A certain lack of comforts

This photo is from sometime in the middle years of the war, maybe from the Eastern or Italian fronts. An NCO and a soldier (or possibly another NCO) stand next to a tangle of branches, which might conceal an observation post or machine gun position. The man on the left is armed with a P38 pistol carried in a holster, while his companion wears a Zeltbahn, which effectively obscures any weapons. The 6×30 binoculars reinforce the impression that this is an observation post.

The man on the left wears a M40 greatcoat and a balaclava-like toque, known as an Oma (“Granny”) to the troops, which provide some warmth. The other guy has turned his Zeltbahn into a poncho, like in the left-hand illustration in Reibert’s 1940 manual “Der Dienstunterricht im Heere“. Next to him hangs a Feldfernsprecher 33 field telephone and a gas mask case, the phone nailing the impression that this is an observation post. The position looks anything but comfortable…

Here’s a colorized version of the photo. The field telephone is the dark brown case under the tan cardboard box, right under the center of the photo. A phone wire (not visible) connects the observers with their company, or maybe an artillery battery.

The more, the merrier

A squad of Luftwaffe soldiers is crammed inside a tent made from the ubiquitous Zeltbahn that was part of every soldier’s field equipment. The Zeltbahn shelter halves were triangular pieces of camouflage cloth, which could be used as rain ponchos, camo ponchos, ground sheets, temporary camouflage for foxholes and equipment, or as protection from the elements, either singly or with two or more buttoned together to create shelters or tents. They could also be used for flotation devices or as part of makeshift stretchers. In the photo above, eight pieces have been used to make an 8-man tent. Sometimes, it was used to wrap the body of a dead soldier before he has buried.

The basic use of the Zeltbahn as shelter, as demonstrated in Reibert’s 1940 manual “Der Dienstunterricht im Heere“. In the picture on the left, a single Zeltbahn has been attached to a tree in order to provide cover for one solder. Pegs, rope and a sectioned pole were kept in a separate bag, and used in the picture on the right, where two Zeltbahnen have been buttoned together to create better protection against wind and rain. Never underestimate the usefulness of a piece of weather-proofed cloth in the field.

Rear area security

While I’m not entirely sure, this undated photo gives me the impression of showing rear area security troops in the Balkans, 1941-42. The occupied territories could be relatively quiet, like Denmark, or hotbeds of insurrection, like Yugoslavia. The German response varied, but was in general marked by harsh reprisals and “anti-partisan” actions which probably killed more civilians than guerilla fighters. Apart for police units and SS extermination troops, the brunt of rear area security operations fell on Sicherungsdivisionen (security divisions). These units were usually made up from reservists and other soldiers who weren’t suitable for the heavy fighting on the frontline. With long lines of supply (usually by railroad), it was imperative that disruptions were kept to a minimum. Needless to say, the partisans held the upper hand most of the time…

The soldiers’ somewhat sloppy appearance and the absence of helmets are indications of a rear area unit, but also the submachine gun held by the guy wearing a Zeltbahn (fifth guy from right). With the magazine to the side, it’s probably an MP 34, also known under its original designation Steyr-Solothurn S1-100. It was an Austrian SMG that was used by the Wehrmacht after Austria was absorbed in the Greater German Reich. When the Germans had produced enough MP 38 and MP 40 SMGs for the frontline troops, the MP 34 and other captured weapons were sent to rear area units. The MP 34 was a high quality SMG, but I guess it made maintenance easier at the front if the number of different weapons was kept to a minimum.

Like the absolute majority of German divisions, this unit appears to rely on horse transport. “Alarm” units could be equipped with trucks and captured armored cars, though. When the tables were turned in last years of the war, security units often found themselves on the frontline. With limited combat training, they didn’t fare well…

Daddy is home

Today is 8 May. 73 years ago, the war was over in Europe. People rejoiced, but the grim aftermath was still to be dealt with. Years of rebuilding began. Displaced persons by the millions had to settle in new countries. Rationing was still in effect. Millions of families waited for loved ones to return home after longer or shorter stays in prisoner o war camps. Some waited in vain for family members who were lost forever. The children in the photo appears to be lucky, as it seems like their father has returned home, probably after a few months in an Allied PoW camp. The photo has just a short caption on the back: “August 1946”. The kids, ages ranging from about five to twelve years, pose next to a small tent pitched from Zeltbahn shelter quarters in the garden of their house. They are the lucky ones, with their parents alive and a house to live in. The older boys had probably been members of the Deutsches Jungvolk, the section of Hitler-Jugend for boys aged 10 to 14 years. Hopefully, the political indoctrination didn’t last long enough to mar them for life.

