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Post by pieter on Sept 22, 2021 11:15:49 GMT -7
9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen The 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" (German: 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen") was a Waffen-SS armoured division of Nazi Germany during World War II. It participated in battles on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The division was activated in December 1942. Many of the men of the division were young German conscripts, with a cadre of NCOs (non-commissioned officers) and staff from the SS Division Leibstandarte and other Waffen SS divisions. Hohenstaufen took part in the relief of German forces in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket, the Normandy battles, Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes Offensive and Operation Spring Awakening. The division surrendered to the United States Army on 8 May 1945, at Steyr, an Austrian city in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria.The crew of a PzKpfw IV Ausf J of the Hohenstaufen Division.SS Panzergrenadiers of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" with British prisoners of war in Arnhem, september 1944.Men of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" in Normandy, where they were before ArnhemThe 9.SS-Panzer-Division "Hohenstaufen" was not a very highly photographed unit, and pictures of this formation are hard to come by. However, this is strange when you consider the impact this unit.Men of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" in Arnhem, September 1944SS Panzer Grenadiers of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" enter Arnhem in 1944Members of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" with British prisoners of war in ArnhemA caputured American Jeep of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" with prisoners of warSS Grenadiers of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" in ArnhemSS Grenadiers of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" in Arnhem with British prisoners of warSS Grenadiers of the 9. SS-Panzerdivision "Hohenstaufen" rest after combatFormation and Eastern FrontThe SS Division Hohenstaufen was formed, along with its sister formation 10th SS Division Frundsberg, in France in February 1943. The division was mainly formed from Reich Labour Service conscripts. Originally, Hohenstaufen was designated as a Panzergrenadier division, but in October 1943 it was upgraded to Panzer division status, with an estimated manpower of about 19,000. At its formation, Hohenstaufen was commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich.[6] The title Hohenstaufen came from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, a German noble family who produced a number of kings and emperors in the 12th and 13th centuries AD.
After the encirclement of General Hans-Valentin Hube's 1st Panzer Army in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket in Ukraine, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein requested that the Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg divisions be sent to attempt to link up with the encircled force.[8] Arriving in late March 1944, the divisions were formed into the II SS Panzer Corps and were sent into the attack near the town of Tarnopol.[9] In three days of combat, the Hohenstaufen destroyed 74 Soviet tanks, 84 self propelled assault guns, 21 anti tank guns, and 12 mortars. After heavy fighting in the season of rasputitsa ("roadlessness"), the division effected a link-up with Hube's forces near the town of Buchach. The division's actions helped prevent the encirclement of the 1st Panzer Army.[10] During these battles, Hohenstaufen had suffered 1,011 casualties. The II SS Panzer Corps was to act as reserve for Army Group North Ukraine. After the Allied invasion of northern France on 6 June 1944, the II SS Panzer Corps, including Hohenstaufen, was sent west on 12 June, to defend Caen in Normandy.Western FrontNormandyHohenstaufen suffered losses from Allied fighter bombers during its move to Normandy, delaying its arrival until 26 June 1944. Approximately 50% of the division's tanks broke down during its movement to Normandy. The division's armored forces would be reinforced by the newly attached 102nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. This would provide Hohenstaufen with 127 additional combat vehicles including 79 Panther tanks. The original plan for Hohenstaufen to attack towards the Allied beachhead was made impossible by a British offensive to take Caen. The II SS Panzer Corps was instead put into the line to support the weakened forces defending Caen, where Hohenstaufen suffered 1,891 casualties. On 10 July, the division was pulled back into reserve, to be replaced by the 277th Infantry Division. The division's depleted Panzergrenadier regiments were eventually merged to form Panzergrenadier Regiment Hohenstaufen. The division saw much action defending against British armour during Operation Goodwood. During Operation Jupiter Hohenstaufen destroyed 58 British tanks with many of them being Churchill tanks.
After the launch of the Canadian Operation Totalize, Hohenstaufen avoided encirclement in the Falaise pocket and kept the narrow escape route from this pocket open. By 21 August, the Battle of Normandy was over, and the German forces were in full retreat. Obersturmbannführer Walter Harzer was placed in command of the division. It fought several rearguard actions during the retreat through France and Belgium and in early September 1944, the exhausted formation was pulled out of the line for rest and refit near the Dutch city of Arnhem. By this time, Hohenstaufen was down to approximately 7,000 men, from 15,900 at the end of June.ArnhemSoldiers ride a Sturmgeschütz III through the streets of Arnhem during Market GardenUpon arriving in the Arnhem area, the majority of the remaining armoured vehicles were loaded onto trains in preparation for transport to repair depots in Germany. On Sunday, 17 September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market-Garden, and the division fought in the Battle of Arnhem. The British 1st Airborne Division was dropped in Oosterbeek, to the west of Arnhem. Only the division's reconnaissance battalion, equipped mostly with wheeled and half tracked vehicles, was ready for action.
