Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!

[Robert T.]

4.6

The final mission


The Russians’ irresistible drive pushed Erwin’s regiment at the gates of Kiev and into the northern part of the old city, the regiment was now surrounded. On November 5th, after nightfall, Major Koopmann heroically led his troops through the Soviet front and across the Irpen River, Kiev could no longer be saved.
General von Manteuffel's 7th Panzer Division and the 20th Panzer Grenadier had been forced away from the city and unable to prevent the Russians from crossing the Irpen five miles west of Kiev and advancing along the Zhitomir road and toward Fastov, the most important communications center south-west of Kiev. On November 8th, a counter-attack by both divisions, though initially successful, was incapable to achieve anything decisive against the Soviet juggernaut.
In the middle of the attack, Major Erwin Koopmann was hit by a barrage of enemy artillery and mortally wounded, he died two days later on “LANGEMARCK DAY”. At the time, his division commander was leading the newly formed 25th Panzer Division, which had just arrived by trains from France and quickly sent to Fastov with the mission to keep the important rail junction at all costs.
In a letter to Erwin’s wife, Generalleutnant Georg Jauer states that her husband died in the fights near Kiev on November 8th and that he is not aware of all the details.

(The official documents say “gefallen” on November 10th, in conformity with the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund), which also has his death location at Ulschka. On November 10th 1943, the German divisions had retreated to a line east of Brusilov, halfway between Kiev and Zhitomir, Ulschka is located near Brusilov and was about 6 km behind the German front line.)

*********

20.Pz.Gren.Div. Commander____________ Nov. 18th, 1943

Dear honoured Madam!

Deeply moved, I hereby inform you that your husband died a hero’s death in the heavy
fights west of Kiev on November 8th. As I have been leading a different division for a
while and could only be reached by radio message, I cannot give you any details. I only
know that your dear husband was killed in action by the same artillery fire as major
Spiegel, who should have replaced him. You will receive further notice.
Let me express my deepest sympathy for this irrecoverable loss for you and your
children. The division has lost one of its best men. He was in the hearts of all the officers
and men, they honoured him and looked up to him. He was a real leader for his regiment:
he was first in battle, first in the fulfillment of everything that is demanded of a man and
a soldier on a daily basis. I have always gratefully considered it to be a special luck that I
myself could find a way beyond the official business to get to know him as a most
reliable man and comrade.
In this heavy hour which has befallen you, dear Madam, I can not offer anything else to
you and your family but our and my personal comradeship. We want to stand by you
with words and deeds whenever and howsoever you are in need of us. Please make use
of this offer.
With deepest regards and sincere compassion
I press your hand

Your very devoted

Georg Jauer

[Robert T.]

4.7

Redemption


On November 12th, while on their way to “liberate” Zhitomir, the Russians stormed around and briefly trapped the 7th Panzer and 20th Panzer Grenadier Divisions. However, it should be noted that this ambitious offensive had left the Soviets with a newly created 70 km deep salient showing a suddenly under garrisoned southern flank. The German High Command was far from hibernating during the course of the First Ukrainian Front's onslaught, the 4th Panzer Army feverishly marshalled an impressive task force to deal with the recently created Soviet front. This task force, under the guise of the 48th Panzer Corps, consisted of the full strength 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolph Hitler (Panzer Ace Michael Wittmann was returning to the Eastern Front for a third and final time), the under strength 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, the Wehrmacht's full strength 1st Panzer Division, etc. What followed would be a slugfest gravitating in and around the municipal locality of Zhitomir, Brusilov and Ulschka some 45 km to the east. By November 18th, the surviving elements of the badly mauled Soviet 38th Army extricated themselves from Zhitomir and dispersed westwards to avoid encirclement. This successful counter-attack once more demonstrated what Germans panzer troops, led by experience tank commanders, could still accomplish with a collection of forces that did not even approach the capacity of the armoured forces of the previous years.

On December 5th, the 48th Panzer Corps launched a surprise attack northward from Zhitomir while the 13th Corps, reinforced with the 2nd Fallschirmjäger Division, attacked eastward. This manoeuvre threatened to surround the 60th Russian Army. To relieve the situation, Moscow sent the 1st Tank Army and the 18th Army as reinforcements. With fresh troops, the Russians were able to halt the German offensive. The First Ukrainian Front's attempt to interdict the rail and communications lines between Army Group Center and Army Group South had been defeated for the time being, but they had liberated Kiev, broken the Dnieper line, and inflicted massive casualties on the 20th Panzer Grenadier; The Wehrmacht's second most decorated Pz.Gren.Div.

[Robert T.]

