6. August 1944
Gorzów Wielkopolski
GEO & MIL INFO | ||||
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Landsberg an der WartheWP, General von Strantz barracks |
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Landsberg an der Warthe, Walter Flex barracks |
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Company leader in Infantry March Battalion 492, 495, 506, or 507[1] |
6 Aug 44. The lazy life is definitely over now. It lasted almost exactly four months. Now I’m in the Strantz barracks in Gorzów Wielkopolski. After a short guest role in Block I, I was given a nice, quiet room. It was a single room on the first floor of the staff barracks, between the commander’s flat and the battalion office. The window looks out onto the barracks courtyard.
Now I’m back on barracks and field duty. One day, I happen to see my index card in the battalion office. It says: Branch of service: Infantry. Assignment: Platoon leader rifle company. ‘Boy, boy,’ I think, ‘they’ve really demoted you!’ That same day, I report to the commander, Major Schellack[2] and explain to him that 1) I am not a man of the rifle company, but of the machine-gun company and 2) I have been in command of a machine-gun company in combat for a year. He immediately promises to have the entry corrected and then asks my age. When he hears that I’m over 30 years old, he says: “Donnerwetter, I always thought you were a very young fellow! Yes, then you’re actually too old for front-line service, because company commanders shouldn’t be over 30.” From that day on, Major Schellack was always particularly friendly to me.[3]
I’m sitting in my room reading by the light of a lamp. There’s a knock and the runner enters. “Herr Leutnant, there’s a lady downstairs in the guardroom who would like to speak to you.” I have her brought up and wonder who it could be. A girl who is completely unknown to me enters and greets me in a friendly manner. While I’m still thinking hard, she gives me her name: Edith Wilk, the daughter of one of my father’s cousins. I have only seen her once or twice in my entire life and must have been about 15 years old at the time. I found her exciting back then, with her narrow face framed by black hair and her shining, dark eyes. Now she’s sitting here in front of me. She is no longer beautiful. She tells me how she found me: On a walk with her husband, who is in the military hospital here, she saw me and enquired about my place of work. Then she complains about her husband, who would rather play cards with his mates than be with her. Finally, she asks if it would be all right if we met up sometime. She seems to have noticed my hesitation, because she repeats several times that we only want to meet up if it’s fine with me. I didn’t want to refuse her. After all, we are relatives. But I wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. So we arranged to meet in the Wehrmacht restaurant from where I had called Carola before. And then I really forgot about this appointment. I was honestly annoyed because, on the one hand, I didn’t want to be seen as breaking my word and, on the other, I felt sorry for her in her cheerlessness. She never came back.
Replacement Transfers to Courland
Today I receive orders to report to the Walter Flex barracks. This barracks is also located up here on the plateau, but already outside the city, about fifteen minutes away from the Strantz barracks and right next to the military training area. A march battalion to Courland is to be assembled here. I am to go with them as company commander. In the afternoon, I moved to the Flex barracks, where we immediately began forming the battalion. This was followed by turbulent days with the organisation of the companies, clothing, roll calls, issuing of sutler goods and other activities that normally[4] took weeks.
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- ↑ These battalion numbers are named in KTB AGN dated 22 Aug 1944 p. 455. Acc. to a report dated 06 Sep 1944 (KTB II.A.K., NARA T-314 Roll 162 Frame 000396), M.Btl. zbV. 495 was destined for 87.I.D. and a certain M.Btl. 516 or 616 (perhaps meant to read 506?) for 207.S.D.
- ↑ A Hauptm. d. R. Schellack was battalion commander in I.R. 121 in 1941, which was destroyed near Sevastopol in May 1944. Perhaps he survived and came to Gorzów Wielkopolski.
- ↑ The paragraphs that follow here in the original were added under the relevant dates 12.8.44, at the end of 13.8.44, within the 3.9.44 (on p. 215) and at the beginning of 13.8.44.
- ↑ There were barely two weeks between the arrival in Landsberg and the departure of the marching company, not including the time spent in the Strantz barracks. The editor has therefore inserted “normally”.