Members of the 9. SS Div. captured by British forces after the Battle of Arnhem
Bittrich ordered Hohenstaufen to occupy Arnhem and secure a vital metal girder bridge (later torn down, rebuilt in concrete and named John Frost Bridge).[16] The division encountered stiff resistance from the British Rote Teufeln (Eng. "Red Devils") 1st Airborne Division. The Reconnaissance Battalion, a 40-vehicle unit commanded by Hauptsturmführer Viktor Eberhard Gräbner, was sent south over the bridge to scout the area around Nijmegen. The bridge had already been captured by the Germans. Meanwhile, Colonel John Frost's 2nd Battalion of the British 1st Airborne Division had advanced into Arnhem and prepared defensive positions at the northern end of the bridge. They destroyed Gräbner's unit, which lost 12 vehicles out of 22 in the assault and around 70 men killed, including Gräbner. In all, the British 1st Airborne Division suffered 7,167 casualties out of 10,095 men.[19] This action is depicted in the film A Bridge Too Far.Ardennes OffensiveAfter the battle of Arnhem, Hohenstaufen moved to Paderborn for a much-needed rest and refit. On 12 December 1944, the division moved south to the Munstereifel. It was to act as a reserve for Sepp Dietrich's 6th SS Panzer Army, a part of the Ardennes offensive (Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein). The 6th Panzer Army was to attack in the north, along the line St. Vith–Vielsalm. Initially, only the divisional reconnaissance and artillery units were involved in the fighting but on 21 December, the entire division was committed. The 9th SS Division tried to breakthrough defensive positions of the 82nd Airborne Division but failed.When the attack in the north stalled, the division was sent south to assist in the attacks on Bastogne, where it took heavy casualties from the American defenders and lost much of its equipment to Allied ground attack aircraft. On 7 January 1945, Hitler called off the operation and ordered all forces to concentrate around Longchamps, Belgium. Hungary and surrender
Throughout the rest of January 1945, Hohenstaufen retreated to the German border. At the end of the month, the division was transferred to the Kaifenheim-Mayen area to be refitted. At the end of February, the division was sent east to Hungary as a part of the reformed 6th SS Panzer Army under Sepp Dietrich. The division, along with the majority of the SS Panzer units available, was to take part in Operation Spring Awakening, the offensive near Lake Balaton, which was aimed at relieving the forces encircled in Budapest by the Red Army.The attack got under way on 6 March 1945. Due to the condition of the roads, the division had not reached its jump-off position when the attack began. A combination of mud and stiff Soviet resistance brought the offensive to a halt and on 16 March a Soviet counter-offensive threatened to cut off the 6th SS Panzer Army. Hohenstaufen was involved in the fighting to escape the Soviet encirclement. During these actions, Hohenstaufen destroyed 80 Soviet T-34 and IS tanks. On 1 May, the greatly depleted division was moved west to the Steyr–Amstetten area. On 8 May 1945, Hohenstaufen surrendered to the Americans.
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Post by pieter on Sept 22, 2021 12:29:11 GMT -7
10. SS-Panzerdivision "Frundsberg"The 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" (German: 10. SS-Panzerdivision "Frundsberg") was a German Waffen-SS armoured division during World War II. The division's first battles were in Ukraine in April 1944. Afterwards, the unit was then transferred to the west, where it fought the Allies in France and at Arnhem. The division was moved to Pomerania, then fought south east of Berlin in the Lusatian area until the end of the war. HistoryPanther Ausf G tanks of 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg winter camo Alsace December 1944The division received the honor title Frundsberg after the 16th Century German commander Georg von Frundsberg. The division was mainly formed from conscripts. It first saw action at Tarnopol in April 1944 and later took part in the relief of the German troops cut off in the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket.
It was then sent to Normandy to counter the Allied landings, where, along with the SS Division Hohenstaufen, it took part in fighting against the Allied Operation Epsom. They spent the rest of July repulsing British attacks against Hill 112 and Hill 113, most notably during Operation Jupiter. After two weeks of fighting in August against the British during Operation Bluecoat and the Americans at Domfront the division was like many other units encircled at Falaise. They were intended to take part in the counterattack conducted by the II. SS-Panzerkorps but due to the confusion and chaos in the pocket the attack broke down. SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Regiment 21 struck towards St. Lambert but got repulsed. After that the planned attack of the Frundsberg was abandoned and they were ordered to break out between St. Lambert and Chambois.
