Greetings. For 30 years I have compiled interviews with veteran's from all wars and armies, with a focus on Germany. I wanted to test one of these out with you to see what reactions I get. Some will not like what he said about his enemies, but I did want to capture the mindset of how he thought, and I feel it shows up well. Enjoy:
Interview with Irwin Rohers, ObGefr 7th Panzer div. Oct 1987
Me: What interested you to join the new panzer arm?
The black uniforms and the tradition of the old Hussars that these men carried on impressed me. In Germany in the 30’s work was plentiful and there were good paying jobs to choose from. In 1935, the Wehrmacht was reformed and it was required that all young men give 2 years’ service to the nation. I did service with the RAD, working to clean the beaches in north Germany. In 1939 I volunteered for the panzer arm as I wanted to further serve my nation, whom I was proud of. I was sent to the 2nd light division which later became the 7th panzer div. I was in the 25th Panzer Regiment after Poland, under command of Colonel Karl Rothenburg. I was trained on mk II, pz 38-T, mk III, mk IV, and lastly a long barrel mk IV with side shields.
Me: what was it like going to war?
Going to war is never easy, and especially for a nation that lost so much from the First World War. We had a bad feeling that something would break loose. Hitler made it clear to everyone that the land that was taken due to Versailles, should be returned to the Reich. To this end, he was committed, as was the people. We heard stories of the plights of German’s who were made minorities in their former land. Because they were now minorities, they were at the mercy of their new leaders. Because Poland tried to take addition land after the first war, there was still bad feelings between the two peoples.
We have always been at odds with them, going back a few hundred years. Most people do not know that after ww1 Poland attacked Germany, trying to claim even more land than what the allies awarded them. Our Freikorps units stopped the Poles and Communists, who were both trying to dismantle the new Weimar Republic. Germany tried to work out deals with Poland regarding the corridor, but because of English meddling, all the offers were refused. In 1938 and 1939, we followed reports of border incursions by Polish citizens, some of them resulted in violence and even murders on German citizens.
When we declared war, it was a sad day, but was not a surprise. What came as a surprise was the allied declaration against us, but not against the Russians who attacked Poland days later.
Me: Did you see action in Poland?
Yes, my training as a gunner was complete in 1939, and we were sent into Poland at the beginning of hostilities. Right away, we faced superior Polish forces, as Poland had been preparing for war for months. We took heavy causalities as we were fresh, green troops, but we prevailed largely with the help of our Luftwaffe. They were able to knock out artillery positions that were causing us many problems. I saw our first prisoners and I was amazed at how relaxed we were with them, a general was allowed to ride his horse with his men to the rear of our lines, it did not even appear they were beaten or prisoners, it looked like they were having a victory parade.
At this point we also started to hear rumors that German civilian’s had been killed by soldiers, wounded soldiers had been mutilated, and LW crews were killed after surrendering, so we were instructed to capture and interrogate all prisoners to find out more information regarding these claims.
At the 2-week point of the war, we came upon a Polish tank rgt, who had better tanks than we did. Our training seemed to be better, and since we could communicate with each other, we were able to route them, with the help of Stuka’s. I remember going out and looking at the knocked tanks and seeing how much thicker their armor was as opposed to the mk I, II and 38t.
Me: What was your impression of the Polish soldier?
It is hard to explain, our two countries had not been on good terms as the Poles felt we owed them for being their former rulers, and we felt they were arrogant and oppressive. My first thoughts were that I did not care for them, as that is just what life was like in Europe, we were one people’s but created so many ways to divide us and create hatred. The first prisoners I saw looked poor and dirty. They did have lots of food, which we soon learned to trade with them for. Our supply columns were sometimes a day behind so we would be hungry. One soldier who spoke broken German traded me some sausages and bread for some writing paper. He said he met a very pretty girl in Warsaw and he wanted to write to her. We sat down and rested with this group of prisoners and we got along great. One soldier joked that they were headed to Berlin but not in the way they thought. We played skat with them until it was time to leave.
