At Leningrad's Gates: The Combat Memoirs of a Soldier with Army Group North

300 Pages·2010·3.14 MB·English

by  William Lubbeck

Published in the United States of America in 2010 by
CASEMATE
908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083
and in Great Britain by
CASEMATE
17 Cheap Street, Newbury RG14 5DD
Copyright 2006 © William Lubbeck and David Hurt ISBN 978-1-935149-37-8
eISBN 9781935149798
Cataloging-in-publication data is available from the Library of Congress and the
British Library.
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CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
PROLOGUE
1. A VILLAGE UPBRINGING
2. UNDER THE NAZI DICTATORSHIP
3. PRELUDE TO WAR
4. TRAINING FOR COMBAT
5. WAR IN THE WEST
6. BLITZKRIEG INTO RUSSIA
7. TO THE GATES OF LENINGRAD
8. WINTER AT URITSK
9. COUNTERATTACK AT THE VOLKHOV
10.THE DEMYANSK CORRIDOR
11. HOLDING THE LINE AT LADOGA
12.OFFICER CANDIDATE
13.KRIEGSCHULE
14.RETURN TO THE FRONT
15.RETREAT INTO THE REICH
16.CATASTROPHE
17.THE PRICE OF DEFEAT
18.POST-WAR GERMANY
19.A NEW LIFE ABROAD
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Endnote
References
MAPS
East and West Prussia in Early April 1945
Germany in 1937
The 58th Infantry Division’s Advance in May–June 1940
Army Group North’s Front in 1941
Army Group North’s Front in 1942
The Leningrad Sector in 1943
Occupied Germany in 1945
PREFACE
IN TELLING MY STORY, I do not wish to impress anyone or present myself as
a hero. Like millions of other troops on the frontline of the Second World War, I
was just a soldier who obeyed orders and carried out my duties. The heroes were
those comrades who never returned home and were often left unburied in far-off
fields.
God had other plans for me and spared my life. This testament of my experience
is a memorial to the service and sacrifice of those soldiers who did not come
back.
This book is also dedicated to Anneliese, who served as a Red Cross nurse in
German field hospitals attending wounded troops during the final two years of
the war. On a more personal level, words cannot express my eternal gratitude for
the hope that her love gave me during my long years in combat and for the many
happy decades of marriage that we enjoyed after the war.
During a trip to Germany in the summer of 2003, my daughter discovered my
wartime correspondence with Anneliese. Reading through these letters brought
forth bittersweet emotions, but helped to give me a kind of closure. I also feel a
sense of relief in being able to share my experiences of the war with my family
and a broader audience.
It is my hope that this account will help to increase public understanding of the
Second World War, especially of the brutal nature of the fighting on the Eastern
Front. In particular, Americans often misunderstand the motivations of German
troops who fought in World War II. Most of the common soldiers were not
supporters of Hitler and the Nazi regime, but simply patriotic Germans who
sought to serve their country.
I am deeply indebted to the people of the United States for accepting my family
and me as their fellow citizens and for allowing us to realize the American
dream. It is my hope that this story may help the citizens of my adopted country
to gain a more complete appreciation of the diverse experience of American
immigrants.
WILLIAM LUBBECK
July 2006
INTRODUCTION
READING THE FIRSTHAND account of a soldier who marched into Russia
with Napoleon’s army in 1812 personalized that distant conflict for me in a way
that a general history could not. By the end of that memoir, Jakob Walter’s The
Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier, I had become convinced that a more recent
veteran of warfare in Russia, William Lubbeck, should narrate an account of his
own remarkable experiences as a German soldier during the Second World War.
While from today’s vantage point we often perceive the past as following an
inevitable course to the present, Lubbeck lived through the unfolding history of
that struggle, uncertain of his own fate or of the larger outcome. His modesty
made it difficult to persuade him to share his exceptional story, but he ultimately
concluded that the testimony of a surviving German soldier would serve to honor
the memory of his fallen comrades. In addition, a memoir could help a modern
audience to develop a wider perspective on an increasingly remote war.
The writing process involved countless hours of recorded interviews as well as
even longer periods transcribing the tapes. Memories do not occur in
chronological order, so as the story gradually revealed itself it was necessary to
flesh out ever-more details and fill in the gaps. In this task, Lubbeck’s recently
discovered wartime correspondence with his late wife Anneliese proved
invaluable in helping him to recall events as well as recapture his personal
feelings at different stages of the war. A divisional history written by Kurt von
Zydowitz, Die Geschichte de 58.Infanterie Division 1939–1945 (Podzan, 1952),
was also invaluable in reminding Lubbeck of the larger chronology.
After many years living in the United States, Lubbeck generally related
measurements in non-metric terms. For consistency we have kept the American
usage of yards, miles, Fahrenheit, et al., throughout, at times calculating them
from metric. He also often utilized American syntax in other observations,
employing terms like “gung-ho” and “boot camp.” With military ranks he made
distinctions in German which are included here in parentheses.
Although Lubbeck has naturally acquired a greater overview on the war today
than he had while serving in it, we made a conscious decision to confine this
work to his personal experiences at the time rather than overviews, criticisms, or
“what ifs.” His actions, observations, and emotions during those tumultuous