Hans Boche My Story (5) I learned later that we won this hard battle and destroyed many of their tanks before the remainder retreated. We lost two tanks destroyed, and their crews lost I'm afraid. Six other tanks were damaged, mine included. I learnt the details of our personal clobbering later, but all I knew at the time was a bang, smoke in my cockpit, pain in my leg, the engine roaring and then darkness closed over my eyes. I woke lying on straw in a Polish shed behind the lines. Albo and Fonk were there, unhurt. They told me that it was not a Polish shell, which could not penetrate our armour anyway, but we had the worst luck, and as I turned to face the enemy we ran over a large anti-tank mine. It mangled my driving compartment and bent the front driving bogies. It smashed the gearbox casing, the oil from which ran over my legs. My two crew-mates were very shaken but not wounded. I'm afraid I had sustained a category three wound. (Category one was virtually mortally wounded, Category two was very serious and likely to end a military career. Category three was seriously wounded but likely to recover for further Army service.) My right foot had been mangled by the twisted remnants of the control pedals. Two toes and a chunk of foot had gone, the ankle was broken, ditto the leg. Lying in the straw I received first aid from a very gentle young soldier. He bandaged me tightly to stop the bleeding and then I had a pill. It was a knockout drug, as I then woke up in a base hospital miles behind the lines, back at Krzyz. The Hospital was a requisitioned High School. My ward had been the gymnasium and my bed backed onto the wall bars. The next day I was operated on by a fat bewhiskered German surgeon. I only had a numbing anaesthetic in the leg so the Surgeon talked to me as he worked. He told me he was trimming it up, snipping off the loose bits. It would be fine he said and except for a limp I'd be good as new. I rather fancied the idea of a heroes limp. The trimmed areas were stitched and the ankle and leg put in plaster. All I now had to do was lie patiently for a week or two for nature to take its course, then I would be walking wounded for a further few weeks. They said it would take up to two months altogether, so I was taken with about twenty other casualties to recover in an Army Recuperation Centre in Berlin. Some of the other poor devils I was with were in a bad way. Non-essential bits knocked off and broken limbs were alright, it was the internally damaged who were much worse. Some had obviously stopped one or more bullets or pieces of shrapnel. Prostrate, white and groaning, one poor devil succumbed to his wounds in the train. We thought he was dozing but there was no rousing him from this sleep. The Recuperation Centre in Berlin was a magnificent building in the Kurfurstendam. I was immobile in bed for eight days, after that I could walk with difficulty, and two crutches. I was interested to visit other wards and talk to my colleagues. I found a Luftwaffe navigator, injured in a crash landing, who knew Bernard. He did not know where he was now but he had been at the same airfield near Dresden for a few weeks before the war started. He told me how much Bernard, who led a squadron, was admired by his aircrew. This gave me much pride. I was chivvied out of this airmans ward more than once by an officious nurse. She was strict but she was also very pretty. I visited this airman more often than was really necessary, I had also got to like meeting the pretty nurse though she invariably threw me out. After a time I think I detected a softening in her attitude and I was ejected less often. Either the airman was getting better or she was showing me favour. I hoped it was both. I was in contact with my Family in Stuttgart by letter, and had told them of my wounding, but they could not visit Berlin. There was some difficulty in inessential travel at this time. Their letters told me that all were well. Father's stationery firm was now much involved with military forms and paperwork. I knew too well there would be no shortage of work there, the Army ran on Forms. My sister Inge was well, no offspring yet, and I detected a note of regret in Mothers letters that she had no Grandchild from them. Inge's husband Otto was very busy. He a large contract building Flak towers in Stuttgart for anti-aircraft defence. Good for Otto, but I can't think the flak guns would ever be necessary. Hild had a new bicycle, so life at home seemed placid enough. Mother was interested in my mentions of the officious nurse in my letters, perhaps I had written more of her than I thought. They had no news of Bernard other than reports that he was fine. They thought he might be involved in secret missions. The injured airman was getting better every day. He had lost an eye due to ground fire while flying over Poland, and his flying days were over. The Luftwaffe were in charge of the Flak regiments and the injured airman had received notification of transfer to Flak guns in Bonn. That would be quiet enough as I saw no prospect of action in the West. With muted enthusiasm, the reasons for which I will explain, we greeted the end of the war in Poland. Poland was beaten, by a German Army much inferior in numbers, but much superior in man quality and equipment, in only four weeks. The bad news was, despite victory, we had taken over only half of Poland. As I mentioned, just before the war, Russia had agreed a non-aggression pact with Germany and had by agreement now taken over the Eastern half of Poland. Her troops had flooded in and met our armies in uneasy proximity in the middle of the