The Polish soldier was mostly drafted and not wanting to stay in the fight. We came upon many groups who had deserted and were just trying to return home. One sad incident was when a lorry drove into our colum, we assumed it was ours or full of prisoners, a sgt got out, yelled some orders, then more soldiers jumped down and stated shooting at us. We were unprepared and took causalities, but our response was total, we shot down all of them once we recovered.
Me: What were the Polish people like?
The people surprised me, from the very first day, we encountered people who came out to cheer us, and welcome us as liberators. These were largely people who were German, so that was expected. As we moved deeper into the country, even Poles would come out to see what we were like; they would bring food and water. Many wanted to trade with us cigarettes and chocolate for eggs, meat, and milk. The Polish army confiscated large numbers of animals and many farmers asked us if we could help return their animals if we found them. The rear security men would later help to reunite people with lost possessions. Not all was well though, there were incidences where some civilians attacked our soldiers and when captured they were tried and executed for crimes against the Wehrmacht.
One sad incident like this was when our recon unit was entering a small town, and came under fire from a man hiding in a tree, but he was not prepared for the mg34 that responded to him. When they entered the small town, the mayor demanded to know why he was killed and not taken prisoner. Our commander ordered flyers to be made that warned the people that all forms of attacks on German soldiers or civilians will be dealt with severely, meaning tried and executed for breaking the rules of war. We had no further issues of acts of sabotage or attacks.
Poland surrendered and we thought our short war was over, with Russia in Poland now, we all wondered why England did not declare war on them. Made us think they only wanted to fight us to settle old scores, they just used Poland to do it. We settled into occupation duties for a few short weeks and held reviews and repaired equipment. We also helped the Polish people rebuild, the small town we stayed in took some damage so we helped the people rebuild some of their homes and farms. Our engineers stayed very busy. We were sent back to Germany to reorganize into the 7th Panzer and upgrade to new Pz II and III. We had gained great confidence but still had angst regarding the overall situation in the west, learning that the French attacked and occupied Reich territory did not help.
Me: Where did you end up next?
We reorganized in Germany, trained on our new panzers and prepared for action against France. The Fuhrer made peace requests to the allies, all of which were turned down. We read that England accused us of being conquerors and invaders, terrorizing Europe. It was ironic that this nation who built its reputation as a colonizing power over the whole world, was accusing us of the same. It still bothered me that they declared war on us, but not Russia, for attacking Poland.
On May 10, we were part of the first wave to attack France and race to the Meuse. We were confident, but still scared to death. We were about to attack the 2 largest armies in the world, being outnumbered 10 to 1 we had a horrible sense that they easily could push our small forces all the way to Berlin. We had an unknown General, named Rommel who was leading us, and I noticed right away he liked to lead from the front. Our first action against French tanks came around Arras, the British also joined in. We were being beaten since we were heavily outnumbered; our anti-tank guns were useless against the superior tanks. Enter Rommel, he orders our flak units to deploy their heavy 88 guns in a ground role. The allied tanks were stopped dead with heavy losses. We captured our first British prisoners who were stunned and in shock. They were still confident that 1918 would happen in 1940. After this action, the allies looked broken and demoralized. The attack that hit them from the Ardennes came as a complete surprise as they had the bulk of their armies up north. The Fuhrer allowed his generals to put together a great plan.
Shortly after our victory, we were pressing the Allies to the coast, but right when it appeared we trapped them and could swing and capture the bulk of the BEF we halted. We had no idea why. We had the enemy beaten, and were ready to deliver the knockout blow. It is claimed today that we stopped because the Fuhrer was afraid we were over extended and under supplied. This is not true. Our flanks were reinforced, our supply lines were greatly improved since Poland, and we had plenty of fuel and ammunition. This caused some anger and frustration among our ranks. Even the LW had to halt attacks on the area around Dunkirk. Rumors were some LW pilots disobeyed orders and still went ahead and attacked the beach’s claiming they were chasing allied fighters away. We did have complete control of the sky and land. We were ordered to assist French refugees and work with arriving Red Cross personnel, as always, we helped rebuild what we had shared responsibility in destroying.