The 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg" suffered heavy casualties and retreated into Belgium before being sent to be reconstituted near Arnhem, where it soon fought the Allied airborne troops during Operation Market Garden at Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, when together with the 9th SS Panzer division it constituted the II SS Panzer Corps. The division however suffered heavy losses in the ensuing counter offensive against the Nijmegen salient in early October. After rebuilding, it fought in the Alsace in January 1945. It was then sent to the Eastern Front, where it fought against the Red Army in Pomerania and then Saxony. Encircled in the Halbe Pocket, the division effected a breakout and retreated through Moritzburg, before reaching the area of Teplice in Czechoslovakia, where the division surrendered to the US Army at the end of the war.Panzerbefehlswagen III of the 10. SS Panzer-Division Frundsberg on trailer"Panther" of the 10.SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg"Sturmgeschutz 10th+SS-Panzer Division Frundsberg in Maaseik, a town and municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg, autumn 1944.Waffen SS Pz.Kpfw IV ausf G of the 10 Panzer Division Frundsberg Tarnopol 1944Members of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg"Gunners of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg"Members of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg"
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Post by pieter on Sept 22, 2021 13:03:08 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 22, 2021 13:08:44 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Sept 22, 2021 13:10:03 GMT -7
On September 21, 1944, the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade landed during operation Market Garden near the village of Driel. The consequences were great, both for the civilian population of Driel and for the Polish paratroopers. The Poles were wrongly blamed for the failure of the battle . For the inhabitants of Driel, however, the Poles are their liberators who have been honored and commemorated with great affection since 1946.
Under the inspiring leadership of Cora Baltussen and with the help of Prince Bernhard, the Poles were rehabilitated in 2006 and received the Military Order of William, while Major Sosabowski, who has since passed away, was posthumously awarded the bronze lion. During this guided tour with Arno Baltussen from the foundation Driel-Poland, we follow the footsteps of the Polish paratroopers during operation Market Garden.
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Post by karl on Sept 22, 2021 20:28:50 GMT -7
Pieter
I must say, my self have viewed your very well done, presentation of Market Garden. This, accompanied by some very well documented photos of the machines of war and the solders that fought at that time.
My confession is I was not in first to view this presentation for reasons that are my own. I was struck first by the dead solder laying as he died in front of a Kubelwagen that perhaps was the machine he had been responsible for. That view photo caught my heart for this I must say in spite for going against the currant of this forum, but it needs to have been said by my self with no anger what so ever.
The other photo was of a Sturmgeschütz 111, this machine was equipt with the cast steel hogs head cannon protective armour. My thoughts then returned to my father and how he had died and was it in honour, did he die at once or was he left in the destroyed machine he commanded, or was he left on the ground as that solder in front of his auto.
My self do feel very much compassion for you, your father and your country that suffered so much in the war. Whilst also, do I feel very much compassion for Jaga, her family and her country that suffered so badly in that war. But, It is that I must say also what is to be said.
Life is not always what we wish for it to be, but this means not that our respective feelings are dead, for the living that we are is what we are.
Karl
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Post by pieter on Sept 23, 2021 13:25:29 GMT -7
Karl,
In a war there are 2 sides of a conflict. In the Netherlands and other coutries for a long time there was only interest in ‘our’ side of the conflict. The Dutch civillian casualties of Market Garden in Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Velp, Westervoort, Driel and Nijmegen and the fallen British, Polish and Amercan soldiers. But where a war is fought there are 2 sides and thus also German and Austrian casualties. Waffen-SS men of the 2 SS-Panzer divisions that were stationed there. And probably also some Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe units.
Due to the fact that the German and Austrian armed forces were occupiers there was little interest, empathy, understanding and compassion for the German and Austrian dead of that war. Bombardements of hundreds of German and Austrian towns, cities and other targets with hundreds of thousands of civillian deaths were seen as justified means against a nazified population whom supported Adolf Hitler. They were seen as collective punishment and or collatoral damage.
As someone who studied history I am interested in all sides of a war. Also the other side which the Dutch, Poles, Brits, Americans and Canadians saw as the evil empire, the devil, the dark side, the destructive side, the Crowds, the Huns and ‘the Moffen’ or ‘the Pruss’ (Prusians) and thus Barbaric oppressors, occupiers and tormentors. In reality you had political motivated SS men, indoctrinated with the Nazi ideology in the Hitler Youth and later within the Waffen-SS. But you also had German men whom were less Nazi minded and less anti-semitic and anti-Slavic, but whom were German nationalist and Patriots who wanted to join elite special forces units of the Wehrmacht or the Waffen-SS. Market Garden was largely fought by Waffen-SS Panzer divisions with heavy tanks, armoured vehicles, and heavy machine guns.
