big time and his front was mucho miles long.


anybody getting out of there(the kessel) can thank the stars. mucho self inflicted gunshots on the krauts side so they could get airlifted back to der vaterland. that is until the russkies commanded the skys.



ya gotta hand it to old goering, i think he was already delusional from the morphine,and the constriction around his waist from wearing PINK TU-TU's!



after all the attempts on dolphy-poos life,after a while the allies DID NOT WANT HIM TAKEN OUT.....................he was ordering so many hair brained commands at the time, the allies felt and knew, keeping him in power and having ULTRA down-pat,that they couldnt have a BIGGER FEEKING IDIOT IN COMMAND RUNNING THINGS INTO THE GROUND!
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Old 01-11-2011, 06:08 AM
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From: Battle of Stalingrad - Facts, Timeline, Tour Guide

Battle of Stalingrad Timeline

* July 17, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins as the Luftwaffe begins to bomb the city and Soviet shipping on the Volga River
* August 23, 1942 - Panzer column reaches Volga River just north of Stalingrad
* September 13, 1942 - German ground offensive starts in the city
* November 19, 1942 - Red Army begins Operation Uranus to encircle German 6th Army
* November 23, 1942 - Encirclement is complete trapping roughly 290,000 Axis troops
* December 12, 1942 - Field Marshal von Manstein's army group launches an attack to relieve the 6th Army in Stalingrad. German advance is pushed back by the Soviets.
* February 2, 1943 - German troops trapped at Stalingrad surrender
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Old 01-11-2011, 06:40 AM
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feb. 3,1943:


1) dolphy-poo has constipation.

2) paulus realizes finally what its like to become a "FIELD MARSHALL"

3) goerings "PINK TU-TU'S" come back from dry cleaners

4) 91,000 +/-5000 silly nazis take the "LONG WALK" to the GULAGS OF DOOM-O DE DOOM-O!

5) (1) BILL-YON RATS(der rattenkrieg) declare VICTORY and hit the stalingrad DISCO's BIG TIME!



another fractured fairy tale history lesson.
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Old 01-11-2011, 09:09 AM
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If he was in Koenigsberg in Nov 1942, he might well have spent the rest of the war trapped in the Courland peninsula. Hitler refused to allow troops in that area to retreat or be evacuated. They held out until May 1945, surrounded but bypassed by the Russians. About 200K German troops surrendered in that area, and few ever returned.
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Old 01-11-2011, 09:09 AM
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Ok, here's the German version. My lame translation below.

Fräulein
Lotte Bremer
Braunschweig
(Klaggesstadt)
Asseweg 8

Absender: Gefreiter (private first class) Gerh Münch
Feldpostnummer 03149

Im Osten, den 23.11.42 (in the east, Nov. 23, 1942

Mein Liebling!

Zu Deinem Geburtstag nochmals meine herzlichsten Glückwünsche.
Um eines bitte ich Dich: Sei nicht traurig. Ich weiß, dass Du tapfer sein
kannst, bist ja auch meine kleine liebe Soldatenbraut. Willst Du das tun?

My darling! For your birthday, again my best wishes. One favor from you please: don't be sad. I know you can be brave, you are my little soldier bride. Can you do that for me?

Wenn ich dann auf Wache stehe, werden meine Gedanken bei Dir verweilen.
Dabei gedenke ich auch der schönen Stunden, die wir zusammen verlebt haben.

When I stand on guard duty, my thoughts turn to you. I think of the beautiful hours we experienced together.

Wenn Du dann schlafen gehst, träume recht nett von mir.

When you go to sleep, dream nice things about me.


Wie Du siehst, bin ich hier verhältnismäßig gut angekommen. Seit Donnerstag
habe ich noch keine Stunde geschlafen. In dem Zug nach Bialystock war es so
heiß, dass ich nicht einschlafen konnte. Ab B. wurden wir, bis nach hier, in
Güterwagen verfrachtet. Da konnte ich vor Kälte nicht schlafen. Das Wetter
ist hier noch einigermaßen. (15°C Kälte) der Schnee liegt noch nicht hoch.
Sonst ist hier noch alles beim alten.