We found out the BEF and parts of the French army had escaped to England. This was disheartening as we were so close to capturing them all. It is now known that our government was desperately using neutral countries to try to end the war. The Fuhrer, I believe, halted us to allow the allies to evacuate to show them we were serious about peace. They claimed we could not be trusted, we were sneaky, we violated their treaties, so what better way to demonstrate our commitment to end this, than to allow their army to come home. Since they ended up being the victors, it is easy to turn it around and make us look incompetent with incompetent leaders. I am always amused that the English make it seem like the Fuhrer was a terrible field commander for letting them escape, when he was just being humane. If we had smashed Dunkirk, they would be talking about how cruel and unfair we were to destroy a trapped enemy who lacked tools to fight back.
Me: Did you ever meet General Rommel?
Yes, he was everywhere among us. One thing I can say that National Socialism did is it made everyone realize that we are all equal. It stripped away that old aristocratic attitude that money makes the man, and gives him a station. NS says all men are created equal, and should be respected and judged by the contribution they make to help their people. Rommel embodies this belief; he would eat with us, sleep with us, and knew many of us by first names. My best memory was when I was promoted to Gefr, we were in formation receiving awards. I was not feeling well, and probably looked like it. Rommel approached me and I looked forward, saluted, and passed out. I was told he made sure I was quickly taken to the hospital and he ordered me some special healing water. He came to visit me in the hospital, giving me my Iron Cross 2nd class and my panzer badge for actions at Arras. He spoke to me for a good while, saying he would arrange for me to go on leave and go home to get better. He made such a good impression on me. Sadly, he left our division for service in Afrika so I never saw him again.
Me: Did you see any war crimes in France?
Not from our side. That may seem odd to you, as I am sure you have been taught we rampaged throughout Europe, but the truth is far different. The allies in France were guilty of shooting their own civilians if they suspected them of sympathy to us. We saw many French turn out to welcome us, as they admired our country and did not see us as enemies. I do not want to give the impression I am saying all the French loved us, because the majority did not, but a few did and if they were found out, they paid a heavy price. The African soldiers seemed to be particularly eager to break the rules of war, as any area they had been in, there were many complaints from the civilian population about looting, rape, and murder. When they were captured, special attention was paid to interrogate them to see if they were involved in anything illegal. We also heard rumors that the English used bullets that they reversed to cause more damage, but I never saw this. This is my extent of war crimes knowledge. The French and English always seemed to fight in a way that may have blurred the rules of war, but they never seemed cruel or sadistic, unlike what we came across in the east. The English prisoners I met in France seemed like good people who were forced to fight a war they really did not care for, just like us.
Me: What was your impression of the Waffen SS?
I was always impressed with them; they saved us more than once. They were never quite used how they were intended. They were always mixed in with army groups and used as fire brigades, meaning they were sent only to very active parts of the front to stabilize the situation. Being in the panzer formations I always viewed us as being elite, just like the SS. Some of my comrades had been in the prewar SS, then drafted. We fought alongside the Totenkopf div in France; I have nothing bad to say about them. They were taught to fight hard and be courageous, and it showed.
Me: What about all the atrocities they are accused of?
Those mean nothing to me. There is a saying “The victor rights the history of a war” and WW2 is a prime example of this axiom. I lived through six years of war and the post war years, I can state with a clean conscience that I never saw our side harm any innocents. The German army is now being accused of the same crimes the SS has been accused of, killing civilians, shooting Jews, looting, burning down whole towns for no reason, and cruelty. Therefore, we are in the same boat now. I knew two classmates who joined the Waffen SS, and never returned home, they served their nation just like me in an honorable way. I have seen the movies, read the books, and listened to the “eyewitness’s” tell their story of what happened, it is a one sided story, where the other side is not allowed to speak unless they agree with what the victors say, lest they face investigation.
