Fur Volk und Fuhrer: The Memoir of a Veteran of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

575 Pages·2013·6.99 MB·English

by  Erwin Bartmann

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Published by Helion & Company 2013
Designed and typeset by Farr out Publications, Wokingham,
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Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield Design
(www.battlefield-design.co.uk)
Printed by Gutenberg Press Limited, Tarxien, Malta
Text © Estate of Erwin Bartmann/Derik Hammond 2013
Photographs © Estate of Erwin Bartmann 2013
Maps © as individually credited
ISBN 978 1 909384 53 8
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 910294 27 7
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Contents
List of photographs
List of maps
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 A Diary of Indoctrination
2 The Apprentice
3 The Applicant
4 Auf Wiedersehen Lichterfelde
5 A Lesson in Practical Telephony
6 Onward to Taganrog
7 Close Calls
8 A Steppe too far
9 Retreat to the Mius-Sambek Line
10 Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas
11 Spring Smiles on Sambek
12 The Beauties of Paris
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13 Transfer to Normandy
14 Little Diversions for the Young Men of the
Leibstandarte
15 Return to Russia
16 Friendly Fire
Photo Gallery
17 On a Summer’s Day
18 Sewing Machines and T-34s
19 Prokhorovka
20 The Scarecrow of Prokhorovka
21 A New Life in Berlin
22 New Year Celebrations, 1944
23 Snobbery and Rebellion
24 First Love and Final Gatherings
25 Fond Farewells
26 The Last Redoubt
27 The Tale of the Three Generals
28 The Junghans-Hengstmann Mystery
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29 Sardines, Murder and Rape
30 Sanctuary in Jerichow
31 The Wrong Side of the Styx
32 Captivity
Epilogue
Notes
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List of photographs
Our Berlin family home. 38 Strausberger Strasse is the
opening under the round archway.
Showing off my new uniform, July 1941.
Time for a smoke, October 1941. I only started smoking after
I arrived on the Eastern Front.
Winter begins to bite, October 1941.
Signed by Sepp Dietrich, commander of the Leibstandarte.
This certificate, for the 1941/42 Ostmedaille, arrived shortly
after my promotion to Unterscharführer in 1943 although I
received the medal much earlier, while still a Sturmmann.
Spring 1942 by the Black Sea, after our withdrawal from
Sambek.
Sojourn in France. The Kompanietrupp enjoy a meal in the
shade of a tree - a pleasant break from the rigours of the
Eastern Front.
Taken shortly after my promotion to Sturmmann, a proud
moment for me.
The star belonging to the cap badge given to me by a Russian
POW.
Sunshine in Olshany. Our Russian hostess looked after us like
a mother.
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Larking about in the sunshine, Olshany 1943.
Testing our connections while keeping a look-out for the
enemy.
On the road to Kharkov.
Myself with Horst dressed in his Luftwaffe uniform.
Medical report on my wound at Prokhorovka, written the day
it happened.
The shrapnel that passed through my lung in Prokhorovka,
small but so nearly deadly.
The documentation accompanying my Wound Badge in
Black.
Pages from my Soldbuch with details of my pay and the
stamp of the hospital in Judenau, near Vienna.
A fellow veteran informed me that a window-sized version of
this picture looked down from the photographer’s studio as
the Russians entered Potsdamer Platz.
‘The Three Musketeers’ - with Gunter Schmidt, who worked
on the Reichsbahn, and Horst Musch, who enlisted in the
Kriegsmarine.
A girlfriend posing outside the Radio Station in Berlin at the
last of their annual floral displays, 1943. I didn’t meet her
until about a year after this was taken.
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My new cap with the wire removed, as was the fashion, taken
autumn 1943.
Sharing a smile with a fellow machine-gun instructor while
stationed in Alt Hartmannsdorf, March 1945.
Horst and me, taken shortly after the birth of his first child.
POW camp near Aldershot. I’m fourth from the left, top row.
It seems I was fated to be a baker.
Paperwork issued on 27 November 1948, the day I was
released from captivity in Scotland. It entitled me to claim a
German military pension for more than seven years’ service.
I took my Oath of Allegiance to the Queen on 5 November
1955 and became a British citizen.
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