Blood and Steel 2: The Wehrmacht Archive - Retreat to the Reich, September to December 1944 by Graves Donald E

Author:Graves, Donald E.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473845749
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2015-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

Training Company:

500 men (75% ‘Magen’ personnel) all aged over 35

Convalescent Company:

Approximately 150 men

During the preceding few months, personnel of these companies underwent a fairly thorough training course in field manoeuvres, weapons and (particularly since August 1944), gas. According to the PW, it has been stated by the instructional cadre that use of gas by the Allies was a possibility. No new methods were introduced, or new type of equipment employed, but gas training was taken much more seriously than before and the instruction given was more detailed and rigid.

On 1 October a draft of 250 men, all of them suffering from some kind of stomach ailment, were formed into a marsch company and herded into six freight cars for the move to the front. Like so many reinforcement drafts, they had no inkling of their destination, and even now it is by no means easy to establish their route. The journey appears, however, to have carried them from Eschwege through Dortmund, Bochum, Essen, Duisberg, Zutphen, Apeldoorn, Utrecht and Zundert. Most of this was achieved by train, although PW had a hazy recollection of a lorry journey somewhere in Holland, and of some distance travelled on foot. It was ten days, from the time of leaving Eschwege, before they reached Zundert, where they rested for two days prior to going to their unit in the line. During the journey, several detours had to be made to circumvent damaged rail centres, and no attempt was made to travel by day due to the threat of our air attacks. According to one PW, the men hid out in wooded areas during the daytime, and occasionally obtained food from local resources. As a result of one of these foraging expeditions, forty men missed the train, and in the course of the trip about fifty more fell ill and had to be left behind. A Regimental Sergeant Major and three men were killed in a bombing attack at Rheine and of the original 250, only 160 finally reached the dispersal area.

On 12 October, after two days’ rest at Zundert, the company marched to a village near Calmpthout. There they were split up into groups. PW finding themselves surprisingly quickly in the front line (as part of 7 Company, 857th Grenadier Regiment) where they stayed for about a week before gratefully accepting an opportunity to desert.

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