This war was a war where civilians actively involved themselves sometimes, either in direct combat, or in acts of resistance, both of which are illegal. When we encountered this, we had to be firm, which to some may seem equally as bad but they did not see the results of these acts of “resistance” many on our side saw. We fought all over Europe, and think of all the ethnic peoples involved, each having different views, and goals. The Balkans were a hornet’s nest after we moved on; I had a friend from the RAD who had to deal with a train that derailed from a big bridge in Serbia, bringing wounded soldiers home from Greece. All on board died from this attack from communist partisans. Soldiers were just a few of the people, men, women, and children all died, so our security forces, helped by locals, took the job of finding these killers serious. Anyone who helped them was fair game. That is what we were up against all over Europe.
Therefore, when you hear all these stories about what we did to the innocent civilians, there is much more to the story that you are not being told. The Waffen SS were excellent soldiers, just like their comrades in the Wehrmacht, we may have had some banter between us, just like in all military formations, but we each respected the other. They paid a heavier price after the war, as they were labeled criminals by the victors, bringing instant death sentences to many for only serving their nation.
Me: you served on the Russian Front, what was it like?
The 7th Panzer was in the fight from the very first day, I remember it well. We knew we were going to attack Russia as soon as we were sent east into Poland. We had received training that dealt with the T26 tank that was thinly armored, much like out 38t, and we knew from there we would be going to be fighting a colossus of a nation. We had more confidence this time as we had beaten both France and England when both outnumbered us. June 22 started for me very early in the morning. We could hear rumbles that sounded like thunder, it was our artillery. We were ordered to assemble for marching orders. Our CO told us we must capture every soldier we can and search the officers and commissars very well. The reason being, I learned later is we believed Russia was preparing to attack us, a belief that was proven by the fact we found maps of western Poland and the Reich on many frontline officers we searched.
At first, we saw no Russians; it was like a peacetime parade. We saw destruction on the sides of the roads, enemy trucks, cars, tractors, animals, and some dead soldiers but no enemy in force. The Poles came out to greet us as liberators and gave us water. No sooner after I thought this was going to be easy, than we were hit by a large Soviet attack. Again it was the same story, the enemy tanks were more numerous, and better armored than us, and we met the T-34 in force. This would not be the last time we danced. We quickly lost a few of ours, but we dealt this tank division a crippling blow. I believe we knocked out 80 tanks that day; many were T-34’s.
I was in a 38t, which could stand up against the T26, but not much else in Russia’s stockpile. My first engagement luckily was with the T26, which almost ended as disaster. We were dealing with a whole Soviet tank division, my panzer had gotten separated from our company and came face to face with 4 T26 tanks, they saw us first and fired. How they all missed, I cannot explain, as they were only 175 meters from us. I sighted the first one and fired, knocking it out, we turned the turret, shell loaded, and fired again. The second tank exploded in a ball of flame, shell loaded, target acquired, I was shaking and sweating badly, fired, direct hit. I saw the crew bail out and run away. Last tank was hit and put out of action. No sooner had we destroyed these when another tank appeared and fired, hitting us in the engine section, putting us out of action. I was able to turn the turret, focus, and fire, knocking him out and saving us from destruction. Help arrived in the form of our “lost” company who secured our flanks and fought off Soviet infantry.
We were towed back to our repair area so that we could be made ready again. We were hearing very heavy fighting in front of us, now the Russians seemed everywhere. As we continued our early advance, I was quite surprised at the vast amount of men and material we encountered. We saw endless columns of prisoners and literally hundreds of supply dumps with plenty of equipment. Stalin claimed after the war, that our invasion stunned him, as we had asked him to sign a non-aggression pact, I find that hard to believe since what we saw was a vast army, being supplied for an attack. We caught this vast juggernaut by surprise, and with lightning speed was able to disrupt those plans.