The British, Polish and American Airborne troops were experienced professional soldiers and officers. It was late in the war, so most of these men had long training in England and Scotland (the Poles) behind them and probably had fought elsewhere. The 1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) under the command of Lieutenant-general Frederick A.M. Browning and Major-general Roy E. Urquhart had seen combat in France, Norway, North Africa, Italy (Sicily), and training for Normandy, which later was used for Market Garden in September 1944.
The first two missions of the 1st Airborne Division—Operation Biting, a parachute landing in France, and Operation Freshman, a glider mission in Norway—were both raids. Part of the division was sent to North Africa at the end of 1942, where it fought in the Tunisian Campaign, and when the Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943, the division undertook two brigade sized landings. The first, Operation Ladbroke, carried out by glider infantry of the 1st Airlanding Brigade and the second, Operation Fustian, by the 1st Parachute Brigade, were far from completely successful. The 1st Airborne Division then took part in a mostly diversionary amphibious landing, codenamed Operation Slapstick, as part of the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943.
In December, most of the 1st Airborne Division (minus the 2nd Parachute Brigade) returned to England, and began training and preparing for the Allied invasion of Normandy. It was not involved in the Normandy landings in June 1944, being held in reserve. In September 1944 the 1st Airborne took part in Operation Market Garden. The division, with the Polish 1st Parachute Brigade temporarily attached, landed 60 miles (97 km) behind German lines, to capture crossings on the River Rhine, and fought in the Battle of Arnhem. After failing to achieve its objectives, the division was surrounded and took very heavy casualties, but held out for nine days before the survivors were evacuated.
The American 101st Airborne Division, which was activated on 16 August 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, was trained there and then transported to the United Kingdom in Euope. From there it participated in D-day and the battles of Normandy, France and later participated in Market Garden in September 1944. The 82nd Airborne Division served in World War II where, in August 1942, it was reconstituted as the first airborne division of the U.S. Army and fought in numerous campaigns during the war. The fought in Sicily, Italy and Normandy (France) before it participated in Market Garden in the Netherlands in September 1944.
The 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade was a parachute infantry brigade of the Polish Armed Forces in the West under the command of Major General Stanisław Sosabowski, created in September 1941 during the Second World War and based in Scotland.
Originally, the brigade's exclusive mission was to drop into occupied Poland in order to help liberate the country. The British government, however, pressured the Poles into allowing the unit to be used in the Western theatre of war. Operation Market Garden eventually saw the unit sent into action in support of the British 1st Airborne Division at the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. The Poles were initially landed by glider from 18 September, whilst, due to bad weather over England, the parachute section of the Brigade was held up, and jumped on 21 September at Driel on the South bank of the Rhine. The Poles suffered significant casualties during the next few days of fighting, but still were able, by their presence, to cause around 2,500 German troops to be diverted to deal with them for fear of their supporting the remnants of the 1st Airborne trapped over the lower Rhine in Oosterbeek.
I understand your reluctance to view this presentation for reasons that your father was active as a Wehrmacht tank commander on the Eastern Front. Images of similar tanks or war circumstances would remind you to much of your fathers combat and death on the Eastern Front. The dead presumably German solder laying in front of that Kubelwagen is the ugly side of Market Garden in Arnhem. Many civilians that had to leave and flee Arnhem saw a lot of dead soldiers along the road while fleeing Arnhem. That left a lasting impression on many of them, next to the fact that most of them lost their homes and all their possessions. Many of them were poor as a result of that in the late forties and fifties. The war left deep scars in the Arnhem population. That the photo of the dead young German in front of the Kubelwagen caught your heart, because this young man was part of the armed forces of the country your father was part of and engaged in that war. You could imagine your father at the Eastern Front in his tank with a Wehrmacht Kubelwagen next to his tank.
The other photo of the Sturmgeschütz 111, brought your thoughts as well back to your father and how he had died. It is quite logical that a son wants to know how his father died. It is sad that you couldn’t be reunited with your father after the war like other fathers who survived the Western- and Eastern Fronts or the war in the Pacific and Eastern Asia.
