1942: Year of Decision for the Third Reich

German-controlled territory, 1942

The year 1941 had not gone well for Germany. She “had staked all on [operation] BARBAROSSA, but that operation had failed. That failure had significantly blunted her military capabilities and placed all her war aims in jeopardy. Thus the following year, 1942, was a year of decision.

Historians Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millet note that “the strategic decisions and the outcome of the battles of 1942 [would determine] the final course of the war.”[1] The whole question was, as they put it, “whether the Reich could patch together sufficient military forces to finish the war, or whether the United States and Britain, desperately arming to make up for [lost time], and the Soviet Union, grievously wounded in 1941, could hold on long enough for their economic strength to prevail.”[2] The answer to that great question would depend upon the outcomes of the battles in North Africa and on the eastern front—particularly at Stalingrad and Kursk.

Despite his intent to avoid Germany’s catastrophic error of the First World War, of having to fight a war on two fronts, one to her east and one to her west, Hitler found himself in 1942 entangled in what quite possibly was an even worse situation. Despite his best intentions, he found himself still fighting the Soviet Union, even after BARBAROSSA, while at the same time he was having to defend against a British assault against Axis possessions in east North Africa. Britain’s fight against Italian forces in Egypt and in Libya threated Germany’s control of the Mediterranean and, hence, her lines of supply. Hitler seemed to have to have little choice but to dispatch an entire corps, led by one of his ablest commanders, to restore a rapidly degrading situation on the northern coasts of the continent of Africa. Thus, the Mediterranean became a second theater of operations for Germany.

What Does a Tchibo Coffee Shop--Circa 1990--Have to do with the Second World War?

The Reichstag in Berlin

Recently I was asked to tell about what historical sites I have visited that have to do with World War II.  My answer centered on the nine years I spent in Germany.

When I was on active duty, I served for about ten years in what used to be called the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). I consider the country itself an historical site. I had duty assignments within the old British and American zones of occupation (and I was thus qualified to wear a German Occupation Medal on my dress uniform). During those years I became familiar with the German language and did a moderate amount of travelling. Though my travels were never with the intent, except on one occasion, to visit WWII historical sites, I saw several. 

Most of the historical sites I visited in Germany were related to the Cold War, but some also had an overlapping significance in terms of WWII. For instance, one of my assignments was to the Berlin Brigade. For a time I even had a barracks room on what was is an old Nazi Kaserne. Sorry, but I’ve forgotten the name of the place. I want to say it was Andrews Barracks, but I’m not certain. The Reichstag and the Tiergarten were points of interest during my touring of Berlin. Both figure prominently in the Battle of Berlin. 

Cologne

I also visited the old Soviet War Memorial in what used to be East Germany. During that assignment Rudolf Hoess was still a prisoner in the Spandau prison. I remember reading about it in the Stars and Stripes newspaper. After he died, they destroyed the prison. In the city of Frankfurt, I visited my battalion headquarters building several times. It was the same building that the old I. G. Farben company had used for a headquarters. Of course, I also visited the Rhine River, crossing it at several places—including at the city of Cologne where the ruined façade of that old church with the twin steeples, near the bridge that one sees in WWII photos, still stands. I also travelled through Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. 

When reading about Operation MARKET-GARDEN, I can identify some of the towns that I visited. In Luxembourg, on the only occasion I purposely traveled to a WWII historical site, I visited the American Cemetery and Memorial there and saw General Patton’s grave. I passed near the Lueneberge Heide scores of times, completely clueless to the fact that Montgomery took the German surrender there. On a trip to Bertchesgaden in the German Alps I stayed in a hotel that had once been an American headquarters. 

The pedestrian zone in Worms.  The coffee shop is on the left,
but not visible.  Its sign, "Tchibo," sign is visible above
the man with the blue hat.

And one day while drinking coffee in a café in Worms, I got into a conversation with an old German man who had been a soldier in the war. The things I remember most about that conversation were his stories of how far he traveled on foot during the war—from north Germany to Poland, back to Germany again, to the western front, and then to the south. It never occurred to me until much later that had this gentlemen marched further east, into Soviet controlled territory, he probably would not have lived to have that conversation with me.

Postcards

My postcard box

For some reason today I went through this old shoebox I've kept for years full of postcards from my travels.  Once I got started, it was impossible to stop.  I went through them all, even reading those that had been through the mail.

Ruedesheim am Rhein

I haven't traveled much since retiring from the Army, but I've been to a lot of places.  The cards sort of document my travels.  In Germany, I visited places like Ruedesheim on the Rhine.  That was a place accessible on the Rhein cruises.  But I think we drove there more often.  The quintessential Rheinland-Pfalz town.  Just made for postcards.

The bridge house in Bad Kreuznach

Bad Kreuznach was the first German town I ever experienced.  I was stationed there in the early '80s, employed by the 232nd Signal Company (headquartered in Worms), 102nd Signal Battalion (headquartered in Frankfurt). My barracks were on the old hospital kaserne which, I understand, no longer exists.  I worked shifts in a Defense Information Systems Agency (back when it was called the Defense Communications Agency) communications station--a microwave/technical control facility--on the top of Cow Hill (Kuberg).  I remember climbing the antenna tower one New Years' Eve (highly unauthorized) to view the town's fireworks display.  Nearby locals were also shooting their own, and they seemed to be aiming for my antenna tower!  So I didn't stay up for as long as I would have liked.

About a year and a half after leaving BK, I returned to Germany, this time to Helmstedt, in Niedersachsen, and this time with a family.  We had one daughter when we got there and two when we left.  In Helmstedt, I worked at the Helmstedt Support Detachment, a unit of the 6/40th Armor Battalion, Berlin Brigade.  We traveled to so many places from Helmstedt--to Berlin, of course, and to nearby small towns, to Schoeningen, to Koenigslutter, to Celle and Wolfsburg, to Braunschweig and Hannover, and to the Harz Mountains.  We were at Helmstedt when, on the night of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and all the travel restrictions between East and West Germany were overcome by events.  Out town was flooded, absolutely flooded with East German cars, little light-blue Trabants, or "Trabbies" as they were called.  We traveled to Dusseldorf, to Frankfurt am Main, and to Heilbronn, down in Bavaria.  We rode the duty train from Helmstedt to Frankfurt and back.  From Frankfurt, I connected to Heilbronn to visit friends there.  We also visited Switzerland once, and Liechtenstein, and I made a trip or two to Rotterdam, in Holland.

Taukkunnen Kaserne in Worms

Within six months of the Berlin Wall falling, we learned that our little detachment would deactivate.  I was sent a few months later to Worms, about a six hour drive to the south.  I worked at the headquarters of the 5th Signal Command on the old Taukkunnen Kaserne.  We spent three years in Worms and did quite a bit of traveling.  Our longest trips were to Berchesgaden, deep in southern Bavaria, and to Austria, and to Holland. The German towns we visited included Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Speyer, all the little villages along the Rhein and the Deutche Weinstrasse, Kaiserslautern (or K-town, as the Americans called it), and Ramstein, and many others.