The next months were filled with rapid advances, prisoners, tank on tank fights, and victory, but at a heavy price. Many comrades had fallen by this time, some of our best leaders too. We started having this feeling as if we could not be stopped. The Russians outnumbered us, but we bested them in every fight, it was not easy, but we did.
Interview with Irwin Rohers, ObGefr 7th Panzer div. Oct 1987
Me: What interested you to join the new panzer arm?
The black uniforms and the tradition of the old Hussars that these men carried on impressed me. In Germany in the 30’s work was plentiful and there were good paying jobs to choose from. In 1935, the Wehrmacht was reformed and it was required that all young men give 2 years’ service to the nation. I did service with the RAD, working to clean the beaches in north Germany. In 1939 I volunteered for the panzer arm as I wanted to further serve my nation, whom I was proud of. I was sent to the 2nd light division which later became the 7th panzer div. I was in the 25th Panzer Regiment after Poland, under command of Colonel Karl Rothenburg. I was trained on mk II, pz 38-T, mk III, mk IV, and lastly a long barrel mk IV with side shields.
Me: what was it like going to war?
Going to war is never easy, and especially for a nation that lost so much from the First World War. We had a bad feeling that something would break loose. Hitler made it clear to everyone that the land that was taken due to Versailles, should be returned to the Reich. To this end, he was committed, as was the people. We heard stories of the plights of German’s who were made minorities in their former land. Because they were now minorities, they were at the mercy of their new leaders. Because Poland tried to take addition land after the first war, there was still bad feelings between the two peoples.
We have always been at odds with them, going back a few hundred years. Most people do not know that after ww1 Poland attacked Germany, trying to claim even more land than what the allies awarded them. Our Freikorps units stopped the Poles and Communists, who were both trying to dismantle the new Weimar Republic. Germany tried to work out deals with Poland regarding the corridor, but because of English meddling, all the offers were refused. In 1938 and 1939, we followed reports of border incursions by Polish citizens, some of them resulted in violence and even murders on German citizens.
When we declared war, it was a sad day, but was not a surprise. What came as a surprise was the allied declaration against us, but not against the Russians who attacked Poland days later.
Me: Did you see action in Poland?
Yes, my training as a gunner was complete in 1939, and we were sent into Poland at the beginning of hostilities. Right away, we faced superior Polish forces, as Poland had been preparing for war for months. We took heavy causalities as we were fresh, green troops, but we prevailed largely with the help of our Luftwaffe. They were able to knock out artillery positions that were causing us many problems. I saw our first prisoners and I was amazed at how relaxed we were with them, a general was allowed to ride his horse with his men to the rear of our lines, it did not even appear they were beaten or prisoners, it looked like they were having a victory parade.
At this point we also started to hear rumors that German civilian’s had been killed by soldiers, wounded soldiers had been mutilated, and LW crews were killed after surrendering, so we were instructed to capture and interrogate all prisoners to find out more information regarding these claims.
At the 2-week point of the war, we came upon a Polish tank rgt, who had better tanks than we did. Our training seemed to be better, and since we could communicate with each other, we were able to route them, with the help of Stuka’s. I remember going out and looking at the knocked tanks and seeing how much thicker their armor was as opposed to the mk I, II and 38t.
Me: What was your impression of the Polish soldier?
It is hard to explain, our two countries had not been on good terms as the Poles felt we owed them for being their former rulers, and we felt they were arrogant and oppressive. My first thoughts were that I did not care for them, as that is just what life was like in Europe, we were one people’s but created so many ways to divide us and create hatred. The first prisoners I saw looked poor and dirty. They did have lots of food, which we soon learned to trade with them for. Our supply columns were sometimes a day behind so we would be hungry. One soldier who spoke broken German traded me some sausages and bread for some writing paper. He said he met a very pretty girl in Warsaw and he wanted to write to her. We sat down and rested with this group of prisoners and we got along great. One soldier joked that they were headed to Berlin but not in the way they thought. We played skat with them until it was time to leave.
