30
He Remembered Stories
Arno remembered his war. And he remembered stories. About operations. Like Klingenberg’s feat in taking Belgrade in 1941. This was bold. But how did he really do it? Did he take with him ten men, a platoon commander and an NCO plus seven rankers? Did they steal a vehicle for it all? And take a boat in order to cross a canal? And did they walk into a fortress, capturing its commander? “Who dares wins” at least seems to have been the motto. Apparently the whole city fell due to this action. “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold,” as the poet said.
Arno remembered stories from Normandy. One, for example, concerned how the Allies, after coming ashore, didn’t advance quickly enough – but – on the German left wing, in western Normandy, the Americans eventually employed strategic bombers. They bombed a breach of 0.5 x 1 kilometer. Then an armoured assault was made, breaking through via the carpet that had been bombed. This was by the end of July 1944. They broke through and eventually encircled half of the German Normandy deployment in the Falaise pocket.
Arno remembered even more. He remembered how the Russians during a battle in 1944 built a road over a marsh. Under cover of smoke, they organised a wooden road over it. What purpose did they have for this? Answer: the Russians advanced across it when the attack was executed.
He remembered fragments of operations, things he had heard or experienced or read. Like this one: how a cut-off battalion bluffed its way back to its own lines, among other things by tricking a Russian sentry – “Hey, can we pass? We are Russians! We are dressed in German uniforms but that’s just a ruse! – Sure, pass!” That was daring à la Klingenberg.
Arno remembered equipment. He remembered, among other things, the German rain cover, the triangular piece of cotton duck that every soldier carried – together with others it could be fashioned into a tent – it was a clever design, but he himself had never liked it. Didn’t like the smell of it.
Equipment…! This is important. For example, the equipment of the squad must be in order when loaded into the SPW – you can’t just throw backpacks, Sturmgepäcke and all in there, fling on jerry cans – and then have the troop riding on top of it all. No, everything in its place.
Indeed. There was equipment in the German Army. And Arno had been working with this equipment, he had used it or seen it. He remembered bundle charges, mines, flamethrowers, rocket artillery, 20 mm automatic cannon and panzer rifle, Panzergewehr, an early, small calibre anti-tank piece – he remembered Molotov cocktails, they filled a bottle with gasoline with a few drops of sulfuric acid – outside the bottle was taped a small envelope with calcium chloride which was the same substance as in the firing tip of matches. If you threw the bottle and it shattered, the contents were ignited thanks to the calcium chloride reacting with the liquid.
He remembered petroclass="underline" in barrels of 200 litres and in cans of 20 litres, the latter being the handy, portable jerry cans in sheet metal. Tankers couldn’t be used in the combat zone, they were way too much “fat targets” – instead, you had to divide the gasoline into these containers, the jerry cans, it was safer. It was invented by the German army, the Allies then copied the design, which was why they called them jerry cans. German cans…
Arno remembered anti-tank pieces: 37 and 75 mm there were. 37 mm was too weak. But in the dual arrangement on Stukas, they could have some effect as “Panzerknacker”.
Arno remembered SPW versions: basic model with 7.92 mm MG in the frontal visor shield, then there were variants with 20 mm automatic cannon, and SPW with 81 mm mortar – grenade launcher SdKfz – the idea was that the piece would be deployed in the back space and fire – but – the recoil of the grenade launcher tended to crack the vehicle’s drive shafts. Instead, you had to carry out the piece and deploy it on the ground.
During the readiness, the Swedish War Preparedness Duty that Arno so happily returned to in his memories, there was also memorable equipment: for example, the Swedish Army white fur coat. It was a little heavy to wear, not so good while skiing in wet snow and also having to wear a backpack etc. – but – for guard duty and the like it was perfect. A white so-called Persian cap was also issued: specially processed white wool that looked like fur. Or was it synthetic? It was warm to wear anyway. Other things too: M/39 tunic in hues from woolen grey to brown-grey-green, undershirt M/39 in cotton, very comfy. The Swedish Mauser 6.5 mm, a good sniper gun. Empty cases in the moss and blood on the snow – and aircraft noise from the sky and cannon thunder in the distance – and von Döbeln he rode in front of the thinning ranks, and Sven Dufva didn’t let one SOB pass the bridge, and steely eyes under the helmet rim – Swedish steel, the best in the world.
So much for Swedish equipment. Then there was German equipment. For Arno had also been a German soldier and he remembered the world of German war items. Such as the small Panzer II and Hetzer – the latter wasn’t so bad, it was rather better than the Panzer III, Hetzer was a Czech construction. Then it was the Panzer IV, it seemed like a colossus when it arrived. Then it, in turn, seemed like a dwarf compared to the Tiger and Königstiger. Would you believe it?
The German woolen tunic and breeches were warm in winter but rather uncomfortable in summer. Then the summer tunic and ski trousers came along.
German poncho – useless. Meta tablets for heating a field stove? Why not. Hals- und Beinbruch.
Tall-shaft boots, jackboots – impressive footwear as such – but the nailed sole was idiotic, the cold was led up through the nails and froze your feet in wintertime.
Arno remembered his war – with fire zone, buffer zone and death zone – and obstacle pits, minefields and salvo points – and strongpoints in the plain with anti-tank guns, anti-tank patrols and mortars. Hitting the wagon in the engine grille – and sick calls for dysentery and frostbite, 25% of the strength.
They were supported by heavy fire. The German 10.5 Leichtes Feldhaubitz could fire explosive shells, shrapnel and smoke, plus signal, anti-tank and propaganda canisters. The Russians, for their part, had various items on the heavy ordnance side. Such as the 7.62 cm field piece and 105 mm mortar.
Arno, the budding War Academic, was thinking about strategy. He had no training in this but he had picked up a thing or two in his day. He had, for example, once heard about how a given operation would separate corps X from Y; one was pushed back towards the coast, getting the sea in the back. It was trapped in a motti and wiped out in this way – not by drowning but by being encircled, decimated by artillery and starved out before it came to surrender. Was this 6th Army’s downfall in Romania in 1944? he asked himself. He suspected it but didn’t know. The sea in question would in that case have been the Black Sea.
Operational moods. Like, in forest terrain infantry should fight like rangers, thus being labeled “rifle” troops and not infantry proper. While, on the plain, armour and artillery rules, having the infantry only as feelers and defenders of fire bases at ground level. This was Arno’s meaning. He further considered that the operation against Crete in 1941 was a misguided deployment of rangers; he sent his belated kudos to the German paratroopers who dared everything – and won. But was it worth the cost? Perhaps not, because they never tried another airborne assault like that again. Still, Germany took the island by air, without having any German warships as support. It was daring and a bit odd, strategically, notwithstanding the Axis brother Italy and its naval presence in the area.