Schwerpunkt: From D-Day to the Fall of the Third Reich (38 page)

As we continued to defend and strengthen our positions, we got word that enemy activity was occurring in the Netherlands. We soon found out that they were flying missions over several rivers in the Netherlands close to our border and it wasn’t long after that that we found out the enemy was landing troops in that area. We could not believe the enemy’s choice of a target area. To us it was amazing because they were landing where we had some of our best Panzer, Artillery and Infantry divisions resting after the heavy fighting they did earlier in France. The 9
^th
and 10
^th
SS Panzer Divisions were here and if that were not enough of a deterrent, did the enemy reconnaissance not discover that General Field Marshal Model had his headquarters for our whole Army Group B in this area? And this was in addition to the regular troops who were stationed here. It could not have worked out better for us because of the large concentration of our troops we had at this location. I shudder to imagine what could have happened if they had chosen to penetrate our border from almost any other area that was lightly defended.

The other thing that we noticed that made us wonder was why they insisted on using those dinosaur type silent glider aircraft. This has always been something of a mystery to me. They crash land and most are therefore destroyed. Do they have so much equipment that they can afford to use a plane just one time? If that is the case, I truly think our army is doomed though I am no defeatist. It’s just that we don’t have enough supplies coming to our front lines to move any distance at all. Guns are in short supply, ammunition is in shorter supply and fuel is almost nonexistent. And the enemy can afford to crash land plane after glider plane? Nevertheless, even with this inequality in men and supplies, our men have something our enemies will never understand. We are fighting for our homeland and the mothers and sisters and children we left behind there. We are fighting ferociously and we will not willingly let our foe step foot in our country.

So it was in the middle of September that my unit was ordered to move to a town in Holland called Arnhem. There were reportedly hundreds and hundreds of enemy paratroops dropped along the Rhine River but then I heard that there were enemy troops also dropped along the Waal River and the Meuse River further south as well. I found out that Field Marshal Model received reports that the enemy was moving not only to the bridges at Arnhem over the Rhine, but also to the towns of Nijmegen, Grave and Eindhoven and several places in between. At first, the enemy’s intentions were not clear. We knew they were obsessed with the ports in Antwerp and so it was possible these were reinforcement troops for that operation. But as our reconnaissance teams continued to observe enemy troop movements, it soon became clear that their main objective was the bridges in those towns over those three rivers. And now it is General Model who has taken General Rommel’s role in outfoxing the enemy and bringing their plans to ruin.

Once der Führer figured out where the enemy was landing and that it was right in the backyard of General Model’s headquarters, the plan was to cut off the road from Eindhoven in the south to Arnhem at several different locations, wipe out the enemy troops there and then deal with the enemy troops stranded in the north since they would now be cut off and without supplies. We were to use hit and run tactics, our objective being two fold. We were to cause as much disruption and commitment of the enemy forces in as great an area as possible while delaying as much as possible, their march north towards Arnhem. This plan made sense even to me and so we began our counterattacks. Since we had troops to spare right here at this time, I was optimistic this enemy push would be repulsed. We all knew it had to be repulsed because otherwise, once the enemy was able to cross the River Rhine, he would be well and truly in our country.

When our unit, along with many, many others, was dispatched to Arnhem, we were told the bridges were critical. Our forward scouts saw enemy troops on the march towards us. These scouts notified their command posts which lost no time in ordering tanks and infantry to reinforce the Arnhem bridges. As fate would have it, one of our commanding officers was housed right next to where enemy paratroopers landed. He wasted no time in ordering his men to secure the Arnhem Bridge. Clearly the enemy did not expect these bridges to be deserted and theirs for the taking? If they did, they were in for a rude awakening as our troops were everywhere up here. Some may have been under strength, but there were certainly enough to prevent these bridges from being taken and held. When units were not strong enough to launch a full attack, they made smaller hit and run attacks, destroying as many enemy troops and as much enemy equipment as possible which kept the enemy moving from place to place. This cost them time and casualties which bought us time for more troops to be advantageously positioned. By moving our soldiers from place to place, General Model made sure the enemy was not going to use those bridges in Holland to cross the Rhine River.

