8. Januar 1945
| GEO & MIL INFO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| maybe on 10th: renamed to Corps Machine Gun Battalion 410[1] |
| Field post letters/Red Cross cards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✉ to Carola (returning civilians cf. 27.12.44) 11 Jan ✉ an Carola (saving candles cf. 19.2.44, paper war in diary only on 22.1.45) and to parents (paper war) |
8 Jan 45. For several days now, the left sector of my company front, which Lieutenant Harms is occupying with his platoon, has been under fire from Russian mortars.[2] Just now I receive a report that Lieutenant Harms and two men are wounded. I decide to go over there straight away. I haven’t checked this platoon as often as the others. After all, there is an officer in charge as platoon leader. But even there, some things are amiss. Harms simply gives people leave of absence, sends them to the train or to look for potatoes without my knowledge and introduces impossible customs and practices in the trenches. Only recently I gave this young, inexperienced Stift ‘’(apprentice)‘’ a good dressing down on the phone. On the way to the 1st Platoon, I pass the battalion command post and pay it a quick visit without lingering too long. As I head towards the ruins where Lieutenant Harms has his platoon command post, I see white smoke curling out of the chimney; and that in broad daylight! No wonder the Russian can’t stand idly by. Now I immediately realise the reason for his fire raids! As I enter the shot-up house, Lieutenant Harms rises with a friendly smile. There is a large bowl of fried potatoes on the table in front of him. I search in vain for the wound on his face that he is supposed to have sustained the day before yesterday. It turns out that it was a tiny scratch on his lip, which is already gone today. And then he asks me to confirm the injury. I refuse. We then take a walk through the posts in his platoon sector. The very first sentry I come across is smoking. And that was enough for me.
The neglect of the guard instructions finally became too foolish for me, and as at the last meeting at the regiment[3] there was also complaint about the dangerous carelessness of the sentries, I made the suggestion that the regiment should send a man unknown to the companies to the front to check the reliability of the people. This was soon done, and the regiment had maliciously started in my sector. A non-commissioned officer and a private from the regimental signal platoon carried out the check. They have just left my bunker after describing their experiences to me. They had walked through my trench, approached all the sentries and had a marvellous chat with them. They asked the sentries about things that had to be kept secret and received the most comprehensive information everywhere. Not a single sentry asked these unknown men for their pay book. And not a single sentry reported this visit to me. Oh Lord, oh Lord! What they still have to learn before things get serious! It’s always the same loquacity and blind confidence that has already cost us thousands of lives. The German Michel will probably never learn it, because it’s his character.
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- ↑ s. a. Fußnote 2 of 27.12.44
- ↑
Mentions of mortar harassing fire in the reports of 132 ID (KTB X.AK, January 1944):
4th, p. 147, day report: “lively enemy mortar, pak and arty fire”
5th, p. 143, morning report: “sporadic harrassing mortar fire along the entire sector”
6th, p. 140, day report: “faint harrassing mortar and pak fire”
7th, p. 138, morning report: “sporadic harrassing arty, mortar and pak fire”
8th, p. 134, day report: “enemy harrassing fire from arty, mortars, pak and flak onto main defence line along the entire sector”
9th, p. 132, morning report: “harrassing mortar, pak and infantry fire onto entire sector”
10th, p. 129, morning report: “minor harrassing mortar and pak fire”
10th, p. 127, day report: “faint enemy harrassing pak and mortar fire”
11th, p. 123, day report: “minor harrassing mortar and pak fire” - ↑ here, short for the regimental commander or command post