As you can see, I have arrived here in relative good condition. I haven't slept an hour since Thursday. In the train to Bialystock it was so hot that I could not fall to asleep. From Bialystock all the way here we were carried in freight train cars and then I couldn't sleep from the cold. The weather here is ok, (15 deg. C), the snow not that deep. Otherwise everything here is like home.

Hast Du den Film abgeholt? Did you pick up the film?
Herzliche Grüße an Mutti, Vati und Oma. Warm greetings on Mom, Dad and Grandma.
Es grüßt Dich herzlichst und küsst Dich in Gedanken Dein dich liebender
Gerhard I greet you warmly, kiss you in my thoughts. Your love, Gerhard.
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Old 01-11-2011, 10:50 AM
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Ok, it was not Koenigsberg, but farther south on the border to White Russia (Belarus)


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Old 01-11-2011, 10:52 AM
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do ya think she was a NAUGHTY OOOMM-PAHH-PAHH girl?



lets hope she was, before he sat thru a russian winter in a freeking foxhole!




BOGGLES THE MIND AND ACTUALLY HURTS looking at google search images of the devastation(howz bout FREEKING WASTED) stalingrad was and the downfall of the entire eastern front.


just vizualize trains upon trains upon TRAINS hundreds of cars long bringing supplies up to the front.


the freeking russkies(roo-skies) are STILL having SCRAP IRON GARAGE SALES 60years later!




some MAJOR BONER MOVES made on this one.



the story of the CASES of prophylactics shipped into the stanlingrad german airfield in the dead of winter kind of hints at how INEPT the entire general staff on down was.
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Old 01-11-2011, 11:04 AM
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Rick,
Thanks for sharing. Could be the soldier was sugar coating his dilemma to not worry his wife, or perhaps his later letters were more descriptive of his eventual situation.

I wonder if this letter would be of interest to his remaining family and relatives or to museums commemorating those who died in war.

Memoirs of soldiers who fought in the Civil War, WWI and II, VN, on both sides, are quite touching and show soldiers/people are basically no different from others. Their leaders, however, are often another story.

Sherwood

Last edited by 911pcars; 01-11-2011 at 12:22 PM..
Old 01-11-2011, 11:04 AM
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Sounds to me like he hadn't yet gone into battle, but was well on his way to the gates of hell.
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Old 01-11-2011, 11:48 AM
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Note that he traveled through Bialystock and that's not the location he writes from. He says he was too hot to sleep going there and after being moved to a freight car in Bialystock it was too cold to sleep. He hasn't slept since Thursday ... the letter is written on Monday, so he traveled for 3+ days from his starting point.

"15°C Kälte" means "15°C cold" that it is most likely -15C. There is no place east of Berlin that has even record highs of +15°C in November, neither would snow stick at +15°C.

That trip was a one way ticket for most men, even 90 percent of the POW didn't come back.

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Old 01-11-2011, 01:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aigel View Post

That trip was a one way ticket for most men, even 90 percent of the POW didn't come back.

G
Yup. I doubt he ever saw Lotte again. I've met two Stalingrad vets (Germans), one was shot and evacuated the day before those flights stopped and the other was captured and made it back home in 1952.

There are two excellent German movies out there that show it from the German perspective, sort of their version of Saving Private Ryan. One is simply titled Stalingrad and the other So Far as My Feet Will Carry. The latter is about a German POW who walks to freedom through Iran years after he was captured and sent to Siberia.

About eight yrs. ago I went to Braunau am Inn, where Hitler was born. I came upon a church that had the doors open but looked empty. They had a room dedicated to that town's Stalingrad vets and there was a handful of them still living there. Most German towns have war memorials with the names of the fallen from that town. It's pretty amazing when you go to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere that couldn't have had more than 1000 residents back then and they have several hundred names on the tablet.
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Old 01-11-2011, 03:13 PM
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This thread is awesome!

Old 01-11-2011, 04:05 PM
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