I also feel compassion for the families who lost fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, husbants, wives, grandchildren, friends, colleagues, neighbours, acqaintences and other loves ones, due to military combat, bombardments, the Holocaust (Shoah), excecutions, pogroms, lynchings, assasinations, murders and other forms of genocide and war crimes. There were a lot of injustices, brutalities, bestial behavior, dark practices and war crimes commited during that war, which makes it unique. The dark shadow of Nazism and Stalinism was hanging over Europe. Your father and many others died in that dreadful and vicious war.
With the experience of centuries of war and conflict, wars between the German Teutonic knights and armies of Polish kings, wars between European noblemen, the Eighty Years' War (23 May 1568– 30 January 1648), the Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648), the endless bloody conflicts between the various Italian states (including the Vatican) with the involvement of Spain, France and the Austrian Habsburg Empire, the Napoleontic wars, the First and Second Second Schleswig Wars, Austro-Prussian War (1866), the Franco-Prussian war (1871), the First World War, the bloody political streetfighting and street terror of the twenties and early thirties, the oppressive Nazi, Fascist and Stalinist regimes in the thirties, forties and early fifties, the bloody destructive Second Workd War in mind the Europeans choose diplomacy and economical cooperation and Freedom & Democracy in staid. We have had 76 years of peace, prosperity, equality, stability, economical progress, Separation of Powers (Rechtstaat and the rule of law), Checks and Balances, parliamentary democracies, Freedom & Democracy. We saw totalitarianism, authoritarian regimes, dictatorships in Central- and Eastern Europe in the Communist Peoples Republics, in Francoist Spain (1939-1975), Portugal and the military dictatorship in Greece. And we saw the lack of freedom in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and many counties in Southern and Middle America and the Carribean (Cuba), where the CIA and the KGB toppled and erected questionable regimes. The Second World War was never far away in these South-American military dictatorships. Old members of the Waffen-SS, SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; literally "Death's Head Units"), SA men, old Gestapo, SD, SiPo, Nazi Ordnungspolizei and also bad elements of the Wehrmacht (war criminals) were advisors, trainers, coaches, intelligence men, special forces or employees of these questionable regimes.
The war unfortunately went on in the East and West with Stalinist terror in the East, infiltration in the West and new wars in which the Europeans and the Americans became involved, Indonesia, Indochina, the Korean war, the Algerian war, the Biafra War, the Vietnam War, the War in Afganistan (1978) and etc.
Pieter
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Post by pieter on Sept 23, 2021 15:40:40 GMT -7
Karl, Under our beautiful and ancient Europe there lies deep dividing lines that are older than our nation states, monarchies and republics. It goes back to the Germanic, Slavic, Romanesque-Latin, Baltic, Hungarian ( the Huns that came from Central Asia to Hungary), Basque and Celtic tribes. The Migration Period from 300 until about 800. The period in the history of Europe that saw the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. The term refers to the important role played by invasions of non-Roman peoples, notably the Franks, Goths, Allemanni, Alans, Huns, early Slavs, and the Pannonian Avars within or into the Roman Empire. For centuries before the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church and the high nobility of Counts, Dukes, Earls and Barons, and Kings and Emperors had absolute powers. Sometimes and often counts and Dukes were more powerful then Kings, like the Count of Flanders which waged a war against the French king. Many Prince Bishops were war lords with their own palaces, courts, armies and vicious tax systems that exploited the serfs as working slaves in the Serfdom system of Feudalism. The nobles, the Bishops, the Cardinals, Monarchs and emperors owned land and the people on that land who worked for them there. Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, and cultural customs that flourished in Medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships that were derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. Although it is derived from the Latin word feodum or feudum (fief), which was used during the Medieval period, the term feudalism and the system which it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people who lived during the Middle Ages. The classic definition, by François-Louis Ganshof (1944), describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations which existed among the warrior nobility and revolved around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. A broader definition of feudalism, as described by Marc Bloch (1939), includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but the obligations of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry, all of whom were bound by a system of manorialism; this is sometimes referred to as a "feudal society". Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R. Brown's "The Tyranny of a Construct" (1974) and Susan Reynolds's Fiefs and Vassals (1994), there has been ongoing inconclusive discussion among medieval historians as to whether feudalism is a useful construct for understanding medieval society. www.britannica.com/topic/feudalismOld Europe was divided in ethnic, religious, monarchic, nobility and city states zones. It was a class based society with a rather absolutist Roman Catholic domination of the priests, monks, Bishops and the Pope in the Vatican. Today we would describe that Roman Catholicism as oppressive, Ultra Orthodox, Ultra Conservative, Fundamentalist and dogmatic. The Dogma’s and Doctrinesof the church were leading and the influence of the Church was everywhere. You had 2 powers back then in Western Europe. The nobility and monarchs on one side and the Roman Catholic clergy on the other side. These 2 absolutist powers kept the Feudal system in place and working. The only way for the poor serfs (farmers, villagers and servants of the nobility and the clergy) to escape was to go to a Free city, buy themslves free and to become a free citizen between the walls of the city or town. Being a free citizen ment to work hard to be able to own a house and have enough food, drinks and clothes to survive harsh winters and hot summers. Numerous wars of course destroyed cities and towns, villages and hamlets. The aristocracy of high and low nobility had war as hobby and waged many wars against each other destroying the farm lands and farms of the poor serfs who were often killed or burnt or chased away. It was a hard life for these poor serf peasants (farmers). Not only the Germanic peoples and Slavic peoples clashed, also the Germanic and Slavic peoples clashed amongst each other. The Germanic and Slavic tribes posed a threat to the Romans and their continuous attacks and even conquer of Rome resulted in the collapse of Rome and the division of Rome in 3 seperate Empires. Christianity became split in 3 major groups. 1) The Old Christians (Armenians, Assyrian Christians, Chaldean Christians, the Coptic christians and the Ethiopians, which stayed close to the Aramaic base of the First christians in Israel, Judea and Samaria in Roman Palestine), 2) The Western Church of Rome, Roman-Catholicism and 3) The Eastern Orthodox Church of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) in the Bysanthine Empire. In that Schism the old tension between the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs -Bohemiabs and Moravians- and Slowaks) on one side and the Eastern Orthodox Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians came to existance and it lives until today. The Reformation of Jan Hus, Martin Luther and John Calvin created new schisms and religious conflicts, tensions, oppression and wars. People were arrested, tortured, burned, hanged or drowned like the witches, because they were Protestant Hussite, Lutheran or Calvinist (Dutch Reformed) Christians by the Spanish, French or Roman Catholic monarchs or Prince Bishops. You can imagine that these days weren’t pleasant for Ashkenazi and Sephardic jews either. During the Black Death Europe saw a dramatic decline of it’s population. Renewed religious fervour and fanaticism bloomed in the wake of the Black Death. Some Europeans targeted "various groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims", lepers, and Romani, blaming them for the crisis. Lepers, and others with skin diseases such as acne or psoriasis, were killed throughout Europe. Because 14th-century healers and governments were at a loss to explain or stop the disease, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes, and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for outbreaks. believed the epidemic was a punishment by God for their sins, and could be relieved by winning God's forgiveness. There were many attacks against Jewish communities. In the Strasbourg massacre of February 1349, about 2,000 Jews were murdered. In August 1349, the Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were annihilated. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed. During this period many Jews relocated to Poland, where they received a warm welcome from King Casimir the Great. The Renaissance, development of the prosperous city states with the Free citizens, the enlightenment, the Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood of the French Revolution and the Industrial revolution and the emergence of modern ideologies like liberalism (Adam Smith), conservatism (Edmund Burke), Socialism (Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels) and Christian Democracy changed Europe, but from that changes and huge territorial, political, financial, economical, geopolitical and military changes new systems, leaders, war strategies and tactics developped. Feudalism was gone but European Colonialism brought new Feudalism and Serfdom on other peoples in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Australia, New Zealand and the America’s. The Americans liberated themselves of the Old Europe of the British Empire during and after the American Revolution and with their Bill of Rights, Constitution and American Democracy. But the ghost of Old Europe with it’s divide and rule came back during the American Civil War in which American’s with European heritage killed other American’s with a European heritage. In the South the European colonialism went on some time with Slavery and the Jim Crow laws there. The Nazi’s in Germany and Austria borrowed the old Colonial idea of the British empire, treating Slavic Central - and Eastern Europeans as slaves, acting as vicious colonial masters. Heinrich Himmler went back to the old Europe, by considering his SS as the new superior elite, the new nobility, using ridiculous pseudo scientific knowledge, occultism, vague Völkisch ideas, floating Antroposophy and Nazi ideology, Eugenetics and race biology. From the same SS organisation came the highly trained, well equipped, military experienced and battle hardened Waffen SS, which closely cooperated with the Wehrmacht, the German army. Manny Waffen-SS officers were former Reichswehr or Wehrmacht officers and soldiers. Some SS man had evolved from SA brownshirt Stormtroopers to become members of the Waffen-SS making a military career in the SS during the thirties and forties. Many of them were ideological trained in the