The Polish soldier was mostly drafted and not wanting to stay in the fight. We came upon many groups who had deserted and were just trying to return home. One sad incident was when a lorry drove into our colum, we assumed it was ours or full of prisoners, a sgt got out, yelled some orders, then more soldiers jumped down and stated shooting at us. We were unprepared and took causalities, but our response was total, we shot down all of them once we recovered.
Me: What were the Polish people like?
The people surprised me, from the very first day, we encountered people who came out to cheer us, and welcome us as liberators. These were largely people who were German, so that was expected. As we moved deeper into the country, even Poles would come out to see what we were like; they would bring food and water. Many wanted to trade with us cigarettes and chocolate for eggs, meat, and milk. The Polish army confiscated large numbers of animals and many farmers asked us if we could help return their animals if we found them. The rear security men would later help to reunite people with lost possessions. Not all was well though, there were incidences where some civilians attacked our soldiers and when captured they were tried and executed for crimes against the Wehrmacht.
One sad incident like this was when our recon unit was entering a small town, and came under fire from a man hiding in a tree, but he was not prepared for the mg34 that responded to him. When they entered the small town, the mayor demanded to know why he was killed and not taken prisoner. Our commander ordered flyers to be made that warned the people that all forms of attacks on German soldiers or civilians will be dealt with severely, meaning tried and executed for breaking the rules of war. We had no further issues of acts of sabotage or attacks.
Poland surrendered and we thought our short war was over, with Russia in Poland now, we all wondered why England did not declare war on them. Made us think they only wanted to fight us to settle old scores, they just used Poland to do it. We settled into occupation duties for a few short weeks and held reviews and repaired equipment. We also helped the Polish people rebuild, the small town we stayed in took some damage so we helped the people rebuild some of their homes and farms. Our engineers stayed very busy. We were sent back to Germany to reorganize into the 7th Panzer and upgrade to new Pz II and III. We had gained great confidence but still had angst regarding the overall situation in the west, learning that the French attacked and occupied Reich territory did not help.
Me: Where did you end up next?
We reorganized in Germany, trained on our new panzers and prepared for action against France. The Fuhrer made peace requests to the allies, all of which were turned down. We read that England accused us of being conquerors and invaders, terrorizing Europe. It was ironic that this nation who built its reputation as a colonizing power over the whole world, was accusing us of the same. It still bothered me that they declared war on us, but not Russia, for attacking Poland.
On May 10, we were part of the first wave to attack France and race to the Meuse. We were confident, but still scared to death. We were about to attack the 2 largest armies in the world, being outnumbered 10 to 1 we had a horrible sense that they easily could push our small forces all the way to Berlin. We had an unknown General, named Rommel who was leading us, and I noticed right away he liked to lead from the front. Our first action against French tanks came around Arras, the British also joined in. We were being beaten since we were heavily outnumbered; our anti-tank guns were useless against the superior tanks. Enter Rommel, he orders our flak units to deploy their heavy 88 guns in a ground role. The allied tanks were stopped dead with heavy losses. We captured our first British prisoners who were stunned and in shock. They were still confident that 1918 would happen in 1940. After this action, the allies looked broken and demoralized. The attack that hit them from the Ardennes came as a complete surprise as they had the bulk of their armies up north. The Fuhrer allowed his generals to put together a great plan.
Shortly after our victory, we were pressing the Allies to the coast, but right when it appeared we trapped them and could swing and capture the bulk of the BEF we halted. We had no idea why. We had the enemy beaten, and were ready to deliver the knockout blow. It is claimed today that we stopped because the Fuhrer was afraid we were over extended and under supplied. This is not true. Our flanks were reinforced, our supply lines were greatly improved since Poland, and we had plenty of fuel and ammunition. This caused some anger and frustration among our ranks. Even the LW had to halt attacks on the area around Dunkirk. Rumors were some LW pilots disobeyed orders and still went ahead and attacked the beach’s claiming they were chasing allied fighters away. We did have complete control of the sky and land. We were ordered to assist French refugees and work with arriving Red Cross personnel, as always, we helped rebuild what we had shared responsibility in destroying.
