Post-War German Soldier Saga

[Jim Van Eldik]

Folks - For a fascinating look at the post war experiences of an SS combat soldier, and how he managed to hang on to his Luger, read response to Question for JuergenG below.

Thank you Juergen!

As far as stories go, my wife has a German bakery/restaurant, many customers are elderly Germans, we all speak German, after a few visits I get to know these people & have invited them to see my "collection", then the stories begin. It is amazing to speak with the men who actually were on the Eastern front, who were in Italy and France, and tell real stories about the weapons. The favorite is the 98k.It is a great ice breaker to show the old hardware and when they learn you want to hear their stories they open up. My favorite is an Eastern Front veteran who while looking at a Mod 91 Nagant I asked him if it looked familiar. He said "point it at me and charge with the bayonet. That's the only way I ever saw them."

RGG/Roadkill

PS - translations free of charge

[Lonnie Zimmerman]

Another great story!


Lonnie

Roadkill, that is a cool story. When I was over in Holland, I made friends with an elderly gentleman and his wife. He had been in the resistance and one day I sat him down and talked for a couple of hours, in front of a video camera. So many neat stories and when they are gone...


Those german soldiers have stories that must be unbeleivable, the Eastern Front was pretty tough!


I would love to sit and hear them, although my German has never been nicht gut.


Ed

Germans come for 100+ miles to my wife's place and the majority of them are female. But whem grandpa comes to visit the kids he's usually a little out of place there. That's when I move in. I've got to know three of the original Von Braun team members (one with his wife comes every two weeks, he is 92, she 91),a ME 262 pilot(he showed me where they carried the parachute knives), a Hitler Jungend Pimpf(youth leader), two AA battery members (15 year olds drafted at the end). If you have seen the film of the Germans in France parading at the Arc De Triomphe there is a General on a white horse. He was General Romer, his daughter comes to the shop and her husband has brought his P38 to show me. And so it goes.


RGG/Roadkill

I forgot the obvious. My father in law jumped at Crete and was at Monte Cassino. He never cared much for me so we never talked much. Come to think of it not at all. Its was a little uncomfortable to look at the family albums in the 39-45 time. They were all on the other side. But I had eight uncles in WWII on the US side so It all works out. Most all are gone now anyway. But I got some neat stuff!

In the mid 1960s while a young engineer at Anheuser Busch, I was flirting with an attractive young secretary in the brew house. It turned out that she was interest in sky-diving because her father had been a paratrooper in WW2. Later in the conversation, it turned out that they had emegrated to the US in 1947. How do you spell Fallstrum Jaeger? Tom h.

Grady where are you located? Hope near me.

Dear Tom - do you mean Fallschirmjaeger?

Regards -

Terry Foley