Outguard 27848 E-Book

Peter Jäger

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 70

Beschreibung

The origin of this diary was a gift of my 75 year old aunt Elsa in the mid 90s. It was written by her brother in WWII with a now fading pencil in a kind of old German sutterlin style. So, I decided to type it to be able to read it fluently. The story was so fascinating that I decided to publish and share it in its original language after my aunts death in 2015. The diary covers the last few months my uncle was alive before he was killed at age 24 as a soldier in Russia. The diary covers a small part of WW II from a different point of view what most articles report about the war and Hitlers strategies. It`is the point of view of a young PFC with all the worries and thoughts most soldiers had in the unknown and strange situation of a war.

Leseprobe

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my friend Mark Grantham for his kind assistance in helping me to prepare this book in English language. I made him volunteer to do all necessary corrections. Read what Mark wrote when he had finished his work:

“Hi Peter,

Thank you for allowing me to do this for you. It is a great honor to learn about your uncle and how he did such brave things for his fellow soldiers/friends and for the protection of his home and family during WWII. The likes of his Generation, I fear, will never be seen again on this Earth. Hopefully, we will also never see a war again like he went through. “

Thank You!!

Hey Mark: Air Force rocks!

But most of all I want to thank my wife Petra. It was her idea to publish this book in English language. Petra, I love you.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

The Diary

Thoughts about the campaign against Russia

Notifications to Pauls familiy

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Names and Persons

Prologue

The origin of the diary you hold in your hands was a gift of my 75 year old aunt Elsa in the mid 90’s. It was written by her brother in WWII with a now fading pencil in a kind of old German sutterlin style. So, I decided to type it to be able to read it fluently.

The story was so fascinating that I decided to publish and share it after my aunts death in 2015. The diary covers the last few months my uncle was alive before he was killed at age 24 as a soldier in Russia.

The diary covers a small part of WW II from a different point of view what most articles report about the war and Hitler’s strategies. It’s the point of view of a young PFC with all the worries and thoughts most soldiers had in the unknown and strange situation of a war:

Who is the new commander?

How is the food

Where will I sleep tonight?

The soldiers were excited about mail from home. Some dark thoughts came up when holidays arrived – everybody wanted to be home at Easter or other holidays, thinking of family and great food.

In everyday life, Paul’s focus was not on the war itself or possible death.

However, this subject is discussed, e.g. in the section "Thoughts about the campaign against Russia", it can be seen how intensively one was dealing with this topic.

Remarkable is how accurate Paul’s unit took care about him after his death. All belongings - from socks to chewing gum and cigarettes – were listed and sent back home.

The company commander as well as comrades wrote letters – handwritten or with typewriter.

The printed diary hasn’t been changed regarding structure, style and if possible spelling and punctuation to keep it as authentic as possible.

To complete the story, photos and documents were added to the diary.

The photos were arranged on separate pages because the diary itself doesn’t have any photos at all.

Remember: Paul hasn’t had a cell phone, internet or a daily paper – the information he had was the information he was given!

The Diary

Diary

German Private First Class

Paul Velte

O.U., may 25th 1941

Today, it’s may 25th, 1941.

I decided to write a diary. The time we are living in made me make that decision.

Since march 31st we are on our way, starting from Eichstadt, where our quarters for the winter have been. So many thoughts about what was coming up and where we might be sent to.

So many rumors came up – none became real. Just for that reason – not knowing what will happen and how will it end – in other words I feel absolutely gloomy about my future in this stressful time – I decided to keep track and write this diary.

In case something happens to me in the upcoming campaign I kindly ask the finder of this diary to send it to my parents, who live under the following address:

Family

Paul Velte

Remscheid-Hasten

Ludendorffstr. 34

I will try now to catch up with the time from march 31st until today.

I will pick out just the interesting days only to prevent boring someone by reading unimportant facts.

March 31, 1941, 5.00 o’clock in the morning. Pouring rain outside. The engines of our Henschels, which haven’t been used all winter long are warming up, idling. Today is the day, the beginning of our trip with unknown destiny. It’s said we go to Posen. There we shall be shipped. Where to is hidden in the dark. Orders for departure came, the trucks pull out.

I am driving with the third group, just our sergeant has changed. The new one is Sergeant Stephan, same age. My co-driver is Heinz Pieper. In Warthbrücken we pick up another 2 guys of our company, then we go ahead. In the meantime the sunshine broke through, but it’s still raining- Just before Posen we make a right turn. We proceed to a small village named Ohrendorf.

The company rests in a school building. We drivers stay in a farmhouse. We are really astonished and impressed by the immense troop movements that just take place.

April 3rd, 1941

We arrive at Camp Warthe A huge troop training camp near Posen. Rumors say there’s an exercise. Nobody knows how long we will stay here.

April 5 and 6, 1941

There’s a huge exercise going on; with 47 Generals around. Most guns are tested, they are called D0 guns. The batteries shoot over our heads, we have never experienced anything like that. The air is thunder, the earth is shaking caused by impact after impact.

April 8, 1941

Orders out of the blue. We had to cut loading blocks. Again all we could do is just guess where they will send us to. Some say we will head south, because trouble has started down there.

Others claim we proceed further to the east. But that doesn’t make any sense. We make the short distance to the border to get embarked.

April 11, 1941

Wake up call at 01.30 o‘clock. At 02.30 the vehicles are ready. Ride to the Posen Railway station. Finally, at 11.00 o’clock we get embarked. Like so often we get our job done without any problems. The weather is great, just a little chilly. At 13.00 o’clock the train starts moving.

Original script of diary’s opposite page

April 12, 1941

I woke up at 07.00 o’clock. First of all I try to figure out where we are. We just pass Warsaw. I need to think about the victory parade after the campaign against Poland. Full of pride we passed the Führer. Meanwhile we’ve heard from some railway workers that we have to leave the train in Sidlce, funny name – better we say Slice. We arrive at 13.00 o’clock. My truck left the the train first.

They put us in a school building. A real bughole. We work late to get the rooms clean. We have caught about 20 bugs. All the beds need to be washed off with gasoline to get rid of the bugs. And tomorrow we’ll celebrate Easter!

April 13, 1941 Easter

Today I have to deliver coal and straw to the battalion in pouring rain. Guess I will remember this Easter for a long time!

PFC Paul Velte

April 18, 1941

We shall move again. They want us to move back. They are talking about a two day exercise. About 160 km to our next quarters. The ride starts at 13.00 o‘clock. We’re all in a great mood in my driver’s cab., We’ve all received Easter packages from home. Even late these boxes brought me into Easter holiday mood.

We spend the night in a barn.

April 19, 1941

11.00 o’clock we start and drive all the way through to the new camp. On my way I had two flat tires that needed to be changed. At 22.00 o’clock we arrive at our quarters in Pulaweg on the river Vistula. We are really surprised: We reach a big and brand new base.

But when I think about the base life with all the duties I am kind of scared. For more than two years I’m all around these places and now they put me back to bootcamp? Can’t imagine that.

April 22, 1941