4.8

Blazing heart


Hamburg newspaper excerpt;


“….There is still a lot of talk about the regiment leader. Our country knows him, because
not long ago, in the middle of the night, the news service announced his name in all the
districts. Major Koopmann won the Knight’s Cross. (----An illegible line----) But what
do you know about the men, to whom we pay homage to? Did you know that this Major
was covered by chilly, black Russian soil when the Knight’s Cross was bestowed upon
him? Pay attention to what the battle-experienced men will tell you, how he was killed in
action, in the middle of an attack, taking the lead of his Hamburg grenadiers. It often
seems as if there is no longer any sense behind all this. Doesn’t it make any sense any
longer? Hasn’t the Major, who is over forty years old, already and for ever become a
paragon for the regiment? A shining example that is in the mind of every soldier? An
experienced front officer par excellence?
Did he make demands, did he ask for great bunkers to be built? “Frontline men first!”
wasn’t that his slogan? Do you still see him, how he dug his own foxhole? “That keeps
you warm and healthy.” How often has he helped us – with a smile on his face. A soldier
does not easily forget such an attitude. He always thought of the front companies first,
his love of justice almost verged on fanaticism. Am I entitled to this, should I claim
that? Do the men at the front have it, too? The members of his staff will never forget the
way he explained the events of today through the lenses of history and deduced and
explained it to them accordingly. FREDERICK THE GREAT was his dictionary, the collected
works about this great king were his daily book of reference. “What we are going
through at the moment corresponds to the BATTLE OF LEUTHEN”. Do you still see him
talking, this brave and believing Major, who did not abandon his faith and hope, even in
the most hopeless situation.
Listen closely when the ordinary soldiers talk about him. There is deep reverence in their
words, because almost everybody among them owes his life to him. Didn’t he gather
them around himself then, outside the gates of Kiev, and didn’t he tell them the truth?
“We’ve got to fight our way back, because we are trapped...” And he led them on
until the Irpen River and the hostile front laid behind…”

[Robert T.]

4.9

THE RUPTURE OF TIME



A clustering of meaningful coincidences (called “seriality” by Paul Kammerer and “synchronicity” by Carl Gustav Jung) have surrounded Erwin’s death, they were wildly beyond the acceptable workings of probability, and yet were not a case of cause and effect either.

*********

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer (1880-1926) advanced his little known but thought-provoking theory of "seriality". Kammerer supposed that events, objects, or occurrences of a like kind cluster together in space and time through unknown and acausal means. Kammerer defined the "law of seriality" as a unifying principle at work in the universe, correlating by affinity. He believed this pull toward unity produces concurrent or serial events in space and time, bringing like and like together.
The recurrence of a previous event, Kammerer concludes, is also a renewal in the literal sense in so far as it does not merely reproduce the past, but also carries some of the unprecedented with it. It is this blending of the old and the new which conveys the experience of progression in time - which would be lacking if events were to return as identical copies of themselves, like the hands of a clock having completed their circles. Thus the progression of reality should not be compared either to circular or to pendulum motion, but be compared along a three-dimensional spiral . Its turns, repeat themselves and curve always in the same direction, but always at some distance along their axis: returning, yet advancing.
Swiss Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961) carried the analysis further suggesting that the mind transcends our normal concepts of space and time. He postulated the term "synchronicity" as a concept serving to illuminate a specific type of relationship between interior states of consciousness and external events. Realms of the psyche which he called archetypes, located in the collective unconscious, were somehow responsible for collecting or linking similar events which were not related by physical cause and effect energies but rather by meaning. Where it is plain, felt Jung, that no causal connection can be demonstrated between two events, but where a meaningful relationship nevertheless exists between them, a wholly different type of principle is likely to be operating. When an archetype is activated by an emotionally charged event (such as a tragedy), says Jung, other related events tend to draw near. In this way the archetypes become a doorway that provides us access to the experience of meaningful (and often insightful) coincidence or synchronicity.

The meaning of a synchronistic event requires that it be understood symbolically, not just intellectually, there is no process of justification or checking; one simply finds oneself with the belief. By some it is enthusiastically embraced, by others scathingly dismissed, and by others again studiously disregarded…

*********

When SS Infantry Regiment 4 “Ostmark” was withdrawn back to Germany on April 4th 1942, after the constant battles of the 41/42 winter, it numbered only 180 men! It had suffered 92% casualties from its starting strength of 2200! On April 20th, in recognition of its achievement, the regiment was awarded by Hitler the honorary title "Langemarck" in memory of the bloody First World War battle fought in Flanders. In May, the regiment was assigned to Das Reich and by the end of March 1943, the honorary title was transferred and the unit rebuilt from German and Flemish volunteers. Members from the SS-Legion Flandern who were on training in Debica, (Poland) were incorporated into the newly formed Langemarck Brigade and designated as SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade Langemarck; it was intended to represent Flemish-German camaraderie. In October 1943, the brigade was renamed 6. SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade Langemarck and authorized to wear a cuff title bearing its name, the Flemings didn't understand the reason why they had been given a title which represented the losses suffered by German soldiers trying to take over their country in 1914.

