Veteran I met last week

[Okrach]

Hi,

Last week I was seeing my friends in the central Germany and I met German veteran from the IIWW.

Uffz. H. Kniest served as Paratrooper in a platoon ZBV (Zu Besondere Verwendung - for special operation). He took part in the campaign on Creta (PAK and Flak 88 gunner), than was sent to the eastern front. Two weeks before the war had ended he was injured by the Russian Rocket Artillery (Stalin Orgel called Katusha) after changing position maneuver of his Flak88 (after destroying 6 tanks!!!), and transported to Austria. There he was captured by US Army soldiers.

All the papers and decorations he has were stolen from him by Americans (incl. Para Abz., EKII). he was presented to the black wound badge but due to the loss of papers it has been never presented to him.

Unfortunately he forgot his unit name (the age) and can't recall his CO (Lt. or Oblt. decorated with RK (KIA in 1944 probably - this info may be of some help identifying his former unit).

His wife is a wonderful, nice and lovely woman. It was a great time for me drinking history from its very source

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Tomasz, you cannot beat meeting Veterans and hearing their stories first hand


Cheers, Ade.

[Ostmark]

Around the corner of my house lived a tiger tank commander from
Leibstandarde Adolf Hitler. I met him first about 2 Month ago. He had three
shoot wounds. 2 in the legs and one in the upper body. He was still suffering
on this wounds. He was 82 years old and died about 2 weeks ago.
He was a nice guy and i think we become friends. Sadly his awards were
taken by a german guy 3 weeks before i meet him the first time. The guy showed him a secret service badge and scared him and his wife. So i think maybe he was cheating him. Anyway i have the address of the guy and he is now on my watchlist. When he comes again in my area we will have a lot of fun because he can stick the badge in his #*@... his badge counts nothing in good old austria.

[Waffen-Mike]

Very cool encounter, it is always great to meet the vets.

[Okrach]

Indeed, it is a pleasure to meet such a person. Great stories behind.

During operation on Creta he was on post with his gun (PaK or Flak88 - he can't recall but he said that the range was around 10km...so I would vote for Flak88 - or maybe captured coastal artillery battery?) and he observed a surfaced submarine. he reported the event to his CO and immediately he was ordered to fire.

He said that their shots were pretty accurate and a moments later the submarine dove into the deep (sunk?, damaged?).

He reported that event but due to lack of further proofs his claim of possible submarine kill was denied.

He said also, that in his unit every claim was DETAILED checked and it was damn hard to earn the award. Over 4 years of service he was awarded only EKII (He can't even recall the lesser awards he was awarded (long service maybe?).

The other thing I heard from him was the story about his short post ´near Eisenach. He was there a CO of one AA- gun (again Flak88?). The allied P38 were regularly showing up and bombing the railway installations. He claimed to shot down two P38 in one day - one was to explode in the air after direct hit!!!).

Hearing such stories is an experience one can't even good describe.

[Ralph P]

Hey Tomasz, thanks for posting the thread. One day we all are going to reach that point and begin to wonder what we did when we were younger...

[Scott H]

I too know a German vet. He was a junior officer and was in the Frundsburg Division. I read his memoirs and they would make some fantastic movie! He saw action in Yugoslavia, Russia, France and Holland during Operation Market Garden.