The Streets Were Full Of German Girls Walking With American GIs
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- Опубликовано: 7 ноя 2023
- Watch our video "The Streets Were Full Of German Girls Walking With American GIs" and Explore the remarkable journey of a young individual during World War II, as he progresses from leaving school at fifteen to becoming the driver of a Tiger 1 tank in the Wehrmacht Heavy Panzer battalions by the age of eighteen. Delve into the gripping narrative of surviving the Battle of Halbe in April 1945 and the incredible breakout from a Red Army encirclement. This video provides a unique perspective on the experiences of those who served during the tumultuous final days of the war. Discover the personal sacrifices, challenges, and unwavering resilience in the face of overwhelming odds, as this young man, a commander of a Panther tank with the 21st Panzer Division, spearheaded breakout attempts that defined an era.
This is the link of the playlist • Memoirs of a Panther T...
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Part 6 ( Last Part) of Memoirs of a German Panther Tank Commander, He left school at age 15, going directly into the German youth labor forces and then the Wehrmacht panzer training schools. By the age of 18, he was the driver of a Tiger 1 tank in the Wehrmacht Heavy Panzer battalions, seeing extensive service on the Eastern Front from 1943-45, during which time his family were killed by Allied bombing. After experiencing the catastrophe of the Battle of Halbe in April 1945, he managed to break through Russian lines and surrender to the Americans on the last day of the war, a fact for which he was eternally grateful.
I lost my Grandfather three weeks before the war ended. He was fighting the bolsheviks from going to Berlin. It took twenty-five years to confirm he had given his life for his country. After hearing this story, I feel that much closer to him.
I was sent to Germany in 1969, serving on a HAWK missile site near Schweinfurt. I was 17 years old. I spent about 18 months there. There were many signs of WW2 still there. It was very strange traveling and seeing things & meeting old german soldiers. The whole country was a historic place.
I grew up having a neighbor who was west of Stalingrad. I fought until the last days . Having to abandon his home in West Prussia. His wife and him self crossed to the British . He came to America in the late 40s . I will never forget Dorothea and her wonderful bread she would bake and give my mother . Rest In Peace Mr and Weiss I will always remember you .
I heard about this from Vets who were there at the time. I was stationed in Germany in the 70s and Germans told me about it as well. There was nothing there after the war was over. Food was rationed. And the ration they were giving out was the bare minimum that one needs. One German woman told me that if anyone handed in forged ration stamps they'd be shot. (Don't know if that's true but that's what she told me.) At the time it was a matter of survival. What everyone all across Germany knew was that American GIs had cash and could provide for a German Fraulein. And a soldier's pay at the time could buy a lot in Germany at that time. From what I heard about it, there were multitudes of German women looking to find a GI to get food or cash because their family was in desparate need. It could be a single young 17 year old or even a German married woman. The hope was that the German woman could marry a GI, go to the states and send back cash to the family. I heard that Berlin, especially, was heaven on earth for a GI. And it didn't really matter which GI because there weren't enough to go around. Mixed marriages were no problem.
It must have taken great courage to relive all of this and put it into words. I tried to talk to my grandfather about his war in Greece, Crete and North Africa before he was severely wounded fighting Rommel's forces. He didn't want to talk about it and I understand why, he had lost his two brother in laws and he was the last of our family to see them alive. Years later at his funeral an old man I had never met before walked up to me, shook my hand and told me your grandfather Sunshine or Glip was a brave man and saved us many times. His life was saved by a German medic when he was wounded and then the medic retreated with the Italians that were meant to be guarding him. He survived the war, but I still to this day remember the large chunk missing from his wrist and his happy face laughing at his standing joke that he he had more of his arse on his face that any man alive because of the multiple face reconstruction operations he had. The fact is that war is now a function of profit and the sacrifice of this generation has be squandered by generations of pathetic politicians in the pocket of the military industrial complex, all of which should be given a rifle and put in the front lines of Ukraine and Gaza and be made to face what their profit driven wars do to people.
The poignant ending where the German soldier looks for a girl that he had fallen in love with, only to discover upon his return to civilian life that she had been raped and murdered by a drunken American soldier was a sad turn for this story. Interestingly, the outcome described (hanging) of that rapist murderer isn't unusual. There is, in Normandy, an unmarked military cemetery (Plot E) reserved for those former military (as they were dishonorably discharged before their executions) who have been convicted of capital crimes and had suffered the highest punishment, death, for their transgressions.
I’m an old army brat. My dad was stationed in Germany from 56 to 59. The people were generally nice but no way around it we Americans were occupying Germany.
A friend of my Dads in the 1970s had been in the German army at the end of the war, had been captured by the Soviets but somehow got back and then to America (never heard how). Recall he wouldn’t let his sons watch Hogans Heros or build German WWII tank or aircraft models. Every year his family set up a huge 25 foot Christmas tree in their chalet-style house.
Thank You so very much for posting this story. I am a WWII historian and I have never heard a first person recount of a German soldier trying to escape Russian occupation zones for American in the final days of the war. Ive heard all about it, but never a first hand account. So happy this story is passed on and not lost in time. Im curious as to what ever became of this tank commander in post war Germany. Amazing that he was able to survive all that chaos and death. A tank crew at the end of the war and nothing but a few minutes life expectancy and against all odd he survived. Truly, a incredible story. Both of my grandfathers fought in the war and now both buried at Arlington Cemetery, strangely enough just a few rows apart but having not meet until many years later.
I remember world war 2 very well and they drafted me into the Volkssturm by the end of 1944 at the age of 11 years in Schlesien being trained at the Panzerfaust. I wondered that I have survived it at all.
An amazing story of survival and death.
Uh, I dated a German girl during my hitch in '83-'85.
This was probably one of the saddest stories. I can’t imagine how much horror he endured.
62 year old American.
This memoir is one of the best stories ive heard in a while
This story would be the most incredible movie ever made..
Thank you for publishing these touching, staggering memoirs of this German soldier! My father was a german naval officer in the Second World War, was sunk twice off Norway as a minesweeper commander and never reported on his war experiences until his death in 1993.
Most powerful and detail rich testimony of WW2 I've ever seen. It truly made me imerse myself into the story, almost as I was there. Almost could hear the bombs feel the fear. Imagine all those civilians trying to flee. I imagine how it was for the author, going through all of it, since kursk all the way to the end. It made me truly realize how horrifying and terrible war is, and the scale of human loss, destruction, trauma and violence occurred in WW2, up until the very end
for all the talk of the panther being extremely over-engineered and unreliable, that solitary tank held up pretty damn well - like it knew the importance of it's mission even outside of it's designed purpose.