In December 1943, the Flemish volunteers under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Konrad Schellong, were moved by rail towards Army Group South, which was staggering from sequential Soviet attacks along its front. The brigade total unit strength was 2,022 men, in the field they served as rapid reinforcement elements, compatible with and augmenting the strength of the regular SS divisions. On December 26th 1943, Assault Brigade SS Langemarck joined the 2.SS-Panzer-Division Das Reich and along with the nearby 20th Panzer Grenadier Division, saw intense defensive battles. They fought into 1944, trying to restore the broken Ukrainian front in the region of Zhitomir and Berdichev.
The Flemings then took heavy losses in their Yampil position while fighting heroically against strong Soviet attacks that began to hit the brigade as the Soviet offensive in the Ukraine found its second wind. In April, the Langemarck Brigade came out of Ukraine with an estimated combat strength of only four hundred men. Losses in the officer corps hit the brigade especially hard, the survivors were sent back to Bohemia in late April for refitting and retraining.

And so, the Langemarck legend lived on!

[Robert T.]

4.10

Legacy




The Inspector-General of the Armoured troops____________ March 18th 1944



Dear honoured Madam!

With great sadness I received the message about the soldier’s death of your husband. He
could not wear for a long time the high distinction which had been bestowed upon him
by the Führer as a reward for his brave behaviour. You, dear honoured Madam, remain
with the memory of your husband’s deeds, and that will give you the strength to bear this
heavy loss, which unfortunately so many women of our nation have to endure during these
years.

Accept my deepest sympathy and I am with you in thought.
I press your hand,

Your very devoted,

Guderian

[Robert T.]

4.11

Afterthoughts


Following Erwin’s death, his wehrpass was forwarded to the Lübeck Military District Command where the award entries for the Knight’s Cross and the Honor Roll were filled in along with a posthumous promotion to Oberstleutnant, before being sent to the family of the deceased officer. Unfortunately, Erwin Koopmann was never physically presented with the Knight’s cross, it was sent directly to his wife along with some other personal belongings and his battle worn decorations.
Although he served as a company commander, battalion commander and, in the end, as a regimental Führer at some of the hottest spots of the Eastern Front, winning bravery awards and finally succumbing to his fifth wound, there is no documentation within this konvolut about the awarding of any of the 3 levels of the Close Combat Clasp. It is striking to note that another well decorated officer; Major Helmut Wandmaker (one of only 98 German soldiers to be awarded both the Knight’s Cross and the CCC in Gold) had collected enough close-combat days (30) for the first two levels of the CCC during the fights near Bryansk, the Dnieper River and Kiev, while serving in the same battalion than Erwin and later under his leadership. On December 1st 1943, Wandmaker was awarded both the Bronze and Silver levels of the Close Combat Clasp at the same time….
An undocumented Ostmedaille was found among Oberstleutnant Koopmann’s awards, and there is no indication that a posthumous Wound Badge in Gold was ever presented to his Next of Kin.

(Note: An “independent researcher” working at the National Archives (NARA) was unable to locate a copy of Erwin’s personal file and the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) never replied to my inquiries.)

[Robert T.]

4.12

A heavy cross to bear


Unexpectedly losing a spouse is one of the most stressful times in anyone's life. In this terribly difficult time, you feel like your security has disappeared in an instant.
While still reeling from the emotional shock of suddenly losing her husband and going through the process of grieving, Olga Koopmann desperately looked for sources of strength and courage. She turned to Erwin’s “friends” for support and encouragement; the Reich labour minister Franz Seldte (a former comrade in the Stahlhelm Organisation) and the Reichpost minister Wilhelm Ohnesorge expressed their deepest regrets to Mrs. Koopmann for the heroic death of her husband and offered help and advice.

On “Mothering Sunday” May 21st 1944, she was awarded the Mother's Cross in Bronze for the previous birth of her fifth child, but that did not really help her feed the family. In February 1945, she finally received a signed approval by General der Infanterie Wilhelm Burgdorf at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, for a 5000.-- Reichmarks cash allowance to help support the children of the fallen Ritterkreuzträger.

After the war, the Reichsmark had become increasingly worthless and all that remained was the compassion of General der Infanterie Erich Jaschke of the Pz.Gren.Rgt.90 Comradeship, the love of her children and a Mother's Cross; a heavy cross to bear….

[Robert T.]

4.13

Into the light



“I know why I am suffering,
And have shed my blood . . .
I fought in the German Army
For German sacredness,
As a shield bearer for German honor
For the glory of the German future!
Therefore despite terrible pain,
And despite the excruciating agony of my wounds
There lives in my German heart
Only gratefulness and the warm rays of the sun.”


Major Guido von Gillhaussen

THE END

________________________
Robert Tremblay

[StefanK.]

What a great thread. Thank you, Robert!

[ApathyL]

An amazing thread, thanks! it was great to read every little bit.


best regards, Les.

[solkors]

Outstanding in any way - the group and your effort!
Thank you very much!
solkors

[ibrahim ahmad]

A highly detailed & well done thread.
Thank You.

Cheers,
Ibrahim,
Singapore.

[Nico C]

Robert,

this is the best thread I have read untill now on this forum .

Magnificient grouping!

[Robin Lumsden]

Excellent!

A work of art.

[Allan P.]

Excellent, well done

Allan