Post-war life for children born just before or during the war wasn’t easy. As they grew older, they had to deal with the collective guilt without having had a say back during Hitler’s reign of terror. Some longed for the camaraderie experienced in the Hitler Youth, while others rebelled against their parents as the crimes of Third Reich became known. As the children in the photo grew older and went abroad, they experienced the distrust – or sometimes pure hate – that met many Germans after the war. My mother was met with suspicion when we went to Scotland in 1977, as she was mistaken for a German, and I’ve experienced similar reactions even 70 years after the war. Germans born long after the war was over have to deal with snide remarks. In the early 1990’s, I met a young German about my own age in Denmark. A long-haired, friendly fellow, he told me that he enjoyed going to Denmark, but that some older Danes could ask him why Germans went to their small neighbor. He usually shrugged it off, saying something about culture and nature, but the hostility of a particular Dane was the final straw. “Why do you Germans insist on coming to Denmark?” Deadpan, the young German replied: “Tradition”.

So, anyway, this is a day for commemoration. The Germans of today have nothing to be ashamed of. Those who were old enough to have participated in the war are in their 90s now, and then they mostly served as simple soldiers. Place the blame where it belongs – with the politicians and generals who allowed it to happen. Pay attention to what’s happening today, with governments with totalitarian tendencies pushing events closer to a new confrontation.

Looking for Private Ryan?

This photo is a recent acquisition, part of a small lot of photos from Norway. I took one look at it and thought: “That looks like France” – the countryside is decidedly not Norwegian. The thing that really tipped me off was the helmet carried by the guy on the right, which sports the camouflage paintjob seen on helmets worn by troops stationed in Normandy. Then I flipped the photo, and saw a scrawled note on the back with “Caen” in it. Bingo! Further analysis of the photo makes me pretty sure that the soldiers belong to a Luftwaffe Field Division, things like the cap worn by the soldier on the right, and the belt buckle on his comrade on the left. That, and the location, tells us that only one unit can come into question: The 16. Feld-Division (L).

The 16. Luftwaffen-Feld-Division was formed in December 1942 by the XIII. Fliegerkorps. It was transferred to the Heer (Army) in November 1943 and redesignated 16. Feld-Division (L). It was deployed in the Hague-Haarlem area of the Netherlands as an occupation force. In June 1944, the division was sent to Normandy under the control of Heeresgruppe B and deployed in the front lines on 2 July. The British launched an offensive the day after the division arrived and by late July, it had been effectively destroyed in the defense of Caen. The division was formally dissolved on 4 August 1944, its remaining infantry allocated to the 21. Panzer-Division, while other elements were used to resurrect the 16. Infanterie-Division. (More on the Luftwaffe Feld-Divisionen here.)

Some more observations on the guys in the photo: the one on the left has a leather map case, binoculars (probably 7×50), a magazine pouch with three magazines for his MP 40 (not visible), and a helmet possibly painted with a mix of dark yellow paint and sawdust (to reduce glare). His colleague wears a Zeltbahn as camouflage, 6×30 binoculars, and probably an MP 40. Both are NCOs, as there are no rank insignia on the sleeves.

Speaking of Normandy and the Allied landings there, this year marks 20 years since the premiere of Saving Private Ryan, the epic war movie directed by Steven Spielberg. Regarded as one of the great war movies, I’m not quite as impressed by it. While there are some powerful scenes in it, like the brilliantly staged beach landing, the movie has several weak spots. I’m not going to nit-pick on trivia like the fact that there were no Tiger tanks in the American area of Normandy by the time the action takes place, but I’ll address problems with the plot.

The basic premise of the movie is that it is discovered that all brothers Ryan are killed or missing in action around the same time. Mommy Ryan receives all the telegrams just a few days after the D-Day landings. By that time, most of the airborne units were still struggling to organize themselves after being scattered over a large area. In real life, it would’ve taken many days, if not weeks, before it would’ve been apparent that Private Ryan was indeed MIA. In the movie, the rescue operation is launched just a few days after D-Day.