country. The Polish Government had left the sinking ship and flown to London to fawn over Mr Churchill. Poland and Russia had a lot in common, Slavic peoples both, all lacking refinement, to put it kindly. I did not trust Russians. No Germans did, we hated them. They had a despot in charge in Stalin. Their revolutionary ideas and Communist principles were something we did not want in the Third Reich. Our trust was in Hitler, absolutely, so there must have been reasons beyond our understanding for this pact, as he had arranged it. So the war was over, except for some aggressive words from Poland's supposed allies, France and Great Britain, and a few other weak nobodies. I was glad of peace. I was getting better every day. I was nineteen and was a war hero in my own small way. Above all, the officious nurse, who I discovered was called Lotte, now sometimes came to visit me, though I was not on her ward. I was tentative with the opposite sex due to shyness, but I was attracted to Lotte and didn't know what to do about it. Maybe it was the usual male weakness for the nurses uniform. The instincts of Love came to my aid and advanced things for me. Lotte visited me one evening and sat on my bed. After talking for a time we just looked at each other. She reached for my hand and leant towards me. With a boldness which needed more nerve than facing the Polish Army, I leant forward and kissed her. It was sweet, and I saw in it much more than a German girl comforting a wounded youth. There was something happening between us. Lotte admitted this too and I experienced a happiness I had not experienced before. From this kiss there was a tacit agreement that we were each others. I improved at a great rate. I got rid of the crutches and had only a walking stick now. Lotte had a flat in Berlin close to the hospital. I walked her home sometimes, and we would have coffee and sometimes an evening meal. Our contact became inevitably more close, and more physical. I asked Lotte straight out one evening if I could stay all night and she kissed me to show her agreement. I stayed and became a man, lying with my precious Lotte. She was very emotional, and she told me as we lay in bed after lovemaking, that she had been engaged to be married. Her fiancee was killed only a few days before I arrived in Berlin. He had been a pilot in the Luftwaffe. His training was nearly complete when, with a group of ten other valuable pilots they were being flown in a three motored Junkers JU52 Transport aircraft to an airfield at Linz in Austria. The weather had deteriorated, the transport became lost and flew into the mountains of the Austrian Alps. All were killed. It was a great loss to Lotte and a great loss to Germany. If hostilities resumed, which seemed possible, against the so called 'Polish Allies', all men would be wanted, especially pilots. Lotte was naturally very sad about this loss, but in these times it behoved all Germans, including the women, to face up to all the war's reverses for the future greatness of the Third Reich. She told me a little about her dead fiancee, it seemed to help her, and I didn't mind. He was named Erich, they had been engaged for two years. They were both from the University town of Heidelberg, where she had been a nurse and he had been training to be a doctor. After my discharge from Hospital I was given two weeks leave before I had to report back to my Division. I spent the first week staying at Lotte's flat. She continued going to work and I explored Berlin like a tourist. In uniform I was often stopped and congratulated by ordinary people in the street, as if I had defeated the Poles on my own. I had only been to our Capital City of Berlin twice when I was very young. Now I was impressed with the sophistication of the City. There was no evidence of wartime conditions. No blackout or queues. Nothing was bombed, or likely to be with the Luftwaffe ruling the skies. In the evenings when Lotte had finished work we would walk together in the City. I was proud to have such a pretty Fraulein on my arm. Lotte was twenty two, three years older than me. She was small and petite in form with short blonde hair. I was infatuated with her and resented the admiring looks she got from other servicemen in the street, though she only held my arm the tighter when she noticed it. Lotte was on leave herself for the last week of my holiday and we agreed to visit my home town of Stuttgart together and see my people. She was very keen to go but I had worries that my parents would think I was too young for such a relationship, or that she was too old for me as there was three years difference in our ages. My own view was that if I was old enough to fight in the war surely I was old enough to have a woman of my own. I need not have worried. After a long journey from Tempelhof Station in Berlin to Stuttgart, we were welcomed with open arms by my Father and Mother when we got to my home in Milleburg. They were just as delighted to see Lotte as they were to see me. I had to tell them all about my Army service from the moment I joined, to when Lotte held my hand in the Recuperation Centre. There were tears in my Mother's eyes as I told her about the fatal accident in training, and the actual fighting in Poland. Mother and Father also insisted that Lotte tell them all about her experiences since she put on the Army Nurses uniform. Friends from the neighbourhood were brought in and proudly introduced to myself and Lotte. Lotte was wearing her uniform and looked wonderfully smart. I was so proud. I asked about Bernard and my parents told me what little they knew of him from his