Deutsches Jungvolk in der Hitlerjugend (DJ, also DJV; German for "German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth"), the separate section for boys aged 10 to 14 of the Hitler Youth organisation in Nazi Germany. Through a programme of outdoor activities, parades and sports, it aimed to indoctrinate its young members in the tenets of Nazi ideology. Membership became fully compulsory for eligible boys in 1939. By the end of World War II, some had become child soldiers. In addition to their pre-military training, the DJ contributed to the German war effort by collecting recyclable materials such as paper and scrap metal, and by acting as messengers for the civil defence organisations. By 1944, the Hitler Youth formed part of the Volkssturm, an unpaid, part-time militia, and often formed special HJ companies within Volkssturm battalions. In theory, service in the Volkssturm was limited to boys over 16 years of age, however much younger boys, including Jungvolk members, often volunteered or were coerced into serving in these units; even joining the "Tank Close-Combat Squads" which were expected to attack enemy tanks with hand-held weapons. Eye witness reports of the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 record instances of young boys fighting in their DJ uniforms, complete with short trousers. Adolf Hitler's last public appearance was on 20 April 1945, when he presented Iron Crosses to defenders of Berlin, including several boys, some as young as twelve years. Of course many former Hitler Youth members joined the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Ordnungspolizei, Gestapo, Waffen-SS or SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; literally "Death's Head Units"). After the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 the SA was probably less popular amongst young boys of the Hitler Youth. But the SA was maintained as an organisation next to the NSDAP and the SS. SA men participated in the terrorizing of jews during the Kristallnacht in 1938. Cheers, Pietee
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Post by pieter on Sept 23, 2021 15:56:48 GMT -7
The many battles during the second World War of the Western allies against Nazi Germany was a war against evil. Also during Market Garden. The war had to be won. There was not the possibility of defeat, because that would have been the end of a civilized, human, free and democratic Europe. Winston Churchill described that well in his memoires. The Nazi system and genocidal policies could have continued until the fifties and sixties. Then an alliance of Sovjet, British and American troops would have defeated Nazi Germany after internal Conlicts within the Nazi regime. If Germany wouldn’t had attacked the SovjetUnion it could have lasted longer.
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Post by pieter on Sept 24, 2021 11:23:34 GMT -7
Dear Karl,
The personal loss of your father was a great tragedy for yourself, your mother (his wife) and his other family members, parents and brothers and probably sisters or sister. You talked about uncles and an aunt. you told me that your father made an impression on you as the tall man he was in his Black uniform of the Panzerdivision der Wehrmacht he served in. Although they wore the death head skull, these were not Waffen-SS Panzer Division men, but members of the Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions. Panzer divisions were the key element of German success in the blitzkrieg operations of the early years of World War II. Later the Waffen-SS formed its own panzer divisions, and even the Luftwaffe fielded a panzer division: the Hermann Göring Division. Before your father died he was part of this formidable armed force on the Eastern Front.I imagine your father in a uniform like this or the following uniform in which you see a young Wehrmacht Panzer division officersOperation Market Garden was very different than the war on the Eastern Front. Of course both in Market Garden and on the Eastern Front there were fierce battles and many men died in both battle grounds, but the climate, terrain, type of fighting, country, population and infrastructure were different. In the SovjetUnion they might have used different arms, and maybe the type of fighting of the Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, Azebaijani, Georgian, Armenian, Tartar and Uzbek and Tajik Sovjet army was different than that of the British, American and Polish forces in Market Garden.
Maybe you had larger SS Tank Divisions and Wehrmacht Panzer divisions on the Eastern Front, larger artillery racks, larger and more trenches and you had a harsh climate on the Eastern front. But fact is that Market Garden was a fierce battle during the Second World War as well and about 6,315–13,300 German and Austrian Waffen-SS men were killed and wounded and an unknown total captured. On the Western allied side 15,326–17,200 British, Polish and American soldiers and officers were killed, wounded, and captured, 88 tanks were destroyed and 377 aircraft and gliders were lost.
That you imagine how your father had died on the Eastern Front is logical and understandable. I hope for you my friend that he died in honour. Wether he died at once or was left in the destroyed machine you unfortunately will never know. Many Germans and Austrians and Dutch-, Danish-, Flemish-, Walloon-, Spanish SS volunteers died a terrible death of freezing to death, having terrible hunger, no supplies left and being delivered to the harsh and unforgiving Russian winter. Many died in their trenches, in the field, along roads, in transport cars, at artillery installations that were hit by enemy fire, in armoured vehicles, tanks, trucks, motor bikes and barracks that were hit by the Soviet Airforce, Soviet tank fire, Soviet snipers, Soviet Katyusha multiple rocket launchers or Soviet partisan units.