One pivotal scene is when Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) decides that it’s important to knock out the German defenders of a damaged radar installation. The squad charging uphill against a machine gun position, the medic, Wade, is mortally wounded. Miller had a crack sniper, Jackson, in his squad – why not take out the MG crew at a distance? Or just bypass the Germans, as they weren’t a threat? The whole scene is just a way of introducing the surviving German soldier, “Steamboat Willie”, and setting the stage for the final scenes.

After finding the right Ryan, the surviving members of the squad (plus some airborne troops) are pitted against crack Waffen-SS troops in the fight for the fictious town of Ramelle. The Germans make just about every tactical mistake they could make; even considering the state of German troops by that time of the war, they wouldn’t have assaulted a town like that. Anyway, in the fighting, most of the squad meets a sticky end, including Captain Miller, who is shot by “Steamboat Willie”. “Willie”, who was let go by Miller earlier, and who has been picked up by the SS unit, clearly doesn’t know who he’s firing at. The interpreter, Upham, kills “Willie”. This is one of the morally ambigious problems with the story. Was Miller wrong to let “Willie” live? Should they’ve killed him straight away, the only good German being a dead German? Spielberg didn’t think this through, obviously.

Upham and Ryan are the only survivors, and the final scene has an aged and tearful Ryan by the graves of Miller and the others, surrounded by his family. Seven men died so he could live. Was it worth it? Mommy Ryan got one son back, and he apparently raised a fine family, but seven other mothers lost their sons, men who never got to form families and raise their kids. The movie leaves that question open, but I for one find that it’s debatable whether it was worth the sacrifice. The whole plot feels contrived, but at least Spielberg and Hanks got the inspiration to make “Band of Brothers”, that most excellent mini-series.

Big game hunters

German troops trudging through driving snow, protected by Zeltbahn shelter halves worn as ponchos. The soldier in the middle is carrying a Panzerbüchse 39 (PzB 39), an anti-tank rifle used to knock out armored vehicles. Several countries used AT rifles, but as their principal targets became increasingly heavier armored, they were of limited use. The concept of AT rifles originated during World War 1, and as long as tanks and other armored vehicles sported thin armor, the idea was valid. A 1939 German rifle company was equipped with three PzB 39, at least in theory; shortages in production meant that only 568 PzB 39 were used by the German army in the invasion of Poland.

Two years later, at the beginning of the war against the USSR, 25,298 PzB 39 were in use by German troops. They could take on light tanks like T-26s and BT-7s, but KV-85s and T-34s (which the Germans didn’t know existed) were tougher nuts to crack… Total production from March 1940 to the cessation of production in November 1941 was 39,232 rifles.

The overall length was 162 cm, and the weight was 12.6 kg. It fired a 7.92 mm armor-piercing round. 25mm armor penetration was effective out to 300 meters. To increase the practical rate of fire, two cases containing 10 rounds each could be attached to the sides of the weapon, closer to hand for the gunner. A fold-out bipod steadied the weapon. The PzB 39 remained in use until 1944, by which time it had become hopelessly inadequate against all but the lightest armored vehicles.

My Zeltbahn is my home

A German field camp on the steppe outside Bălți, Bessarabia (Moldavia). On 2 July 1941, the southern section of Army Group South – the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies, alongside the German 11th Army – invaded Soviet Moldavia. The region had been contested over the centuries, and after the fall of the Russian Empire, it proclaimed independence, then joined Romania in a union in 1920, something the USSR didn’t recognize. In August 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and its secret additional protocol were signed, by which Nazi Germany recognized Bessarabia as being within the Soviet sphere of influence. On 28 June 1940, the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Romania requesting the cession of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, with which Romania complied the following day. Soon after, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was established. This state of affairs held for a year, then Romania reclaimed the region when it attacked the USSR together with Germany in Operation Barbarossa.

The Zeltbahn shelter halves were triangular pieces of camouflage cloth, which could be used as rain ponchos, camo ponchos, or as protection from the elements, either singly or with two or more buttoned together to create shelters or tents. In the photo above, eight pieces have been used to make an 8-man tent.