We were fighting along with the 9
^th
and 10
^th
SS Panzer Divisions to secure this area at all costs. The enemy attack to gain control of the bridges over the rivers in Holland had to be repulsed and we were again ordered to fight to the last man if necessary to achieve that objective. We were briefed that we would be facing three separate airborne divisions, two American and one British. The British up north were the ones I battled with but there were Americans further south. We came upon British paratroopers who had been dropped behind our lines. We had to turn around to face them and though we expected a fight, we didn’t expect the resistance these troops displayed. It seemed the enemy was focusing on taking control of the bridges crossing the waterways in this area but that was surprising to us since we have had control of them for months and each one was wired for immediate demolition should the need arise. Our German Engineering troops were stationed at the bigger bridges but even the smaller ones were all supposed to have been rigged with dynamite or TNT or whatever those experts use.

In Arnhem, there were two major bridges, a railroad bridge and a road bridge. Our demolition troops were able to blow the railway bridge sky high just as the enemy approached. We cheered that the enemy was now deprived of this objective and then cheered some more because they were marching directly towards us. Our commander simply ordered the tired yet still highly effective motorized SS Panzer troops to engage those walking British troops. At first and before all our units were in place at Arnhem, the enemy gained a foothold and even took some of our defenders prisoner but as more and more of our troops mobilized on this area, the fighting intensified for control of this town and its bridge over the Rhine River. The enemy fought hard but they fought uselessly. They used flamethrowers from one side of the bridge to try to get our men off the other side but it did not succeed. While boxes of our ammunition exploded in the flames, we still held the far side of the bridge and the enemy could not dislodge us from it. As more and more of our reinforcements arrived, the enemy was doomed though it appeared they didn’t know it yet.

Paratroopers, whose only ammunition was what they could carry on the way down, were no match for our Panzers. And why was the enemy using paratroops as infantry men? That alone almost sealed their fate. They should have moved in infantry and tank divisions along with the paratroopers if they seriously wanted to challenge us but they didn’t do that. In short order, they were completely surrounded but still they fought. When they realized the bridge was not going to be taken, the enemy resorted to taking shelter in buildings lining the streets but our tanks found each building and virtually all were destroyed. The bridges we did not destroy remained in our hands and as we drove over them, we took whatever prisoners we could find. The battle at the Arnhem Bridge in the north was really over in three days because by then the English troops were virtually surrounded. But the battle for that town and all the other towns down to Eindhoven lasted more than another week. I had been wondering if any rescue attempts would be made and after four days, it came.

Our tank units had taken control of all the roads and waterways that the enemy could use to bring in reinforcements and while we were losing men and materiel in the battle, we could afford it more than the cut off paratroopers. We saw a new army enter the fight when the savage Poles were dropped in to help their allies on 21. September. I remembered being told of how intensely they fought at Falaise and was worried for me and my comrades but here the best they could do was try to ferry their troops across one of the branches of the Rhine River in small rickety boats. Since we held both banks of the river, they were like sitting ducks as each man tried to cross. If this was the best that could be done to rescue the remaining paratroopers, I felt we’d soon have a lot more prisoners of war in our pocket. So the fighting continued although many of those soldiers still refused to surrender. Eventually many had no choice.

I’m not saying it was a cake walk but our troops all along the corridor from south to north won the battle for the bridges of Holland and we pushed the enemy back from this entire area in just over a week. Our troops fought all along the road out of Eindhoven up to Veghel. We gained ground and held roads and bridges at several different locations but after a week of fighting, we lost much of what we had gained and ended up by holding only the road north of Veghel. Then we lost that position from fighting the Americans to our south and the British coming in from the north. The road all the way to Uden was in enemy hands but as fighting continued, that important road changed hands many times and we’d take over a different section of it. We’d have it blocked, it would get unblocked and we’d block it somewhere else along the way. It was critical for us not to let that road stay open and every man fought to do his duty.

What was amazing though, was that the few enemy soldiers who remained in Arnhem must have eventually been rescued as we could find no trace of them after 25. September. We conducted house by house searches and there is neither hide nor hair of any enemy soldiers remaining in Arnhem. Is it possible that we’ve killed them all? I don’t think so because even now, the fighting continues.