We can exchange compassion since I feel compassion for the German and Austrian victims of war that weren't ardent Nazi's. I feel compassion for the civilian deaths of the allied bombardments of Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Hannover, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Cologne, Hamburg, Bremen, Dresden, Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Rostock, the heavily bombed Kiel, Munich (The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II, with 71 air raids over five years.), Nuremberg (On 2 January 1945, the medieval city centre was systematically bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in only one hour, with 1,800 residents killed and roughly 100,000 displaced. In February 1945, additional attacks followed. In total, about 6,000 Nuremberg residents are estimated to have been killed in air raids.), Augsburg, Würzburg (On 16 March 1945, about 90% of Würzburg was destroyed in 17 minutes by fire bombing from 225 British Lancaster bombers during a World War II air raid. Würzburg became a target for its role as a traffic hub and to break the spirit of the population.), Stuttgart (in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Allied bombing resulted in the destruction of 57.7% of all buildings in Stuttgart), Karlsruhe (Much of the central area of Karlsruhe, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II, but was rebuilt after the war.), Mannheim (During World War II, air raids on Mannheim completely destroyed the city centre. Mannheim was heavily damaged during aerial bombing by the RAF and the U.S. Air Force. The RAF razed the city center of Mannheim with nighttime area bombing, killing thousands of civilians.), Freiburg (Freiburg was heavily bombed during World War II. In May 1940, aircraft of the Luftwaffe mistakenly dropped approximately 60 bombs on Freiburg near the railway station, killing 57 people. On 27 November 1944, a raid by more than 300 bombers of RAF Bomber Command (Operation Tigerfish) destroyed a large portion of the city centre, with the notable exception of the Münster, which was only lightly damaged. After the war, the city was rebuilt on its medieval plan.), Heilbronn (In 1940 allied air raids began, and the city and its surrounding area were hit about 20 times with minor damage. On September 10, 1944, a raid by the allies targeted the city specifically, in particular the Böckingen train transfer station. As a result of 1,168 bombs dropped that day, 281 residents died. The city was carpet-bombed from the southern quarter all the way to the Kilianskirche in the center of town. The church was burnt out.) and many other German and Austrian cities and towns, and also Dutch, Belgian and French towns/Cities that were seen as German due to strategic miscalculations of the Allied bomber command and navigators. Many West-Europeans died doe to mistakes of allied bombers (British, American, Canadian, South-African Airforce, Polish, Czech and Dutch planes). A war is a war and is always vicious, mean, dark, destructive, annihilating, blunt, crude, rude, inhumane and lasts scars that leave their marks in individuals, families and communities for decades and sometimes for hundreds of years. In the case of depopulated area's for instance due to mass bombardments, massacres, war crimes and depopulation (ethnic cleansing and other kinds of war crimes).
I also feel very much compassion for Jaga, her family and my Polish family, her and my grandparents and mothers and aunts, and my great aunts and great uncles and my cousins country Poland that suffered so badly in that war. Poland was hit very hard by the nazi genocidal war, 6 million Poles died during that war due to the actions of German and Austrian Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Ordnungspolizei (Grüne polizei), Polish Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz units (that commited war crimes against Polish citizens), Hitler Jugend units, German Gauleiters, Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and SiPO (Sicherheitspolizei) men and German and Austrian NSDAP civil servants in Poland (Nazi party people), SA units, Luftwaffe bombardments in Poland, Kriegsmarine involvement in 1939 and on the other side the Sovjet occupation of Eastern Poland from 1939 until 1941 and the NKVD terror there and the cooperation between the NKVD and Gestapo on occupied Polish soil ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo%E2%80%93NKVD_conferences ).
That said you had many Germans and Austrians who did not agree with the war, didn't liked Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP, but were forced to participate in that war as Wehrmacht soldiers or officers. The former Chief of the General Staff of the German Army High Command Ludwig August Theodor Beck (29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) and Wehrmacht Oberst (senior field officer) Claus von Stauffenberg (15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944), known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair and remove the Nazi Party from power.
Life is what fate, destiny, a course of events, our own efforts, and developments that are bigger then are own makes of our lives. We have a free will to do with life whatever we want to do with it. Of course genes (dna), upbringing, education, experiences in life, our respective work fields and our progress in life makes us who we are.
Cheers, Pieter
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Post by karl on Sept 24, 2021 19:27:50 GMT -7
Pieter
Please to understand but I most close for now. It is as of a heavy cloud of unwished for memories have closed in to my heart
Karl
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