We found out the BEF and parts of the French army had escaped to England. This was disheartening as we were so close to capturing them all. It is now known that our government was desperately using neutral countries to try to end the war. The Fuhrer, I believe, halted us to allow the allies to evacuate to show them we were serious about peace. They claimed we could not be trusted, we were sneaky, we violated their treaties, so what better way to demonstrate our commitment to end this, than to allow their army to come home. Since they ended up being the victors, it is easy to turn it around and make us look incompetent with incompetent leaders. I am always amused that the English make it seem like the Fuhrer was a terrible field commander for letting them escape, when he was just being humane. If we had smashed Dunkirk, they would be talking about how cruel and unfair we were to destroy a trapped enemy who lacked tools to fight back.
Me: Did you ever meet General Rommel?
Yes, he was everywhere among us. One thing I can say that National Socialism did is it made everyone realize that we are all equal. It stripped away that old aristocratic attitude that money makes the man, and gives him a station. NS says all men are created equal, and should be respected and judged by the contribution they make to help their people. Rommel embodies this belief; he would eat with us, sleep with us, and knew many of us by first names. My best memory was when I was promoted to Gefr, we were in formation receiving awards. I was not feeling well, and probably looked like it. Rommel approached me and I looked forward, saluted, and passed out. I was told he made sure I was quickly taken to the hospital and he ordered me some special healing water. He came to visit me in the hospital, giving me my Iron Cross 2nd class and my panzer badge for actions at Arras. He spoke to me for a good while, saying he would arrange for me to go on leave and go home to get better. He made such a good impression on me. Sadly, he left our division for service in Afrika so I never saw him again.
Me: Did you see any war crimes in France?
Not from our side. That may seem odd to you, as I am sure you have been taught we rampaged throughout Europe, but the truth is far different. The allies in France were guilty of shooting their own civilians if they suspected them of sympathy to us. We saw many French turn out to welcome us, as they admired our country and did not see us as enemies. I do not want to give the impression I am saying all the French loved us, because the majority did not, but a few did and if they were found out, they paid a heavy price. The African soldiers seemed to be particularly eager to break the rules of war, as any area they had been in, there were many complaints from the civilian population about looting, rape, and murder. When they were captured, special attention was paid to interrogate them to see if they were involved in anything illegal. We also heard rumors that the English used bullets that they reversed to cause more damage, but I never saw this. This is my extent of war crimes knowledge. The French and English always seemed to fight in a way that may have blurred the rules of war, but they never seemed cruel or sadistic, unlike what we came across in the east. The English prisoners I met in France seemed like good people who were forced to fight a war they really did not care for, just like us.
Me: What was your impression of the Waffen SS?
I was always impressed with them; they saved us more than once. They were never quite used how they were intended. They were always mixed in with army groups and used as fire brigades, meaning they were sent only to very active parts of the front to stabilize the situation. Being in the panzer formations I always viewed us as being elite, just like the SS. Some of my comrades had been in the prewar SS, then drafted. We fought alongside the Totenkopf div in France; I have nothing bad to say about them. They were taught to fight hard and be courageous, and it showed.
Me: What about all the atrocities they are accused of?
Those mean nothing to me. There is a saying “The victor rights the history of a war” and WW2 is a prime example of this axiom. I lived through six years of war and the post war years, I can state with a clean conscience that I never saw our side harm any innocents. The German army is now being accused of the same crimes the SS has been accused of, killing civilians, shooting Jews, looting, burning down whole towns for no reason, and cruelty. Therefore, we are in the same boat now. I knew two classmates who joined the Waffen SS, and never returned home, they served their nation just like me in an honorable way. I have seen the movies, read the books, and listened to the “eyewitness’s” tell their story of what happened, it is a one sided story, where the other side is not allowed to speak unless they agree with what the victors say, lest they face investigation.