Looking back, we had to fight many battles along that stretch of Dutch roadway for almost a month. We lost far more troops than we thought we would and while we ended up blocking the enemy’s advance over the Rhine River, I’m not foolish enough to think we can keep them from crossing it forever, especially since we threw so many men into this fight and lost too many of them. I was fighting with boys who were only 13 and 14 years old. They were too young to know to be afraid and careful and almost every one of them was killed. If our army is throwing children into the battlefields, what can that mean for our future? We saw American planes filling the sky on their way to drop bombs on Germany. They still have so many men and so much equipment. I hear our soldiers saying all the time that “Alles ist kaput.” I’m afraid that those around me are running out of hope and maybe “everything is lost.”

Less than a month after our fight in Holland, I received the news that Field Marshal Rommel is dead. I have to say it. In my opinion, our hope has now run out. I’ve reported that General von Kluge had been summoned by der Führer to his Austrian headquarters in mid August. Early in October, General Rommel was also summoned to Berlin but I found out that he simply refused to go. When I wrote to his wife Lucie after his funeral, she wrote back saying that two SS officers had come from der Führer to see him in the late morning of 14. October. 44 and by later that afternoon, he was dead. Frau Rommel said the Cause of Death is listed on his Death Certificate and in the official reports as a brain hemorrhage.

His funeral was apparently magnificent though I, of course, was unable to attend. Old General von Rundstedt gave the eulogy. Someone had to have written it out for him because, never considered an orator in the first place, I heard that he was very stilted and stuffy when delivering what should have been a speech for the ages. Field Marshal Rommel was a soldier’s soldier and a true hero. In my opinion, our troubled country lost its finest military mastermind when Erwin Rommel died. But for der Führer, of course.

But that was in October and the war still goes on. Even though I didn’t know it then, by November, plans were being made which changed the life of the people we are fighting for back home. I was fighting for them now but mostly I was fighting to protect my mother. She sent me a letter and a package but the package never arrived. I am learning that many officers are egotists and care only for themselves and nothing for the men serving under them. One of those officers stole the package from my mother right out of the mail bag.

7. December. 44

Dear Son,

My, how things have changed here at home. Everyone is tightening her belt a little more as food becomes harder and harder to get. I am sending you everything I can to make your life on the front line more manageable. Do you remember this pillow? It can be tucked into your uniform and I hope it reminds you of your boyhood home. I also came upon this cigarette and while I know you don’t smoke, I am thinking it has a value beyond you smoking it. Use it to buy whatever you can, Son.

I have sold almost everything I could from our house since what use is furniture to us anymore. I exchanged the commode in Oma’s old bedroom for some vegetable plants and tend to my “secret garden” every chance I get which, unfortunately, is not as often as I would like. Selling grandma’s furniture would have been useless as money doesn’t really buy anything anymore. I have heard that when bringing a basket of money to the store to buy bread or, if God allows, milk, the shopkeepers take it because the basket is worth more than the money.

There has been the program requiring all German women to find work for the war effort. Did you know about this? It started for me last month so I, along with all German citizens, had to register for employment aimed at helping win the war. I am working now at the Bosch plant in the city. I don’t mean to complain but I recently hurt my wrist so badly that I can hardly bend it at all. The work I do requires a freely moving hand and I come home at night nearly in tears from the pain. I went to our neighbor, Frau Doktor Kriese and she said that only rest and immobility will allow it to heal. I am too afraid to do that though, because just last month, Fräulein Herbst missed work and she lost her extra food ration card which clearly I cannot afford to do with your Tante and the boys now coming to stay with me. Don’t get me wrong. I am happy to work for the victory of Germany and am proud to make the spark plugs that go into our glorious Wehrmacht tanks. I only wish my wrist didn’t pain me so much but when I think of what you and our other brave soldiers are facing, I could almost weep with shame at how selfish I am being. I do hope and pray that you are safe and well and under God’s divine protection for the only thing keeping me going is knowing that we will soon be together again in our glorious Third Reich. Do your duty, my son, but please return safely to my waiting arms.