letters, but he had not been home since the outbreak of the war, and he had only told them that his flying duties were very secret. Perhaps he was flying the Fuhrer's plane. I for one wouldn't have been surprised as I am sure he was a superb pilot. My sister Inge came to visit in the evening with her husband Otto. They both looked smart and prosperous, and had now bought a Mercedes car to replace the Adler. Otto had tried to sign on in the army after me, but was apparently not permitted to join as the work he was engaged in, building the flak towers, was essential to the Reich, and he could not be spared. Otto was a tough sort of chap and wanted to be a Commando, he asked me if I had met his namesake, Otto Skorzeny, the leader of Hitler's Commandos, but of course I had not. Lotte and I slept together at my parents home. Before the war this would have been unthinkable, now it was quite natural. We had intended to stay in Stuttgart for a week and had planned excursions to my old haunts. These best laid plans came to naught for on the second day I received a telegram from my Division to report back within twenty-four hours. 'Das Reich' Division had moved right across Germany and were now at Koblenz in the Rheinland. We were facing West, perhaps we were now going West. Chapter 5. The Greater Europe Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was now late March 1940 and Europe had settled down after the re-adjustment of Poland. England and France did nothing to help Poland while the war was on, but now we were told that these misguided Allies were adopting a very warlike stance. Our stay in Stuttgart had been cut short when I was summoned back for duty at once. Lotte telephoned her Hospital and was also told to report back for duty as soon as possible. She caught a train to Berlin early the following morning, and after taking a fond farewell of my Parents I took train for Koblenz, changing at Frankfurt. Koblenz was full of troops and I eventually was directed to my Division, getting a lift in an Army Lorry full of female telephonists and cipher clerks. My armoured section were billeted in a stables, and in tents in an adjoining orchard. I reported straight away to my Commanding Officer, who was still haughty Willi Hoffmeyer. He was glad to see me, and so far unbent his usual cold manner to pat me on the back and make much of my service in Poland. He told me that he had a medal for me and I would be decorated with it at the next Divisional parade. I didn't care much for such things but I had learned to keep that to myself. It wouldn't hurt me to get it, and I didn't have to wear it. I would send it home, I'm sure Father would like to show it round his office. The cameraderie from Willi was worth having though, and a great honour if you knew him of old as I did. He was a formal type, of old Prussian Junkers Officer background I think. Willi explained the cause of my recall from leave. It was thought that the Alliance of France and Great Britain, having declared war on us in September 1939 because of Poland, might attack us soon. There were many British troops in France. Why France and Britain wanted anything to do with dirty Poland was beyond my poor understanding. I could have understood if they had been allied to Germany, that would have made much more sense, we could have stood against the world. I think the reason for this mis-alliance was to preserve what they called 'The Balance of Power in Europe'. In other words a political trick. Whatever the reason, the French and British armies and some Belgian forces were manoevering in Great strength not far from the German border. Willi told me in confidence that there were now twenty one German Divisions from Switzerland in the South, to Friesland in the North, ready for anything. A quarter of a million men. What strength we had. It would be very unwise of the Allies to start anything. I wanted to know about 'my' tank. I already knew the other two of my crew were unhurt but what of our Panzer? Willi told me that it had been taken away, as unrepairable in the field, to tank workshops in Bremen. Much heavy engineering took place in Bremen, including ship and submarine work. Albo and Fonk had to kick their heels for a while after that last battle in Poland as there was no spare tank. One was then issued a week or so later and a reserve driver allocated. They had taken part in a few remaining Police actions in Poland, tidying up the loose ends during the establishment of German Gauleiters in the districts liberated. I was glad to be re-united with Albo and Fonk that evening when they returned from exercises. The reserve driver also joined us in the mess and they had obviously had all got on well enough. My replacement was called Albert and had been a tram driver in Berlin. Albo and Fonk said he never learnt to steer as they don't steer trams. Albert took it all in good part, he was going to be transferred to another tank tomorrow whose driver was sick. My crewmates and I talked ten to the dozen. They pounced on my mention of Lotte in the Hospital, and soon realised that this was not a case for the usual crude barrack room repartee. They could see how serious I was about her, and wished me well, but insisted that I do not deliberately get wounded again to go back to Lotte in Berlin. I soon settled back in and went out on exercises the next day. The new Panzer was excellent, the engine had more power than the previous model. Albo and Fonk seemed seasoned warriors to me and Willi conducted his squadron with much more dash. Nothing breeds confidence like success.
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