This war was a war where civilians actively involved themselves sometimes, either in direct combat, or in acts of resistance, both of which are illegal. When we encountered this, we had to be firm, which to some may seem equally as bad but they did not see the results of these acts of “resistance” many on our side saw. We fought all over Europe, and think of all the ethnic peoples involved, each having different views, and goals. The Balkans were a hornet’s nest after we moved on; I had a friend from the RAD who had to deal with a train that derailed from a big bridge in Serbia, bringing wounded soldiers home from Greece. All on board died from this attack from communist partisans. Soldiers were just a few of the people, men, women, and children all died, so our security forces, helped by locals, took the job of finding these killers serious. Anyone who helped them was fair game. That is what we were up against all over Europe.
Therefore, when you hear all these stories about what we did to the innocent civilians, there is much more to the story that you are not being told. The Waffen SS were excellent soldiers, just like their comrades in the Wehrmacht, we may have had some banter between us, just like in all military formations, but we each respected the other. They paid a heavier price after the war, as they were labeled criminals by the victors, bringing instant death sentences to many for only serving their nation.
Me: you served on the Russian Front, what was it like?
The 7th Panzer was in the fight from the very first day, I remember it well. We knew we were going to attack Russia as soon as we were sent east into Poland. We had received training that dealt with the T26 tank that was thinly armored, much like out 38t, and we knew from there we would be going to be fighting a colossus of a nation. We had more confidence this time as we had beaten both France and England when both outnumbered us. June 22 started for me very early in the morning. We could hear rumbles that sounded like thunder, it was our artillery. We were ordered to assemble for marching orders. Our CO told us we must capture every soldier we can and search the officers and commissars very well. The reason being, I learned later is we believed Russia was preparing to attack us, a belief that was proven by the fact we found maps of western Poland and the Reich on many frontline officers we searched.
At first, we saw no Russians; it was like a peacetime parade. We saw destruction on the sides of the roads, enemy trucks, cars, tractors, animals, and some dead soldiers but no enemy in force. The Poles came out to greet us as liberators and gave us water. No sooner after I thought this was going to be easy, than we were hit by a large Soviet attack. Again it was the same story, the enemy tanks were more numerous, and better armored than us, and we met the T-34 in force. This would not be the last time we danced. We quickly lost a few of ours, but we dealt this tank division a crippling blow. I believe we knocked out 80 tanks that day; many were T-34’s.
I was in a 38t, which could stand up against the T26, but not much else in Russia’s stockpile. My first engagement luckily was with the T26, which almost ended as disaster. We were dealing with a whole Soviet tank division, my panzer had gotten separated from our company and came face to face with 4 T26 tanks, they saw us first and fired. How they all missed, I cannot explain, as they were only 175 meters from us. I sighted the first one and fired, knocking it out, we turned the turret, shell loaded, and fired again. The second tank exploded in a ball of flame, shell loaded, target acquired, I was shaking and sweating badly, fired, direct hit. I saw the crew bail out and run away. Last tank was hit and put out of action. No sooner had we destroyed these when another tank appeared and fired, hitting us in the engine section, putting us out of action. I was able to turn the turret, focus, and fire, knocking him out and saving us from destruction. Help arrived in the form of our “lost” company who secured our flanks and fought off Soviet infantry.
We were towed back to our repair area so that we could be made ready again. We were hearing very heavy fighting in front of us, now the Russians seemed everywhere. As we continued our early advance, I was quite surprised at the vast amount of men and material we encountered. We saw endless columns of prisoners and literally hundreds of supply dumps with plenty of equipment. Stalin claimed after the war, that our invasion stunned him, as we had asked him to sign a non-aggression pact, I find that hard to believe since what we saw was a vast army, being supplied for an attack. We caught this vast juggernaut by surprise, and with lightning speed was able to disrupt those plans.
The next months were filled with rapid advances, prisoners, tank on tank fights, and victory, but at a heavy price. Many comrades had fallen by this time, some of our best leaders too. We started having this feeling as if we could not be stopped. The Russians outnumbered us, but we bested them in every fight, it was not easy, but we did.
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