Following service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery during the early 1970s, Ward Carr decided to remain in Germany, residing in Frankfurt. He has worked as a language trainer, freelance journalist, and translator. In 2001, Carr and a German colleague began writing a book featuring the crew of the famous battleship Bismarck. While searching for survivors and family members of Bismarck sailors, Carr often encountered veterans or family members of veterans who had served in the German armed forces during World War II. Although they may not have been associated with the Bismarck, many of their stories were nonetheless fascinating.
During the course of his research, Carr placed an ad in a national veterans’ magazine. Joachim Benz was one of those who responded. Over a period of several years, the two communicated often by telephone and visited one another. Benz has contributed oral passages, comments, and photographs for publications, and a German-language book of his memoirs was published in 2003.
MORE
So many great books written by Germany soldiers. I highly recommend The Forgotten Soldier and Goodbye Transylvania. Read and learn.
ReplyDelete+1 on Forgotten Soldier. Also "Until the Eyes Shut: Memories of a machine gunner on the Eastern Front, 1943-45 " by Andreas Hartinger. Hardship that is hard to imagine.
DeleteMy uncle was a German soldier on the Eastern Front. He was about 6'2", maybe 190lb. He came back after the war something like 110lb.
What a cluster-foxtrot!
ReplyDeleteH
Thank you for posting this- I found it very interesting.
ReplyDeleteFor those with this interest, a similar good read is "D-Day Through German Eyes".
That was a good interview and story. It seems many of the survivors had very similar stories. "The Forgotten Soldier" is one of my favorite books too Hybo. I've probably read it five times. "Mein Krieg" is also a good account (not always Ost Fronten). It is documentary about four or five young German soldiers who took their private hand-held motion picture cameras to war. It is a great film for persons interested in this time period.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/sUKEKupjmzk
“Forgotten Soldier” is a great book.
DeleteEvery once in a while, my ex-wife's grandfather would talk about his experiences in the SS on the Eastern Front. He always used to tell me that everyone who was 6' tall or taller was automatically put in the SS. True or not, that bastard was a nazi until the day he died.
ReplyDeleteI know it is popular to hate those you defeat in a war, but most often, the people you are fighting are simply are the same as the infantry men caught up the same way yours are. Drafted to fight, they do their service to their country, and hope to make it through the war alive, and to go back to their lives and their families.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there are some who are so totally sold on their nation's ideology that they cannot forgive or forget. Like Nazi's or many of the Japanese, who were caught up in that countries worship of their Emperor.
Often our latest wars have us fighting other nations in that nations home and so the fighters tend to be fanatics, fighting for their homes. Who can blame them?
pigpen51
Is Spike Milligan known in the US? In the UK he was famous for madcap comedy but he served in WW2 and wrote a whole series of books about his experiences. The first in the series is called Adolf Hitler My Part In His Downfall. He gives a serious account of events but the books are also consistently funny.
ReplyDeleteThe 172mm guns mentioned would have actually been 152mm guns. I think there may have been a mistranslated somewhere along the lines.
ReplyDeleteFunny... the picture at top of the article was of German built Finnish assault guns. Note the reversed hakenkreuz.
ReplyDelete*looks around current day America* "At least we aren't speaking German!"
ReplyDelete